ESRC - Specific Requirements
All attachments must be produced in a minimum of font size 11. Please see here for cross council guidance on attachments .
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Attachment |
Requirement |
Guidance |
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Case for Support |
Mandatory |
See guidance below |
|
Justification of Resources |
Mandatory |
The Research Councils have agreed revised guidance notes for the completion of the Justification of Resources attachment in Je-S. Details are available here. |
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CV |
Mandatory |
A CV for each applicant and any named research staff (including consultants) should be included with the application (maximum of 2 A4 sides). Each CV should give full name, degrees and postgraduate qualifications (including the class and subject of the award), academic and professional posts held since graduation, a list of the most relevant and recent publications, and a record of research funded by the ESRC and other bodies. |
|
List of publications |
Optional |
Bibliography for references cited in proposal. There is no formal page limit for this attachment, although as a general rule up to 3 sides of A4 would suffice. |
|
Data Management Plan |
Mandatory (if new data generated) |
Please see the guidance below |
|
Letter of Support |
Optional |
Letters of support that are essential to the successful conduct of the research (e.g. access to datasets, or organisations) can be submitted with an application. Letters of support can be accepted by email, and must be signed and dated within six months of the proposal submission date and be a maximum of 1 side of A4 per document. General letters of support should not be included with the application. |
|
Proposal Cover letter |
Mandatory (if project student section completed) |
All resubmitted applications must be accompanied by a covering letter summarising the major revisions. Resubmissions without covering letters will not be accepted for processing. If Project linked costs requested; submission must include a letter of support from the Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) or Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) Director. |
|
Facility Form |
Optional |
Applicants wishing to use national supercomputing facilities located at either the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory or at the Manchester Computing Centre should first obtain a copy of the relevant application form: either NS1 or NP1. This form should be completed in full and submitted with the application. |
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Project Student Request |
Mandatory (if project student section completed)
|
All proposals including one or more project-linked studentships must include a case for support for each studentship requested. Each case may be up to two A4 sides (please see ESRC specific project student helptext). |
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Other |
Optional |
If the scheme-specific guidance requires the submission of additional material not covered by other attachments, please upload them as type other. |
Case for support:
All applications must include a Case for Support.
Proposals containing a Case for Support exceeding the stated limit, or not adhering to the specified format, will not be considered. More specific instructions relating to the format of the Case for Support may be detailed for some strategic initiatives. These will be set out in the relevant call for proposals.
This section must not exceed six A4 sides in the case of applications for less than £1,000,000 at 100% Full Economic Cost (FEC) or twelve A4 sides in the case of applications for £1,000,000 or more at 100% FEC.
All materials must be produced in a minimum of font size 11. For the research grants scheme, applications which exceed this limit will not be processed by the ESRC, but will be returned to the applicants. For other schemes, any materials that extend beyond these limits will be removed from the application.
The Case for Support document should include the following:
The introduction should set the aims and objectives of the study in context. It should briefly sketch the main work on which the research will draw, with references. Any relevant policy or practical background should be included.
The detailed research questions to be addressed should be clearly stated.
Give a full and detailed description of the proposed research methods. Particular care should be taken to explain any innovation in the case for support. Give a full and detailed description of the proposed research methods. Particular care should be taken to explain any innovation in the methodology or where you intend to develop new methods.
If the research involves data collection or acquisition you must demonstrate that you have carried out a datasets review, and explicitly state why currently available datasets are inadequate for the proposed research. The ESRC's datasets policy is in the ESRC Research Funding Guide (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-applicants/research-funding-guide/) Annex D.
The data, materials or information to be collected should be clearly stated, and the methods for achieving this explained. Where sampling is involved, the sampling frame, population and sample sizes, the sample design and arrangements for any pilot should be specified, and reasons given for the procedures adopted. Where access to people or archives is needed, indicate clearly the records, population or samples to be consulted.
Any potential problems such as access, obtaining reasonable response rates, availability of records, materials or data, should be clearly stated, and proposed solutions identified. State what action you have taken to secure access.
Clearly state the framework and methods for analysis, and explain the reasons for their choice .
ESRC is committed to funding excellent research which is also adventurous, speculative and innovative, and with the potential for high scientific and/or user impact. Where there are risks associated with such research, please outline any measures which will be taken to mitigate them.
ESRC recognises that in generating new knowledge, it may be most appropriate for research on some topics to be multi-disciplinary and harness and/or combine different disciplinary perspectives, while others will be based on a single discipline. Applicants are asked to state clearly their chosen approach, which should match the discipline(s) indicated in the proposal, and to provide justification for the choice.
Publications (include publishing arrangements and dates where planned).
The proposal should conclude with an indication of the outputs to be expected (articles, papers, datasets, etc.). Award holders should update Researchfish (
http://www.researchfish.com) with the outputs of their research. A condition of award is that award holders continue to update outcomes onto Researchfish and submit during the annual Researchfish submission periods.
It is vital that the economic and social impact of all projects funded by ESRC is maximised. Consider potential beneficiaries and users involved in the development of the proposal and the delivery of the grant where appropriate. This should cover who will benefit from the proposed research, and the relevance of the research to these beneficiaries.
