Flexible funding

Purpose

Our mini-grant provides funds to enable members to participate in (or organise their own) activities which align with the Network’s goals. We aim for this to have a quick turnaround with a light touch process.

We generally expect grants to be up to £500 in value (if you’d like to apply for more than £500 of funding, please email us to discuss your ideas). To help showcase the activities we are funding, we ask recipients to:

• Provide a draft article or blog post (200-500 words) within 5 days of the activity taking place (what you did, key insights, impact, next steps).

• 2–4 photos with captions and permissions for SUM4Products communications (or screenshots if online).

• Acknowledgement of SUM4Products Network+ funding and use the SUM4Products logo where appropriate.

Examples of costs we can fund

Activities must have a clear link to mathematics of formulated products. Eligible examples include:

• Travel/subsistence to attend a UK conference, workshop, site visit with direct relevance to SUM4Products

• Costs to host a meeting, workshop, reading group, or discussion session (e.g. materials, room hire, reasonable catering costs)

• Costs surrounding organisation of outreach or public engagement activities

• Accessibility and inclusion costs for participation (e.g. captioning, childcare, reasonable adjustments)

All spending must comply with UKRI funding guidelines. Successful recipients will be expected to adhere to the SUM4Products Code of Conduct and their own institutional codes of practice. Any necessary data handling, IP permissions and Responsible Research practices should also be managed by the recipient.

By submitting an application for funding, the applicant is declaring that they have not sought to fund the same activity elsewhere. Applicants must notify SUM4Products if they are awarded funding for the same activity by another body before any funds are claimed.

Eligibility

• Requests should generally come from members of the network who have already participated in SUM4Products activities.

• We can only fund UK-based travel and recipients should also be working in the UK, usually employed as a member of a UK University.

• We would usually expect activities co-hosted with industry partners to be co-funded by the industry partner at 40% of the total cost; the proportion of co-funding can be reduced for SMEs.

• PhD students are eligible to apply but must attach a letter of support from their supervisor.

Process

• Download the application form: SUM4Products mini-grant application form (word document)

• Applications are submitted by emailing sum4products@contacts.bham.ac.uk. They will be reviewed within 4 weeks of submission and recipients contacted of the outcome by email.

• Applications will be assessed against:

  • Relevance: Clear and direct link to the mathematics of formulated products, SUM4Products and its goals

  • Benefit: Value to the SUM4Products community, the development of the applicant or potential for wider impact

  • Feasibility and value for money: Activity is realistic and deliverable, requested funds are reasonable for the activity, and using co-funding where available

  • EDI considerations: There is a consideration of inclusion to maximise impact and accessibility

• Payment routes will normally be through expense disbursement, invoicing or (where possible) direct purchases made by the SUM4Products team.

Questions

Contact sum4products@contacts.bham.ac.uk with any queries about the scheme.