College of Social Sciences

2024 Call for new IRTs: FAQ

How many people beyond the leadership team is a theme expected to engage with?

We don’t have a set number in mind, other than you should be able to make the case for appetite in this area across more than one school, and beyond the core leadership team. It will be important for teams to have a sense of how big or wide the initial interest is, in order to plan relevant outcomes and activities. To gauge this, existing themes might draw on numbers they have engaged with to date. New themes might look at relevant existing networks or groups, put a shout out in their schools, and/or discuss with research directors or group/ Centre leads. There is no expectation that everyone who is interested in a theme will engage in all that theme’s activities.

What happens if different groups apply with similar idea for a theme?

The College Research Development Team can support with signposting and matchmaking where they learn of similar ideas developing. To facilitate this, we encourage everyone to attend one or both matchmaking and idea development sessions, and/or to attend the drop-in surgeries to discuss their ideas. This will allow us signpost people interested in developing themes on similar topics. The College panel will not fund two separate themes on the same topic, so we encourage all colleagues to collaborate openly in developing their ideas.

Will it be possible to know which existing IRTs are going forward and in what form?

We won't have a clear sense of this until the match-making sessions. If you’re interested in developing or contributing to a theme that is closely aligned to an existing IRT, we strongly encourage you to speak with the current leadership team of that IRT to get a sense of their plans and scope for collaboration. You can find current leadership teams under the “contact our theme leaders” tab on each of the current IRT webpages.

Do applicants need to demonstrate proof of concept e.g. by building on an existing network, or could they be a completely new team working together for first time?

Teams will need to articulate why their theme is a good choice for interdisciplinary work in College of Social Sciences at Glasgow. If teams can demonstrate there is already appetite through existing networks, reading groups etc, or existing IRTs, this could be helpful in making that case. Applications are also welcome from emerging new groups but these groups should consider how best to demonstrate a shared vision and appetite for interdisciplinary working. Please note after the IRTs have been selected, a new call will run for shorter-term (and smaller budget) Interdisciplinary Research Networks, which may provide an opportunity for emerging groups that were not successful or did not apply to the main IRT calls. More information on IRNs will be forthcoming after the selection process for IRTs.

What is the expectation around different career stages for the leadership team?

The only official criterion for the team composition is to include researchers (post-PhD) from at least 3 COSS schools. We have found that for existing themes, it has been beneficial to include a range of career stages. Doing so in a new application might help teams articulate their approach to supporting a range of colleagues including those at different career stages (which is a specific criteria), but it’s not necessarily the only approach to doing so.

Do prospective team members need to ask their line manager?

Yes

To what extent should the application draw on my own research trajectory as an individual researcher?

The aim of the IRTs is to facilitate interdisciplinary research across the college rather than to further an individual leader’s own research agenda. However, if members of the team have experience working in interdisciplinary contexts, then it might be useful to reflect on this and what you have learnt from the experience, within the application.

Are there particular expectations for the themes around e.g. grant capture, external engagement?

We have deliberately not set specific “KPIs”, as we recognise that potential themes may be at different stages or occupy different spaces on the research ecosystem. However, we do expect all successful themes to develop a programme of work which includes all three pillars: research income; skills and culture; external engagement. Teams should therefore reflect on and articulate some planned activities and anticipated outcomes for each pillar. If a team is only interested in working within one of these pillars (e.g. skills development), then they are probably not a good candidate for an IRT - but may be an excellent candidate for the shorter-term Interdisciplinary Research Networks call (launching late summer 2024) which will take a more project-focussed approach.

How will or should teams align their work with Grand Challenges and/or other University strategic themes (e.g. ARC, Glasgow Changing Futures)?

The IRTs should specifically focus on areas where there is scope for interdisciplinary research for COSS colleagues, and they will be expected to work across three different pillars: research income; skills and culture; external engagement. For some themes, there may be specific external Grand Challenges, or internal initiatives (e.g. research centres or themes in other colleges) which align with their proposed area of work; in this case we would expect a team to reflect on how they envisage working with these initiatives, and where the areas of overlap or difference may lie.

We currently have five themes, and the new round will only allocate three. Does this mean any current IRTs not selected in this round will no longer act as IRTs?

Yes. Existing IRTs are very welcome to reapply, as well as new teams, but there will be a maximum of three themes selected. Current IRTs that do not reapply or are not selected will run until end July 2024, until the new themes launch. They may continue their work in other ways but they will no longer function as IRTs supported by the College.

Is there a limit on number of people in leadership team?

The minimum number of people in the leadership team is three, to represent three COSS schools. There is no official upper limit, however one of our learnings so far is that that teams with more than 5 leaders may sometimes struggle with coherence or even logistics like finding a meeting time. We would encourage all teams to invest time in developing a shared vision and to reflect on how the theme might work together in practice, but larger teams might want to pay particular attention to those issues. Please also note that the workload allocation for COSS leaders is 300 hours per theme – so the larger the number of people involved, the more thinly that workload allocation would be spread.

Will title of themes be fixed at time of application and will this form part of assessment process?

Teams should supply a working title, which should reflect the area they envisage their theme working across. However it’s more important to clearly articulate why the area you’ve chosen is suitable for an IRT, and what your team’s approach to that work would be. The theme title could be tweaked after selection if necessary.

What will be the role of IRT fellows in the new format?

IRT fellows were funded by college surplus investment, and these posts will not be renewed once the contracts end. New themes will not have a dedicated fellow. They will have some support from College Research Office, as well as a larger budget (£10,000 per year).

Could a theme propose mechanisms for supporting interdisciplinary across the university, e.g. through joint PhD supervision?

Yes absolutely. As with all activities, themes would need to demonstrate their proposed activities are likely to be feasible (including, for PhD supervision, beyond the IRT’s three year period.)