Research Briefing May 2015

News

New ESRC chief executive's strategy
Jane Elliott, the new chief executive of the Economic and Social Research Council, outlined her plans to an audience of regional university representatives at a recent event held at University College London. Professor Elliott highlighted the fact that the flat-cash CSR settlement in 2010 had resulted in a 16% real terms cut in the Council’s funding, and she extended recent warnings about the threat to the science and research ring fence beyond the general election. In these contexts, ESRC is seeking to be more strategic in terms of its priorities and in terms of pitching its own funding as only one part of a wider funding landscape (involving Government Departments, the European Commission, research charities, and others). The Council’s current long-term broad strategic priorities in its Strategic Plan will be replaced by short-term, more narrowly-focussed strategic priorities in its Delivery Plan, that will be much more meaningful than the current priorities. We can therefore expect funding opportunities to be more narrowly focussed on the Council’s immediate priorities, although responsive mode opportunities will always be available in other areas. There will also be a rationalisation of the current funding programmes to provide tighter criteria and less variation between the size and scope of grant applications submitted to any particular call. Research Division colleagues are here to help you navigate through these and other funding opportunities. Please contact your Research Division grant applications manager should you have any questions or requirements.

Professor Elliott also indicated greater efforts would be expected of universities to reduce the number of applications deemed by the peer review process not to be of a fundable standard. And she remains concerned at the difficulties the Council is experiencing in finding peer reviewers. Please respond positively to requests whenever you can. ESRC will be restructuring its Peer Review College, and seeking applications for new positions on the Grants Assessment panels and as Chair of Panel A (Economics, Management and Business Studies and Psychology). The deadline for both is Friday 8 May 2015.

Professor Elliott will be visiting the School in the Michaelmas term. Please contact David Coombe if you would like to be involved.
>>View the presentation slides

UK Data Service news
The UK Data Service has produced data purchase guidelines for researchers who are considering purchasing data for research. These guidelines provide a set of generic guiding principles and questions to pose when planning data purchases.
The Service has also recently announced that UK HE users can now access the OECD patent statistics dataset via UKDS.Stat. The dataset includes tables on indicators of international co-operation, patents by main technology and by international patent classifications, and patents by regions.

New Science Europe Principles on Open Access Publisher Services
Science Europe, the association of European Research Funding Organisations and Research Performing Organisations, has adopted 'Principles on Open Access Publisher Services'. Science Europe has issued a press release outlining the minimum standards for Open Access publishing services provided by scholarly publishers.
>>More

EU International Research newsletter - latest issue published
The latest issue highlights: news about the Signature of the Association Agreement to H2020 with Ukraine; EU-Latin America research and innovation cooperation; 7th EU-Brazil Joint Steering Committee Meeting under the STI Cooperation Agreement ; 3rd meeting of the EU-Africa High Level Policy Dialogue Expert Working Group on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture; and more.
>>More

Embedding knowledge exchange and impact into research

Achieving impact from your research can sometimes seem daunting. But never fear: Research Division is here to help. Elizabeth Tran, our new grant applications manager (knowledge exchange and impact), is on hand to advise on how your funded research could have real benefits beyond academia and to help build your pathways to impact statement. Dr Tina Basi, knowledge exchange manager, can advise more broadly on what services exist to help support your knowledge exchange activities. With an eye on the next REF, Dr Rachel Middlemass, research impact manager, would also like to hear from you if you think your research could lead to an impact case study. Finally, for ideas on research that has had tangible benefits to society, check out our research impact website where we showcase all of the impact case studies developed for our REF 2014 submission. Dr Ellen Pruyne, impact website manager, is adding new content to this and promoting it alongside the Communications Division and would welcome your feedback.

Call for papers now open for the Third Annual Conference on Systemic Risk
The Third Annual Conference on Systemic Risk will be held on Thursday 19 November 2015 and will focus on systemic risks emanating from over-the-counter markets. The call for papers is now open and full paper submissions on the following topics are particularly encouraged:

Model risk in derivative markets
Counterparty credit risk, collateral management, and central clearing
Information aggregation in opaque markets
Market and security design.

