Help
All questions and suggestions should be sent to the Fellows Management email address: fellows-management@software.ac.uk
Terminology
We will use the word "event" to refer to all conferences, meetings, workshops and other events.
The word "expenses" will be used to describe expenses incurred for both travel, subsistence and expenses related to the running of and attending events (for example, allowable purchases to enable Fellowship plans).
The word "Fellow" or "Fellows" will refer to a single Fellow, or all Fellows, in the 2022 Fellowship intake, unless otherwise qualified.
The responsibilities of a Fellow
Fellows have the following areas of responsibility:
Mandatory
Prepare blog posts about events attended or organised where this has been supported by the Institute's funds.
Promote the Software Sustainability Institute and its work where appropriate.
Attend a Fellows Inaugural Meeting in 2022.
Attend the 2022 annual Software Sustainability Institute's Collaborations Workshop (CW22). This takes place from 4 to 7 April 2022.
Deliver the plans described in your Fellowship application (and make the Institute aware of any substantive changes to your plans).
Attend at least three of the hour long Fellows community calls; approximately ten of these are planned over the 15 months of your inaugural period as a Fellow.
Provide feedback and ideas to help the Institute and the Fellowship programme.
Participate in an online survey to report back on your experiences on being a Fellow in your inaugural period.
Optional
Where possible, we encourage you to:
Think about how the work you plan could see, nurture or contribute to a Community of Practice. Think and plan also how your work could be carried on after your inaugural period (if not by you then perhaps by a successor).
Run an interdisciplinary workshop in your area of work with a focus on building new relationships or exploring cross-over areas which are under-represented.
Run a Software Carpentry workshop and/or a Data Carpentry workshop.
Suggest other uses of the award to further your aims and the Institute's aims; these could be focused on your institution, domain or both.
Prepare blog posts on relevant events attended even where the Institute has not supported the Fellow's attendance.
Encourage other Fellows (2022 or earlier) to attend events you have organised (for example, by promoting the event on the all-fellows@software.ac.uk mailing list) and the Slack team.
Work on activities to address specific topics with other Fellows.
Take part in the selection of the following year’s Fellows by taking part in: the review of applications, shortlisting meeting, or online selection meeting related to the Institute's Fellows 2023 programme. This is in line with the aim of the Institute to have existing Fellows help choose the new cohort: ‘Fellows choosing Fellows’.
Participate in annual surveys that seek to gather information about how the Fellowship has helped all Fellows.
Other relevant activities to Fellow’s or Institute's interests.
Funding
A Fellowship has £3000 of funding. This funding is to aid the Fellow in carrying out their responsibilities as detailed above.
Preparing blog posts about events
In exchange for the Software Sustainability Institute paying their expenses, Fellows will prepare a blog post about the events they attend, workshops they run, and other activities organised where this has been supported by the Institute's funds.
We recommend reading the Guide for content contributors while preparing your blog post.
Information about when these blog posts are required is covered in the section 'How to apply for, and claim, expenses'. Please note: we more than welcome blog posts about relevant opinion articles, events you have organised and attended, and can help publicise them even when the work was not supported by the Institute's resources.
Promotion of the Software Sustainability Institute
Fellows should promote the Software Sustainability Institute where appropriate. For example, we expect Fellows to discuss our work during conversations with interested delegates at conferences and events.
We also require our Fellows to include a slide about the Software Sustainability Institute in their presentation (if we have contributed towards the event) and, where possible, to leave publicity materials (typically A5 flyers and stickers) for distribution at in-person events.
We encourage Fellows to use Twitter and other social media in order to broadcast news about our work.
Please contact fellows-management@software.ac.uk for information about logos and/or slide sets (etc.) that will help you promote the Institute.
Attend a Fellowship Inaugural Meeting in 2022
Fellows will attend an Inaugural Meeting in early 2022; this is likely to be sometime during January or February 2022; you will receive a poll asking for your availability. The meeting will give Fellows the opportunity to gain a more thorough introduction to the Institute and learn how they can contribute in a way that is mutually beneficial. It also affords an opportunity to network with others and gain feedback on their planned activities. It will last one day and expenses will be reimbursed by the Software Sustainability Institute and the expenses will not be deducted from the individual £3000 Fellows budget. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 meeting will take place online.
