Connected Communities ‘Festival’ 2014
to be held in the week Commencing 30 June 2014 in Cardiff
(main event on 1st and 2nd July 2014 at The St David’s Hotel Conference Centre, Cardiff Bay)
First Call for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to contribute to the Festival
Closing date for EOIs – 27th February 2014
Introduction
As part of the Connected Communities Programme’s wider engagement activities, we are planning to hold a Festival in Cardiff during the week of 30th June 2014, including a major open public event on 1st and 2nd July 2014 to be held in The St David’s Hotel Conference Centre, Cardiff Bay. The ‘Festival’ aims to provide researchers and community and other partners within the Programme with an opportunity to reflect, share learning and discuss their research with other participants within the programme and to reach out to, and engage with, researchers, communities and community organisations not currently involved in the Programme and to enhance the public profile of their research. The Festival will take on the role of previous summits and showcases as the major open public outreach event for the Programme in 2014 as well as main large forum for networking across the whole Programme.
We wish to invite expressions of interest from current and past Connected Communities research teams and their partners for a wide range of activities to contribute to the Festival. We are particularly keen to encourage innovative and creative ideas, participatory activities and collaborative proposals from groups of projects and/or ideas with the potential to attract wider and/or more diverse participation in the Festival. Applications which pay particular attention to the Welsh context, or more local context in Cardiff, for the Festival will also be welcomed. However, we will also welcome proposals to re-use or re-stage activities from past Showcases/ events where these might be of interest to new audiences in Cardiff.
This is the first of two calls for expressions of interest in participating in the Festival, with a particular focus on activities requiring longer lead in times and/or more complex staging or logistical requirements.
We are also considering the possibility of running a number of other complementary activities during the week of the Festival and further details of these will be made available in early 2014.
Connected Communities Festival
Building on the success of the Connected Communities Showcase event held in London in March 2013 and in Edinburgh in July 2013, the Festival seeks to provide a further opportunity to showcase the outcomes and impacts of Connected Communities projects (both completed and on-going) and to provide opportunities for networking and discussions about future research directions, knowledge exchange and potential collaborations.
Through a mix of presentations, workshops, interactive and participatory break-outs, posters, exhibitions, performances, off-site and digital activities, we hope the Festival will highlight the rich and exciting research being undertaken through the Connected Communities programme across the UK.
The main Festival event will be held on 1st and 2nd July 2014 in The St David’s Hotel Conference Centre, Cardiff Bay and is expected to include a mixture of exhibitions/ stands/ installations, posters, break-outs, debates, performances, film showings, and related participatory activities. These will be primarily targeted at enhancing the Programme’s wider engagement with policy-makers, practitioners, community-focussed organisations, social enterprises, professional bodies, media and a wide range of other potentially interested stakeholders from the business, public, voluntary and community sectors. EOIs for the Festival will be expected to identify their target non-academic/ community audiences and explain how they will engage with then during the Festival. However, we also expect there to be an element of wider engagement with researchers and are keen to encourage activities of relevance to early career researchers. We may cluster activities within the main event thematically to make it easier for attendees to find and attend events which may be of common interest to particular groups of attendees.
In addition, to the main event at St David’s Hotel Conference Centre we are keen to encourage ideas for off-site activities, performances, etc at other venues in Cardiff on 1st and 2nd July and/or for ‘fringe’ activities to be held on other days and at other venues (e.g. schools, libraries, museums, galleries, theatres, cinemas, community halls, other performance or public spaces, etc.) in Cardiff during other days during week commencing 30 June. In addition, we are open to ideas for digital or virtual activities which might be launched or promoted at the Festival but would also be open to other participants not able to attend the event in Cardiff and/or would link activities in other locations during the week into the Festival. Proposals for fringe, off-site and digital activities will need to pay particular attention to how they will secure an appropriate mix of participants/ audience for their activity to complement the main Festival event.