To submit a paper, follow this link. Deadline: Friday 31 July 2015.

This event is open to all and free to attend. BOOK YOUR PLACE.

For additional information contact Murat Ergun.

Research impact: LSE research making a difference
Research Division is pleased to announce two new impact case studies on the research impact website.

Shaping the debate on the future of human rights
LSE research by Professor Francesca Klug, director of the Human Rights Futures project, shaped discussions and influenced policy makers during political and legal debate about the Human Rights Act.
>>Read the impact case study

Regulating the news media to balance press freedom with individual rights
Research by Dr Damian Tambini, senior lecturer in the Media and Communications Department and director of the Media Policy project, influenced the Leveson Inquiry and other media entities around proposed changes in press culture and regulation.
>>Read the impact case study

>>Access and search all 72 impact case studies.
>>Access and view the 25 research impact videos.

CARR invites expressions of interest for EC Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships
The Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR) at LSE invites expressions of interest from potential postdoctoral researchers to apply jointly with a supervisor from CARR to the European Commission’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSCA) Individual Fellowships. Selected candidates will be hosted in CARR. Subject areas should fit with CARR’s interests. Candidates must meet the eligibility criteria of the scheme (e.g. must not have resided in the UK for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the proposal submission deadline). Candidates are invited to submit their EoI pack, including a research proposal summary (max 2 pages), CV and a covering letter to risk@lse.ac.uk by Monday 22 June 2015. Successful candidates will submit a formal application with the CARR supervisor to the EC on the actual call deadline, Thursday 10 September 2015.
>>More

Early preparation for year end 2014/15
LSE's financial year end is fast approaching. We will be in touch nearer the time to advise on timetable and deadlines but in preparation, over the coming months, please could you:

submit expense claims and supplier invoices in good time and on a regular basis to the Research Division for payment
regularly check your research account(s) to ensure that all transactions relating to the 2014/15 financial year are complete and accurate.

If you are unable to access your account through Statements4 or Statements5 please contact your research awards manager in the Research Awards team who will be able to e-mail you a statement.

Funding opportunities

Sustainable Society Network+ Pilot Studies
These aim to test new ideas or create novel linkages between research areas in line with the network’s theme of applying digital technology to create a sustainable society. Proposals in the following areas are encouraged: retail; food networks; utilities networks; transport; public governance; flooding; quantified self; big climate data; planetary resource boundaries; and rural community development. Up to £10K (80% fEC) per pilot study over 3 months is available. Deadline: Thursday 14 May 2015.
>>More

Joseph Rowntree Foundation - Open call for mitigating, preventing or reducing poverty in the UK through housing policy or guidance
This supports a project, led by an early-career researcher, on a particular housing issue in the UK. The project may take any research approach, but must be focused on a concrete impact that will contribute to answering the question of how housing policy or practice can better mitigate, prevent or reduce poverty. Up to £50K can be claimed over 12 months. Deadline: Wednesday 27 May 2015.
>>More

The European Institutes for Advanced Study – Junior and Senior Fellowships
These enable junior or senior researchers to undertake 10 month residencies in one of the 16 participating EURIAS institutes: Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, Cambridge, Delmenhorst, Edinburgh, Freiburg, Helsinki, Jerusalem, Lyon, Marseille, Paris, Uppsala, Vienna, Wassenaar and Zürich. Fellowships are mainly offered in the fields of the humanities and social sciences. At the time of the application, researchers must hold a doctoral degree plus two years of full-time research experience after the degree. Deadline: Friday 5 June 2015.
>>More

National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) - Methodological Research Projects
Funded by the ESRC/DFID, the scheme aims to support projects in one or more of these areas: digital devices and mobile technologies for data collection; participatory approaches; analysis of online digital and big data; bio-social data analysis; policy-relevant research synthesis; and small area estimation. Up to £825K fEC over 3 years can be claimed for. Deadline: Tuesday 16 June 2015.
>>More

DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme (DEGRP) - call 3
ESRC and DFID are pleased to announce a third funding call under the Growth Research Programme. The 2015 call is focused on the theme of financial sector development and growth. The funding aims to create a core of research excellence, strengthen evidence-based policymaking and build research capacity. Deadline: Thursday 2 July 2015.
>>More

Nuffield Foundation – Research and Innovation Grants
These support research, practical experiments or development work in the following areas:

Children and families – helps to ensure that the legal and institutional framework is best adapted to meet the needs of children and families
Education – supports innovative research and development in specific priority areas
Law in society – promotes access to and understanding of the civil justice system
Open door – for projects that improve social wellbeing and meet trustees’ wider interests but lie outside other programme areas, including poverty and disadvantage, financial circumstances of older people and evidence for policy.

Deadline for outline applications: Thursday 2 July 2015.
>>More

Bank of Finland – Visiting Scholars Program
The programme is designed to enhance the Bank's research excellence in the key area of interaction and stability of macro economics and financial markets. Research projects are conducted at the Monetary Policy and Research department. Visiting researchers have access to the department's data and computer resources and to research assistance. Deadline: currently open with no date specified.
>>More

Horizon2020 - Science with and for Society Work Programme
Call for Developing Governance for the Advancement of Responsible Research and Innovation
The call invites applications under three topics: 1) Responsible Research and Innovation in Industrial Context; 2) Innovative Approach to Release and Disseminate Research Results and Measure their Impact; 3) Estimating the Costs of Research Misconduct and the Socio-economic Benefit of Research Integrity. Deadline: Wednesday 16 September 2015.
>>More

Fritz Thyssen Foundation – Project Support Grants
These encourage research in the humanities, social science and biomedicine fields. Applications are open within the following areas of support: history, language and culture; the interdisciplinary field ‘image and imagery’; state, economy and society; the interdisciplinary field ‘international relations’; medicine and the natural sciences. Interdisciplinary projects are also welcomed. Deadline: Wednesday 30 September 2015.
>>More

Events

Upcoming events from our Academic Development Programme
Events are open to academic and professional services staff. All training sessions are delivered to you by the Research Division in partnership with the Teaching and Learning Centre. For more information, email researchdivision@lse.ac.uk.

11/05/2015

Research Funding

12.00 - 13.30

Information Session: What is Horizon2020?

Horizon2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). This session covers the Horizon2020 schemes including how they work, what they fund and how to apply. It also outlines upcoming calls in 2015.
BOOK YOUR PLACE|

20/05/2015

Research Funding

12.30 - 14.00

Funding for seminars/networks/international workshops

This session will explore different funding opportunities that fund workshop organisation, networking activity and collaborative actions. Examples of funding will include Leverhulme Trust International Network grants; AHRC Research Networks; COST Actions; and Horizon2020 Coordination Actions.
BOOK YOUR PLACE|

21/05/2015

Award Management

12.00 - 13.30

Excel Training for Centre Managers

This workshop is aimed at academic unit managers and other professional services staff who manage externally funded research grants.
Find out how centre managers use spreadsheets to manage their budgets, expenditure, and HR commitments. Come to share your experiences and learn tips and tricks from other professional services staff.
BOOK YOUR PLACE|

27/05/2015

Research Funding

14.00 - 16.00

Funding Clinic

A number of funding clinics throughout the term on a regular basis with not more than 5 academics around a table to discuss particulars of, for example, a specific funding scheme, specific application systems, specific research questions and themes.
BOOK YOUR PLACE|

02/06/2015

Research Funding

11.30 - 12.30
or
14.30 - 15.30

Looking for funding opportunities - online tool

Research Professional provides online access to news and funding opportunities. In this session, participants will learn how to set up a profile and use Research Professional to search for suitable funding opportunities. This hands-on session will be delivered in a computer lab and facilitated by a research development manager from the Research Division and a Research Professional representative. Two sessions are offered on this day.
BOOK YOUR PLACE
for the 11.30

03/06/2015

REF and Impact

12.30-14.00

Impact case studies - a panel discussion with LSE authors and REF panel members

LSE faculty who submitted impact case studies to the REF will share their experiences of creating and documenting research impact. As well as supporting understanding of how impact can be generated, the discussion will provide attendees with an insight into both the rewards and the challenges of effectively presenting that impact for REF (or other) assessment. Four panellists are confirmed:

