Seed Corn Small Grant Funding Competition

cities@manchester
Seed Corn Small Grant Funding Competition
October 2011 - Call for Applications

Overview
cities@manchester is a Faculty of Humanities-wide initiative to profile and develop cities research at
Manchester.  cities@manchester aims to:
1. Highlight the breadth and depth of cities expertise in the faculty of humanities at the University of
Manchester
2. Facilitate and promote excellence, innovation and inter-disciplinary in cities research
 
Essential Criteria
1. The proposed activity must be i) related to cities / urban issues and ii) inter-disciplinary.
2. Proposals can be for the following types of activity: i) Collaborative pilot research; ii) Preparatory work for inter-disciplinary funding bids; iii) Promotional/public engagement activities
3. The panel will favour proposals with clear, specific outcomes such as:
i) For pilot research applications it should lead to publications, i.e. books or journal articles
ii) A research bid for external funding - in particular we encourage proposals which will lead to bids
for EU Framework funding
iii) Promotional and public engagement activities should aim to raise the profile of urban research at
the University, e.g. production of video or media content, or publicly engaging events

 Further Details
1. Priority will be given to applications which engage researchers from more than one school in the faculty of humanities, and involve collaboration between research centre/non-research centre staff
2. A maximum of £6k can be awarded per application; awarded funds must be spent by July 31, 2012
3. The award must be held and lead by a University of Manchester member of staff, but can be used to fund collaborations with other institutions

MICRA/cities award 
Alongside this competition we are jointly funding a research project (up to £6,000) with the Manchester Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Research on Ageing (MICRA). Applications for this award must fall within the category ‘Ageing and Cities’. Further details of this can be found here or by emailing micra@manchester.ac.uk
http://www.ihs.manchester.ac.uk/MICRA/research/seedcornfunding/

Seed Corn Application process
1. Applicants are required to submit a written proposal of no more than 3 A4 pages addressing the
following points:
a) Names and affiliation of application team, with contact details for the lead applicant
b) Short summary of the relevant experience of each person involved (less than 1 page in total)
c) The type of research/activity to be undertaken, its aims, and how these will be achieved
d) How the activity fits with the essential criteria above
e) How the activity fits with the aims of cities@manchester as listed in the ‘overview’ above
f) A timetable and budget - your school research office will be able to help with costings
g) Expected outputs from the research / activity
2. Applications (and queries) should be e-mailed to: cities@manchester.ac.uk
3. The deadline for applications is 21 December 2011
4. The cities@manchester panel will meet end of January 2012 to make the decision, which will be final. 
5. MICRA/cities award: the ‘Ageing and Cities’ award is being handled by MICRA. Please see 
http://www.ihs.manchester.ac.uk/MICRA/research/seedcornfunding/ or email
micra@manchester.ac.uk for their application process (deadline 31 December 2011). 

Terms and conditions: 
Seedcorn funds can be used to fund both direct and indirect costs; monies will be transferred to a nominated University of Manchester account code, and it is the responsibility of the research team to manage expenditure. Publicity related to the research must include reference to cities@manchester (and, if applicable MICRA). Successful applicants are required to submit a one page summary of outcomes and a one page financial statement to cities@manchester by the end of July 2012.
It is not necessary to provide a full costing via a business research manager for this proposal.

Methods@Manchester is running a similar competition around social science methodology; it is possible for a proposal to receive funding from both cities and Methods@Manchester (www.methods.manchester.ac.uk) – although that should be stated in the application.