Neil Ker Memorial Fund 2024-25 Guidance Notes

Scheme Guidance Notes

Please read the Scheme Guidance prior to filling out the form in Flexi-Grant.

Funds may be sought to cover the direct expenses incurred in planning, conducting, and developing the research (please see Table 1 below), including:

project planning and development costs (cost of travel for discussion in the UK and overseas)
travel and maintenance
research assistance (based in UK or abroad)
consumables
specialist software
costs of interpreters in the field

Applicants must specify in detail in the justification of financial costs requested section of the application the purposes for which the grant is sought.

Consumables include the purchase of datasets, photocopies, microfilms, etc, and any other minor items that will be used up during the course of the project. Applicants may apply for short-term consultancy or salary costs for expert staff, or short periods of research assistance. Provided they are central to the research process and an adequate case is made, the costs of preparing illustrations (including photography, acquisition of images, draughtsmanship and cartography or other bespoke illustrative material) may be considered. The cost of reproduction rights for text or images may be considered provided there is a contract for publication in place. Costs associated with deposit of digital material in an appropriately accessible repository may be considered. Costs related to conservation may be considered provided there is a clear research context to the work that falls within the remit of the Academy. Incidental translation expenses may be considered.

If an application is purely for technical or practical work with no research objective, it is not eligible for funding.

The following items are not currently eligible for funding (applicants registered with special needs may consult the Academy about possible exceptions): institutional overheads, or any element that should properly be ascribed to institutional overheads; computer hardware including laptops, electronic notebooks, digital cameras, etc; books and other permanent resources; the preparation of camera-ready copy, copy-editing, proof-reading, indexing, nor any other editorial task; subventions for direct production costs (printing, binding, distribution, marketing etc); costs of publication in electronic media; payment to the principal researcher(s) in lieu of salary, or for personal maintenance at home; replacement teaching costs; travel and maintenance expenses for purposes such as lecture tours or to write up the results of research; attendance at or organisation of conferences either in the UK or abroad to disseminate the results of research. (There are separate schemes for conferences, as distinct from meetings or workshops planned to advance a programme of research. Please see the Guide to Awards.

Events convened to disseminate the results of the research are not eligible for funding under this scheme.

Table 1: Items eligible for funding from the Neil Ker Fund

Note 1: The case made must be explicitly approved by the Academy.

Applications can only be submitted online using the British Academy Flexi-Grant® Grant Management System (GMS). If you have not previously used the British Academy’s Flexi-Grant® GMS and were not previously registered in the e-GAP system, please follow the registration process from the Flexi-Grant® homepage. Applications cannot be submitted on paper or in any other format.

Before completing the online form, all applicants should check that they comply with the eligibility requirements and ensure all necessary information is presented in the application. These requirements are strictly adhered to, and applications without all the necessary information, or evidence to show the assessment criteria are met, will be rejected.

Registered approving organisations will be available in the search bar. If your organisation is not listed and is not affiliated with any organisations already in the system, then please contact us at [email protected] to request the addition of the organisation. Please note, however, that scholars employed by organisations outside the UK should select ‘Independent Scholar’ from the drop-down list, even if they wish any funding to be paid through their employing organisation.

Applicants should be aware that this application form will be considered by appropriate assessors who will be subject specialists. Applications assessed as being worthy of funding will be submitted to the Neil Ker Memorial Fund Committee for final decision on awards. The application will always be treated as confidential.

Notes on the British Academy Flexi-Grant® Grant Management System

Personal details: when registered in the British Academy Flexi-Grant® GMS, a user has the option to add or update personal information such as contact details, log-in details (including email address and password), interests, research and employment details, at any time. This does not form part of the specific application form for any individual scheme but represents a personal record of your account in the system. Please keep this information up to date.

Automatic log-out: you are strongly advised to save your work regularly to prevent accidental loss of text. The Flexi-Grant website will automatically log people out if no activity is detected. It is recommended that you work offline in a separate word processor and copy and paste completed text online once complete.

Multiple sessions: do not have multiple browser windows / tabs of your application open at the same time as this may cause information to be lost. Only one user should edit an application at a time.

