Module EDUC41420: Developing Funded Research

Department: Education

EDUC41420: Developing Funded Research

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• The aim of this module is to support academic staff to develop the knowledge and skills to enable them to initiate research projects which will include planning and preparing for an application for external funds.

Content

• One of the University’s key priorities is to produce research of international excellence in all subjects. This module will complement provision in the existing PGCAP by developing knowledge, understanding and skills in research. These will relate to departmental, university and national provision and procedures for enabling and maintaining research projects. Generic matters will be addressed through seminars and workshops. Given the specialised nature of research projects, departmental mentors will support the participants in the subject-specific context.

Learning Outcomes

• At the end of the module students will be able to demonstrate:
• knowledge and critical understanding of the process of developing a research project within their own subject-specific context which will include planning and preparing for an application for external funds shaped by a convincing, underpinning rationale;
• comprehensive knowledge of Durham’s procedures and mechanisms for supporting funded research;
• knowledge and critical awareness of the demands of relevant national and international funding bodies.

• to design and plan a research project which will include planning and preparing an application for external funds.
• The module meets the following learning outcomes of the PGCAP programme specification:
• to have an understanding of the importance of disciplinary-based research and development on their academic practice;
• to locate, comprehend and critically evaluate relevant research and sources of information and evidence relating to academic practice.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The primary mode of teaching will be workshops which will scaffold the process of developing a bid for external funding. These will incorporate presentations designed to enable participants to develop knowledge of the bidding process and the nature of high quality bids. There will be times when the participants will form subject or faculty based groups for specific sessions. As the majority of learning will be work-based with the support of a departmental mentor, assessment will be via the production of a proposal for a research project which would normally lead via the aforementioned planning to a bid for external funding.
• There will be two summative assessment tasks: 1) A review of the way in which the intended research project fits into current funding opportunities and institutional and departmental strategies, based on a systematic and critical review of the policy, priorities and procedures as reflected in a major research funding body’s current documentation. 2) A proposal for funded research, underpinned by a convincing rationale and adhering to the requirements of the respective funding body.
• Coupled with a critical reflection on the process that led to the bid. Participants will be required to submit evidence of the outcome of the peer review process with the proposal. Participants will be expected to combine knowledge of the scholarly literature relevant to their bid with work-based learning in their departments to highlight good practice related to their discipline.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Participants will receive feedback on drafts of the bid from their department research mentor.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University