Call for Proposals: British Academy International Writing Workshops 2023

The intention of the Writing Workshops is to support early career researchers in developing countries, working to stimulate professional networks, develop research partnerships, encourage skills development, provide advice on career development, and promote the uptake of research emanating from developing countries.

This call is supported from the UK’s International Science Partnerships Fund managed by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology.

Aims

• Through the Writing Workshops programme, the British Academy aims to encourage and support early career researchers in developing countries to publish in high impact journals in the fields of the humanities and social sciences, and enable them to develop connections with academics and journal editors based nationally and internationally.
• The writing workshops are in affect making a career intervention, instilling and aiming to change long term academic culture, and engaging with the wider ecosystem researchers inhabit.

Purpose

• If research taking place in developing countries is to be strengthened, then the researchers themselves need to be better connected to each other as well as to the rest of the world. It is expected that journal editors and other scholars will work intensively to support the workshop participants to produce papers in preparation for publication.
• Awards are expected to involve significant time devoted to mentorship between early career researchers, other academics and journal editors, although the Academy does not have a preferred model for how this is to be achieved.
• Applicants could note that successful workshops in the past have required participants to submit draft articles in advance of the workshop in order to provide a strong basis for the training and mentorship, maximising the opportunity for engagement with journal editors and other scholars.

Value and Duration

• Awards are set at a maximum of £30,000. Funding must be used in the direct delivery of the workshops, and can cover travel and related expenses, subsistence costs, clerical assistance and consumables, childcare support (including for participants), networking, meeting and/or conference costs.
• It will be considered an eligible cost to support the contribution of non-UK based Co-Applicants who are directly involved in helping to organise the workshop(s) in country.
• The award length is two years. This is to enable and acknowledge the significant follow-on and follow-up activities that a successful writing workshop award will need to undertake.

Deliverables

• The primary intended deliverable is to encourage and support early career researchers to publish in high impact journals in the fields of the humanities and social sciences. Considerable emphasis is placed on the crucial early stages of an academic research career: the future of humanities and social sciences research – and research in general – lies in ensuring that new and emerging researchers are equipped with the skills and knowledge to develop bold agendas and to lead research and their institutions forward. This builds on a series of reports the Academy has supported with the Association of Commonwealth Universities, known as the Nairobi Process.
• The workshops must include at least one session providing advice on the drafting of grant applications. The Academy will also provide a presentation on grant opportunities that are currently available.
• The Academy notes that a writing workshop award should be seen as much more than simply a ‘writing workshop’. The awards, in effect, are making a career intervention, creating networks, developing soft skills, setting aside dedicated time for research, instilling and aiming to change long-term academic culture, and engaging with the wider ecosystem researchers inhabit.
• All applicants must ensure that structural inequalities are considered and addressed within the proposed application. Structural inequalities include those based on gender, age, disability, ethnicity, race, religion and spatial factors. Applicants should make a genuine effort to integrate adequate analysis of gender and other structural inequalities in their application design.

Eligibility Criteria

• The lead applicant must be based at a UK university or eligible research institute, and be of postdoctoral or above status (or have equivalent research experience). The lead applicant must either be in a permanent position at the institution or have a fixed-term position for the duration of the award.
• Institutions: The award must be held at a UK-based institution recognised by the Academy. The following types of organisations will be eligible to apply to host the Fellowship:
  • Higher Education Institutes that received funding from one of the UK higher education funding bodies.
  • Research institutes (RIs), for which research councils have established a long-term involvement as major funder as part of the national research base.
  • Approved relevant Independent Research Organisations.
  • Public Sector Research Organisations.
• Each application must have at least one Co-Applicant based in Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam and/or Least Developed Countries.
• Workshops must take place in Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam and/or Least Developed Countries.
• An individual cannot be the PI on more than one bid for funding from this programme. No individual may be a Co-Applicant on more than two projects (nor may a PI be additionally a Co-Applicant on more than one other project).
• Future applications for funding will not be considered unless a satisfactory report and statement of expenditure for the previous award have been submitted.
• Applications under this call will not be accepted if the PI or Co-Applicants have any outstanding reports or statements of expenditure which are still to be submitted to the Academy following previous Writing Workshop awards.
• The International Science Partnerships Fund in the context of this call is funded by Official Development Assistance, therefore applications for this funding must be ODA-eligible.
• Writing workshops are training, skills development and mentoring workshops – the organisers’ research should not form a part of the programme for a workshop. Applications that are submitted that do not adhere to this will not be supported.

For more information, visit The British Academy.