Frequently Asked Questions

The BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Account (FTMA) at the University of St Andrews, the University of Dundee, and the James Hutton Institute is a development and training programme grant. Its purpose is to use our leading plant, microbial and sustainability-relevant research to develop cross-disciplinary knowledge and enhanced career opportunities for early-career researchers (ECRs) and research technical professionals (RTPs) in East Scotland. It has funding for secondments between sectors or organisations, and for individuals or groups to train in new skills. The activities are expected to support building a green future.

Our FTMA interprets ‘building a green future’ as biosciences for meeting national net-zero targets. It includes career mobility and new technical skills development for advancing net-zero agricultural food systems and for decarbonising research methods in the BBSRC remit.

We will run an annual, shared open call for staff to take 2–6-month secondments between an research organisation (RO) and a collaborating organisation mostly either cross-sector (e.g., to industry or the third sector) or cross-disciplinary (e.g., RO to RO). Alternatively, staff can apply to second an external collaborator into their RO. Applicants will state how the secondment is valuable to their career trajectory and is related the sectoral developments for green futures.

We will hold three calls per year for lower-cost training opportunities based on staff need across all career stages. Example opportunities include site visits, day releases, and technical skills training. Applications will be assessed for how they contribute to the applicant’s career development, enable capacity building, and contribute to green futures.

• Activities that are not either secondments or funded training activities.
• Salary costs for permanent members of staff (outside of where they are necessary for a secondment).
• Costs associated with the protection of intellectual property.
• The purchase of – or contribution toward – a single item of equipment costing £10,000 or greater.
• Indirect or estates costs.
• Student training/secondments (including PGRs)

The principal applicant must be a member of research or research technical professional staff at the University of St Andrews, the University of Dundee, or the James Hutton Institute. They can be full-time or part-time. They can be on a fixed-term or permanent contract, but must have a contract in place for the duration of the proposed activity. We prioritise applications led by ECRs and RTPs and have ring-fenced funding to support them.

The FTMA programme will run until 31 March 2027.

We expect secondments will be at most 6 months in duration from your nominated start date. We expect training activities will complete within 3 months of your funding award.

We will have three calls per academic year. Each Spring we will hold a joint call for secondment and funded training applications. Then, in August and in November, we will hold calls for funded training applications.

We have a cross-institutional Evaluation Panel who will evaluate applications and award the funding. The panel includes a research technical professional, an early career researcher, and an established researcher from each of the three research organisations. Our question framework assesses to assess proposals on how they support career and sectoral development.

We define an Early Career Researcher as:

An Early Career Researcher (ECR) is a post-doctoral researcher who is employed by one of the three partner research organisations and who typically has not led an external funding award as a Project Lead / Principal Investigator. If the researcher has obtained a Fellowship to fund their employment, with them as Project Lead / Principal Investigator, they are ineligible for funding if the Fellowship includes or has included postdoctoral research assistant staff support costs. These conditions apply except in the following instance:

The application Evaluation Panel will have discretion to choose to accept applications as coming from an ECR where the researcher has a limited portfolio of external funding as a Project Lead / Principal Investigator but (i) the application is submitted within 8 years of their PhD graduation date and (ii) the application shows clearly the activity will make a significant contribution to the researcher’s career development.

We define a Research Technical Professional:

A Research Technical Professional (RTP) is a member of staff who is employed to support and underpin research with technical expertise. This definition includes, but is not limited to, data scientists, data engineers, archivists, informaticians, statisticians, software developers, audio-visual technologists, technical professional staff, and individuals staffing core facilities.

You can collaborate with any organisation so long as you can provide appropriate justification within the scope of the funding programme.

Each academic year, in March-April, we will hold a Recognition and Collaboration Event in Fife or Tayside. Our aim for this annual day-length event is to share learning and develop new opportunities together. The event will celebrate our successes, profiling the activities we have funded. It will allow partners and collaborators to share challenges and ideate on the net-zero agri-food sector’s future, sustainable research methods, and emergent training needs. All are invited, including organisations who want to collaborate with the FTMA or are looking to scale up joint discussions between sectors.

We will ask you to complete a report form about your activity. This report will form part of our overall programme reporting.

Awardees will be expected to join us at the Recognition and Collaboration Event to share learning from and about thier experiences. We will meet expenses to attend this event.

We may ask you to contribute to a case study based on what you have achieved with the funding.

The next secondment/training call will be in early 2025.