Irish Research Council 2014/2015

Manco

Probably time to start a new thread. NUI Galway has already commenced information sessions, and it sounds like the application process will open very soon. Good luck to all those applying, hopefully second time lucky for me.

Will be applying this year too...I had thought applications wouldn't be opening until January but apparently it's much sooner than that so better get to work soon! :P

nialljf

Call will probably be this week, eh? UCC also have information sessions annouced for December and January.

Ravelleman

And so it begins, again.

Good luck to one and all.

fifa3000

Can't believe it's starting so early! Hopefully this means the results will be out earlier than previous years.

Does anyone know are the information sessions run by UCC and NUIG affiliated with IRC in any way? NUIM had a session last year but it was very generic and just run by the grad offices. As the IRC applications change so much year to year it would be great to have some sort of guide on the process from someone in the council - I know they can't give out concrete advice, but there was definitely some information last year that was circulated to some Universities and not others (mainly to do with the gender dimension) so it would be great to find out if it would be worth going to these sessions in Galway or Cork.

nialljf

There's no affiliation with the council, but as you can see the assistant director will be giving a session on December 4, which is a good idea like you pointed out. Here's the info from UCC college of arts:

A call from the Irish Research Council for applications for Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship and Postdoctoral Fellowship Schemes is expected at the end of November with a deadline for applications in January 2014. Although the exact details and deadlines etc. for these calls are as yet unknown, the College in association with UCC Research Support has been ensuring that information/supports are available and in place for applicants, supervisors and mentors in the coming weeks and months.

In recent years the College has provided a range of supports to applicants, supervisors and mentors to the IRC (previously IRCHSS) Government of Ireland Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Fellowships schemes. These have included general and detailed information sessions, a drop-in clinic and written feedback to all applicants (who adhere to an internal UCC deadline). These efforts have resulted in UCC success rates in postgraduate (23.7% compared to 22.1% nationally) and postdoctoral (17.8% compared to 12.6%) applications that exceed national rates.

With these successes in mind the College can announce it will be holding a series of information sessions before the end of term that will seek to equip both postgraduate and postdoctoral applicants and supervisors/mentors with the resources and insights to make a strong and persuasive appeal for funding under the IRC schemes. This will be followed by application writing and feedback supports offered by members of staff over the College in the early 2014.

These sessions will be:
1. Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarships and Postdoctoral Fellowships

· Wednesday December 4th 2013 from 11:00-1:00 in Brookfield Health Sciences (BHSC) G04 An information session presented by Dr Gemma Irvine Assistant Director, Irish Research Council and will be focused on the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship and Postdoctoral Fellowship Schemes. This will be open to all applicants from the University

2. CACSSS Workshop I - Developing Research Questions, Aims and Objectives, Research Plan and Dissemination
Thursday December 5th from 11:00-1:00 CACSSS Seminar Room ORBG27. This first session will focus on

· Developing research questions, aims and objectives and plans: Prof Graham Allen School of English, Dr Denis Linehan, School of Human Environment.

· Developing research methodologies: Dr Lee Jenkins, School of English, Dr Caitríona Ní Laoire, School of Applied Social Studies

· Successful applicants to the IRC Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme 2013


3. CACSSS Workshop II - Designing Training and Development Plans, Writing Personal Statements, Research Ethics, Gender Dimension Statement and Research Budgets
Monday December 9th from 1:00 – 3:00pm CACSSS Seminar Room ORBG27
· Career Development Opportunities

o Graduate Business and Innovation Opportunities in UCC: Mr Eamon Curtin IGNITE

o Opportunities for researchers in the non-commercial sectors: Dr Jacqui O’Riordan CARL

· Writing personal statements: Ms Brenda Nestor UCC Careers Services

· Research Ethics: Dr Orla O’Donovan School of Applied Social Studies

· Gender Dimension Statement: Dr Allen White College Research Officer

· Research Budgets: Dr Allen White, College Research Officer

· Successful applicants to the IRC Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme 2013


4. Support with Application Writing

· January 6th -10th 2014, CACSSS: Various staff by appointment, applications to be sent to reviewers in advance.