Expression of Interest (EOI) Calls
There will be two EOI calls to contribute to the Festival. This first call is particularly directed towards project teams who have ambitions for festival activities on a larger scale or which require longer leading-in times/ planning horizons; this includes installations and exhibits with large or complex staging requirements, performances, proposals requiring significant preparatory activities such as creation of new films or artefacts, proposals involving complex mixtures of different forms of activity, complex travel e.g. for overseas presenters, and/or ideas for off-site or fringe activities where, for example, venues or access might need to be secured or marketing activities started well in advance of the Festival. The first call also aims to provide more time for activities requiring substantial involvement in their preparation by community and non-academic partners for example participatory writing, presenting and performance activities. The second call will be issued in March 2014 and a closing date in April designed for smaller project contributions (i.e one project stand, update to existing posters, additional break-outs/ roundtables/symposia etc.), and for the projects more recently funded under the Programme to allow them time to develop ideas in the early stage of their awards. This second call will also to pick up ideas which may not be sufficiently advanced in their development to be submitted under the first call and/or to fill in gaps in the Festival programme identified in the first call. If space / agenda time becomes an issue we may wish to discuss the possibility of deferring a decision on aspects of some proposals submitted under the first EOI call to the second call in order to allow sufficient space for activities under the second call.
Invitation to Submit Expressions of Interest under the First Call
We are keen to receive ideas from Connected Communities projects for contributions to the Festival. In particular, ideas for contributions from the following are encouraged under this first EOI call:
• EOIs which involve larger scale activities, such as installations or complex staging activities (e.g. associated with performances).
• EOIs which have multiple inter-linked activities – combinations of posters, stands, participatory activities, interactive displays, films, visual or other artefacts or creative outputs – with more complex staging or logistical requirements.
• Breakout sessions – to lead an session of up to one hour where key community and stakeholder audiences are identified and engaged in the developing the content of the session and which will provide an interactive opportunity to discuss the outcomes of research with wider policy / practice / research communities;.
• Activities which require substantial preparatory activities and pre-planning, for example development or rehearsal of new performances, production of new creative expressions, filming of new material, booking of keynote presenters for break-out sessions, etc.
• Off-site or fringe activities which require advance booking of venues, time to arrange access, arrange partnerships, market activities to audiences, address health and safety issues, deal with issues such as ticketing, etc.
Each Connected Communities project is invited to submit one application under this first call detailing how they would like to contribute to the Festival. Where applicable, proposals may contain multiple ideas or options. Ideas for activities bringing together more than one project are encouraged. Ideas involving collaboration between two or more projects (where those projects are led by different PIs) may be submitted as separate proposals. In addition to their own proposals, project team members may also contribute to any number of other proposals led by other project teams. With the agreement of the original project PI, proposals from projects may be led by other project team members or partners. Funding will normally be provided through an eligible Research Organisation, although exceptionally applications directly from project partners may also be considered where these are supported by the original PI.
We are keen to showcase Connected Communities Programme activities taking place across the whole of the UK. However, we also wish to take advantage of the location of this event to showcase the relevance of Connected Communities activities in the Welsh context. Therefore applications from Connected Communities projects which involve elements based in Wales, and/or proposals which consider the potential relevance of the research in a Welsh context, are strongly encouraged. Applicants should also consider whether it would be appropriate to provide some materials, such as leaflets, copies of posters, parts of performances, webpages, etc in Welsh and or to sub-title films in Welsh (or vice versa), particularly where the research has particular potential relevance to public audiences in Wales. Funding for the production of materials in Welsh may be requested as a part of EOIs and AHRC may be able to give further advice on this where required.
Range of Activities
This call for expressions of interests is intended to support wider engagement with current (including recently awarded) or past Connected Communities projects. It is not intended to support the development of new research activities or projects or extend research activities under existing projects. However, we welcome proposals which use the festival as an opportunity to promote the synthesis of outcomes from, and/or critical reflection across, a number of Connected Communities projects, enhanced knowledge exchange and engagement activities directly linked to projects and/or enhanced translation, dissemination and communication of outcomes.
Festival EOIs will be paid via a Purchase Orders (PO) and invoice, at 100% fEC (also see notes on Eligible Costs below).
Applications may involve any combination of the following options:
Project Stands – costs of preparing a project stand with various audio-visual materials, artefacts, digitally connected activities, and / or interactive / participatory activities with the aims of communicating Connected Communities research to a wide audience in an engaging and accessible way. Total costs up to a maximum of £10,000 per stand may be requested. However, as we are looking for inputs to be of a high presentational quality and / or highly interactive / creative, exceptionally proposals may request up to £15,000 where this is necessary, for example to produce a highly interactive or creative stand. In such cases we would normally expect there to be plans to make wider use of the stand or materials developed beyond the Festival itself. The funds requested should include the costs of transporting materials for the stand to the venue, hiring any equipment (e.g. if using laptops or screens) and for up to two academic team members and up to three project partner representatives* to attend the Festival main event and help to staff the stand during the networking sessions.
