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Phase III Update
- Phase III Research Specification
- Phase III Timetable
- Regional Workshops
- Phase III consultation reports
- Review of pedagogic research
A. Phase III Research Specification
Click for the full Phase III Research Specification
Click for a Word version of the Specification
Click for the formal Call for Proposals and the "Guidelines and advice for applicants" on the ESRC website - http://www.esrc.ac.uk/fundingopps.htm
Research in Phase III will focus on post-compulsory education, work-based learning and lifelong / adult learning. The remit also covers people moving between learning in different sectors, including transitions from school, and teacher / trainer education.
Approximately £9 million is available to support research projects under this
Call for Proposals. Applications are invited for projects led by researchers
based at Higher Education Institutions and independent research institutes
recognised by the ESRC in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
As with earlier phases of the Programme the core objective will be to support research which focuses on improving outcomes for learners. This will be pursued through partnerships between practitioners and policy makers with researchers in all stages of developing research projects, so these generate processes and outcomes which address the needs of policy and practice. Building research capacity will also feature strongly.
The Programme envisages supporting a number of major research projects (up to £1.25 m each) plus a range of complementary smaller projects (over £100,000 but below £500,000) which include a significant element of research capacity development in under-researched areas. Projects are expected to start from mid-2003 onwards and to run for up to five years until the current scheduled end-date of the Programme in December 2008.
B. Timetable
Those interested in bidding for Phase III funding will need to submit Outline Proposals by 15 April 2002. The timetable for Phase III is expected to be as follows:
| 15 April 2002 | Deadline for submission of Outline Applications |
| early June 2002 | Shortlisting decisions announced |
| mid October 2002 | Closing date for Full Applications |
| January 2003 | Applicants respond to peer review comments |
| April-May 2003 | Final funding decisions announced |
Summer 2003
| Phase III projects commence |
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C. Workshops
Four Workshops for intending applicants were arranged for January 2002.
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| | York | 15 January |
| Cardiff | 22 January |
| London | 24 January |
| Edinburgh | 30 January |
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These Workshops were designed to brief those considering leading bids for Phase
III funding. They were invitation-based events as numbers at each venue are limited,
so only one member of each team should normally have participated.
The new Programme Directors will also be happy to discuss research proposals
/ ideas with individual potential applicants, without prejudice to the Steering
Committee's final decisions:
Professor Andrew Pollard
01223 369631, ajp67@cam.ac.uk
D. Consultation reports
An extensive process of consultation throughout 2001 informed the development of the Research Specification for Phase III. All these are available for downloading as Word documents:
Six Consultation Seminars were held (click for reports from Edinburgh, York, Belfast, Birmingham, London and Cardiff)
A Questionnaire was sent to a wide range of interested organisations, groups and individuals (click for a Summary of Questionnaire responses)
13 Focus groups were held with groups of hard-to-reach learners (Click for the Report on Focus Group Discussions including detailed appendices of anonymised quotations from group members).
Click for a Summary of these responses (as published in our October 2001 Newsletter).
Two Capacity Building Seminars were held (click for the Report)
E. Review of pedagogic research
As a part of the development process the Programme has also commissioned
a "Review of Current Pedagogic Research and Practice in the Fields of Post-Compulsory Education and Lifelong Learning". This is being undertaken by a team from the Tavistock Institute led by Dr Elliot Stern (020 7417 0407, e.stern@tavinstitute.org).
Click here for the Tavistock report.
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