The Research Office actively encourages and supports all research staff at the College to enhance their research potential by submitting applications for external funding to a wide range of public and private funding bodies. There are a variety of funding schemes available for early-career researchers through to established academics, in all fields of research undertaken at the College. There are funds available for providing researchers with Research Assistants; Doctoral Students; Research Leave; Fellowships and Research Project expenses.

If you are interested in submitting an external funding application during 2010–11, please take the following steps:

1. Review the Research RCA list of external funding schemes and deadlines to identify a possible source of funding for your research project (downloadable from the RCA's Space website and sent direct to all academic staff by email).
2. Go to the website of the funding agency to thoroughly familiarise yourself with the guidelines for submission and the particular eligibility criteria of the scheme that you are interested in applying to
3. Once you have identified a suitable scheme, send a proposal via email to jamie.gilham@rca ac.uk detailing your specific research question(s); aims; objectives; methodology; timescale; funding requirements and, if relevant, project collaborators.
4. On receipt of this written proposal the Research Office will work closely with you to develop the application in readiness for final submission by the scheme deadline, including liaison with Personnel, Finance Office, ILS and Health & Safety to ensure that your application satisfies College requirements.

Please note that although the Research Office will provide as much support as possible during the application process (and subsequent reporting process), it is the responsibility of the lead applicant, (the Principal Investigator), to ensure that the correctly completed application is submitted within the scheme deadline. Principal Investigators are also responsible for the submission of all subsequent reporting.

Please remember that all research applications to external funding agencies must be authorised and submitted by the Research Office. The Research Office will not submit applications which have been hastily compiled or inadequately completed as this may jeopardise future applications from the College.

Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) System
Since September 2006, the majority of research grant proposals to the six UK Research Councils must be submitted online through the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) System. To submit a proposal using Je-S, the Principal Investigator must be registered for Je-S. To register with Je-S, please go to the Je-S login page (https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/) and choose ‘Create Account’ and follow the prompts. The Research Office will be notified of your registration automatically. Once you are registered with Je-S, you will be able to circulate your draft application to the Research Office and your collaborators in other HEI’s electronically, enabling contributors to develop an application collaboratively. When complete, the Principal Investigator submits the final proposal via Je-S to the Research Office, who then submit the proposal to the relevant Research Council.

For further information on both Je-S proposal submission and the registration process, please go to the Je-S login page and choose ‘Tutorials’.

If you require further assistance with Je-S, please contact Jamie Gilham, Senior Research Manager, at jamie.gilham@rca.ac.uk or on 020 7590 4126. The Je-S helpdesk is also very helpful on 01793 444 164.