Break-out Sessions – Sessions could include audio-visual material, including short films, or other materials, symposia, debates, roundtables, small-scale performances or participatory activities, as well as associated publications and presentations. Participation of non-academic project partners in preparing for and participating in these sessions is very strongly encouraged. Proposals for joint sessions involving a number of Connected Communities projects will be welcomed. Depending on the pattern of EOIs we may look to cluster some or all of these break-out sessions thematically and/or encourage collaboration between break-out sessions. Break-out sessions are normally allocated up to one hour, but sessions of up to one and a half hours may be considered where this is needed to accommodate highly interactive elements; proposals for linked break-out sessions at different times during the Festival may be considered.
Total costs, normally up to a maximum of £8,000 per breakout-session, may be requested. However, exceptionally proposals for break-out sessions involving collaboration between multiple Connected Communities project teams (with different PIs) may request up to £15,000 where additional activities or outputs may be required to bring together insights and/or synthesise the outcomes from across a range of projects. Where the production of new materials is envisaged we would encourage the inclusion of proposals to use the inputs prepared in other ways in addition to the Festival itself (and as a minimum open access archiving of suitable materials produced).
Proposals for break-out sessions may include funding for travel and accommodation for up to five named people*, provided that all those for whom funding is requested have clear roles in the delivery of the session (e.g. as speakers, facilitators etc). In addition to these costs and the limits outlined above, break-out session proposals may request funding of up to £3,000 for bursaries to support attendance at the break-out session by community members, partners, voluntary / third sector organisations or other non-academic representatives who would not be able to attend the session without some support for their costs in attending but who would have a clear interest in the content of the session. Where recipients of bursaries cannot be named at this stage EOIs should indicate how the fund would be used (if requested) for example in terms of target groups etc to be offered support and what costs might be covered. This element of funding for bursaries will be ring-fenced within budgets and cannot be vired to support other costs if unused. Whilst participation at the specific break-out session(s) is the prime focus for bursaries, individuals funded through bursaries will normally be expected to participate in other Festival activities (exhibitions, posters other break-outs etc). Although primarily oriented towards enhancing community participation in the festival, up to £1,000 (out of the maximum of £3,000) may be used to support bursaries for early career researchers (ECRs) who have been involved in relevant Connected Communities research projects to attend the Festival, provided that the ECRs attending have an established research interest of direct relevance to the content of the break-out session.
Performances – costs of preparing and delivering a performance with the aims of communicating Connected Communities research to a wide audience in an engaging and accessible way. Performances at the main event should normally be for up to 1 hour although sessions of up to one and a half hours may exceptionally be considered, particularly where this provides enhanced opportunity to provide the research context for the performance and/or discuss the research issues highlighted by the performance; we will also welcome ideas for more impromptu performance activities during the main event or networking sessions and for linked performance sessions. Off-site activities may accommodate longer performances if appropriate, particularly during evenings on 1st or 2nd July or other days during the festival week.
Total costs up to a maximum of £12,000 may be requested for on-site activities during the main programme on 1st and 2nd July or up to £20,000 for offsite activities; exceptionally for proposals for performances involving collaboration between multiple Connected Communities project teams (with different PIs) these limits may be increased to £15,000 (on-site) and £25,000 (off-site) respectively where significant additional work may be required to bring together insights and/or synthesise the outcomes from across a range of projects. The funds requested should include the costs of transporting performers, research team leads and materials, performance fees (e.g. for actors, musicians, etc.), the hire of suitable rehearsal spaces and (if off-site activity is proposed) performance spaces in Cardiff, and appropriate marketing/ dissemination/ publicity costs to attract strong audience attendance. Where appropriate, costs may also be included for recording performances for wider dissemination particularly where an original or one-off performance is proposed in an off-site venue. Where new performance activities are being developed, applicants are encouraged to consider the possibility of repeating the performance in other venues / community locations. Reasonable travel, subsistence and accommodation costs for performers/teams should also be included as appropriate. If a performance is proposed for the evenings of 1st and 2nd July or for other days during the week, after the main activities have finished (while remaining part of the formal festival programme), applicants are expected to locate and book their own rehearsal and performance spaces, and to make efforts to attract audiences independent of and in addition to delegates at the Connected Communities Festival (where appropriate we may be able to help to put together activities under the first EOI call which could use similar offsite venues or benefit from cross-marketing of activities). Off-site performance should also give particular attention to how the performance might be contextualised within both the research project and wider Connected Communities programme and allow opportunities to discuss or stimulate connections to the research issues raised by the performance. For off-site activities it may be appropriate to consider ticketing arrangements (either free and/or for a charge) and provision of associated materials to aid connection with the research project(s) and broader Connected Communities Programme.
