The Seminar is being held

1
The Seminar is being held 11am to 12.30pm in
Room 104 upstairs
2
My track record with BBSRC
1993-1996 Responsive mode (New Investigator) 217K
1996-1997 Responsive mode (with Prof A Rowley)
40K 1997-2000 Responsive mode 213K 1999 Equ
ipment grant 52K 2000-2003 Responsive mode
550K 2003-2006 Responsive mode 360K 2007-20
09 Responsive mode 273K All grants with
myself as sole PI in the area of molecular
microbiology
3
Strategy

• Fit with BBSRC remit
• Foot in the door
• Continuing presence

4
BBSRC remit

• Non-clinical human life sciences
• BBSRC funds human physiology, cell biology, and
  genetics and genomics research relevant to
  understanding normal human function, but not
  research focused on specific human diseases and
  disease processes or abnormal conditions, which
  fall within the remit of the Medical Research
  Council.
• Also excluded is research primarily involving
  animal models of human disease and human
  toxicology.
• BBSRC also funds research in
• Plants, microbes, animals, tools and technology
  underpinning biological research

5
BBSRC remit

• Developing and embedding systems approaches
  that harness the power of mathematics, physics
  and engineering to generate new understanding of
  biological processes and enable effective and
  responsible intervention and utilisation of
  knowledge, in order to
• advance fundamental understanding of complex
  biological processes
• underpin practical solutions to major challenges
  such as climate change, food security, healthier
  ageing, and the control of infectious diseases
• Maintaining world-class UK bioscience by
  supporting the best people and best ideas,
  wherever they emerge, through responsive mode
  funding and by securing national research
  capability in strategically important areas
• Significantly increasing the economic and social
  impact of BBSRC-funded research, particularly
  through alignment with the Technology Strategy
  Board (TSB), and by helping to provide the
  skilled researchers needed for industrial RD and
  academic research

6
BBSRC remit

• During the years 2008 to 2011, BBSRCs budget
  will rise from 386M to 427M, 452.5M and 471M
  respectively
• These funds secured from government on the basis
  of supporting critical areas of research BBSRC
  therefore needs to deliver against these areas
• Refer to BBSRC Delivery Plan 2008-11

7
BBSRC remit
new research and capacity building supported in
following key areas

• Energy - Renewable Bioenergy
• Living with Environmental Change
• Ageing Research Lifelong Health and Wellbeing
• Global Threats to Security
• Nanotechnology

8
Foot in the door

• New investigator scheme
• Assists early-career researchers (university
  lecturers in their first 3 years of employment)
  to secure their first major element of funding
  for research.
• Committees assess applications against the same
  criteria as other responsive mode proposals
  however, research potential rather than track
  record is taken into account. Applications that
  are internationally competitive and within a
  designated percentage of the funding cut-off may
  be funded.

9
Foot in the door

• Team up as co-applicant with an established
  BBSRC-funded scientist
• Researchers who have been co-applicants on
  successful grant applications are still eligible
  to apply as New Investigators

10
Continuing presence

• Adapt your research to fit with BBSRC remit
• Increase your profile (high-impact publications,
  conferences, etc) so as to be recognised by
  committee members for your excellence
• Engage in multidisciplinary collaborations
• Help BBSRC by refereeing regularly
• Become a BBSRC committee member

11
Continuing presence

• Find and exploit a niche area
• Prepare your proposal well in advance
• Rewrite and then rewrite again
• Aim for a page-turner, not weighed down with
  experimental detail methodology
• Enhance your proposal with letters of support
  from end-users/industry
• Minimise risk describe pilot research or,
  better, support with publication(s) already in
  high impact journals
• Convince the appraisers that the results will be
  published in high impact journals
• Try to get departmental support to give you the
  time to maximise your chances
• Enlist colleagues to referee your proposal
  before submission

12
Scoring criteria

• Scientific excellence aim to be competitive
  with the best equivalent activity anywhere in
  the world
• Timeliness and promise building on success
  exploiting a window of opportunity, leading to
  high profile publications
• Strategic relevance fit with BBSRC remit
• Economic and social impact eg interactions
  with (industrial) end- users
• Value for money
• Staff training potential
• A proposal that meets the majority of these
  assessment criteria to a high level will attract
  a score gt4.0 (on a scale 0.0-6.9) and may be
  funded. But, for a higher score and increased
  probability of funding, need to aim for work
  that is at the leading edge internationally,
  meets criteria to an exceptional level and is
  likely to have a significant impact on the field.

13

• Good luck
• (in a good year BBSRC funds 25 of proposals)