Giles Atkinson – Professor of Environmental Policy, Department of Geography & Environment
Nick Barr - Professor of Public Economics, European Institute
Chris Brown - Professor of International Relations, Department of International Relations
Edgar Whitley - Associate Professor of Information Systems, Department of Management

BOOK YOUR PLACE

11/06/2015

Research Funding

14.00 - 16.00

Research Funding Road Mapping

This workshop will facilitate an experimental approach to designing a strategic roadmap for funding plans at an individual level. Aimed at academics, participants will be given a number of tools to define their own funding plans.
BOOK YOUR PLACE

For a full list of upcoming events, view our training and events programme.

For daily updates, follow us on Twitter @LSE_RD.

Other related events

LSE Works 2015
The final two LSE Works lectures for 2015 are:
Making a Difference in Education: what the evidence says
Date: Wednesday 6 May 2015 6.30pm
Location: Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Professor Robert Cassen, Professor Sandra McNally, Professor Anna Vignoles

Above the Parapet - Women in Public Life
Date: Wednesday 20 May 2015 6.30pm
Location: Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Dr Purna Sen

LSE Works is a series of public lectures that showcases some of the latest research by LSE's academic departments and research centres. In each session, LSE academics present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy.

A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed at LSE Works, including podcasts, videos and speaker power point presentations.

Developing your publication strategy? Think about attending the Getting Published workshops – Thursday 21 May 2015 and Thursday 28 May 2015
Getting your first journal article published, or book proposal accepted, is a milestone in an academic career. These two sessions will guide you through this process and provide advice from senior academics and other experts on such topics as using bibliometrics to identify the best venue for publication.
>>BOOK YOUR PLACE

Recent awards

Professor Martin Knapp, PSSRU, has received funding from the Shirley Foundation to conduct research to examine the economic case for interventions for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The project will feed evidence to the recently launched National Autism Project (NAP), a new national project looking at how we address the costs involved in supporting people with autism.

Dr Margot Salomon, Centre for Study of Human Rights, has been awarded funding of £58,969 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to help implement key recommendations of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (UNWG) on the State Duty to Protect (DtP) in the context of international investment, with a focus on investment agreements, in two FCO Business and Human Rights (BHR) priority countries, Indonesia and Colombia.

Dr Gharad Bryan, STICERD, has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship to develop a quantitative general equilibrium framework to understand whether policy can be used to reduce spatial disparity in earnings and increase economic development. The framework will be applied to provide policy guidance in Indonesia and can be used to answer simple questions like: what would Indonesia’s GDP be if its people were as mobile as Americans? It is hoped the framework can form a base for more refined models and a gradual change in people’s views on migration, which are overwhelmingly negative.

Professor Daniel Ferreira, Financial Markets Group, has won funding of £70,000 from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. Based on empirical evidence from multi-variant [big-data] research and a number of participative workshops, the project will work towards creating a tool that will determine how demanding different areas are to police and contextualise police practice and the performance of that practice. In the longer run this could be developed into an interactive tool that uses incident levels in real time to help forces to organise and manage resources; i.e. to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how resources are organised and managed.

Dr Gianluca Benigno, Economics, has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship to develop a quantitative model of growth that combines short run elements (business cycle) along with long-run ones (long-run growth) in order to study how short run outcomes might have long-run implications. In particular, the project will show how a liquidity trap situation could become a permanent status of the economy with slow growth and unemployment.

Dr Laszlo Vegh, Management, has been awarded an EPSRC First Grant to undertake research that contributes to fundamental topics in Combinatorial Optimisation, aiming to devise strongly polynomial algorithms for new classes of linear and nonlinear optimisation problems. The key goal is to develop a strongly polynomial algorithm for linear programs with at most two nonzero entries per column. The problem is equivalent to minimum-cost generalised flows, a classical model in the theory of network flows.

