Brigstow has funded over 270 projects since its inception as a University Research Institute in 2016, and we have seen the most fabulous ideas develop. From early thoughts to incredible new radically interdisciplinary collaborations involving community members and artists in novel and exciting ways. Many of these have gone on to be successful in securing large external grants and to have a variety of outputs including articles, performances, artworks, films, podcasts, guidance and more! Over the last six months we’ve been thinking in depth about how we can better support our growing interdisciplinary community of researchers from across the University and beyond. Especially as the level of financial support we can provide becomes tighter.
As we reflected on our Ideas Exchange and Seedcorn projects past and present, what stood out to us wasn’t just what an amazing, diverse series of projects there were and the potential they all brought; but we are also aware of the limitations in the ways we are able to support those funded (or not) with the resources that we have.
Although Seedcorn funding has allowed research teams to explore projects often deemed too ‘risky’ by other funders; restrictions on our funding available mean we could only fund a small number of these each year. Likewise, wanting to fund a variety of topics meant that there was often little overlap in what the teams were researching, and this seemed like a lost opportunity as we were keen to work with projects as a cohort to learn from one another. With a small team, our capacity to support these ideas on an individual basis was stretched quite thin. As a result, the chance for our community to form stronger or more sustained projects that could receive much higher levels of external funding has been challenging.
In addition, our Ideas Exchange funding was initially designed to provide modest funds to bring teams together to either kick start ideas, or to cover the time of those outside of the University to be involved in the early stages of research design. Funding the time of external collaborators was identified as a way of enabling more equitable partnerships to develop from the outset. This is a value that has been highly praised by our community. The intention was that these small scale projects were a springboard to facilitate applications to larger sums of funding (our seedcorn fund), but we became conscious that we needed to work harder to connect the two funding schemes and help researchers to see the value of this smaller scale funding to seed new collaborations.
With these reflections in mind, it felt like the right time to shake things up and have an overhaul of our funding opportunities. The idea was to design a process that provides opportunities for more connection between teams, and in doing so free up the time of the Brigstow team to play a more active role in supporting teams to develop their ideas and funding bids throughout the entire research lifecycle. So, we present to you our new (pilot) approach to funding, one which works on a three-stage cyclical model and tries to stimulate connection throughout. Importantly, we are setting themes for this new model, but the plan is to co-develop themes with our communities rather than being ‘top down’. This has been the case with our first theme which is: Postcolonial Natural History Collections and Museum and Archive Practices.
As with all changes, there can be a lot to process, so we wanted to provide an in-depth walk-through of the process and try and preempt any questions that might arise for people. Likewise, this is a pilot, so there is still time to provide critical input, and help us shape it so it works for everyone in future.
The basics:
The funding cycle will be divided up into three stages, designed to support our community even if they aren’t recipients of the awards within the cycle. This means you can take part in all or just some of the stages.
Stage 1: Building connections
This stage is about bringing people together around the chosen theme and trying to gauge interest and ideas. The focus will be on facilitating connections between academics, community groups, artists and business, and providing the space for our communities to explore what interdisciplinary teams might look like for them under a specific theme.
During this stage the role for the Brigstow team is to host a series of networking events that help to get creative juices flowing and stimulate innovative research ideas. This might take place at a Brigstow curated event like an organised field trip or excursion to relevant organisations, exhibitions or locations, or at an ideation workshop that will inspire conversations and connections. These events will be open to everyone, even those not initially taken by the theme or working in that particular area.
Once connections begin to blossom, we’ll support fledgling teams to work up ideas into a short application for the next stage of the funding cycle, Connections Funding. We’ll do this by hosting a Writing Circle that provides protected time and support with the Brigstow team to answer any questions you might have about the application process. These will be drop in events, and you could also just come along if you wanted an excuse to have the space to write with colleagues.
Stage 2: Connections Funding
This stage of the funding cycle is an opportunity for newly formed research teams to start putting a bit more structure to their idea and to support those outside of the University to take an active role in generating ideas and shaping funding bid development for larger project grants. To support this, up to five grants within each theme of £1000 will be provided to different teams to refine their research questions and design a project collaboratively to explore it.
Over this period the Brigstow Team will organise a series of drop-in workshops that will support teams and our wider community to navigate the design of co-produced research. From experience, we’ve discovered that the best way to do this is to work on supporting relational development, and to help connect with people they might not have access to otherwise.
Support during this time therefore will take the form of a workshop for groups to explore our Toolkits that help teams navigate some of the tensions in co-produced research. We will also host a Funding Circle which provides insight into funding pots available for interdisciplinary research, as well as alternative forms of research funding that might exist within the University and externally.
By the end of this period in the funding cycle, we hope to have built a cohort of teams who feel ready to apply for larger pots of research funding to explore their question, or questions, in full.
Stage 3: Exploratory Research Funding
We recognise that some teams might not need to make large scale external bids to explore their research question, so within each funding cycle we’re still reserving a pot of £30,000 to support one or two research teams to realise their project in full. During this period, we’ll work with teams in a similar way to recipients of our previous Seedcorn funding.
Questions you might have
Along the way, we’ve been sharing this new structure with members of our community to sense check it’s on the right track. This has obviously thrown up questions that have been really helpful in making sure we get this right. We thought we’d share some of their questions and our responses and invite the wider community who might be reading this to provide any feedback they might have.
What will the themes be and how will you pick them?
We’re committed to these themes arising from our community, and as such they have been developed from a number of sources. As well as completing some mapping work which analysed over 270 past funded projects to identify similarities, we’ve also been using our Brigstow Blends to establish what’s popular within the community.
We currently have a few in mind that are taking shape, for example, we’re piloting this model with the theme of Postcolonial Natural History Collections and Archives. But we’re also exploring interest in themes such as From Harms to Harmonies, or Food Systems and Justice.
What’s important to say is that these themes are not static and my role at Brigstow is to keep using research and facilitation methods that identify different connections between projects and research funded by Brigstow. They will therefore evolve from the community’s interest and need, rather than in response to the Teams’ desires and hopes.
What if my work doesn’t fit within a theme?
We’ve tried to design the structure and themes so that they are quite broad and could involve people from any community, discipline, faculty, or practice. Although it might not be immediately obvious to you, we’d suggest coming to an ideation workshop anyway to see if you meet like-minded people.
However, we recognise that this method could still alienate some people and shut down the possibility of some serendipitous projects that come along each year. We’re trying to mitigate this in two ways.
First, for a month in January of each academic year there will be an ‘open call’ to the Connections Funding that won’t follow any particular theme. This will be available to any team regardless of whether you have engaged with our events.
Second, part of the move to this new structure was prompted by the recognition that the Brigstow Team do a lot of network building and connecting throughout the year. As our funding initiatives and events have grown, the capacity to focus on this has dwindled. This new structure should hopefully free up capacity in the team to continue supporting people to make connections, develop questions, and curate a series of programmes that work for our whole community. Hopefully this will support our community in many ways beyond financial investment.
We’re also interested in hearing about any further questions or feedback you might have, so if you have any please do not hesitate to get in touch at hello-brigstow@bristol.ac.uk