5. Application Review and feedback

· January 6th –10 working days before IRC deadline: CACSSS research support
Please circulate this notice widely and inform colleagues/potential applicants about the opportunities presented by these funding sources as well as the supports available to CACSSS applicants.

With best wishes

Dr Máire Leane, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies
Dr Allen White, College Research Officer.

Karen Coughlan
College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences
University College Cork
Ireland
Tel: 353 (0) 21 4903304
Fax: 353 (0) 21 4903364

dropping_bombs

What percentage of people are successful does anybody know?

Ravelleman

Last year, of 1115 applicants, 254 received postgraduate awards.

fifa3000

nialljf wrote: »

There's no affiliation with the council, but as you can see the assistant director will be giving a session on December 4, which is a good idea like you pointed out. Here's the info from UCC college of arts:

Pity it's only open to UCC applicants, but that's understandable!

Sir Ophiuchus

Good luck all!

nialljf

OPEN

nialljf

In the document on indicative questions it states:

"➢You must associate two referees with your application, neither of whom may be your named Academic Supervisor (or Enterprise Mentor, where relevant)."

Is this true?

Likewise, they have the word limit for the personal statement listed as 200 words

short paragraphs

nialljf wrote: »

In the document on indicative questions it states:

"➢You must associate two referees with your application, neither of whom may be your named Academic Supervisor (or Enterprise Mentor, where relevant)."

Is this true?

It was the case when the initial call went out last year but so many people complained (me included) that they ended up changing it. Not sure if they'll cave this year though.

fifa3000

These word counts are a joke. 200 for everything including description of topic?? There is literally no way to explain your research in any real way with this limit - you're at a complete disadvantage if your research is complex. I understand you need to be able to sell your research to non-specialist audiences, but I don't get how anyone can get an accurate picture of your research project in 200 words (a quarter of last year's, which was tough enough). Research that can't be sexed up is going to suffer - this is so short-sighted.

Also, 300 words devoted to the sex-gender dimension?! What are they playing at.

Feel like some of those word limits have to be wrong...

lauras91

I've been told it's very unusual to get funding before starting your PhD, as in most people do their first year without funding? I've been trying to decide if its want I want to go for, having just finished my masters.. looks like I've it too late now for this round of funding! I know its impossible to comment on specific cases, but in general do people often secure funding before they start?

nialljf

I'm in a similar situation, having finished a masters last year. Some people do get the funding as they begin the PhD. Others who have done a year already have a clearer idea of what their project is, so it makes their proposal stronger. It can go either way as far as I know. You can be very deserving and still not get it.

andweneverdid

Yes I get the impression those word limits must be wrong. Odd that they are virtually all 200 words max. Although I think my research could be described in 200 words, I can see it being unfair on some.

fifa3000

I think people definitely can get funding before they start, it depends hugely on the quality of the applicant and institution, as well as how solid your proposal is. The only thing is that if your application is a bit weak then you're losing the chance to apply one year in when you have a better chance. It does seem to work in your favour when you have a year under your belt, just in terms of the strength of your application and also maybe that they have to fund fewer years of research? But it's so unfortunate and elitist as it somewhat eliminates those who can't fund themselves even in the short term.

Does anyone remember last year when the actual application went up? I remember the indicative application questions were up for a good while before the online system was launched but can't remember exactly. I'd love to see if these word counts are accurate!

kittykat1000

As far as I remember the application when live at the start of February last year. But the call is earlier this year.

Yarghhh

kittykat1000 wrote: »

As far as I remember the application when live at the start of February last year. But the call is earlier this year.

Think it was more mid/end of Febuary and application closed 13th/14th March. Only had about three weeks to submit the whole thing.

nialljf

fifa3000 wrote: »

I think people definitely can get funding before they start, it depends hugely on the quality of the applicant and institution, as well as how solid your proposal is. The only thing is that if your application is a bit weak then you're losing the chance to apply one year in when you have a better chance. It does seem to work in your favour when you have a year under your belt, just in terms of the strength of your application and also maybe that they have to fund fewer years of research? But it's so unfortunate and elitist as it somewhat eliminates those who can't fund themselves even in the short term.