Plain text: if entering plain text, please avoid using symbols as some may not be accepted by Flexi-Grant (this includes the following symbols: < >).

PDF documents: when uploading PDF documents, please add your name and a heading at the top of every page to show what the document is. Please avoid uploading documents containing illustrations with fine details or colour as this can cause problems when creating a PDF of the application. Each PDF cannot exceed 3 MB in size.

Email addresses: it is essential that you ensure your email address is up to date and actively monitored, or you may miss important notification emails.

Submission: you will not be able to submit your application until you have completed each section in full. You should submit your application for approval by your host organisation at least five working days before the closing date to allow for your host organisation’s administrative procedures. You should also check whether your institution has its own internal deadlines. We strongly advise that you contact your referee as early as possible to avoid any last-minute issues before the submission deadline.

Application sharing: you can invite other contributors to join the application. All contributors must be registered on the GMS and mark their work as ‘Complete’ before you can submit your application – including the referee.

Application deletion: you can delete your application at any time although it is often a lot easier to just re-edit your existing application. We will be able to recover a deleted application for a period of seven days after deletion. After this, it will be permanently removed from the system.

Application returned for editing: the Organisation Approver can return your application to you for further editing, but the original deadline remains in place.

Once you have submitted your application for approval by your host organisation, automatic emails will be sent to your employing organisation’s approver asking them to log on to the system. You will not be able to edit your application after it has been submitted for approval. The organisation approver will either: approve and submit your application, ‘send back’ your application and contact you to request modifications or decline your application and contact you.

Please be aware that it is your responsibility to ensure that you complete your application in time for your organisation to process it (including requesting changes) and provide their approval by the closing date. It is recommended that you allow at least five working days for this process, but please check with institution as their internal timetables may require earlier submission.

If your employing organisation approver requests modifications through the British Academy GMS email facility, they can unlock your application, allowing you to edit it. They can do this by selecting ‘Return to Applicant’. An automatic e-mail will be sent to you alerting you of this fact. Once you have completed and saved the requested changes, please re-submit your application for approval by your host organisation.

Once your host organisation has approved your application and submitted it to the British Academy it will not be possible to make any changes.

Please note that once the closing date has passed, organisation approvers cannot approve applications and submit them to the British Academy and unapproved applications are removed from consideration. No late applications will be accepted.

It is recommended that you check that your application is submitted in time. To see the details of the host organisation approver and to check the status of your application, you should log into the British Academy GMS and click on the link to the Application Portal where a summary of your application will be displayed.

Assessors will evaluate the proposal on the basis of its academic merit, taking into account its originality, its relationship to, and the volume of, research already in the field, the scholarly importance of the research proposed, the suitability of the methodology, the feasibility of the research programme, the specificity of the scheme of research, the presentation, and intended outcomes; and its suitability for support from the Neil Ker Fund.

Assessors will evaluate the ability of the investigator(s) to undertake the proposed research, taking into account their track record in terms of publication, their academic age and stage of career. Backlogs of publication (including any reasons given by applicants) may be taken into account in assessing the current proposal.

The primary assessment of quality will be based on the specific research objective of the proposal, and whether the methodology and research programme outlined are likely to lead to successful achievement of the objective. The details of how the objective will be achieved - whether through research visits, use of research assistance, workshops, or any combination of eligible activities / costs - will be assessed only in relation to each individual application. No preference will be shown between individual or collaborative modes of research. There are no quotas for different types of application, and no comparisons will be made across applications on the grounds of their operational and financial specifications. For projects involving partners from other countries, assessors may take into account the availability of partner funding: in cases where partner funding is likely to be scarce, assessors may give priority to those projects which are likely to contribute to capacity building and lead to benefits for the wider scholarly community.

Assessors may take into account evidence of language competence where the understanding of material in a foreign language is crucial to the achievement of the research objective.

Comparative judgements about value for money may be taken into account at the final stage of assessment. Any special case made for endangered or emerging fields may be taken into account at the final stage of assessment.

NB. The Administration of the scheme is undertaken solely by the British Academy and all aspects of the application process, assessment process and award management is undertaken by the Academy.

