CHERIL Grant Award

CHERIL funds all kinds of projects relating to Higher Education. However, the Centre is particularly interested in the following areas that support its broad aims of enhancing and promoting teaching and learning excellence through research and the sharing of best practice.

The CHERIL Grant Award is a competitive research grant open to University of Manchester staff. The grant facilitates research into aspects of teaching, learning and assessment, which enhance teaching and the student experience at University of Manchester. CHERIL usually awards 10-14 grants per academic year; up to £20,000 (although smaller grants are more usually awarded). For more information, and how to apply, please see the CHERIL Grant Award call

Aims

Contributing to the delivery of the University’s strategic objectives in teaching and learning, especially:

excellent teaching
distinctive graduate attributes
making a difference
learning through research
global awareness

Understanding and informing sector developments and higher education policy, especially:

learning effectiveness
learning gain
teaching excellence frameworks
changes to secondary education and implications for transition to higher education

Conducting Educational Research

Conducting a CHERIL project may be the first step into educational research, however, there are no particular hard and fast rules of which methods are most appropriate other than they must be ethical and be appropriate to answering your research question. Educational research covers qualitative / quantitative – positivist / interpretivist approaches. Types of activities may include the following:

Completing a Literature review

Scope the literature to (1) get a sense of the kind of methods used in similar studies, (2) to situate your research amongst that field, (3) to identify the gap or problem you will address and (4) identify any potential difficulties in conducting the research and address research ethics. Sources of information and/or examples of literatures reviews can be found at:

My learning Essentials https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/learning-objects/mle/getting-results/scopus/story_html5.html
CHERIL report directory http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/cheril/resources/cheril-grant-award-directory/completed-projects/

Further Support

1. BID writing support - this is provided by faculty Research Support http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/services/rbess/research-support-services/
2. You could also try engaging with educational researchers at University of Manchester through the following networks:

University of Manchester Institute of Education: https://www.seed.manchester.ac.uk/education/
HERE: Higher Education Researchers Network: contact via Sylvie.lomer@manchester.ac.uk
Methods at Manchester: https://www.methods.manchester.ac.uk
Centre for Innovation in Pedagogy: http://projects.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/cip/
Pedagogy at School of Materials: http://www.materials.manchester.ac.uk/our-research/research-groupings/design-fashion-business/research-themes/pedagogy/