Research Innovation Gateway (RIG)

The Research and Innovation Gateway team works across externally funded project lifecycles (from pre-award to post-award and project closure) supporting key personnel in faculties and other Professional Services Directorates. 

On the pre-award area, the RIG supports the development of pre-award bids for excellence and increasing the diversification of our funding portfolio along with the quality and quantity of our submissions, providing detailed guidance at the pre-award stage to ensure projects are developed meeting to funders’ expectations and guidance, while taking into consideration the university and faculty objectives and ensuring appropriate risk management for the university.  

The post-award delivery team ensure a high-quality research and innovation infrastructure collaborating across key RIE and faculty-based staff to deliver projects, taking into consideration funders' specification and BCU's externally funded projects policy. They support the delivery of the University’s portfolio of externally funded projects for Research and Innovation, growing both the quantity and quality of the projects being delivered and improving our reputation in the sector for impactful, applied research. The RIG team work to support a portfolio of internationally-excellent research, enabling our researchers to develop their subject expertise, research skills and career progression within the University. The RIG team is a central support function with the team primarily based within a faculty or supporting cross-cutting projects within RIE.

How do we help researchers? 

  • We work with academics to identify opportunities for funding, monitoring portals and working with funders to source opportunities meeting academics' key areas of expertise.  
  • Ensure project compliance.
  • Provide support across the pre-award life cycle, such as advising on funders' specifications, ethics, bid development, process and approval and support with submissions.
  • Provide post-award delivery support such as liaising with procurement, finance and contracts for project initiation, delivery support on project management, risk management, reviews process and support in objectives/output delivery.
  • Support the development and submissions for REF cycles.

Contact us 

Our team

Research and Innovation Development Support Officers

Supporting the projects across their life cycle to support the development and management of BCU’s portfolio of projects. 

Research Support Administrators

Research Support Administrators provide administrative support across a range of areas.

Programme and Project Managers

Programme and Project Managers as required who work on the delivery of large or more high profile projects.

Research Administrator and Manager Training

Discover training available to researcher administrators and managers at Birmingham City University. This includes internal training as well as from providers including ARMA, AdvanceHE, UK Council for Graduate Education, The Knowledge Academy, UKRI and more.  


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