Please see the flowchart below for an overview of the application to award process:

Table 1: items eligible for funding from the Neil Ker Fund

Travel and maintenance away from home

Yes

Research assistance

Yes

Consumables (i.e. purchase of datasets, photocopies, microfilms, etc., and any other minor items that will be used up)

Yes

Specialist software (excluding commonly available office packages)

Yes

Costs of interpreters in the field

Yes

Project planning and development costs

Yes

Short-term consultancy or salary costs of expert staff

Yes

The costs of preparing illustrations

Yes ( The case made must be explicitly approved by the Academy.)

Incidental translation expenses

Yes (The case made must be explicitly approved by the Academy.)

Childcare costs, where unavoidable

Yes (The case made must be explicitly approved by the Academy.)

Computer hardware, including laptops, electronic notebooks, digital cameras etc.

Books and publications

Permanent resources and equipment or any elements that should properly be ascribed to departmental or university overheads

The preparation of camera-ready copy, copy-editing, proof-reading, indexing, or any other editorial task

Subventions for direct production costs (printing, binding, distribution, marketing etc.)

Costs of publication in electronic media

Payment to the principal / co-researcher(s) in lieu of salary, or for personal maintenance at home

Replacement teaching costs

Travel / maintenance expenses for purposes such as lecture tours, or writing up results of research

Attendance at or organisation of conferences either in the UK or abroad to disseminate the results of research.

Institutional overheads

Application Guidance

Download the guidance notes

Please read the guidance notes carefully before completing the form.

Any application which is incorrectly submitted will not be considered for an award

Subject area

Please select the Subject Area from the drop-down menu that is most relevant to this proposal.

Title of research proposal

In this field, please avoid using any unnecessary quotation or other punctuation marks (e.g. do not use quotation marks round the full title simply to indicate it is a title). Consider the presentation by checking the ‘print application’ option to ensure that the title appears as you wish it to.

Abstract

Please provide a short abstract summarising your proposed research in terms suitable for an informed general audience, not one specialised in your field. This is a mandatory field and the limit is 150 words.

Project start date/end date

Please click the calendar button to select the start and end date of the proposed research. Please note that awards may be held over 12 months, from a starting date not earlier than 1 April 2025 and not later than 31 December 2025.

Project duration (months)

Please state how long your project will last for.

Proposed programme/plan of action

The proposal must:

clearly specify the context, and research objectives of the proposed study,
describe the methodology to be used, and
set out a realistic research programme, describing the activities that will take place, and explaining how they will contribute to the achievement of the research objectives

Applicants should give an account of their research which is complete of itself and should not depend on material facts being provided by their referees, nor rely on special prior knowledge on the part of assessors.

Where the bulk of funding sought is to finance a workshop(s) or conference(s), applicants should give a clear account of the overall research programme, provide a justification of the contribution of the event(s) to the achievement of the research objective, and give an account of the onward research planned.

It is essential that applicants clearly state the reasons why funds are needed. For example, it is not sufficient to state that the applicant will visit a particular archive: adequate details must be provided of sources to be consulted, and the length of visit must be clearly justified. The applicant should briefly explain why alternative access to material, such as microfilm or internet access, is not appropriate.

Grants are intended only for the planning and conduct of primary research. They are not available to cover the costs of spending time at another institution for purposes such as the writing up of primary research. All applications must clearly itemise the research programme to be undertaken at any location. Convenience is not a justification.

If support is sought for visits between UK and overseas scholars, applicants should clearly explain the purpose of the meeting(s).

If a research assistant is to be employed, applicants should provide a brief job description, clearly stating the nature of the work to be undertaken by the research assistant, and the arrangements for ensuring adequate supervision. If the research assistant has already been identified, details should be given under ‘other participants’. Otherwise, applicants should state the skills and qualifications sought. Applicants should justify the period of employment (or number of hours) for which funding is sought (e.g., has a pilot study or sample been conducted to show how long it will take the assistant to achieve the task in question?). Please note that PhD candidates employed as research assistants on projects funded by the Academy should work for no more than 10 hours per week on projects outside their own PhD research. British Academy research grants may not be used to fund work by PhD candidates that is directly related to their PhD thesis.

