Qualitative Research Grants Sumit Lodhia Director Centre for

Qualitative Research Grants Sumit Lodhia Director – Centre for Sustainability Governance School of Commerce University of South Australia (Uni. SA) Business School Uni. SA

Structure • The Grant Scene • The Qual Pitch • Qual Pitch Template • Qualitative Research Grants

The Grant Scene • Increasing pressure from universities for academics to have grants • Are grants an input or an output? • Accounting academics do not do well with grants - $7600 average per annum. • The problem in accounting is that descriptive work required from grants does not always publish in A* or A journals

The Grant Scene • Grant opportunities in accounting : – Industry • • • AFAANZ CPA Australia CIMA ICAEW ICAS ACCA.

The Grant Scene • ARC grants – Discovery – Linkage – DECRA – Future Fellowship – LIEF grants – ARC Laureate

The Qual Pitch • Explaining research ideas simply –what am I doing, how, and why? • A pitch e. g. Elevator Pitch, Business Card, 3 MT, Conversation articles. • FAFF’s (2015) Pitch – quantitative • The Qual Pitch

The Qualitative Pitch • Lodhia (2017) paper plus accompanying pitch template • Bridge schism between qual and quant research • Encourage qual researchers to articulate their research ideas clearly and submit to mainstream journals

Qual Research Pitch Template • A) Working Title • B) Basic Research Question – one sentence, could include sub-questions • C) Key papers/work – up to 3, not necessarily A*s • D) Motivation/Justification – 100 words

Qual Pitch Template • Three - TCM – E) Theory – Llewelyn (2003), identify and justify – F) Context – Field, Actors, Accessibility – G) Methodology – – Methodology, methods, analysis Qual Sampling – Purposive, Theoretical Research Credibility and Trustworthiness Thick Description approach

Qual Pitch Template • Two – H) What’s New? Novel, innovative, what is it telling us that we already don’t know about – I) So what? Theoretical and Naturalistic Generalisation (Parker and Northcott, 2016) • One • A) Contributions? Academic, Practice and Policy • B) Other Considerations? Target Journal, Collaboration, Risk Assessment

Last word • Lets end the paradigm wars • Qualitative research ventures into realms that are new and unknown, plotting unchartered courses in stark contrast to the conventionally accepted approaches. . Embarking on such voyages requires both researcher and editorial board referee to venture into unfamiliar territory, to experiment with different ways of thinking and representation, and to deliberately recast the definition of research itself(Parker, 2007, p. 179– 180).

Issues to consider in a Qual research Grant • Words are our greatest weapon but No technical terms or jargon • Specify your research process e. g. these many cases, interviews, etc. • Justify research funding e. g. travel, interview transcription, use of RA • Can some research tasks be outsourced e. g. interviews, focus groups, etc?

Issues to consider in a Qual research Grant • Address current topical issues as these get funded more easily • Specify the length of the project and what will be done through a timeline • Address Practice and Policy significance (Industry grants) , National Significance and Innovation (ARCs) • The research team – roles and responsibilities, specialities and expertise

Issues to consider in a Qual research Grant • Can we as accounting academics work in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary project teams? What expertise can we provide? • How do we translate the grant into a high quality publication? • How do we disseminate our work to a broader audience? Media Interviews, Social Media, etc.

Concluding remarks • Do not be swayed by the grant craze that is prevalent in a lot of universities now • Focus on having the capacity to apply for grants • Be wary of dysfunctional project teams – reputation is at stake. • But be wary of possible opportunities, especially if they do not distract you away from your research