Back in December I wrote about a taking part in the EPSRC Digital Economy Ideas Factory Sandpit “Design for the People by the People”. Although we preliminarily were told that our project was going to be funded we still had to go through 2 more rounds to secure the funding. Given the “economic downturn” and all the financial doom and gloom out there, we have been on tenterhooks since January, fearful that the funding may get yanked. We also had to up our budget, due to changes in FEC (Full Economic Costings) which could also jeopardise our application, given there was only a certain amount of money being allocated.

Last week we got back the news that we have been awarded a total of £1.39 million for our three year project!!!! We were ecstatic, particularly given that not all the projects from the sandpit that the EPSRC had given the preliminary go-ahead were actually funded!!!!

Over the past few months we have been beavering away working on the applications and submitting them. It has been a difficult process particularly for me because I do not have a full staff contract and because one of the university VP’s is somewhat belligerence and short sighted, I can not be credited as a co-investigator on the grant paperwork, even though that is essentially what I am, due to my status as a PhD student. It is all very frustrating, when I have put in as much work on the grant application as the others. Not all of them have phd’s and my experience is just as valuable as theirs, which thankfully they recognise and as a team have been fantastically loyal and very supportive of me in this admin nightmare. So I am down on the funding application as a named RA on the project, which is at least something, but unless I point it out and make a song and dance about it, on paper, no one can see that my contribution and role is equivalent to the other core team co-investigators.

This is totally a UoD issue, and I am not the only art practice based PhD there in this position, another researcher has also gone thorugh exactly the same horrors with a funding bid which he has been working on – really the “rules” should be more flexible in art to allow for the fact that many people doing art and design PhD’s at the moment are quite often not fresh out of undergrad studies and in some cases have more experience in their field in industry etc than the staff supervising them! Doing an art practice based PhD is very different from a science one: a good metaphor, (though the scientists may not like it), would be that Art is like wine and cheese which both need time to mature, where as Science may be more akin to meat where the older it is the tougher it gets. You just can’t apply the same rules to both!

Anyway enough about that, this is supposed to be a happy positive post about the fact that we got the money!!!!! (not mismanagement of UoD). I will be working with a great group of people who do recognise my worth and are very supportive so I am really looking forward to starting the project.

Originally we were going to start on the 1st of May, but due to the long time the EPSRC took in finalising the money, they offered us the option of changing the start date, so we have opted for the 1st of July. At this point I shall be a 0.5 RA on the project and drop my phd status from full time to part time, though I am hoping to finish in pretty much the same amount of time as the project is strongly related to my phd studies anyway.

The 1st of July start date works well in that I shall have more time before the project starts to work on artworks for my phd, but then the baby is due on the 21st of July, so this shall make things, to say the least… interesting…. Yes, there is lots of thinking and weighing up options and planning to be done!