For off-site activities the costs for up to two academic team members and up to three project partner representatives* to attend the Festival main event to help to promote the performance and make connections with wider Festival activities, may be included. For on-site activities costs may be included to enable performers and associated supporting research team members and partners to attend wider Festival activities.
Exhibitions and Installations – costs of preparing an exhibition or installation with the aims of communicating Connected Communities research to a wide audience in an engaging and accessible way. Total costs up to a maximum of £12,000 may be requested for smaller / more self-contained temporary on-site exhibits or installations, or up to £20,000 for off-site activities; exceptionally for proposals for exhibitions/installations involving collaboration between multiple Connected Communities project teams (with different PIs) these limits may be increased to £15,000 (on-site) and £25,000 (off-site) respectively where significant additional work may be required to bring together insights and/or synthesise the outcomes from across a range of projects. The funds requested should include the costs of transporting materials, the hire of suitable space in Cardiff (for off-site activities), and appropriate dissemination/publication costs to support audience attendance. Large exhibitions and installations with complex staging requirements are expected to take place off site during the week of the Festival (but may continue for longer if appropriate), while remaining part of the formal festival programme, and we recognise that some exhibitions with local Cardiff connections may also benefit from locations more embedded in local community spaces. For off-site activities applicants are required to locate and book their own exhibition spaces, and to make efforts to attract audiences independent of, and in addition to, delegates at the Connected Communities Festival. Evidence of the potential to attract significant visitor numbers, or to benefit from visitors to other activities (e.g. footfall at galleries, museums or other exhibition spaces), will be expected for off-site activities, particularly those requesting funding nearer to the upper limits.
Film Screenings –We would normally expect film material to have been collected as a part of the project but recognise that some additional filming may be required and/or additional work to edit and present material in the most appropriate manner for the Festival may be required (e.g. addition of subtitles). Screenings are normally allocated a half hour session although up to 1 hour may be allocated where a significant interactive or discussion element is proposed; proposals for linked screening sessions may be considered. We would normally expect a team member and/or community partner to briefly introduce and contextualise the film and are open to proposals to include more interactive engagement to follow-up to the film screening.
Total costs, normally up to a maximum of £8,000 per film-screening session, may be requested. However, exceptionally proposals for film-screening sessions involving collaboration between multiple Connected Communities project teams (with different PIs) may request up to £15,000 where additional filming, editing or outputs may be required to bring together insights and/or synthesise the outcomes from across a range of projects. Where the production of new materials is envisaged we would encourage the inclusion of proposals to use the inputs prepared in other ways in addition to the Festival itself (and as a minimum open access archiving of films produced). EOIs should include the costs for up to two academic team members and up to two project partner representatives* to attend the Festival and discuss the film with participants.
Site Visits, Field Trips, Digital Activities etc –These can include the costs of a visit in the Cardiff area hosted by a community involved in a Connected Communities project or to a place or organisation within the Cardiff area associated with a Connected Communities project, including for example arranging open days, digs or community activities. They may include digital activities, use of apps etc which participants at the Festival would be encouraged to use /contribute to / take part in during the Festival and/or digital activities linked into other Festival activities such as field trips, performances etc. These activities may take place at any time during the week of the Festival in Cardiff. EOIs in this category will need to pay particular attention to identifying the audience for the activity and how participation in the activity will be secured. For site visits/ field trips etc the costs of arranging transportation of participants from the main Festival venue (if activity is taking place on 1st or 2nd July) and/or other locations should be included where appropriate along with the costs of arranging and hosting the off-site activity (and possibly recording it for wider dissemination) and any costs associated with publicising the activity (e.g. in trade, sectoral, digital, local community, and other media) and/or connecting wider audiences to the activity (e.g. through digital media). Total costs up to a maximum of £12,000 may be requested for these off-site or digital activities. The costs for up to two academic team members and up to three project partner representatives* to attend the Festival main event to help to promote the site visit, field trip, digital activity, etc. and make connections with wider Festival activities, may be included.
