Friday 27 March 2009

FundingApplications = HowToDescribeYourResearchInAMillionDifferentWays() + BeggingForMoney()

Just finished the last of the funding applications I'm going to make for now.

Lets get the pessimistic moaning out of the way - already had one rejected (the Sir Richard Stapley trust: mine wasn't one of the first 350 applications received so they don't consider it). Plus AHRC funding is looking highly unlikely, given that my degree is in Music Informatics, and that neither Music nor Informatics get a mention on the list of departments being funded by AHRC...

Grumbling over. I've still made some good (I hope) applications to the British Federation of Women Graduates, Funds for Women Graduates, Hilda Martindale Trust, Reid Trust and the Google scholarship. Plus I will now be considered again by the department for their EPSRC funding.

The whole process has made me write up my research project in so many different ways, from a variety of perspectives, which has really helped me firm up what I'm doing and why its good. One form has even resulted in me drawing up a tentative abstract for my thesis, which could be very useful preparation.

I've had some amazing support, not just from the four academics who ended up giving me references but also from some friends who offered some great advice. By the way, thanks Leon for the offer of help with reading my funding applications - as it turns out, I turn into a right grumpy thing when I'm writing these proposals, so didn't want to inflict that on you - maybe its something to do with the fact that I'm compensating for having to be so positive about my work and myself in the proposals!

So lets leave all these funding problems behind for a short while - I can now throw myself into the good stuff (the research, believe it or not!) without the guilty feelings that I should be sorting out money worries instead.

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