If the study will involve the use of a questionnaire as a research tool, a sample of the questionnaire (in English) should be submitted, if available at the time of application. Please note no other attachments can be uploaded. The PDF cannot exceed 3 Mb in size.

Independent researchers, not affiliated to an institution, should provide evidence of access to relevant facilities and resources.

The limit for the proposed programme field is 1500 words, and for the plan of action is 800 words.

Planned research outputs/plans for publication/ dissemination

Under ‘planned research outputs’, please only state the type of output expected. Please give more detail about potential publishers etc under plans for publication, for which the limit is 500 words. In assessing value for money, the assessors may take into account the intended outcome as compared with the amount of money sought, although it is fully appreciated that some modes of research are more expensive than others and proposals will not be discriminated against on grounds of cost alone.

Digital Resource/Deposit of Datasets

It is a condition of award that digital resources created as a result of research funded by the Academy be deposited in an appropriately accessible repository.

The Academy does not expect confidential data to be readily available. Applicants will need to provide details of how and where any electronic or digital data (including datasets) developed during the project will be stored, along with details on the appropriate methods of access.

Applicants should ensure that any necessary technical advice is obtained before commencing work that involves the creation of digital resources. Please confirm whether the primary product of the research will be a digital resource, and if so how and where it will be deposited

Overseas Travel: Country/ Institution

Where overseas travel is to be undertaken, please list the most significant country (up to three can be chosen) to be visited under “Overseas travel – country”; and if your research involves working in a particular overseas institution, and/or working in other countries to which you will travel in connection with this application, please give details under ‘Overseas travel – institution’. This information is used for monitoring purposes and may be provided to sister Academies or other organisations which have agreements or links with the British Academy, or the British Academy-sponsored overseas Institutes and Societies. Relevant information about the proposal, including, with the consent of the applicant, contact details, may be shared with the sister Academies or Institutes where this is part of the assessment process, or where joint funding is available (see our institutes page for list of organisations with which the Academy has links).

Research Leave Granted/ Permission Obtained

If it is necessary for you to obtain research leave to undertake this research project, has this already been granted?

Support of British Research Institutes Required/ Granted

Please note that scholars may not apply for cash support from both the British Academy and the British International Research Institutes (BIRI). There is no bar to applicants seeking cash support under the scheme, and logistical, permit-related, or other non-cash assistance from an Institute or Society. If the project is funded by an Institute or Society, an application may not be submitted under the scheme. If your research will take you to a country or region in which one of the British International Research Institutes operates, you are strongly encouraged to make contact with them before completing this form so that you can take account of any relevant expertise, facilities and logistical advice: details can be found on the Academy’s BIRI page.

Language Competence

The Academy expects that applicants will have any language skills necessary to conduct the research. If relevant, please state the level of language competence of the applicant and other participants, or otherwise explain how the objectives of the research will be met.

Other participants/ Role of other participants/ Added value of collaboration

Under ‘other participants’ please give the names, appointments and institutional affiliation of any other participants in the proposed research. If detail is not known yet, please indicate numbers and status of people who might be involved. Please describe the contribution to the project to be made by other participants, citing any particular specialisms and expertise, under ‘role of other participants’; and under ‘Added value of collaboration’, please provide any comments you wish to make on the particular relevance, timeliness or other aspects of the collaboration, and the benefits envisaged.

Endangered or Emerging Subject Areas

Applicants should be intending to pursue original, independent research in any field of study within the humanities or social sciences. There are no quotas for individual subject areas and no thematic priorities. The primary factor in assessing applications will remain the excellence of the proposal.

The Academy will however, where appropriate, take into account the aim of providing particular support for certain important fields, either emerging areas of scholarship or areas of research that are endangered or under threat.

This is an optional field and the limit is 500 words.

Ethical Issues

This field is mandatory and must be addressed by all applicants.

Are there any special ethical issues arising from your proposal that are not covered by the relevant professional Code of Practice? Have you obtained, or will you obtain, ethical approval from your employing institution or other relevant authority?