Professor John Van Reenen, Centre for Economic Performance, has been awarded funding of £71,551 from the World Bank to undertake the World Management Survey for Vietnam in the context of the Vietnam 2030 Report. The survey will include questions on operations management, performance monitoring, target setting, and talent management.

Findings

LSE Research Online is a service provided by LSE Library to increase the visibility of research produced by LSE staff. It contains citations and full text, open access versions of research outputs, including journal articles, book chapters, working papers, theses, conference papers and more.

No such thing as an empty nest when it comes to graduates
An LSE study looking at the relationship between parents and their adult children returning to live at home after university has revealed mixed experiences.

Parents are usually more negative than their children, many of whom are unaware of their parents’ dissatisfaction, according to Professor Jane Lewis from LSE’s Department of Social Policy, who led the study.

Around 50 per cent of today’s graduates aged 22-24 return to the parental home after university due to a combination of a weak job market and high rental costs. The impact of this trend has been substantial, research shows, but often with mixed results.
>>More

Can the police do more with less?
The coalition government’s austerity programme has resulted in some sizeable reductions in the police workforce, yet crime has continued to fall. A key question for the next Parliament is whether further real-terms reductions in police budgets can occur without more deleterious effects on crime.

A report from LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) explores the evidence on the trends in crime and the police workforce, and factors that may have led to the continued fall in reported crime.
>>More

Are we really 'all in this together'?
Inequality of pre- and post-tax income has risen remarkably in the UK since the late 1970s. And while inequality of net income fell in the aftermath of the financial crisis, there are signs that it is rising once again.

What’s more, the tax and benefit changes since 2010 have been largely regressive, with people in the bottom half of the income distribution losing more than they have gained. The main cleavage is between pensioners who have done well compared with those of working age, especially the young and households with children.

These are among the conclusions of a new report from LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) – one of a series of background briefings on key policy issues in the May 2015 UK general election.
>>More

Top tips

Writing a grant proposal timeframe
The longer you have to prepare your proposal, the greater your chances of submitting a winning application. Early consultation with the Research Development team and your head of department is essential.

The Research Development team require a minimum of 2 weeks to review your proposal prior to the submission date. This amount of time should be allocated in addition to the time allocated to writing your proposal.

Here is a suggested timeframe for preparing a proposal.

	Timeframe
Large grants/fellowships/networks e.g. ESRC, European Commission	3 - 6 months
Small grants e.g. Nuffield, British Academy	1 - 3 months
Research Division to review your proposal	Minimum 2 weeks before deadline

Visit our website for a detailed list of funding opportunities.

60 second interview

Dr Mauricio Avendano-Pabon is a principal research fellow in LSE Health and Social Care.

Congratulations on the recent Horizon 2020 award for the project ‘LIFEPATH’. Can you tell us a bit about the project?
LIFEPATH (Life-course biological pathways underlying social differences in healthy ageing) is a Horizon2020 project initiated and led by Imperial College, under the leadership of Professor Paolo Vineis, Chair of Environmental Epidemiology. The project is a consortium of 15 participants; 13 from across European countries, Columbia University in the US and the Anti Cancer Council of Victoria in Australia. LSE is one of the partners with the responsibility of leading work package 6, which deals with the impact of economic downturns and conditional cash transfer policies on biological markers. LIFEPATH aims to shed light on the biological mechanisms underlying a social phenomenon that has troubled both scientists and policy makers for some time: the dramatic differences in health between individuals from different socioeconomic groups in all European countries. Men and women with lower educational level, income or wealth age faster than their higher socioeconomic counterparts. For example, the average physical health of a 70 year old high-socioeconomic status man or women is similar to the physical health of a person from a low socioeconomic status eight years younger.

The aim of LIFEPATH is to take a biological stand to try to understand what underlies these health differences between socioeconomic groups. The project is unique because it brings together social science approaches with biology (including molecular epidemiology), using existing population cohorts, social experiments and epigenomics to investigate biological mechanisms. The ultimate goal is to provide some evidence of the underlying biological pathways, and offer some evidence for the development of policies that may narrow health inequalities.

