A query...

[Shanley Allen]

Another difference may be due to differences in the way that faculty  
salary and university overhead are treated.  In the US, it's typical  
for faculty to include in their grants money to buy out teaching and  
to pay summer salary, since US professors virtually all have 9-month  
contracts so aren't paid for the 3 summer months. In Canada, in  
contrast, professors are paid by the university for the full 12  
months, and typically don't buy out of teaching unless the funded  
project is very large.  In the US, it's also typical for universities  
to charge high overhead on grants from federal funding agencies - at  
my university (BU) the rate is 63%.  In Canada, I don't think this  
overhead is factored into the individual grant but gets to the  
university in some other way (although I may be wrong about this).   
So US grants that look large don't cover as much actual work because  
so much of the money goes to overhead and faculty salary.
Shanley.


On 25 Oct 2006, at 15:02, Daniel L. Everett wrote:

> Miriam,
>
> Interesting take on the size of UK grants. I guess some of this has  
> to do with experience. Maybe NSF grants have gotten somewhat larger  
> over the past few years.
>
> I served on the AHRC funding reform panel and had grants with the  
> ESRC and AHRC far in excess of anything I have had from the NSF (I  
> have had NSF funding for most of the past 22 years and have mainly  
> had grants that fall within what I was once informed to be the  
> 'normal' range for linguistics, i.e. below 300,000 for three years).
>
> The UK granting agencies let you know what the percentage of  
> applicants receiving grants that year was. I was told by both ESRC  
> and AHRC that about 26% of applicants received funding, so this  
> accords with what you say. I would say that that is likely better  
> than the NSF. (Paul Chapin has an excellent book from CUP on NSF  
> grants.)
>
> Most universities in the US and UK will pay (out of central  
> university funds) for their faculty to visit the relevant funding  
> agencies and discuss projects with them. And in the US at least NSF  
> representatives have been very helpful in discussing proposals with  
> folks at the LSA annual meetings. I am sure that they are well  
> aware of the need for more funds for 'proper archiving' of field data.
>
> Dan
>
>
>
> On Oct 25, 2006, at 5:50 AM, Miriam Meyerhoff wrote:
>
>> Dear Dan,
>>
>>> In fact, there in Scotland you have access to research grants  
>>> that far exceed the grants available to linguists from the NSF by  
>>> and large.
>>
>> I'm grateful to Dan for opening up the discussion beyond the US (I  
>> restricted my comments yesterday to the NSF, since at that point  
>> the contributors were all US-based).
>>
>> The position of British funding agencies such as AHRC and ESRC  
>> (and, I believe, also the Canadian SSHRC) is that data collected  
>> using public money is a public asset, i.e. open access, *SUBJECT  
>> TO* the usual restrictions re. confidentiality etc., etc., based  
>> on individual researcher's agreements with the people they are  
>> recording.
>>
>> As far as the question of who has access to more dosh is  
>> concerned: This is an interesting question, since the average size  
>> of the grants to academics on the three links you provided seems  
>> very similar. My impression (based on my own limited experience)  
>> is not the researchers are more likely to get large sums in the  
>> UK, but that the success rate for grant submissions is perhaps  
>> higher (c. 1:4 applications funded; I'm not sure what the ratio is  
>> for the NSF).
>>
>> chrz, mm
>> -- 
>>
>> Miriam Meyerhoff
>> Professor of Sociolinguistics
>> Linguistics & English Language
>> University of Edinburgh
>> 14 Buccleuch Place
>> Edinburgh EH8 9LN
>> SCOTLAND, UK
>>
>> ph. +44 131 651-1836 (direct line); 650-3628 or 651-1842 (main  
>> office)
>> fax: +44 131 650-6883
>>
>> http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~mhoff/
>
> **********************
> Daniel L. Everett, Professor of Linguistics & Anthropology and Chair,
> Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
> Campus Box 4300
> Illinois State University
> Normal, Illinois 61790-4300
> OFFICE: 309-438-3604
> FAX: 309-438-8038
> Dept: http://www.llc.ilstu.edu/default.asp
> Recursion: http://www.llc.ilstu.edu/rechul/
> Personal: http://www.llc.ilstu.edu/dlevere/
>
> and
>
> Honorary Professor of Linguistics
> University of Manchester
> Manchester, UK
>

************************************************
Shanley Allen, Associate Professor
Acting Chair, Department of Literacy and
      Language, Counseling and Development
School of Education, Boston University
2 Sherborn Street, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

e-mail: shanley at bu.edu
************************************************