Securing International Research Funding
Presenters
Dr Rado Faletic & Dr Martin Grabert
Delivered over 3 partial days:
Monday 27 July, Tuesday 28 July and Wednesday 29 July 2020
11.00am - 2.00pm AEST.
LIMITED REGISTRATIONS AVAILABLE
In this module you will be introduced to the paradigms and practices of international research collaboration and international funding opportunities. The module will particularly focus on the skills you need to develop in order to confidently and professionally support your organisation in obtaining and managing international funding. Attention will be given to the major international funding opportunities – including Horizon Europe, US federal, and several other key partner countries – by exploring the ways they are different from your familiar domestic programs and the resources that you can access to assist you with engaging with these mechanisms.
The primary purpose of our module design is to provide ARMS members with the skills and perspectives to be able to successfully navigate the world of international research funding.
During the module time will be spent introducing specific major international programs (that fund research projects) to participants, including salient rules and regulations. This list of programmes includes Horizon Europe and a range of major federal research funding initiatives from the USA.
However, the bulk of the content will be contextual, using real world examples and group exercises to instill a set of core principles and paradigms that are required for successfully managing international grants – in the general as well as in the specific.
As a pre-requisite, we assume that all attendees have experience managing grants from their own national funding agencies, and thus will not need instruction on basic grant managements, accounting, reporting processes, reading complex rules, etc.
This module is built around three core pillars: strategy, risk, and culture…
Strategy:
The choice to engage with overseas research programs does not happen in isolation. Institutions’ decisions to engage in these programs (whether as part of a focused strategy or on an ad-hoc basis) is not possible without a level of commitment from the institution (beyond the researcher(s) in question). Hence, the decision as to whether (and how) to engage or not must be considered in the context of institutional strategy and support.
Most institutions include some reference to “international collaboration” in their aspirational vision statements, yet many fail to adequately articulate strategic activities in order to progress towards the vision. We will recommend some steps that research managers can take (in their unique position with their institution) to assist with progressing long-term institutional strategies around international engagement.
Risk:
First time participants in overseas programs will usually encounter “unforeseen” problems that put them (and their institution) at some risk. Whereas the risks associated with domestic programs are well-understood by the domestic audience (and institutions have well-prepared systems for minimising or even eliminating these risks), this is usually not the case with international programs.
We will detail some of the more important risk factors when working with international programs (e.g. I.P. issues, audits, eligible costs, forex movements, resolving conflicts, certification, etc.), using specific examples throughout, and processes that can be put in place to assist with mitigating these. We will also emphasise the need to be intimately connected with international counterparts and networks.
Discussions around strategies and risks will be accentuated with a presentation of the rapidly changing landscape in the USA by a guest presenter (Mr Paul Harris, Director of ANU’s North American Liaison Office), including specific examples with one of the most significant sources of US funds for Australian researchers – the US Department of Defense.
Culture:
Whilst rules and regulations are always detailed in print, with plenty of clauses, exclusions, criteria, etc. these rules exist within a domestic cultural paradigm that can be challenging for outsiders to penetrate. Thus, it is imperative that researchers and research managers gain a suitable appreciation for these cultural settings in order to clearly comprehend what is actually being asked of them, and to be able to appropriately engage with their overseas counterparts.
As many research attendees may not have been exposed to working with foreign entities and individuals previously, we will spend some time identifying key cultural differences across the globe, and the way that these effect both individual and institutional relationships.
We will delve into program specifics via an overview of Horizon Europe. This will enable us to draw on our extensive expertise around the EU Framework Programmes to articulate key issues that are important for most international funding programs.
Subsequent to this discussion, we will highlight some difference between Horizon Europe and the US federal funding programs, and introduce opportunities presented by mechanisms in the UK, China and other major collaborators for ARMS institutions. However, since there is very little in the way of dedicated international research funding available outside of Europe and the USA, we rely on group discussions to draw out specific instance’s challenges and successes with other countries and programs.
In addition to the annotated PowerPoint slides, participants will also be given a short handout listing key contacts, and major funding / collaboration programs around the world.