Publications – costs of producing (or reproducing) additional publication materials (leaflets, reports, guides etc) for the Festival main event. These must be specifically targeted at a non-academic audience. Template guidance for publications will be provided by AHRC. Expressions of Interests should include any costs of transporting the publications to the venue and for up to two academic team members and up to two project partner representatives* to attend the Festival and discuss the publication with participants during networking sessions. As above the costs of producing publications in bilingual form or summarises or copies in Welsh may also be included where appropriate. Total costs up to a maximum of £3,000 per project may be requested, but exceptionally proposals of up to £5,000 may be considered to produce publications in formats, quantities etc. suitable for wider dissemination beyond the Festival where plans for wider use of the materials are outlined and/or to support additional costs associated with producing materials in Welsh.
Posters – costs of preparing (or reproducing) a poster display for projects (within an overarching template supplied by AHRC), including the costs of transporting this to the venue and for up to two academic team members and up to two project partner representatives* to attend the Festival main event and discuss the poster with participants during the networking session. We particularly wish to encourage posters that promote connections with on-line or digital materials and/or interact with other festival activities such as publications, performances, off-site activities etc. These posters must be specifically targeted at a non-academic audience. Total costs up to a maximum of £2,000 per project may be requested but exceptionally proposals of up to £5,000 may be considered to produce posters in formats, quantities etc. suitable for wider dissemination beyond the Festival or which use the design work to feed into activities (e.g. on-line/ digital) where plans for wider use of the materials are outlined (e.g. further display at other events or in other venues or connected digital use of materials) and/or to support additional costs associated with producing materials in Welsh. We expect festival activities to be delivered presented in English as the primary language, but given that the festival will be held in Wales EOIs can include costs of producing leaflets and/or overviews (e.g. A4 sized versions of Posters) in Welsh where appropriate.
Re-use of Existing / past Showcase Materials
This call for EOIs is open to all Connected Communities-funded project teams, past or present, including new/recently awarded projects. EOIs will be welcomed from both project teams that submitted an EOI to participate in the previous Connected Communities Showcases in London and Edinburgh and from project teams who did not submit an EOI to these events. We are happy to consider applications which involve repeating or re-displaying contributions to the London and Edinburgh Showcases. In the first EOI call we particularity encourage the submission of new ambitious projects, but we would also like to encourage proposals to re-stage past activities with complex staging, space or logistical requirements to be submitted through this first call. Applications to re-use / re-stage past materials are normally expected to cost significantly less than the upper limits for the relevant type of activity outlined above.
It is not a requirement to propose to produce new materials for the Festival and it is recognised that in some cases projects may already have materials which might be suitable for use at this Cardiff Festival event. Where existing materials are to be used, it is also possible to submit more modest funding applications (e.g. to transport and display existing materials, produce additional copies of materials and for project team members to attend the Festival).
Supplementary Knowledge Exchange and / or Dissemination Activities using Festival Materials
We wish to encourage projects to consider the potential to use any materials prepared for the Festival more widely, particular in terms of the potential to engage with new or wider communities. This might include, for example, community, local or regional events or exhibitions, other conferences targeted at non-academic audiences or through the use of community partner organisation networks. The potential use of websites, social networks and digital media more generally is also strongly encouraged. Funding of up to £10,000 may be requested for such activities which must normally have taken place by the end of the 2014 calendar year (although the legacy of these, e.g. in terms of on-line presence, continuing exhibitions etc., may of course continue for longer). A report of these wider dissemination activities will be required by the end of January 2015 and applicants should therefore build in plans for tracking participation and feedback on these activities, and reflecting upon and evaluating their value and impact. Exceptionally proposals for activities requiring longer durations of up to 1 year after the Festival (up to 30 June 2015 may be considered. Supplementary activities must be directly related to activities undertaken at the Festival, for example by re-using materials, repeat performances, re-staging exhibits, continuing digital debates, etc. and are not intended to support new research activities or unrelated knowledge exchange activities.
Notes regarding numbers of attendees
* the number of attendees is indicative and we will consider a case for funding for more attendees if delivery of a contribution/exhibit requires larger numbers of project team members (e.g. as speakers, facilitators, performers, etc) or if a strong case is made for additional non-academic participants. Where more than one academic team member funded place is available we would encourage applicants to consider offering the second/third place to an early career researcher or adding an early career researcher as an additional team member.
