The Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF)
Cardiff University has secured £1.5m over two years from the Wellcome Trust through the Institutional Strategic Fund. The £1.5m will be match funded by the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences.
What is ISSF?
The Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) provides UK-based universities with an opportunity to invest in strategic areas of importance across their portfolio. Awards are between £600,000 and £3 million over two years and are flexible in scope, enabling the host institutions to use the funding to support diverse activities, from biomedical research to social and cultural studies, from applied R&D to public engagement. Funded universities are encouraged to invest in areas of unmet need, for example, early careers, collaboration and interdisciplinary initiatives.
www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/
The ISSF call for 2015 is now open, and welcomes proposals on a broad range of themes. Specific information will be made available from 29th January. If you have any queries, please contact ISSF@cardiff.ac.uk
So what funding is available?
- Equipment Awards, a total of £400k available in each year of the Award;
- Translational research seedcorn awards, six in each year of the Award, up to £40k;
- Fellowships track scheme, four in year 1, three in year 2 (up to £60k pa, normally 1 year awards);
- Taster Awards for clinicians, five in each year (£5k);
- Mobility and collaboration awards, four in each year (up to £5k);
- Cross-disciplinary Awards, three in each year of the Award, up to £50k;
- Populations pilot Awards (cohort studies); four in each year, up to £30k;
- Medical Humanities Collaborative Awards; two in each year, up to £25k;
- Public Health Collaborative Awards; four in year 1 of the Award; up to £25k.
- Bioinformatics and statistics support – salary, hardware and storage £432k
- Administrative support for ISSF – £35k each year of the project
- Support for engagement activities and ISSF meetings – £4k each year of the project.
In addition to these competitions, ISSF funds will support an Administrator (in post from 1st March 2015), Bioinformatics infrastructure and public engagement activities.
The Trust’s major directions for use of this Fund are as follows:
1. To assist the Institution in developing its research strategy across College’s and Schools
2. To encourage new inter-departmental synergies, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and inter-institutional initiatives
3. To add value to existing Wellcome Trust investments in the Institution.
Strengthening Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Cardiff University will build on successes of the first ISSF Award, widening the portfolio to encompass all the priority research areas in the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences (CBLS). We will build new links with relevant research in computing, physical sciences, humanities and social sciences and consolidate ties with partner Universities in the South West. CBLS, which includes all the Health-related Schools in the University, has recently completed a comprehensive review of its research portfolio and identified five Themes around which investment will be focused: Immunology, Infection & Inflammation; Mind, Brain & Neuroscience; Cancer; Public Health & Integrative Biosystems. The ISSF Award will impact in all these areas.
Previous ISSF success 2013
The Award, with matched funding, supported new academic appointments, seven project grants, thirty-one seedcorn grants and eight mobility awards. Infrastructure was supported through substantial spend on new equipment. Public engagement was supported through contributions to high profile local events and stand-alone meetings.
For further information please contact:
Beth Beckett -ISSF Administrator
College of Biomedical & Life Sciences
College House
Tel: (0)29 20 688697
Email: ISSFadmin@cardiff.ac.uk