Eduserv Research Grants - 2007/2008

IMPORTANT: this call is now closed.  All bidders should have received confirmation of the receipt of their bid by email.  If you have submitted a bid but have not received an email confirmation, please get in touch.

The Eduserv Foundation has £300,000 available for this year's grants call and invites bids for research project funding in these or closely related areas of e-learning and computing:

• Online identity.
• The open social graph.
• Always-on Internet access and mobile computing.

In each case we are interested in research and/or development projects that move forward the community’s understanding of the impact that emerging technologies will have on the way learning and research are undertaken.  Proposals may focus on the technical, social and/or political issues in these areas, inside and/or outside formal institutional settings (lecture theatres, research labs, campus open spaces, libraries, museums, Internet cafes, etc.).  Proposals that combine these areas are particularly welcome.

Proposals that include a software development component are encouraged but this is not a requirement.

Criteria

Criteria which projects should meet are:

• Supported by personnel at post-doctoral level and/or senior staff with computing, library or educational technology support departments.
• Ability to demonstrate clear contribution to research and/or effective service delivery within a particular field.
• Will not usually extend over a period of less than six months or more than two years.  One year projects are preferred.
• Will commence by September 2008.
• Should be based at a UK academic institution.
• Total funding requested will normally be in the range £30,000 - £150,000 and proposed projects should cost no more than £80,000 per year.
• Software development projects will usually be open source and deliver fully tested and documented code.
• Dissemination of outcomes should be integrated into project plans.
• Should include mechanisms for securing long term impact or sustainability of project outcomes.

Initial proposals

Initially, applicants should submit a brief proposal (2 sides of A4), using this form. (Note: if you have difficulty with the RTF version of the form, it is also available as a MS-Word doc file). Completed forms may be submitted as plain text, RTF or MS-Word doc by email to grants@eduserv.org.uk.

Deadline for receipt of this form is 5pm on Friday 14th March 2008. All submissions will be acknowledged by email.

Proposals will be expected to include a clear description of the methodology and project outputs. In addition, they will be reviewed against the above criteria.

After receiving all the proposals, Eduserv will evaluate the proposals and request that selected candidates complete a second more formal application in April 2008. Following this, several candidates will be invited for interviews in May 2008. We expect to inform successful candidates in June 2008 and to issue contracts soon after.

Details about the Eduserv Foundation

If you have a query about this application process you may wish to check our frequently asked questions page before contacting us at grants@eduserv.org.uk

Terminology

• An "online identity" is a persona that people establish in online communities.
• The "open social graph" is a machine-readable description of the online identities in one or more online communities and the relationships between those online identities.
• "Always-on Internet access and mobile computing" results from the growing availability and use of personal, mobile computing devices (laptops, PDA, hand-held devices, mobile phones, etc.), coupled with increasingly pervasive wireless network access.