Can you not apply more than once or what?

fifa3000

nialljf wrote: »

Can you not apply more than once or what?

Sorry I wasn't very clear! In the current terms and conditions you can apply twice for a particular programme, but applying when your application is a bit shaky or when you haven't got a clear research plan may mean you have less of a chance at securing funding - so it will eliminate one of your opportunities to apply. There's also always the chance that IRC will cut it back to only being able to apply once so if you really don't think you've a chance it might make sense to apply next year - but then everyone always has a chance!

nialljf

So we had the IRC in UCC over the week giving an information session on the schemes that were announced last wek. The two significant changes from last year are the reduced word counts and not being able to use your supervisor as a reference.

I'm sure they will be visiting the other HEIs around the country over the next week or two, so keep an eye out for those sessions. Even if there's nothing new in them, it's a good chance to ask questions and clear up anything you're unsure of.

They said they would be uploading a document of guidelines for applicants before the end of the week, though it's not available yet.

OpenYourEyes

WIrh regards the two references, do they both have to be strictly academic/university referees, or could you have one academic one from University and another from a job that involved research?

(I'm not going for the Enterprise one btw)

fifa3000

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

WIrh regards the two references, do they both have to be strictly academic/university referees, or could you have one academic one from University and another from a job that involved research?

(I'm not going for the Enterprise one btw)

As far as I remember, in the FAQs last year they suggested using only academic references for those not applying to the Enterprise scheme. If it was research-related it might be ok, but I would think that the reference would still need to be academic, even if they weren't a member of academic staff in a University (so a PI or something could probably work).

Lockstep

It's fairly brutal stuff alright. I have funding already from NUIG but part of my scholarship is agreeing to apply for the IRC each year to free up funding for someone else in the university.

That said, the IRC is a lot harder than the application for what I'm currently on was. Fairly confused by the parts on gender.

nialljf

No sign of the post-grad Applicant Guidelines document. Post-doc scheme was announced today

Cflmo

Anyone applying for a science based scholarship? Just wondering what people were thinking about the word limits. YIKES.:eek:

fifa3000

Cflmo wrote: »

Anyone applying for a science based scholarship? Just wondering what people were thinking about the word limits. YIKES.:eek:

No idea. There's no space for a rationale or introduction of any kind - you can only briefly describe your research in that amount of space. And for specialist topics that aren't easily understood outside of the discipline, you barely even have time to do that. I think they are using the fact that you should be able to write for non-specialist audiences as justification for this, but I'm afraid that in reducing the complexity of the project down to a 200-word description that anyone could read will make it a bit inaccurate? There's no way someone will be able to get a real understanding of my project from a paragraph, so I guess they'll just go on whether it sounds exciting or interesting more than if it sounds like good quality research.

andweneverdid

To be fair I think that that is a difficulty people from every discipline will encounter, not just science!

fifa3000

andweneverdid wrote: »

To be fair I think that that is a difficulty people from every discipline will encounter, not just science!

Oh definitely, it will be hard for everyone. I just meant in terms of the specialist terms, which are not specific to science of course. If you were doing a history project on something to do with archiving, for example, most people will at least be familiar with the general area and the procedure of archiving, so you can state that and then move into a description. Whereas when your project is in an area few academics will have heard of outside the discipline, and researching a highly advanced concept that is not easily explained in non-specialist terms, just introducing it briefly will take up half your word limit.

andweneverdid

Yes I suppose it may be easier for some than others, but when someone is researching at PhD level it can be difficult for those outside the discipline to fully understand the significance or nuances of concepts which, on the face of it, sound straight forward. However I understand that they do do their best to have at least one of the international assessors be from either your exact discipline or something directly related. But it is hard to judge how technical or specific you ought to be. For example, some of the assessors may not even have English as a first language, which poses its own risks!

fifa3000

Yeah you're right, it's so difficult to know!

andweneverdid

Actually a colleague of mine just emailed me to say that, according to UCD Research, they will be raising some of the word limits to 300. Obviously can't be sure if this is the case until the online form goes live, but would be great if they did. Even 100 extra words does make things a bit easier.

