If you have a research grant or fellowship funded by EPSRC, you’ll need to report your research outcomes.
You’ll also need to use this guidance if your project received funding from EPSRC and your grant:
- is part of a multiple-grant project
- has been transferred between organisations
- has led to purely academic impacts
- has no outcomes.
Reporting on multiple-grant projects
If you received funding for a project that received multiple grants you can share research outcomes in Researchfish with recipients of the other grants. To do this, follow the add a collaborator instructions in the Researchfish user guide.
How you report your outcomes depends on whether your grant is the lead grant in the project.
Reporting for the lead grant in a multiple-grant project
If your grant is the lead grant you should work with the principal investigators of the other grants in the project to make sure that the outcomes you submit represent the project as a whole.
This is particularly the case for:
- key findings
- narrative impact
In Researchfish you can invite principal investigators on other grants to join your research team and add outcomes to your grant.
Reporting for other grants in a multiple-grant project
If your grant is not the lead grant, the outcomes of your work should be attributed to your grant.
You can also share them with the principal investigator of the lead grant. An outcome can be attributed to more than one grant.
When completing the key findings and narrative impact sections (if they are present for your grant) you can either:
- submit responses specific to your grant
- work with the principal investigator of the lead grant to ensure their responses reflect your contributions to the project as a whole.
If you choose the second option you’ll need to answer questions on key findings and narrative impact as follows, so that the summaries are published on Gateway to Research.
Key findings
- If asked ‘Has your data changed since your last submission?’, answer yes.
- When asked ‘Are there any key findings associated with this award?’, answer yes.
- When asked ‘What have you discovered or developed through the research funded on the grant?’ and ‘In what ways might your findings be taken forward or put to use by others?’ answer with ‘Please see the key findings of EPSRC grant’ and then enter the reference of the lead grant for your project.
Narrative impact
- If asked ‘Has your data changed since your last submission?’, answer yes.
- When asked ‘Have the findings from this award contributed to non-academic impacts?’, answer yes.
- When asked ‘How have your findings been used? Please provide a brief summary’, answer with ‘Please see the impact summary of EPSRC grant’ and enter the reference of the lead grant for your project.
Reporting on your project when your grant has been transferred
If your grant has been transferred from one organisation to another, EPSRC will normally have closed the grant made to the original organisation and created a new one. The new grant will reflect the unspent funding and remaining duration of the original.
Researchfish will display two versions of the grant with identical reference numbers but appended with:
- /1 for the original grant
- /2 for the new grant.
Attribute outcomes for the project to the version that was active when the outcomes were identified. If an outcome applies to both versions, select the grant with the longer duration.
Additional questions
For the version of the grant with the longest duration, respond to all additional questions as if answering for the project as a whole.
For other versions of the grant, respond to any additional questions that are asked as follows:
Key findings
- If asked “Has your data changed since your last submission?”, answer yes.
- When asked “Are there any key findings associated with this award?”, answer yes.
- When asked “What have you discovered or developed through the research funded on the grant?” and “In what ways might your findings be taken forward or put to use by others?”, answer with “Please see the key findings of EPSRC grant” and enter the reference of the grant with the longest duration for your project.
Narrative impact
- If asked “Has your data changed since your last submission?”, answer yes.
- When asked “Have the findings from this award contributed to non-academic impacts?”, answer yes.
- When asked “How have your findings been used? Please provide a brief summary”, answer “Please see the impact summary of EPSRC grant” and then enter the reference of the grant with the longest duration for your project.
Secondments or placements
When asked “Has your team or members of your team been involved in any secondments… for a period of time?”, answer no.
Animal use
You will only need to answer these questions if you’ve used animals in your research.
- If asked “Has your data changed since your last submission?”, respond as appropriate.
- If asked whether your research “has involved use of vertebrate animals or cephalopods” or “may lead to new or refined methods with the potential to contribute to (a reduction in) the use of animals in research”, answer no.
Reporting on research that has led to purely academic impact
If the research has led to a purely academic impact, record this in your responses to the key findings section.
Describe the demonstrable contribution your research has made or is making to advances across and within disciplines. This includes significant advances in understanding, methods, theory and application.
Reporting for grants that do not yet have outcomes
How you respond when you have no outcomes to report depends on what stage your project is at.
If your project has not yet ended
If they are asked, respond as appropriate to the Key Findings and Narrative Impact sections.
If this is the first submission period since your project ended
Answer yes to the first question in key findings and complete that section.
If this is the second submission period since your project ended
You should provide a summary of impact to date in the narrative impact section if you have not already provided one.
If it is not yet possible to identify specific impacts you should review the impact that was anticipated in your original grant application and say what steps have been taken in that context.
You can also summarise purely academic impacts in the key findings section.