CDCS Training Bursaries

The Centre for Data, Culture & Society offers a limited number of bursaries to allow members of staff and PhD students to develop their digital and computational skills by attending workshops, summer schools and other scholarly training events.

Gaudi

Thanks to the support of the CDCS bursary award, I had the opportunity to attend an intensive course in Experiments with R, at the University of Barcelona.

Not only did I get deeper statistical knowledge currently applied in my research, but I also expanded my network of academic contacts. This will have a significant impact on my career development as a scholar.

- Luis Reyes, PhD, Edinburgh Law School, The University of  Edinburgh, 2018-2020.

Application Details

Bursaries are intended to support the acquisition of skills which are essential for research, teaching and/or academic support, and for which training is not available internally. 

Funding is available for training in: 

  • technical skills needed to work with large amounts of data, or in working with the technical aspects of digitisation projects; 
  • digital and visual methods for conducting research, or new modes of open scholarship (for example setting up social media environments for demonstrating research impacts). 

Bursaries are not intended to cover attendance at conferences, other than where training events form part of a conference (in which case the costs of attending the training will be covered, but the conference fee will not).   

Applicants are responsible for identifying the training opportunity which is best suited to their needs, and for making a case that this training is rigorous, scholarly, relevant to their work, and that suitable alternatives are not available within the University or more locally in Edinburgh. 

Eligibility 

All members of staff within the College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences are eligible to apply. 

PhD students may also apply for bursaries, but will need a letter from their supervisor explaining why the training sought is essential as part of their PhD studies. Applications from by those studying for a Masters Degree by Research will be considered although PhD applicants will be prioritised. 

Taught Masters students and undergraduate students are not eligible. 

Funding levels 

Most awards made are expected to be with an arrange from £500 to £1000. 

Where training institutes make scholarships/bursaries available, applicants are expected to apply for one of these to minimise bursary costs. 

Please note that subsistence is not covered by a CDCS bursary award. However, reasonable subsistence expenses may be later claimed with evidence of expenditure. Claimants are required to adhere to the University of Edinburgh's Expenses Policy.

Dissemination of Learning 

Successful applicants are required to ensure that the benefits of this specialised digital training are disseminated to the wider university community. 

Recipients will be required to write a blog post about the event attended for the CDCS website. 

In addition, applicants will need to specify what other dissemination activities they will undertake. 

These might take the form of:  

  • offering a seminar or hands-on workshop; 
  • assembling a teach-yourself tutorial; 
  • contributing to a sharing practice session.  

Bursaries will not be awarded without a definite plan for this dissemination, and carrying this out will be a requirement for receiving support from this fund in the future. 

Deadlines 

Applications can be submitted at any time from now until 13 June, with the CDCS Training Fund Selection Panel aiming to review and advise if the application is successful or not within two working weeks of receiving the application. Applicants are advised that it takes at least a further two weeks to process payments and therefore bursary applications need to be submitted in good time, at least four weeks prior to course registration dates.

Assessment Criteria and Selection Procedure 

Assessment is made by a Selection Panel comprising members of the CDCS Steering Group, taking into consideration the following criteria in relation to a named training event:  

  • Benefit to the individual 
  • Benefit to CAHSS 
  • Value for money 
  • Commitment of applicant to promote and disseminate learning to the wider university community
  • How strongly the event meets the priorities of the school in relation to digital scholarship development 

Requirements of awardees 

Amounts awarded must be spent for the purposes stated in the application form, or returned. Amounts awarded are not transferable. 

 Evidence of participation in the event must be submitted within one month following the event's completion, via email to cdcs@ed.ac.uk.

A blog post for the CDCS website and plans for dissemination must also be submitted within a month of the event's completion.  

Pre-application advice 

To arrange an informal discussion, please get in touch with us via email: cdcs@ed.ac.uk