Funding postponement

With this in mind, Jisc is postponing all current capital funded calls and invitations to tender (ITTs) from today 5 January 2010, pending the HEFCE board decision and will regrettably not be issuing any new capital funded calls or ITTs until the funding situation is clearer.

What this means is that any capital funded ITT or funding call which has been issued but for which grant letters have not yet been issued, will be put on hold until after the HEFCE board meeting on 28 January 2010.

The ITTs and calls which are affected by this announcement are:

• Managing research data grant funding call 14/09

• Developing community content grant funding call 13/09  - this postponement relates to strand 2 of this call only, please note that strand 1 of this call is unaffected.

If you have questions about whether a bid to an ITT or call you are working on at the moment is affected by this announcement, please email funding@jisc.ac.uk

Question and answers

1. Jisc has announced that its capital funded calls and invitations to tender are currently on hold. What is capital funding?

Jisc is mainly funded by four funding councils – The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Department of Education Northern Ireland (DENI). In recent years, both HEFCE and HEFCW have provided additional funding under their capital funding stream, to allow Jisc to invest further in ICT for education and research. HEFCE now needs to review the capital funding stream in the light of its new grant letter from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills.

2. Why has this decision been made?

HEFCE has received a funding letter from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to explain that its future funding will be significantly reduced. Consequently HEFCE has asked Jisc to postpone any capital funded invitations to tender (ITT) or grant funding calls for which grant letters have not yet been issued until after the HEFCE board meeting on 28 January 2010.

3. How do I know if the invitation to tender or funding call I am currently responding to is from capital funding?

The capital funded ITTs and calls that have already been announced and which are affected by this announcement are:

Managing research data Grant Funding Call 14/09

Developing community content Grant Funding Call 13/09: the postponement relates to strand 2 of this call only, please note that strand 1 of this call is unaffected.

Other planned but as yet unannounced capital funded ITTs and calls are also to be postponed and Jisc will also be revising its current roadmap to reflect these changes.

4. I am currently working on a Jisc capital funded bid named in this announcement, should I continue with the work?

It is advisable that you put your work on hold until Jisc hears the outcome from the HEFCE board meeting.

5. Is this announcement only for English projects rather than for those in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?

This announcement refers only to ITTs and calls funded from capital funds from HEFCE but since the calls and ITTs have had to be postponed in totality this affects funding by HEFCW also. We are investigating the position with HEFCW and if separate arrangements are to be made to fund calls for Wales these will be announced in due course. Capital funding is not provided for projects in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

6. I’ve been contacted by a Jisc programme manager to say that an event I was planning to attend as part of my project has been cancelled. Is this linked to this announcement?

It is possible that this may relate to the funding postponement but there may be other reasons. Please contact your Jisc programme manager contact for any further information. The briefing event for the managing research data Grant Funding Call 14/09 that was planned for 11 January 2010 has been cancelled as a result of this announcement.

7. I have already submitted a bid for a capital funded call - what will happen to this bid?

The evaluation process will be put on hold until the HEFCE board decision.

8. How long will this funding postponement be in place?

The HEFCE board is meeting on 28 January 2010 to discuss what the impact of the funding reduction will mean for the organisations that it funds. So Jisc hopes to hear in February 2010 the outcome of these discussions.

9. How does this announcement affect Jisc services and its partner organisations?

The work of Jisc’s services and our current partnership agreements will continue as usual. Until Jisc knows the outcome of the HEFCE’s board decision we’re not in a position to speculate about what may or may not happen.

10. I have a specific question that isn’t answered. How can I find out the answer?

If you have questions about whether a bid to an ITT or call you are working on at the moment is affected by this announcement, please email funding@jisc.ac.uk and a member of the Jisc team will aim to respond to your question directly or post the answer on this list within 24 hours.