You have applied for a few grants in the past and been quite successful. What would you say is your secret?
A mentor of mine at Harvard used to say the only certain deterrent to obtain a research grant is not giving yourself the opportunity to apply for it – I think the first ‘secret’ is thus to build yourself of enthusiasm to actually apply regardless of the outcome. In addition, I think applying for grants requires a few important steps: The first one is to focus on innovation first, rather than feasibility, as the starting point – to try to develop the most innovative idea you can come up with, and only at the second stage worry about how to make it feasible.

The second is preparation – a grant requires a lot of time (I am tempted to say at least one month of full time dedication), so it may be desirable to focus on writing one excellent grant rather than many grants of varying quality, given the tough competition today for research funding. This may involve some isolation from regular day to day tasks, e.g., I wrote my ERC in the basement of the Widener Library at Harvard where I was able to sit for a full month.

The third one is to get together a strong team, and to circulate your proposal to all experts you know to get feedback with sufficient time to adapt their recommendations, letting them raise criticism before the reviewers do so. I think it is also very important to understand the grant agency to which you are submitting your grant: The European Commission has its own logic and system of evaluation; the ESRC has its own ways to evaluate proposals, and Foundations have their own priorities. This last element is quite crucial and requires communicating with funding officers and academics who have been funded by the agency to which you are applying.

These are some of the elements you can control – from there on, there are all other elements on which we have little or no control, including the ‘fairness’ and, if you like, luck in the review process. My suggestion would be not to worry too much about the latter and focus on the former elements, on which we have more control. A last advice would be to be ready for and not be discouraged by rejection: in my experience, a successful grant requires many rejections before it can get funded.

You currently hold the prestigious Starter award funded by the European Research Council. Tell us a bit about your experience since winning the grant?
I have been extremely lucky to receive the support from the ERC to develop an independent programme of research. Grants are an incredible resource because they allow you to devote the time needed to develop innovative ideas, build up international collaborations, and essentially dedicate yourself to research and writing, as well as to think of the next steps in your own research. Grants are today also a metric of academic performance because they are very selective through peer review. So internationally, and especially at leading academic institutions, grants are an essential criteria of academic performance perhaps as important as publications (though the two are strongly interrelated). Much of my research could not have taken place had we not received the funding from the ERC, and so a grant opens opportunities that we as individual academics may not be aware of to start with.

What has been the highlight/what have you learned and what would you do differently?
I think an important concept that for me has emerged constantly in academia is the one captured by the term ‘balance’. It is a constant struggle to keep balance between the projects you currently lead, and the future projects you need to get funding for; balance between research and other activities including teaching, conferences and administrative tasks. Balance between writing innovative, risky and time-devoting papers that will take years to get published, and developing safer papers that you know in advance are feasible and may have immediate impact. And crucially, balance between your devotion to research and all other important elements of life including family and friends. I think one can only learn to balance these different forces with time and experience, and so what I would think is essential is to constantly keep track of the evolving demands and be prepared to switch balance priorities whenever needed.

What book are you currently reading and which have you enjoyed most in the past?
I have developed a renewed interest for Latin American literature, which has recently managed to escape the prison of magic realism. I just finished reading ‘Las reputaciones’ (the reputations), from Juan Gabriel Vasquez, which deals with the moral dilemmas of a newspaper political cartoonist who has the power to manipulate public opinion.

I have enjoyed so many books in the past that it is hard to choose – one book I liked a lot was Tirza, from Dutch writer Arnon Grunberg.

Who was your hero when you were growing up?
I think I was quite obsessed with Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent civil disobedience as a more general way of approaching life.

If you could do it all again, what alternative career would you have chosen?
I guess I would have loved to be a musician, perhaps a composer.

Get in touch

The next edition of Research Briefing is on Tuesday 2 June 2015. If you would like to feature a research story, award, or opportunity in this newsletter, contact Amanda Burgess in the Research Division by Wednesday 27 May 2015.

Research Briefing is emailed on the first Tuesday of every month throughout the academic year.

Contact us
+44 (0) 20 7106 1202 I researchdivision@lse.ac.uk
Visit our website for more information and a detailed list of funding opportunities.