The Research Development Fund is a catalytic fund bringing together WUN researchers from around the world to undertake innovative, high quality, sustainable research that addresses one of the four WUN ¸£Àû×ÅƬ Challenges.
The Research Development Fund (RDF) offers grants of up to £10,000 (to be matched by the institution). As an indication, a total of over £154,000 was invested across 16 projects in the 2018 WUN RDF.
As a (Worldwide Universities Network) member university, we may submit a maximum of two proposals. Proposals must demonstrate quality and leadership and must outline a realistic, well-considered plan to achieve on-going sustainability and financial support outside of WUN and be related to one of the WUN ¸£Àû×ÅƬ Challenges:
The development of research on the ¸£Àû×ÅƬ Challenges is supported by four Steering Groups, and by four cross-cutting groups that support, promote and enable a focus on Africa and China and underpinning investigations on big data and economics. The RDF provides an important mechanism for these groups to stimulate new research initiatives on the ¸£Àû×ÅƬ Challenges.
As part of the WUN Strategic Plan 2017-2020, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals will inform research priorities within the WUN ¸£Àû×ÅƬ Challenge framework. Therefore, a clear articulation of how the proposal aligns with one or more relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals within the context of the WUN ¸£Àû×ÅƬ Challenge(s) will be seen as a distinct advantage.
The official Call for Proposals has been released and Expressions of Interest (EOI) are invited internally, to be submitted by the deadline of 3rd September 2019 to partnerships@soton.ac.uk. Those applications shortlisted will be invited subsequently to write up a complete WUN RDF application, to be submitted internally by Tuesday 15th October 2019. The official WUN final submission deadline is Thursday 31st October 2019.