FAQs

Grants Round: Education and Neuroscience

(Closing date: 6 May 2014)

Who can lead/be a member of a delivery/project team?

To ensure that the neuroscience is properly interpreted and applied in meaningful and feasible ways, we are keen to encourage collaborations between educational researchers, teachers, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, psychologists, and other academics and not-for-profit organisations who can offerinsight into applying neuroscience to learning (such as in the fields of rehabilitation or sports science).

Can for-profit organisations be involved in the delivery of an intervention?

Yes, but applications must be led by not-for-profit organisations. If for-profit companies are to be involved in the delivery of the intervention, we would expect them to provide substantial subsidies or co-funding.

How much funding is available per project and how long can the projects last?

Our expected minimum funding award is £50000. The applicant should propose the budget that they think is required, bearing in mind that the cost of any eventual intervention should be affordable for implementation in a large number of schools. Please note that the actual level of fundingoften changes post-application in discussion with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the independent evaluator (see below), who will advise on the appropriate sample size and length of project. For information, the average EEF grant size is £600000.

The length of the project should be determined by the nature of the intervention and the timescale in which its impacts should be evident. Projects can be funded for up to four years, but note that ongoing attainment data, beyond the funding of the grant itself, will be collected through the national pupil database. This longitudinal follow-up will be conducted by the EEF and does not need to be costed as part of the grant.

What types of proposals are you looking to fund?

We are seeking proposals for educational interventions that have been informed by neuroscience, with the aim of developing and testing the most promising ideas. The intervention should aim to improve the attainment of pupils, especially those who are disadvantaged, aged 5–16. We are particularly interested in literacy and numeracy outcomes, although other academic and non-academic areas may also be assessed. Successful proposals will build on existing evidence about effective teaching and learning practices, and explain how suchpractices could be made more effective or efficient using robust evidence from neuroscience. We are willing to consider projects that require a development phase in order to finalise an intervention before testing its impact.

How is disadvantage defined/what does ‘disadvantaged’ mean?

In this case, a disadvantaged pupil is an individualaged 5–16 who has been on free school meals in the previous six years or who was ‘looked after’ for at least six months in that year. Often the interventions that are tested are whole-school or whole-class approaches, meaning that children that do not match the definition of ‘disadvantaged’ are also the recipients of the approach. In these cases we would expect the schools involved to have a higher proportion of children who meet the definition than the national average of 25 per cent.

Will you fund interventions for students with learning disabilities or other special educational needs?

Any applications examining interventions for students with learning disabilities or special educational needs mustoffer interventions that are well-founded neuroscientifically; an interventioncannot be justified simply by the fact that the population with whichit isproposed to work has an atypical neurological basis. However, we would be willing to consider applications in which the intervention has arisen from findings in neuroscience but is then targeted at a specific group of children, as long as the intervention would also be appropriate for, and evaluated in, a wider range of pupils.

To what extent do proposed interventions need to be based on neuroscientific findings?

Proposals need to demonstrate a deep understanding of both the relevant neuroscience and the educational context within which the proposed intervention might occur, including the practicalities of wider implementation.Projects will only be funded if there is an explicit causal hypothesis relatinga finding in neuroscience to a novel intervention or an amendment to an existing intervention – not if neuroscience simply explains the basis of already established and proven educational interventions.

In some cases, where there is limited evidence of impact but a promising idea, we may be able to support pilot-stage research to clarify claims and produce quantitative and qualitative evidence before undertaking further robust evaluation at a larger scale.

How will proposed interventions be evaluated?

We will rigorously evaluate the attainment impact of the interventions, wherever possible by randomly allocating which schools or pupils receive it. We will pair successful applicants withan independent evaluator who together will work to design an appropriate evaluation plan. Note that the evaluation plandoes not need to be included in theproject plan and budget.

However, applicants may propose to include additional experimental measures to elucidate the processes of change and develop our understanding of neuroscience.

Will you fund interventions that benefit/involve pupils in only one school?

We are unlikely to support projects that benefit pupils in only one school.Our aim is to identify interventions and approaches that, if shown to be successful, could be taken on by a large number of schools. We are only interested in testing initiatives that are practical and affordable for schools. We also need to understand what training and support is needed so that schools and teachers can use the intervention effectively.

Projects do not need to have recruited schools prior to applying. This will be done as part of the project and in consultation with the independent evaluator.

Do I need to include evidence of the potential educational impact of the approach I propose?

If available, evidence of the educational impact of the approach being proposed should be provided. We also would like applicants to outline how their proposal applies the findings of rigorous educationalresearch. Please refer to the Sutton Trust and the EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit and the recent summary Neuroscience and Educational Interventions,both available on the EEF website. The Royal Society’s 2011 publication Brain Waves 2: Neuroscience: implications for education and lifelong learning provides some helpful background reading and is also available on the EEF website.

How do I submit a funding application?

To submit an application, pleaseregisterfor the Education and Neuroscience Round via the EEF website and complete the online form by 6 May 2014.Try to minimise the use of abbreviations and acronyms to avoid any confusion for the reader, defining them when they are first used. Keep technical jargon to a minimum.

When will I find out if my application has been successful?

Following the closing date on 6 May 2014, we will review the received applications against our criteria. A small number of applicants will be invited to interviews on 16 or 17 July 2014. We will then begin conversations with a number of the most promisingproposals, with a view to jointly developing a project and evaluation plan. We do not expect to make final funding decisions until autumn 2014.

ELIGIBILITY CHECK

Are you the lead organisation for the application?

  • Where a group of organisations are applying for funding, one should be designated as the ‘lead organisation’. This organisation will have overall responsibility for the completion of application procedures and the direction and management of the project.

Do you agree to anindependent evaluation of your project?