It is not expected that any special ethical issues will arise that are not already covered by relevant professional Codes of Practice. The normal expectation, therefore, will be that applicants should answer the pair of questions with the answers no and no.

If there are any special issues arising, but they have already been cleared by approval from a relevant authority, please answer yes and yes.

If any special issues arise and approval has not yet been obtained, please answer yes and no, and provide more explanation.

Source of Funding

Please provide details of other support given or applied for in connection with the current proposal.

Please indicate whether any other grant applications relating to this project have been submitted, either to the British Academy or to any other funder. Applications submitted to the Academy by separate applicants will not be accepted if it is considered that both (or all, if more than two) applications relate to the same project, whose components would not be viable as independent pieces of research.

The Academy has no objection to its grants being held in conjunction with awards from other bodies, provided that there is no duplication of expenditure. Applicants are requested to keep the Academy informed of the outcomes of any other applications (by email to [email protected]). Failure to do so may jeopardise the application’s prospects of success. In cases where simultaneous applications to the Academy and to another funding agency covering the same elements of a project are both successful, the applicant will be asked to choose which award to accept. Only if there is no duplication and no unnecessary inflation of a project will an applicant be permitted to retain both awards (subsequent requests to alter the plan of research simply to allow the applicant to retain both awards are unlikely to be considered favourably).

Primary and secondary subjects

Your application must be relevant to the Humanities and/or Social Sciences and you will need to select the relevant subject areas and fields from the drop-down list.

Time period, audiences, regional interests

These fields provide the opportunity to give further indications of the relevance of your subject area. They are optional fields.

Employing Organisation

Please be aware that it is your responsibility to ensure that you complete your application in time for your employing institution to process it and provide their approval by their closing date.

Please enter the organisation at which you are employed. If you are an Independent Scholar or are employed by an organisation based outside the United Kingdom, please enter this as the employing organisation.

The majority of appropriate establishments are registered in the system. If your proposed organisation is not there, please contact the institution’s research support services, or equivalent, and ask them to provide the British Academy’s Research Funding Office with the contact details of an appropriate person in the organisation to act as an approver.

All applications must be approved by the employing organisation authorities e.g. research grants office, finance department, etc. The approving department will receive email notification once you have completed your application and submitted it. They will be asked to provide approval and then submit the application to the British Academy.

It is strongly recommended that the applicant maintains an open dialogue with the approving department at the host institution as the British Academy cannot be held responsible for emails being caught in spam filters or not being received. It is recommended that you allow at least five working days for this process. Once they have checked your application they will contact you if any changes are required, please note if changes need to be made these will have to be done before the deadline.

Co-Applicants

Please note that all applications must have one lead applicant, although applications on behalf of more than one person are welcome. Please note that all correspondence is sent via the system only to the individual in whose name the application is submitted on the British Academy GMS. The applicant is responsible for notifying any other parties.

If there is more than one applicant, or the research involves other partners, please complete this section, and the relevant sections of the Co-Applicant career summary. A ‘Co-Applicant’ is a joint director of the project with equal responsibility for the academic management of the project. It is expected that no more than one Co-Applicant would normally be named on a Neil Ker Memorial Fund Grant.

Postgraduate students are not eligible to apply for grant support from the Academy, and applicants (and Co-Applicants) are asked to confirm in the personal details section(s) that they are not currently working towards a PhD, nor awaiting the outcome of a viva voce examination, nor awaiting the acceptance of any corrections required by the examiners.

Other participants in a project, whose involvement does not equate to being a ‘Co-Applicant’ should be named in the relevant section (other participants) in the Research Proposal section.

Statement of qualifications and career

Please give details of up to four relevant appointments and qualifications, in particular the award of the PhD, in reverse chronological order.

Present Appointment, Employing Institution and Present Department

Please give details of your current appointment.

Applications are welcomed from independent or retired scholars, and such applicants should indicate ‘Independent Scholar’ here. ‘Approval’ of their application will be given by the BA as appropriate.

PhD confirmation

Applicants working towards a PhD or awaiting the outcome of their viva/submission of corrections are not eligible to apply.

