¡°Hasty¡± grant calls demanding tight deadlines for research proposals are discriminatory against women and those with caring responsibilities, academics have warned.

A??announced this month by the UK¡¯s Economic and Social Research Council sparked warnings that average call turnaround times are becoming shorter, making applications all but impossible for those who are not ¡°plugged into¡± the right networks. The ESRC invited proposals for research projects on management practices and employee engagement on 6 August, with a closing date of 18 September, giving academics 31 working days to apply.

Adam Golberg, research development manager at the University of Nottingham, said that such a prize ¨C up to ?900,000 per group across a maximum of three years ¨C was ¡°substantial, for social sciences¡± but suggested that the time frame was impractical given that only one bid was allowed from each eligible institution, ¡°so likely requiring an internal sift¡± of proposals.

An ESRC spokeswoman said that the body had no choice but to adhere to a ¡°very tight spending time frame¡± in order to access the funds. ¡°We know this is a challenge, but it was a now-or-never funding opportunity for us,¡± she said.

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The case is by no means unique. A joint call from UK Research and Innovation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences was announced by UKRI on 28 June this year with a deadline of 14 August ¨C a timescale of 34 working days for proposals requiring collaboration between colleagues across an eight-hour time difference.

from the Alan Turing Institute opened on 13 August with a deadline of 27 August, leaving applicants just 10 working days to apply. A spokeswoman said?that the call ¡°was advertised to the Turing university network¡± in advance of the public announcement online.

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Dorothy Bishop, professor of developmental neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, said that ¡°hasty¡± calls?led to poorer quality proposals, piled stress academic staff and pointed to ¡°equity issues¡± in the industry.

Unusually tight deadlines could trigger suspicions that calls were being ¡°strategically written¡± for contacts of project directors to win them, she warned.

¡°There¡¯s a particular concern if the academic community starts to think that the system is corrupt and has been set up to make funding options available only to the favoured few,¡± she told?Times ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. ¡°I don¡¯t think we can rule that out in some cases.¡±

Other circumstances?that may have led to reduced application windows overall are likely to include government budgeting upheavals such as the creation of UKRI this year, Professor Bishop pointed out. ¡°I suspect, too, that there may be just a lack of awareness of the stresses caused by short timelines ¨C and it seems that few funders have considered this from the equity standpoint,¡± she added.

A solution, Professor Bishop suggested, would be to enforce a three-month minimum call time wherever possible.

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Melissa Terras, professor of digital cultural heritage at the University of Edinburgh, agreed that a three-month window should be ¡°the minimum that funders should be asking for proposals, given the associated hoops that need to be jumped through to deliver the required paperwork on time¡±.

¡°Short grant calls, particularly those?that expect applicants to work over traditional holiday periods, are prejudiced against those with care-giving responsibilities, given other support structures are usually reduced over national holidays,¡± she added. ¡°In my experience, funding opportunities with a short turnaround are becoming more common.¡±

Zara Bergstr?m, senior lecturer in cognitive psychology and deputy director of research and enterprise at the University of Kent¡¯s School of Psychology, said that she personally had found it ¡°impossible to respond to grant calls with short turnaround times¡± since having a child. ¡°I can¡¯t be as flexible as?I was before becoming a parent,¡± she explained.

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Dame Athene Donald, master of Churchill College, Cambridge, said that short timescales, particularly over holiday seasons, ¡°will undoubtedly make it easier for certain demographics to submit an application than others¡±.

¡°If someone is not well plugged into the networks?that manage to have advance warning of a call, they will be further disadvantaged,¡± she warned.

A UKRI spokesman said that the body would ¡°think carefully¡± about these concerns when planning for future programmes.

¡°We recognise that we are asking the community to move at pace to respond to the opportunities presented by the government¡¯s record uplift to research and development funding,¡± he said. ¡°The time frames for funding programmes can be affected by a range of factors, which can include the need to ensure the correct processes, safeguards and compliances are in place, a requirement to spend funds within the financial year and, in the case of international programmes, alignment with funding bodies from other nations.¡±

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rachael.pells@timeshighereducation.com