GW4 Opportunities

GW4 offers a range of funding and development opportunities for staff across our four universities. You can also meet the Funding and Development team and find the correct contact for your query.

GW4 Research Communities

GW4 Crucible

Tailored Workshops

Guide to Research Collaboration

Shared Research Staff Development

GW4 RESEARCH COMMUNITIES

The Building Communities programme is designed to build new, high-quality GW4 research communities or help existing collaborations to build on their work and secure long term sustainable funding. We offer two funds: Initiator Fund for new communities (applications up to £20K), and Accelerator Fund to strengthen existing communities (applications between £20K and £75K).

Applications in all areas of research are invited to both the Initiator and Accelerator Funding streams.

Existing GW4 research communities aiming to scale up to significant external bids are particularly welcomed. Projects with a focus on the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) or Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) are also encouraged.

For more information download the GW4 Building Communities Fund Guidance and the Initiator Fund Application Form or Accelerator Fund Application Form.

This funding call is now closed.

If you have any queries, contact the GW4 Building Communities team by emailing gw4initiator@exeter.ac.uk or gw4accelerator@exeter.ac.uk.

GW4 Crucible

GW4 Crucible brings together talented and innovative researchers from the GW4 institutions and develops each of them as a researcher, leader and collaborator.

Tailored Workshops

GW4 Tailored Workshops are facilitated workshops to support the development of GW4 research collaborations. We will work with you to design a bespoke workshop, led by an expert facilitator, that will support the development and progression of your GW4 research community.

Previous GW4 communities have found the workshops useful to:

• turn ideas into concrete projects and plans by prioritising areas of research, scoping research projects and identifying funding sources;
• build a sense of community and collective ownership to form a more robust and dynamic network of researchers and/or external stakeholders;
• provide opportunities for knowledge exchange between disciplines and/or institutions with a view to strengthening a collaborative research community;
• invigorate a research community that is aiming to develop high quality research bids;
• develop project management skills with a view to ensuring the long-term sustainability of a research group.

How to apply:

Please read the GW4 Tailored Workshops Guidelines and send the completed application form to the Developing People Advisers at people-gw4@bristol.ac.uk.

DIY TAILORED WORKSHOPS GUIDE

Want to facilitate your own tailored workshop for your research community? GW4 can help with that too.

With the help of an expert facilitator, we have put together guidelines for self-run DIY workshops. There are three suggested workshop templates to choose from, helping you deliver the right workshop for your research group’s needs.

The guide is available on the GW4 Portal.

Guide to Research Collaboration

Discover GW4’s expert guide to help you plan and manage your research collaboration. It contains advice and experiences from a range of academics from the GW4 Alliance and beyond. Based upon real experiences, this guide features the benefits, challenges and processes of collaboration. This expert guide can be found on the GW4 Portal – find out more and sign up.