Attendance at the Festival
Unlike at previous summits the AHRC will not be organising accommodation for Festival participants and will not be allocating funded places (to cover travel and subsistence or accommodation costs) directly to Connected Communities project teams. All travel and subsistence costs, including accommodation, incurred by project team members in attending and delivering activities at the Festival should therefore be costed into EOIs and participants should arrange their own accommodation in Cardiff (AHRC may be able to suggest nearby hotels if required).
Festival main event activities will be held across the two days and evenings of 1st and 2nd July during the week-long Festival (30th June-4th July). Lunch will be provided for all attendees at the Festival main event on 1st & 2nd July. AHRC is considering arranging other events during the week of the festival for which separate arrangements for travel and subsistence may be made by the AHRC.
In addition to the provision for bursaries to attend break-out session and for funding non-academic project partners to help deliver activities, we recognise that there may be value for providing additional non-academic partners engaged in Connected Communities projects with an opportunity to network at the Festival, and cases can be made within EOIs which highlight the potential value of their attendance, within the overall financial limits outlined above.
Where proposals involve display or other materials, it may be appropriate to consider including overnight accommodation costs in Cardiff for at least one team member the preceding night so as to ensure that someone is on hand to set up materials on the evening of 30th June, ready for the registration session at the start of the event the following morning. This is particularly encouraged where project participants may be travelling long distances to the event. There will also be an opportunity for final set up of materials early on the morning of 1st July.
Marketing of Festival Activities
Whilst we hope that the Festival will attract a wide range of participants interested in a range of connected communities and we expect activities to be open to participants drawn from wider attendees at the Festival, we cannot guarantee an audience for specific events and/or undertake targeted marketing towards communities that may have more specific interests in the activities included within individual EOIs. Therefore, all EOIs should outline the potential audience for their activity and include plans for how they might inform this audience about the Festival and encourage them to attend/ participate; this will be an important criterion in the assessment of EOIs. Proposals for break-out sessions, performances, off-site, fringe and digital activities should give particular attention to how they might secure an appropriate audience for their activity. Whilst we recognise that some attendees may only attend the specific activity within the EOI, we would hope that those attracted to individual events would also participate in or visit other Festival activities. Activities requiring more advance marketing should apply under the first EOI call where possible so that we can allocate a time for the activity within the programme which can then be publicised in marketing activities. Where appropriate EOIs may include costs for marketing activities (e.g. leaflets, advertising costs etc).
Submission of Expressions of Interest
Expressions of Interest of up to 3 sides of A4 under this first call should be submitted as an e-mail attachment to connectedcommunities@ahrc.ac.uk (please quote ‘Connected Communities Festival 2014: First Call’ in the subject line) by 5pm 27th February 2014. They should outline:
• Lead applicant (whose institution should be prepared to act as administering institution for funding) and which Connected Communities project or projects the activities relate to, including your AHRC/ Research Council reference number(s);
• the key aims of the proposed contribution(s) to the Festival in terms of the key themes or issues that the proposed activities would cover;
• how community organisations and other non-academic partners have been, or will be, involved in developing, co-producing, and delivering the proposed Festival activity(ies);
• who the proposed Festival activity(ies) might be of interest to, why it is believed that what is proposed would be of interest and how the activity will be promoted/ publicised to target audiences/participants;
• why the proposed contribution(s) would represent a good exemplar of Connected Communities research (e.g. in terms of fit to the aims and themes of the Programme);
• the proposed content / structure of any proposed materials / session etc;
• any specific practical requirements in terms of space, length of session, audio-visual equipment, off-site venues, rehearsal or set-up time, etc;
• who will attend the Festival to represent the activities and their proposed roles at the event.
In addition, where an EOI has particular potential relevance to the Welsh and/or local Cardiff contexts, or includes measures to tailor the activities to these (for example in terms of provision of material in Welsh), this should be outlined in the proposal.
A second call for expressions of interest is planned to be issued in March with a closing date in April (tbc).
Attachments
An additional annex of up to one side of A4 may be added to provide details of any proposed Supplementary Knowledge Exchange and /or Dissemination Activities using Festival Materials.
A breakdown and justification for any additional funds requested should be provided as an appendix of up to 2 sides of A4 (see below regarding eligible costs).
