The Jean Golding Institute offers seed corn funding every year to support and promote activities that will foster interdisciplinary research in the area of data science, based on the principle that a small financial investment will lead onto bigger things.

We offer seed corn funding for both research proposals and networking activities within the University of Bristol.  The seed corn funding is intended to lead to wider impact, engagement, or funding. We run funding calls on an annual basis, and these are announced in our newsletter and on our website.   Sign up to our mailing list to find out when the call goes live.

General guidance of seed corn funding can be found below: 

The primary aim of this scheme is to support activities that will foster interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research in data science (including AI) or data-intensive research and promote the mission of the JGI. Our priority workstreams address major research areas: data-driven solutions to societal challenges; data visualisation and materiality; data governance and reproducibility; and supporting the development and dissemination of new data science and AI methodologies. 

The funds could be used for any of the following:  

• To pilot or refine methods/algorithms so they can be tested and adapted to real-world problems. 
• To re-analyse data from a previous research project(s) to underpin a proposal for a new study.  
• For pilot studies that explore fairness, transparency and privacy challenges of machine learning and AI methods. 
• To develop links with external organisations (for example local government, SMEs, industry, not-for-profit organisations, health and social care sector) who are interested in developing collaborations, exploring external datasets, developing novel and/or robust methods for data storage, management, analysis or data visualisation.  

These examples are indicative, and plans for other activities that involve forming the basis of an interdisciplinary research proposal and meet the overall aims of the scheme will be considered. Applicants are encouraged to describe how the work supported by seed corn funding will lead to an application for a larger research grant