Engagement with Funders

The objective is to enhance mutual understanding of the emerging trends within university research, research management and research funding. We look to explore collectively ways in which funders might be able to support or encourage emerging good practice in the universities they work with and ways in which universities can better support the developmental aims and objectives of the organisations that fund them and that they work with. 

ESSENCE group of funders

The ACU is a member of the ESSENCE group of funders.

ESSENCE members embrace the principles of donor harmonization and country alignment expressed in the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and in the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action. ESSENCE members collaborate on information sharing, the development of good practices in health research funding and ultimately contribute to the upstreaming of these good practices into improved health policies.

ESSENCE’s Research Management working group, is currently working on updating the Five keys to improving research costing in low- and middle-income countries guide.

Previous events

Funders Forum, Washington DC, 2014

This event (supported by the Wellcome Trust) took place on Wednesday 9 April 2014, immediately prior to the 2014 INORMS congress at the Washington Hilton in Washington DC, USA.

Over the last decade, much progress has already been made in Research Management evidenced in, for example, the creation of Research and Innovation Management Associations, and the increasing proliferation of RM structures within universities. This event looked ahead to some newer horizon challenges, focusing in on aspects of managing research information:

1. Collating, sharing and communicating profiles of research activity that have been undertaken within an institution and by its academic staff
2. Moves toward the international standardisation and harmonisation of research information to streamline the sharing of information about research projects
3. Issues relating to the data revolution, including provisions for preservation, interoperability and open access as well as the implications of using ‘Big Data’

Funders Forum 2014 - Background document
Funders Forum 2014 - Programme
Funders Forum 2014 - Report of discussions and relevant issues

Funders Forum, Cape Town, 2010

This event (supported by the Wellcome Trust) included representatives from fourteen donor and other non-university organisations, and representatives from twelve African universities. 

The seminar discussions showed the willingness of funders and University Research Managers to consider the wider institutional context in which research management takes place.

The focus of this event was ‘Developing and Costing Research Proposals’.

Please see the report summarising the discussions, for more detailed information.

Funders Forum, London, 2009

This event (supported by the Wellcome Trust) aimed to identify ways in which stronger cooperation between funders, could add value to Research Management capacity building efforts. The funders themselves identified potential for collaboration in the following areas: sharing existing knowledge and creating new knowledge; platforms for dialogue; capacity building; and the ability to pool resources.

Representatives from nine donor and other non-university organisations attended this event.