Attending the Software Sustainability Institute's Collaborations Workshop
Fellows will attend the 2022 edition of Collaborations Workshop. This will take place online from 4 to 7 April 2022. Registration will be provided by the Software Sustainability Institute and will not be deducted from the individual's £3000 Fellowship budget.
Possibly run a Carpentries Workshop
A Fellow can elect to run a Carpentries event at their home institution or at a domain conference (where there is clear benefit to the UK research base). The Software Sustainability Institute will provide expertise and advice on running the event. Funding for the workshop will come from the Fellows £3000 funding.
The Carpentries fee should not be paid for from Fellowship funds, however catering and supporting the attendance of instructors are valid items that we reimburse (assuming approval of your event request).
Contract duration
In most circumstances, Fellows must submit requests for attending/organising events that will incur expenses. Requests for use of your funds should be made no later than one month before the event takes place. The expenses must be incurred over the period 1 January 2022 to 5 April 2023. The inaugural period of Fellowship where you have access to your dedicated funds is thus 15 months and 5 days. After this period of time, Fellows remain as Fellows but they no longer have access to dedicated funds.
In most circumstances, Fellows must submit requests for attending/organising events that will incur expenses. Requests for use of your funds should be made no later than one month before the event takes place. The expenses must be incurred over the period 1 January 2022 to 30 November 2023. After this period of time, Fellows remain as Fellows but they no longer have access to dedicated funds. Note, the inaugural period for Fellows is normally around 15 months. Given the situation and impact of COVID-19 and the new finance system at the University of Edinburgh on the Fellowship Programme, we have extended this period to realign the cohorts' inaugural periods which may have been disrupted (extended to 30 September 2023 on 16 May 2022; extended to 30 November 2023 on 13 December 2022).
This is subject to some basic requirements: such keeping the Institute up to date with your latest e-mail address, some level of engagement (e.g. writing/contributing to a blog post) for us and not bringing the Institute into disrepute by its association with you.
On an annual basis (normally April time) an announcement will be made on the all-fellows@software.ac.uk email list specifying whether there is a communal pot of money for Fellows who are past their inauguration year to bid into; this is likely to be around £5000 a year.
What events meet the criteria for funding?
Primarily these will be events that you specified in your Fellowship application.
We are very supportive of events that will help seed, nurture and grow Communities of Practice in a research related area.
Thus we are interested in supporting research-related events that explore:
The software being used by researchers to improve their research, and the ways in which that software is being used
Current issues relating to software use and development in a specific field or fields of research
Researchers who are developing software for other researchers to use
Groups who are funding software development or helping researchers with software
Other matters pertaining to software in research (but we encourage dialogue with the Fellows Management team prior to an event request)
Organising events such as a Carpentries workshop, Fellow-led workshops or other events will be agreed by dialogue; there must be a clear benefit to the UK research base and be in alignment with the Institute's aims and objectives.
Supporting equipment and subscriptions that support online activities is also supported by the Institute; note this does not cover the purchase of computers, laptops, tablets, monitors or printers.
We expect Fellows to try and achieve the plans they laid out in their application, however with justification and communication with the Management team we can take a flexible approach to this.
How to apply for, and claim, expenses
The application process
Any Fellow can apply to have their allowable expenses paid by entering the required information on the Fellows event request page. The process is as follows:
At least one month before the event begins, the Fellow should log into their account on the Fellowship Administration Tool lowFAT and use the event request page to submit information about how the expenses will be incurred. This must include:
the name of the event
the dates over which the event takes place
a description of why the Fellow’s participation in the event will generate benefit to the Software Sustainability Institute and/or the Fellow’s research community
what successful outcomes from the event might look like
an estimate of the expenses that will be incurred
The application is reviewed by the Software Sustainability Institute.
The Fellow is informed by email (normally within two weeks) whether the application is successful (the Fellow may be contacted for further information before a decision is made).
The Fellow pays for their expenses and collects receipts and proof of purchase for all expenses incurred.