Cflmo

Here's hoping that's true. I guess we'll all just have to go with the excitement factor as opposed to focusing on detail, which is a bummer. It does affect everyone evenly, though, so can't complain too much.

nialljf

No sign of this guidelines document. It was promised nearly 2 weeks ago!

Edit: it's finally online
http://www.research.ie/sites/default/files/pg_2014__guide_for_applicants.pdf

nialljf

How are your applications coming along? Started working on mine again today after an extended Christmas break. Not too long now!

andweneverdid

Yes starting back up on mine today too. Glad to see the word limits have been increased to 300, bit more reasonable than 200 I think!

Just emailed my two prospective referees; getting down to business now!

nialljf

Any ideas on the financial justification section? Where would you put necessary books/articles in it?

Mahatma Geansai

Does anyone know if it is possible to change the postgraduate type you select at the beginning of the draft application? I initially selected the standard postgraduate application when I started my application, but I've since been in contact with a business, and I'm looking to apply for the enterprise partnership scheme.

I might just be blind or stupid, but it seems like the only way of doing so is to sign up again, or submit an incomplete application and start a new draft.

candle_wax

Does anyone know if the IRC funding has any terms and conditions about working on the side? IE do you have to sign anything/agree not to do any external paid work?

I have funding for three years (started in September) through my institution, and have had no problems re: work. I'm obliged to apply for the IRC funding too though.

Any ideas?

andweneverdid

Ya as far as I know you are not allowed to work while in receipt of the funding. I think I read that in the T&Cs. Not exactly sure how they would monitor this but best not to tempt faith!

candle_wax

andweneverdid wrote: »

Ya as far as I know you are not allowed to work while in receipt of the funding. I think I read that in the T&Cs. Not exactly sure how they would monitor this but best not to tempt faith!

Thanks, that what I feared! Hhhmmm. Will have another look and see what I can find.

fifa3000

candle_wax wrote: »

Thanks, that what I feared! Hhhmmm. Will have another look and see what I can find.

As far as I know it's usually only in first year that they prohibit employment - after that they usually allow it (as long as they approve it).

SNiB

Just wondering about the section 'Description of topic' - last year it had a limit of 1,000 words and this year, according to the indicative application form, it has been reduced to 200, which is a huge jump. This is on the FAQ page on the IRC website also, where someone enquired if it was a mistake. Has anyone got to that stage on the online application (I'm working on a Microsoft Word draft so far), and if so, could you clarify the word limit? Thanks.

fifa3000

SNiB wrote: »

Just wondering about the section 'Description of topic' - last year it had a limit of 1,000 words and this year, according to the indicative application form, it has been reduced to 200, which is a huge jump. This is on the FAQ page on the IRC website also, where someone enquired if it was a mistake. Has anyone got to that stage on the online application (I'm working on a Microsoft Word draft so far), and if so, could you clarify the word limit? Thanks.

On the online system they've been increased from 200 to 300, but yeah they have been reduced substantially from last year.

SNiB

fifa3000 wrote: »

On the online system they've been increased from 200 to 300, but yeah they have been reduced substantially from last year.

Thanks for this. Onwards with the struggle!

candle_wax

SNiB wrote: »

Just wondering about the section 'Description of topic' - last year it had a limit of 1,000 words and this year, according to the indicative application form, it has been reduced to 200, which is a huge jump. This is on the FAQ page on the IRC website also, where someone enquired if it was a mistake. Has anyone got to that stage on the online application (I'm working on a Microsoft Word draft so far), and if so, could you clarify the word limit? Thanks.

It's 300 words on the form.

Also if you've even just set up your initial application, you can just click through the tabs at the top and see each section/word counts. So I'm working off a Word doc at the moment, but can see each section on the website too.