  • The attainment impact of the projects will be independently and rigorously evaluated by one of the EEF’s panel of evaluators.

Are you an educational institution, state body, registered charity or not-for-profit organisation?

  • Educational institutions are schools, university technical colleges, sixth form and further education colleges, and universities.
  • Not-for-profit organisations include community and voluntary groups and social enterprises.
  • State bodies include local authorities and national agencies.

Does your proposal seek to increase the educational attainment of pupils eligible for free school meals or ‘looked after’ children?

  • The aim of the project must be directly linked to raising attainment and be capable of being objectively measured as part of a robust evaluation.

Is your project of a sufficient size to attract EEF–WellcomeTrust funding?

  • Our expected minimum grant size is £50000, and we are unlikely to support projects that benefit pupils in only one school.

GUIDANCE NOTES ON THE APPLICATION FORM

Section 1. About your organisation

NOTE: Except where stated, please relate all answers to the lead organisation. These questions are for information purposes and do not form part of the assessment.

1.1Name of organisation

1.2Organisation type

  • Please select from: primary school; secondary school; further education college/sixth form; university; local education authority; charity; other.
  • As above, please answer with respect to the lead organisation, even if there are a variety of different types of entities in your partnership.
  • If your organisation is already entered into our application system, this will be answered automatically.
  • Please give the names and a brief description of any partner organisations that will contribute to this project (Max. 200 words in total)
  • Please indicate what role the partner organisation(s) will play in the proposed project.
  • Lead applicant contact name
  • Lead applicant contact email address
  • Lead applicant contact telephone number
  • Lead applicant contact role/position

NOTE: Questions 1.8–1.10 should only be answered by applicants who responded with ‘Charity’ or ‘Other’ to Question 1.3.

1.8Please describe briefly your main activities, and estimate what proportion of your resources (staff time/funding) are devoted to education (Max. 150 words)

  • Please describe your main areas of activity (e.g. education, health, social care) and the type of activity you conduct in each area (e.g. project delivery, research, advocacy).
  • If detailed figures are not available on the proportion of resources devoted to each area, please provide a best estimate.
  • How many staff members does your organisation employ (full-time equivalent)?
  • What is your organisation’s annual income (in GBP)?
  • Please include income from all sources, e.g. charitable grants, government donations, etc.

Section 2. About the project

This is the key section that will form the focus of the assessment of applications.

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2.1Project title (Max. 25 words)

  • Please give your project a title. Simple, descriptive titles (e.g. ‘Online peer tutoring’) are welcome.
  • Please outline your proposed project (Max. 500 words)
  • Please give a summary of the project for which you are seeking funding – what does it aim to do and how willit do it? How will it be delivered? You should demonstrate that your objectives are attainable within the stated timeframe. Be realistic – overly ambitious proposals may not give the committee confidence that the objectives will be achieved.
  • Please explainhow your project fits with our approach (Max. 800 words)
  • As outlined above, we intend to support projects that willeffectively challenge educational disadvantage and improve our knowledge of what works in raising the attainment of disadvantaged students. These approaches should be based on ideas generated by neuroscientific research. In this section please outline how your project fits with this approach, including:
  • the neuroscientific basis of your proposal
  • how the neuroscience leads to or refines the educational intervention
  • how this could impact on educational outcomes, including raising the attainment of disadvantaged students.
  • Please cite any previous evidence showing that your proposal is likely to raise attainment(e.g. pilot results, evidence from other countries, evidence from related schemes, well-evidenced education theory, etc.). Wherever possible, please show evidence that children who participate in yourproposed project (or something similar) improve relative to a comparison group of similar children who do not participate.
  • Please explain how practical your proposed intervention would be for schools to implement (Max. 200 words)
  • If the proposed project has been piloted or is already being implemented, please describe its reach and impact, and itscost so far (Max. 200 words)
  • We are interested in how established the project is and what its reach and impact hasbeen.
  • Please describe the target population of the proposed intervention (Max. 200 words)
  • Give details of the pupil characteristics (such as age) and the school type, as well as an estimate of how many pupils you expect to be affected directly by the proposed project.
  • NOTE:Actual delivery may involve different numbers of pupils to those included in this proposal, as determined by the views of the independent evaluator.
  • In addition to educational attainment levels, which we would expect to be measured by the independent evaluator, are there any further outcomes or experimental data thatyou would like to collectto better understand the impact of the proposed intervention and the process of change? (Max. 200 words)

2.9 Additional comments (Optional, max. 200 words)

  • If you have any further comments to make regarding your proposal, please state themhere.

Section 3. Expenses

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3.1 How much funding are you seeking in total? What proportion of this are you seeking from the joint EEF–Wellcome Trust funding initiative? (Max. 150 words)

  • Please let us know how much your project will cost and how much of that cost you are asking the EEF and WellcomeTrust to fund.
  • If you have approached, or you are considering approaching, any other organisations to seek funding for this project, please outlinethose organisations and the amounts sought.
  • If for-profit companies are involved, please outline the expected subsidy or co-funding that they will contribute.
  • NOTE: You do not need to include independent evaluation costs, but do include costs for any additional outcome or experimental measures thatyou would be responsible for collecting.

3.2 Please give a breakdown of the proposed costs and phasing

We will provide funding for the directly incurred costs of the research project. Directly incurred costs are actual costs that are explicitly identifiable as arising from the conduct of a project (e.g. staff salaries, equipment, materials, travel). These costs should be charged as the cash value actually spent and should besupported by an auditable record. We do not fund on a proportion of full economic costs (fEC) basis.All equipment, materials and consumables, etc. should be clearly and carefully justified where requested in the form. The outlined costs should offer the very best value for money.

3.3 Additional comment on funding (Optional, max. 25 words)

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