This is a guide to bidding for JISC funding. It is aimed at individuals and institutions responding to JISC’s invitations to tender or call for proposals, particularly for anyone unfamiliar with the process and the criteria for awarding funds.
Anyone bidding for JISC funding should be familiar with and will be expected to comply with JISC's terms and conditions of grant. A second document provides further information on the expectations of JISC in the area of project management and provides project management guidance to bidders and project holders.
JISC funding for projects is provided on the basis of competitive bids. Your project will therefore be competing with many other bids from UK universities and colleges and in the case of invitations to tender, other organisations, possibly international.
For your bid to be successful it must:
- Stand out from the others
- State its objectives clearly and concisely
- Clarify project outputs and demonstrate wider benefits to the education and research community
- Demonstrate how it supports the JISC Strategy
- Describe how it meets the criteria set out in the call
- Demonstrate that an initial assessment of project risks has been undertaken
- Provide a sound project plan and demonstrate robust project management arrangements
- Demonstrate how it is aligned with the objectives of your college or institution
- Document proposed dissemination, embedding and evaluation mechanisms
- Provide clear costings, % FTEs, grades of staff etc
- Comment on sustainability issues when project funding ceases
- Give value for money or add significant value to the funding requested
This guide has been designed to support you in drafting a good bid, thereby increasing your chances of success in the funding process. See some examples of bids that JISC has funded.
Why JISC invites proposals
JISC is funded by the Higher and Further Education funding bodies in the . JISC’s money is top-sliced from the funds made available to institutions and most is used on activities and services that are available to all, like the network infrastructure (JANET) and information services.
JISC also encourages the innovative use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) through development programmes. These comprise projects and studies that are funded within the education community and, occasionally, in collaboration with international partners. The aims of the programmes are to support the strategic goals of the various JISC committees and can:
- Evaluate and trial potentially interesting new technologies
- Establish good practice or promote standards
- Assist institutions implement new technologies, strategies or processes
In determining its activities JISC and its sub-committees must ensure that the activity is:
- Technology based
- Provides a wide benefit and adds value beyond that which could be achieved by institutions acting individually or collectively
- Not possible, or is unlikely, without central support
- Delivered with improved value for money and has a clear output
- Could not be performed as well and more appropriately by institutions or by another body
In all cases JISC is seeking to fund specific areas of work which will be of general interest or benefit to the whole or large parts of the community. JISC cannot fund work that is of benefit only to a single institution; however it may provide additional funding for an internal project in return for documentation of the whole process to be made freely available.
JISC will fund evaluations, case studies, preparation of guides and good practice, trials of new technologies and techniques, and the roll-out of new technologies into institutions. JISC rarely funds proposals where the majority of funding enhances the internal infrastructure of a college, develops software or only involves desk research.
JISC issues calls for proposals through JISC Circulars. These are usually sent to Vice Chancellors, Principals, Heads of Library and IT Services, Learning Resource Managers and other known experts within institutions. Calls are also circulated to representative bodies in the community such as UCISA or SCONUL and you may be alerted if you belong to one of these bodies. JISC also uses its Regional Support Centres to disseminate information about calls.
JISC also regularly issues invitations to tender for specific activities and publishes these through jisc-announce and in some cases, in the THE and TES.
Circulars and tenders are published on the website
Roadmap of future funding opportunities
You can register to receive electronic notification of new Circulars and tender invitations through subscribing to the JISC-announce email list. Simply send the message
'join JISC-announce YourFirstName YourLastName'
to: jiscmail@jiscmail.ac.uk
JISC will not, in general, provide funding for unsolicited proposals. However most committees are prepared to consider suggestions for other areas which could be included in later calls. Suggestions should include a description of the topic, how the work would further the JISC strategy and an indication of the scale of the work required. These should be sent via email to the relevant JISC Committee Secretary.
The right ideas
Winning proposals always demonstrate that the author has read the call for proposals thoroughly and carefully.
A successful bid will describe a good idea for addressing one or more of the key issues identified in the call. The Circular will always spell these issues out in detail so read the call for proposals thoroughly and carefully.
The ideas must be applicable to a wide section of the Higher and Further Education community, or provide results that will be of great interest to many other institutions.
Project proposals will be evaluated against a set of criteria that are described in the Circular. Read the call for proposals thoroughly and carefully and check whether your proposal meets these criteria. It can help to have an independent colleague carry out a check for you.
Examples of evaluation criteria in recent calls include:
- Evidence of understanding of the problem
- Impact and wider value to FE/HE
- Appropriateness of the methodology and evaluation techniques selected
- Experience of the proposers
- Feasibility and detail of the work plan/ timetable
- Value for money
- Likely effectiveness of the dissemination plan
Your proposal will be marked by a panel of independent experts. They are unlikely to have much knowledge of you, your team or your institution and will usually have many such proposals to mark. Your proposal must not only stand out as a good idea, it must also be clear, concise and provide all of the information requested in the call within the maximum number of pages stated. A well-written, brief summary of the project that sets out the aims and objectives in an easily understood form will be very helpful.
A clear presentation of the information in your proposal is therefore the key to success.
Making the case
First and foremost your proposal must be based on a good idea. It should be aligned with the requirements of the call, be original, offer real benefits to both your own institution and others if successful and demonstrate a sound awareness of the field and of other work that has already been carried out.
It is essential to have the backing of the host institution or college. This means more than a letter from senior management ‘fully supporting the work’. You should try and demonstrate how it builds on previous work, adds to other work that is already planned or is taking place or helps realise a published strategic aim and will be of benefit to the community more broadly.
