Post by Kirsty Grainger

Really interesting to see how journalists pick up bluesky posts.... https://lnkd.in/ey9m82Vj and choose to use information from LinkedIn. For accuracy, I was Director of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships programme; describing me simply as an “ex-UKRI director” is misleading. Similarly, I led strategy within both the Research Culture and Talent portfolios, rather than holding a generic “Head of Strategy at UKRI” role. That said, I am looking forward to seeing UKRI publish it's council-wide funding policy that states its “standard position” i.e. “funding calls should be open for at least eight weeks to give applicants enough time to prepare strong proposals and to support fairness and inclusion”. (12 weeks would be better and in line with best practice at HEIs to account for different working patterns e.g. part-time workers etc...). And for UKRI being more explicit of the mitigations in place if shorter windows are necessary and saying what the "external or strategic factors" are. but I also note the wording "UKRI expects teams to put in place appropriate mitigations". 'Expects' is not a commitment. I'd really love to see UKRI create clear firm policies around this Prof Sir Ian Chapman.