Within one month of the end date of the event, they submit their draft blog post on the event via lowFAT, and fill out and upload scans of the University of Edinburgh Payment for Non-Staff/Student Expenses form and all receipts through the lowFAT expense claim form. (Note, it takes six weeks for payment once expenses have been received and we have passed them onto University of Edinburgh Accounts office, however we will not pass these on until we have a reasonable draft blog post of your event).
The Software Sustainability Institute reimburses the Fellow for all relevant expenses (or the balance of the expenses, if some have been paid for in advance).
Limitations over what can be claimed, time limits and other restrictions are discussed in the Limitations section below.
Sending expenses and receipts
Expenses incurred by Fellows are subject to the Expenses Policy of the University of Edinburgh. This is a summary of the main points indicated in the Policy. For reference, the full policy is available here. When in doubt please write to fellows-management@software.ac.uk.
Make sure you obtain original, itemised payment receipts (in most cases, these will be VAT receipts from VAT registered sellers) for all items for which you are claiming reimbursement. Credit/Debit card receipts are not sufficient, unless they include details of the items paid. In certain situations it is not feasible to obtain receipts for small items. In these cases, unvouched items under £5 will be accepted for reimbursement. Please put the actual cost of the item on the form, not "£5".
Use the form provided for claiming expenses incurred as a Fellow (or being supported by a Fellow) of the Software Sustainability Institute.
On the claim form, state your Home Address (not your Work Address).
Make sure you have filled out your bank details correctly and clearly.
List each item so it matches a receipt (do not sum receipts into "Meals", for example).
When there are more than five receipts, please number the receipts in the order they are listed on the claim form as it makes it easier for us to check them.
Attach proof of purchase such as a card statement with other information redacted as appropriate.
Once your claim is fully completed, please add every relevant receipt and:
Scan it (form, receipts and proofs of purchase) and submit it on lowFAT.
Wait for approval from the Institute.
Safely store the originals. You will be required to post the paper originals when, post-Covid-19 restrictions, Edinburgh staff are back to the office. These are required for UKRI audit purposes.
Only reasonable expenses actually incurred in pursuit of University business, and properly supported by receipts, will be reimbursed. Certain items of expenditure are subject to specified limits and conditions, as set out in the University’s policy on reimbursements of expenses. This includes:
Travel should normally be by the cheapest means of transport. Normally this will mean standard class rail travel, economy class air travel and public transport.
Expenditure on lunch or dinner should not normally exceed £40.
Alcohol will not be reimbursed.
Limitations
Expenses will not be reimbursed if the limitations described on this page are not met. It is the responsibility of the Fellow to meet the limitations. The Software Sustainability Institute is not responsible for reminding Fellows of limitations and cannot be held liable if any of the limitations are not met.
The blog post on the event must be completed to a degree considered adequate and publishable by the Software Sustainability Institute. We suggest you read around five to ten of the recent blog posts at www.software.ac.uk/blog to understand the style, tone and type required. The Guide for content contributors is a valuable reference and following it will reduce the amount of iterations between the Institute and the Fellow required to get your post published.
The Software Sustainability Institute is not liable for any expenses incurred by the Fellow before permission for incurring expenses has been approved.
Expenses will not be paid until the Fellow submits their blog post in a publishable state on the event.
Unless suitable justification is provided, expenses will not be paid if the value of the claim is over 20% more than that of the original estimate of the expenses submitted during the event request process.
Unless suitable justification is provided, event requests must be submitted at least one month before the event takes place.
Expenses will only be reimbursed if the expenses form and receipts are received within a period of one calendar month from the end date of the event.
Termination
The Software Sustainability Institute reserves the right to cancel our contract with a Fellow at any time if the Software Sustainability Institute deems that a Fellow has not met the terms and conditions described on this page or has brought the Institute into disrepute.
Fellows who are inactive (no approved event requests in 6 months) and non-communicative (not responding to email or other contact requests within a month) risk the cancellation of their contract.
Any Fellow who has their agreement terminated will not be eligible to move onto the continuing Fellowship programme and references to them on the Fellowship pages will be removed.