Breaking Barriers in Research Funding Applications
Aims and objectives
The project aims to investigate challenges and opportunities encountered by underrepresented individuals during the funding application preparation process, particularly focusing on Narrative CVs. Unlike traditional academic CVs, narrative CVs use a narrative approach to highlight the applicants’ achievements and strengths, aiming to reduce evaluation biases. The project has four main objectives.
- Identify Barriers and Effective Practices: The project will identify barriers faced by underrepresented individuals in preparing funding applications and writing Narrative CVs, along with effective practices that support them. Interviews will be conducted to understand these barriers and facilitators, as well as how individuals navigate them.
- Examine Writing and Evaluation of Narrative CVs. The project will examine how Narrative CVs are written and evaluated, specifically focusing on language. The project will collect Narrative CVs, conduct linguistic analyses, and have them scored by reviewers, which will then be tested to see which language features are associated with evaluation biases.
- Provide Practical Solutions. Solutions to barriers faced by underrepresented researchers will be developed through a workshop where training materials for writing successful Narrative CVs and solutions to overcome grant preparation barriers will be identified and assessed. This will be done collaboratively by involving underrepresented researchers and professional service teams who support researchers and grant applications.
- Disseminate Findings. The project will disseminate the results through various channels, targeting diverse audiences including academics, funding agencies, industry, and stakeholders. The project will deliver a map of barriers and facilitators, a summary report with tips for writing effective Narrative CVs, and evidence-based recommendations to improve the grant preparation process.
Ultimately, the project seeks to ensure equal opportunities for underrepresented researchers by promoting fair and unbiased funding application practices, aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 10 – Reducing Inequalities, see Target 10.2 and 10.3).
Funder
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Team
Researchers
Principal Investigator
Dr Fabio Fasoli
Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology
Biography
I received my PhD in 2011 at University of Trento (Italy). From 2012 to 2013, I was a post-doc fellow first at CITEC (University of Bielefeld, Germany) and then at the University of Padua (Italy). In 2014-2015 I was a post-doc at ISCTE-IUL (Portugal), and a postdoc at the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2015-2016. I moved to Surrey in October 2016 as a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow under the supervision of Prof Peter Hegarty. Since 2021 I have been the Programme Leader for the Social Psychology MSc and, from December 2023, I am the Chair of the Raninbow Network.
Co-Investigator
Dr Hannah Frith
Associate Professor in Psychology
Biography
I am a critical social psychologist and chartered psychologist, who draws on interdisciplinary theory and research to examine the intersections of sexuality, gender and embodiment using creative qualitative research methods.
Co-Investigator
Dr Noelia Noel
Senior Lecturer, PhD in Astrophysics
Biography
I come from a small Argentinean town located 800 km south of Buenos Aires. When I was five, my dad built a dome on top of her home's roof and put a telescope there. That's when I became interested in the Magellanic Clouds, our two closest irregular galaxies, seen as two ''Milky'' patches on the Southern skies.
After obtaining my Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, I briefly worked as a Geophysicist. I later joined the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh as a Marie Curie postdoc, followed by a post as Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and, a postdoctoral position at the ETH Zürich.
I joined the Astrophysics group at the University of Surrey in 2013 as a Research Fellow and since 2016 I am a Lecturer in Astrophysics.
The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)
Partner
See profile Institute for Sustainability
Partner
See profileResearch groups and centres
Our research is supported by research groups and centres of excellence.