Recently I took part in a Sandpit event run by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Board), which was a rather intense and surprising experience. I wasn’t really sure what a “Sandpit” event actually is, but was intrigued by the opportunity to work with others for a week in areas similar to mine, and in doing so then be eligible to apply for funding from The IDEAS Factory fund administered by the EPSRC. I guess my expectation was a sort of conference, sort of event like the Branded Meeting Places workshops I had been to. Out of 450 people who applied to take part 32 were accepted, so I was rather happy to have gotten that far, and thought it would be great experience for my phd.

Although we had been warned it would be intense, I didn’t realise that the funding would actually be preliminarily allocated at the end of the week! So in effect there was £4 million in project money on the table, to fund projects which emerged from the 5 day residential event. Here is how the EPSRC define a Sandpit Event. In retrospect the whole experience was a little surreal and there were times when I felt like I was in a cross between the Dragon’s Den, The Apprentice and Big Brother. Even now I am not sure I have absorbed all that happened in that week, but I do know that I think it was a fantastic experience, and would do it all again!

When you consider that most people did not know anyone, the idea of forming teams and then creating workable proposals was a rather daunting one. I must confess, that given I was about the only phd researcher/ artist there and most other people were a bit more established than me, I took that attitude that this is a learning experience, and I would be very happy to come away from the event with richer rounded knowledge for my phd.

The process by which the teams formed was facilitated by various excercises which teased out people’s areas of interest and expertise. This then led to people grouping around commonalities. I was quite lucky in that the people I ended up forming a group with are all lovely people with whom I feel I could work. Our group probably had the highest percentage of creative/ humanities oriented people in it, but then again “birds of a feather”. Apart form me, everyone else is a full time academic, and all except one have their phds. But I guess I have much more industry experience than most, so it all balances out.The project that we finally proposed, was probably a little more off the wall and perhaps less conservative than the other projects which were pitched. But I suspect that anything less and we all would be a bit bored.

The projects went through about 4 pitching stages each time with peer reviews collected in the form of post-it notes under the headings of “Positives”, “Potentials” and “Concerns”.It was an excellent way of instantlyunderstanding how the project was being received, but it also highlighted that there are some really unimaginative people out there. Some of the concerns that came up were ones which showed how some people who are not involved in the arts work really need to have the value of creative work spelt out to them. They can’t seem to see how an idea in one area can be transferred to another field. This really surprised me – I can’t imagine what it must be like to live inside a head without the ability to see such things. Luckily these people did seem to be in the minority and when we were working on how to address such concerns we were advised by the funders to ignore them…

By the 3rd pitching stage, I realised that our idea was actually being rather well received, people found it interesting, and actually we stood quite a good change of getting funded. This rather changed the game for me, because it was quite unexpected, and I suddenly realised that this could have quite major implications for my phd. Where everyone else had been running on high stress, up until that point, I hadn’t, so the jolt to high stress mode to get things done was rather a shock to the system.

Considering how little we knew each other, it is amazing how in such a short time, we managed to come up with a cohesive vision for a project and pitch it for funding. The process for funding was that although the funds are initially allocated at the Sandpit, the successful groups then have to go through 2 more application stages to formally secure the funding. Amazingly we had the largest budget (over a quarter of the initial money on the table) , pitched for a 3 year project and we were successful in our bid! I was gobsmacked, for I had been quite worried about how our budget went up in the last stage when everyone else’s went down. It really still hasn’t hit me, and I don’t think it will for a while.

As yet, though I am tentative about getting too excited about it because there are quite a lot of logistical aspects we have to get sorted out, particularly Intellectual Property and things like Non-Disclosure Agreements. It will be tricky because there are 6 of us in the group and from 5 different universities: University of Dundee (2 of us but we didn’t know each other before we went, just happy coincidence), Edinburgh College of Art, University College London, Brunel University and Salford University. With 3 of us in Scotland, 2 in London and one in Manchester, it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

It really will change things for me, because it is directly related to work I am doing for my phd, so my role with be a 0.5 Research Associate, for 3 years which means less stress with funding my work generally. This is  especially considering I only have 2 years full time on my phd to go, so it gives me a path after my phd, even if currently my phd is "stateless" given the disappearance of my home department (see post below). I also suspect, it is quite rare for a phd researcher to be one of the key players in a successful funding bid of this size and duration. However, I am not counting my chickens yet, not until everything is secured, the formal processes followed and the money safely in the bank.