Funding your research

Guidance on funding your research.

After you have identified the best method to answer your research question, you need to look into funding options.

There is a wide range of research funding. It may be:

• implicit, for example, you receive agreement from your manager to have time to undertake your research
• explicit, when you’ve successfully secured external funding for a fully costed project

External funding will usually come with predefined guidance. For both internal and external funding you’re likely to need to respond to any feedback you receive. External funding comes in 2 forms:

• prospective, where you have the idea that you take to the funder
• responsive, where the funder announces they want to commission a piece of research and you submit a proposal

Responsive funding usually has a predefined submission date. Funders of prospective funding may accept applications at any time or at fixed dates in the year.

Knowing what expectations and requirements your project needs to meet is important. Familiarise yourself with a funder’s terms of reference and application criteria before you start preparing your research proposal.

Ensuring your project and application meets the funding remit and requirements will save you time and effort.

Costing your research project

Costing your research project consists of 3 elements.

1. Directly incurred costs. For example, equipment or travel.
2. Directly allocated costs. For example, estimated costs attributable to your project such as your time.
3. Indirect costs. For example, all other costs associated with the running of your organisation but are not directly attributable to your project such as information technology (IT) support.

If you’re working with a university, the university will need to draw up a ‘full economic costing’ for your project.

Full economic costing seeks to ensure that the university’s overheads are met. Each university has its own procedures, and some negotiation may be required. The costs of research assistants or academic staff involved in the project will need to include overheads.

In addition to how you plan to undertake your study funders will usually want to know how you plan to disseminate your findings. For example, a conference presentation or peer reviewed article.

In most instances, funders will have explicit guidance on their open access, publication and data archiving policies.

• Sherpa Fact provides clear guidance on whether a journal complies with a funder’s open access policies.
• Sherpa Juliet lists the open access requirements of over 150 worldwide funding bodies.

Some publishers have signed transitional agreements with national bodies to facilitate ‘read and publish’ deals. This means that if you’re a corresponding author for a paper and affiliated with a participating institution (for example, based in an NHS trust affiliated to a university), you may be eligible to access funds to cover your article processing charge to provide open access to your work.

The ESAC Initiative provides aggregated data on the progress of transitional agreements with major publishers.

If your preferred journal is not open access, you may choose to include the article processing charge to make your article open access within your project costings and research proposal. You’ll need to check the specific costings of your preferred journal, but article processing charges typically cost £1500 to £2500.

Below are some resources to help you identify the costs associated with your research project.

• Guidance on payment and recognition for public involvement from INVOLVE. Find practical advice on payment and non-monetary methods of recognising the time, skills and expertise provided by members of the public.
• NHS Employers Agenda for change provides details of the latest NHS national pay scales.
• Most institutions will have a local costing checklist you can refer to when preparing your funding application. Contact your local Research and Development lead or finance department for details.
• Guidance on costing and pricing a research proposal in Vitae: Realising the potential of researchers provides an overview of how to cost your research project.

Be sure to allow enough time for your costings to be verified by your local finance office before submission to your funder.

Advice on funding your research

For advice on seeking funding for your research project, the following resources may be helpful.

• National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service provides support to health and social care researchers across England on all aspects of developing and writing a funding applications. Advice is confidential and free of charge.
• NHS Knowledge and Library Service Leads support you and your research by promoting innovation in knowledge and library service design and delivery.

Sources of funding

The below resources may be useful in helping you find different sources of funding.

• Bursaries and grants from Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). A list of CILIP groups offering conference bursaries may be useful when you start thinking about disseminating your findings. Grants to support CILIP members specifically undertaking research covering the library and information sector are also listed.
• The Library and Information Science Research Coalition provides details of research funding. It was last updated in 2012 and remains one of the most comprehensive list of knowledge and library services research funders available.
• National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding programmes include funding opportunities for evidence synthesis.

Suggested reading

You may also find the following chapter helpful:

• Moore, Nick (2006) 'Obtain financial support for the research' in N Moore (Editor), 'How to do research: a practical guide to designing and managing research projects' (3rd edition) London: Facet Publishing