Once you have made the case for the work you have to convince the evaluators that you can manage the project. Your proposal should provide an outline project plan, with achievable milestones and deliverables. You should describe the team members, their experience and complementary roles (clarifying where posts will need to be advertised) and provide evidence that the project will be properly managed.
JISC funds work in areas where there is rapid change. Calls for long term projects usually ask for evidence of how the project will carry out ongoing evaluation of its performance and its relevance in the face of new developments (formative evaluation). Your plan should include regular reviews and some indication of the risks that it may face.
Project management is particularly important where there are several partners in the project. Evidence of previous successful work with the same partners, or in similar consortia, will be valuable. A consortium agreement will be required by JISC for all project consortia along with a statement regarding IPR in project deliverables.
Do not underestimate the problems in recruiting suitable staff to work on the project. Staff with suitable qualifications in areas where the JISC is interested can be in short supply or expensive. If you have appropriate people to be seconded to the work this should be stated in your bid. Alternatively you should provide contingency plans in the event that you experience problems with recruitment.
JISC promotes the use of appropriate international and industry standards. Your work should be based on these standards wherever possible. The call will make reference to JISC’s standards guidance and you must then describe how you intend to adhere to these.
The proposal must offer good value for money. Most circulars will provide an indication of the maximum funding available per project. Do not hesitate to submit cases for smaller amounts of funding if that is all that is justified as these can allow the JISC to fund a greater number of projects.
TRAC (Transparent Approach to Costing) is now the standard method used for costing in higher education in the UK. The application of full economic costing as the basis for cost-based funding is seen as central to securing the long-term financial sustainability of higher education and its ability to deliver high quality learning and teaching and research. With effect from 1 August 2006 the Funding Councils have agreed that JISC should adhere to the principles regarding full economic costs (fEC). Therefore potential bidders from UK HE institutions should use the TRAC (Transparent Approach to Costing) methodology when calculating the cost of a project or service. Bidders from organisations outside of UK HE should continue to use existing costing practice when submitting a funding proposal to JISC.
All bidders should indicate the funding contribution they are seeking from JISC and the funding and other resources they intend to give towards the activity. It is important that any benefits to the host institution and project partners are taken into account when considering contributions to be provided by bidders. Where a bid involves partners from outside of HE, the partners should cost their activities using current costing practice in their college or organisation and clearly identify partner contributions. When assessing proposals, we will take into consideration the reasonableness of the fEC calculations for the activity. It is important to us that HEIs are costing proposals accurately and seeking the appropriate level of support from us, so that they are not over-committed, and hence are ensuring the long-term availability of their activities. However, we also need to ensure consistency of treatment, and that we are using our funding effectively, across all proposals.
JISC funding will only be provided for staff salaries and on-costs (NI, Pensions, etc), travel and subsistence, dissemination, evaluation, indirect and estates costs. Proposals can include the capital costs of equipment or software where required by and appropriate for a project, such as PCs or servers. (see also 4.15 below)
Some calls will clearly ask for large projects (more than £100,000 per year) over long periods (usually up to three years). Those asking for short studies or case histories will offer more modest funding - £5,000 to £50,000 over 6 months or a year. The effort involved in preparing a response to the call should be proportional to the funding available.
Other calls may ask for proposals for work that is not of a transitory nature. For example, it may be to trial a new service or develop systems that may evolve into a long-term service or product of value to the community. Such proposals will ask for a Continuation (or Exit) Strategy and you must demonstrate that you have considered how the institution would run such a service or market a product after funding ceases.
It is very important to provide a brief summary of all expenditure, justifying the amounts and the need. You must always provide full justification for any large capital expenditure or software being requested.
Projects should aim to add value to the funding supplied by JISC. This can be achieved if there is matching, or significant, funding from either the host institution or from outside partners.
A project will only be successful, and of value to JISC and the wider community, if the results are made available to everyone. Your proposal must address the issue of dissemination and embedding thoroughly. Experience has shown that different skills are needed in the dissemination phase. Does your team possess those skills? Can they be made available at the appropriate phase of the work?
Most proposals merely offer to set up a web site, write a report and make presentations at conferences. Proposals suggesting innovative mechanisms and evidence of real commitment to dissemination and embedding project outcomes have a much greater chance of success
Checklist for final stages of submitting a bid
- Check the deadline and submission process - late copies of bids will not be accepted regardless of any extenuating circumstances
- Ensure you have collated the following information to accompany the main part of the bid:
- letter(s) of support from senior management
- cover sheet (if requested in the invitation)
- FOI Witheld Information Form (if requested in the invitation)
- certificate of bona fide tender (if requested in the invitation)
Evaluation process
JISC has a standard procedure for the evaluation of bids and project proposals.
Freedom of Information
All bids received by JISC are treated as confidential during the evaluation process and only shared with evaluation panel members, unless permission is obtained otherwise. Bidders should be aware, however, that JISC is subject to the Freedom of Information Act and it is therefore possible that JISC may be obliged to release some or all of the information provided to it upon receipt of a vaild request for such information. Information created or received as a result of the bidding and evaluation process is not routinely disclosed until after the process has been completed. Unsuccessful bids are destroyed by the JISC Executive upon completion of the evaluation process.
- ensure the main body of the bid follows the font size and page limit guidance
- ensure the bid is submitted in the correct format and does not exceed the file size indicated
- include any optional appendices (staff CVs ONLY unless otherwise stated)