A short timetable of activities should be provided to provide assurance that preparation of materials can be completed before the Festival event. Where follow-up activities after the Festival are proposed these should also be covered in the timetable.
Links to additional materials available online or samples / examples of materials may also be provided as attachments if desired.
Where the lead proposer for the Expression of Interest is not the PI for the original Connected Communities grant confirmation that the Expression of Interest is supported by the original PI should be attached (e.g. copy of e-mail).
Eligible Costs
Funding will be provided to support the full direct costs incurred in undertaking the activities up to the limits for specific activities specified above rather than on an 80% of full economic costs basis. This may cover printing and publication costs, specialist design, image or media production or technical support, specialist editorial support including copywriting and proof reading, costs of film making, purchase or hire of exhibition or display materials / artefacts or hire of equipment, community participant, performance, artistic or other external partner input to the activity, travel and subsistence costs incurred (and bursaries for attendance at break-out sessions), hire of offsite venues or rehearsal spaces, etc. The costs of translating materials into Welsh (or if a case can be made into other languages), making materials bilingual and/or producing additional costs of materials in Welsh may also be included.
Publicity costs are also eligible, and we encourage all applicants to build in plans for promoting projects to actively market their involvement in the Festival through relevant platforms.
We do not normally expect to fund PI or other academic team member time input / salaries for example in managing the activity, writing material and/or attending the event and would expect this to be undertaken as a part of normal academic research activities.
Exceptionally requests to fund specialist academic input (e.g. on a consultancy or daily rate basis) may be considered where the activity requires a very substantial amount of academic input (for example to support synthesis of outcomes across multiple projects in developing inputs to the Festival) or bringing in different specialist expertise into teams (e.g. to direct performances, edit materials etc), in such cases the need must be identified in the EOI and the costs fully justified in order for them to be considered on a case by case basis. Similarly requests for additional research assistance or administrative support in preparing the input to the Festival may be considered, although it should be noted that all activities must be fully justified in relation to the Festival activity and their added value to existing planned project outputs and dissemination plans and that we are not expecting to fund /initiate new research activities through this EOI call. We would not normally expect to fund the purchase of new equipment on awards unless this cannot be hired and/or it is more economical to purchase than to hire equipment.
VAT
We recognise that some external suppliers may charge VAT and where this is the case VAT costs on these items may be included within the overall cost limits for that activity. However as these awards are for educational activities we would not expect Research Organisations to include VAT on the awards as a whole.
Assessment of Expressions of Interest
Applications will be assessed by a small organising committee which may include Research Council staff, the Programme Leadership Fellows and Advisory Group members. Consideration will be given to the quality of proposals, evidence of potential interest to and for engagement with non-academic audiences, degree of fit to Connected Communities Programme and value for money. However, consideration will also need to be given to the overall balance of content at the Festival (e.g. in terms of range of different types of input and topic areas covered and also potential to thematically link some inputs). As a result it may not be possible to accommodate some proposed inputs, even if of a high quality. Opportunities for some types of input (such as breakouts) may be more limited than others (e.g. publications, posters) and so we may only be able to accept part of the proposed input from projects. To ensure overall coherence of the event we may also want to suggest amendments to some proposals (e.g. time available for break-outs) or suggest that proposers collaborate in developing their inputs.
Following the assessment of applicants, projects will be notified of whether they have been successful or not. We hope to be able to provide an initial indication on the outcome of EOIs by mid-March 2014 . However, in some cases further clarification and discussion of activities will be required before details can be confirmed. It will not normally be possible to provide individual feedback on unsuccessful EOIs.
Awards
The AHRC will supply successful applicants with a Purchase Order (PO). The Research Organisation should then issue a single invoice to the AHRC against this PO, detailing each activity and the related costs.
Post –Announcement Liaison
Individuals who have an EOI accepted, either in whole or part, will be sent further details of the event, including any standard requirements in terms of templates, available space, formats and branding. They will be expected to liaise closely with the organising committee over any changes required to maximise overall coherence of the event.
Project teams are responsible for the couriering of items to and from the venue, and further details of delivery address and address title format will be given.
Enquiries
If you have any queries about this call for expressions of interest or the Connected Communities Festival, please contact Jill Mustard at AHRC at connectedcommunities@ahrc.ac.uk (quoting ‘‘Connected Communities Festival 2014 – First Call” in the subject line).