Explain what steps you will take, to provide opportunities for users to benefit from your research, and to ensure that your research has maximum economic and societal impact.
Equipment (if applicable)
Changes in Equipment requests on Research Council grants have come into effect, for further information see the following https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/Handbook/pages/GuidanceonCompletingaStandardG/NonStaffResources/Equipment/EquipmentandSurveys.htm
For further guidance on how to write a good application, please visit our website http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-applicants/how-to-write-a-good-research-grant-proposal/
Resource for the activity
If there are any resource implications as a result of implementing the knowledge exchange and/or impact activities, please ensure these are documented in the financial summary and also in the Justification of Resources section of the proposal.
Data Management Plan (maximum 3 x A4 pages)
It is a requirement of the ESRC Research Data Policy (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-grant-holders/research-data-policy/) that all applicants planning to generate data as part of their award must include a Data Management Plan.
Data Management Plan should be used as an opportunity to describe how the data, i.e. primary input into research and first order results of that research, are going to be managed, starting from planning for research and through the life-cycle of the award until data is accepted for archiving by the UK Data Service (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/research/our-research/uk-data-service/). The ESRC recognises the importance of research data quality and provenance. Research data generated by ESRC-funded research must be well-managed by the award holder during the award period to enable their data to be exploited to the maximum potential for further research.
Most data generated as a result of economic and social research can be successfully archived and shared. However, some research data are more sensitive than others. It is a responsibility of the award holders to consider all issues related to confidentiality, ethics, security and copyright before initiating the research. Any challenges to data sharing (e.g. copyright or data confidentiality) should be critically considered in a plan, with possible solutions discussed to optimise data sharing.
It is expected that Data Management Plan will include the consideration of the following points in the context of information presented in the Case for Support and Justification for Resources:
Assessment of existing data
If you are creating new data sources as part of this project please explain why existing data sources can not be re-used. If you envisage purchasing or re-using existing data sources please explain whether issues such as copyright and IPR have been addressed to ensure that the data can be shared i.e. explain how you plan to deal with permissions to share data you have created which is derived from data which you do not own.
Information on new data
Please provide a brief description of new data which you envisage creating. This information should include how the data will be collected, i.e. proposed approach and the format (e.g. Open Document Format, tab-deliminated format, MS Excel etc.) in which the data will be collected, analysed and stored, as well as an indication of how they will be documented. For more guidance please refer to a relevant section in UK data management guides (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/research/our-research/uk-data-service/) and UK Data Archive Managing and Sharing Data Guide (http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data)
Quality assurance of data
Quality control of data is an integral part of a research process. In support to the information about the planned research described in a Case for Support, please briefly describe the procedures for quality assurance that will be carried out on the data collected. Quality issues to be addressed at the time of data collection, data entry, digitisation or data checking. It must be ensured that the data recorded reflect the actual facts, responses, observations or events. For example this might include: documenting the calibration of instruments, the collection of duplicate samples, data entry methods, data entry validation techniques, methods of transcription. For more guidance please refer to a relevant section in the UK data management guides (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/research/our-research/uk-data-service/) and UK Data Archive Managing and Sharing Data Guide (http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data)
Back-up and security of data
Please describe the data back-up procedures that you will adopt to ensure the data and metadata are securely stored during the lifetime of the project. You may need to discuss your institution’s policy on back-ups. If your data is sensitive (e.g. detailed personal data) in any way you should discuss appropriate security measures which you will be taking. Methods of version control (i.e. making sure that if the information in one file is altered, the related information in other files is also adopted, as well as keeping a track on a number of versions and their locations), should also be stated. For more guidance please refer to a relevant section in UK Data Archive Managing and Sharing Data Guide (http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data)
Expected difficulties in data sharing
If you expect any obstacles to sharing your newly generated data please explain their causes and possible measures you are going to apply to overcome those. If you consider that there will be ethical issues which may cause difficulties in data sharing please explain your strategies for dealing with these issues in the relevant section in Je-S form, e.g. where possible discussing archiving with interviewees, anonymising data. Please refer to the requirements of ESRC Framework for Research Ethics (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-applicants/research-ethics/).
Copyright/Intellectual Property Right
Please state who will own the copyright and IPR of any new data that you will generate. For further information please refer to a relevant part of the ESRC Research Data Policy (http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-grant-holders/research-data-policy).
Responsibilities
Please indicate who within your research team will be responsible for data management, metadata production, dealing with quality issues and the final delivery of data for sharing or archiving. Please provide this information within the Staff Duties section in the Je-S form and where appropriate in the Justification of Resources. If several people will be responsible state their roles and responsibilities in the relevant section of the JeS form. For collaborative projects you should explain the coordination of data management responsibilities across partners in your Data Management Plan.
Preparation of data for sharing and archiving
Please outline your plans for preparing and documenting data for sharing and archiving with the Social Data Service (unless otherwise agreed). Please identify any additional plans for data sharing, if any.
Other issues
Please indicate if there are there any other issues relating to data management or sharing.