Please therefore confirm that you have a PhD by answering yes. If you are an established scholar with relevant equivalent experience, but no doctorate, please select ‘no’ and indicate in the ‘personal statement’ field why you should be eligible for consideration.

Personal statement

This field is optional, but may be used, for example, in providing information regarding interruptions to an academic career. The limit on this field is 150 words.

Publications, unpublished research

Please list up to six relevant publications to date in reverse chronological order under publications; and any unpublished studies previously funded by any agency, including but not restricted to the British Academy. Please give details of planned publication dates or explain why the research has not yet been published. Assessors may take backlogs of publication into account.

Previous support dates

An application will not be eligible for consideration if there is a report outstanding on any previous research grant awarded by the Academy to the applicant or any co-applicant. Failure to follow this guidance will result in your application being withdrawn from this round of competition.

Please give details of any research applications submitted to the British Academy within the last five years. In the case of a further application for continuing research which has received previous Academy support, please note that a full report and statement of expenditure for the previous grant must be submitted, before further funding can be considered.

Where did you hear of this scheme?

This field is optional. It helps the British Academy to target appropriate resources towards the promotion of the scheme to know where an applicant hears about it. As appropriate please state BA website; BA literature; PhD supervisor; University Research Office; Twitter, Other Colleague etc

Financial Details/ Justification

Please provide details of funding in the relevant fields.

Applicants should prepare accurate costings for the proposed research expenses and should be particularly careful not to overestimate the resources required. Applicants are advised that competition for funds can be fierce, and proposals on the margin for award may have a greater chance of success if they are modestly costed.

Costs should be clearly itemised and justified in terms of the research programme. If the Academy is being asked to support only a proportion of the total costs, please explain this clearly under proposed programme on the proposal tab.

It is advised that travel costs should be clearly justified; that the length of time for which subsistence is sought should be justified in the application; that per diem rates should be explained; that hourly or monthly rates of research assistants should be specified; and that the period of employment needed for a research assistant should be fully justified. If a claim for childcare is included, please supply sufficient justification for the case to be assessed.

Per diem rates: The Academy will normally offer no more than £2,000 per month for subsistence away from home, or a maximum daily rate of £100 for shorter visits, to include food, accommodation and local daily travel. If you are going to be requesting more than this, we ask that you make your case and explain the reasons for this. Applicants are asked to quote realistic daily rates, bearing in mind that the Academy reserves the right to reduce the amount requested if it is thought excessive. In all cases the Academy is looking to ensure value for money.

In cases where funds are sought for the costs of illustrative material, please note that if there is an agreement for commercial publication, further information may be sought about the general finances for the volume(s). Requests for reproduction fees (for text or image) will only be considered if a publishing contract is in place.

Please note that no payments can be made to the principal investigator or co-investigator(s) either for their own salary costs or for replacement teaching.

Please note that grants are cash-limited, and there is no scope for supplementation of an award. Projects should be fully costed from the outset.

Please do not use ‘£’ signs in the amount boxes.

Name of private fund

Please enter Neil Ker Memorial Fund as the appropriate answer in this box.

The British Academy is committed to its policy of Equal Opportunity in the provision of its grants and awards. Please help us to monitor the effectiveness of this policy by providing information concerning your age, gender, ethnic origin and disabilities (if any).

This information will be kept separately from the rest of your application and will not be seen by those involved in making decisions in the selection process, including referees etc.

Once your host organisation has approved your application and submitted it to the British Academy it will not be possible to make any changes.

Neil Ker Memorial Fund 2024-25 Guidance Notes

Scheme Guidance Notes

Purpose of grant

Eligibility

Eligible costs

Level and duration of award

Applications to multiple British Academy schemes

Nominated referee

Application information

Submission of application

Assessment criteria

Code of Practice

Important dates

Appendix

Application Guidance

Completing the Application form

Summary

Page 1: Research proposal

Page 2: Eligibility

Page 3: Lead Applicant Details

Page 4: Lead Applicant Career Summary

Page 5: Co-Applicant Career Summary

Page 6: Financial Details

Page 8: Nominated Referee

Submission of Application

Outcome of Application

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