This guide provides essential guidance on the use of the Awards section of Portfolio Analyser. More detailed guidance is available in the Portfolio Analyser User Guidance [PDF, 3.46 MB].
The Awards section of Portfolio Analyser provides facilities for the searching and analysis of current and completed research projects, fellowships, studentships, and training grants which are funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council through various awards. These awards are held at Universities, the Institutes of BBSRC and other recognised research organisations in the United Kingdom.
The Awards section provides facilities to:
The Awards section of Portfolio Analyser is updated weekly. Details of the current update are provided on the home page of the system.
Portfolio Analyser uses Lucene text search technology. This supports wildcards, Boolean and other operators to link and use query terms wherever these are employed in defining a search strategy in the Awards or Publication sections of the system.
In search context, wildcards replace a single letter or a series of letters in order to expand results.
Use the ? symbol to perform a single character wildcard search. The single wildcard search looks for terms that match with the single character replaced.
Use the * symbol to carry out a multiple wildcard search and look for 0 or more characters e.g. h*moglobin to return hemoglobin or haemoglobin, tomato* to return tomato or tomatoes.
Wildcard queries will not work when used:
A search operator is an instruction that joins search terms to form a new, more complex query. It enables you to look for several words at once by informing Lucene how to link search terms. The most common search operators are the Boolean operators (must be used as capitals i.e. AND, OR, NOT) and the use of double quotes to specify an exact phrase or whole word. These allow the inclusion or exclusion of documents from the search results.
In some cases, a relationship may exist between two or more awards, for example when more than one award is part of the same research project. These associations, where present, are highlighted within the details provided on each award.
An indicator of the purpose of the award. BBSRC awards support research and postgraduate skills development. These are further subdivided within the Advanced Search into the following categories:
Research Grants - research grants provide researchers with support to undertake excellent scientific research in which the applicant(s) will be personally involved and which will deliver academic, economic and societal impacts. Funding for projects up to £2M is available through responsive mode. Larger programmes are funded through special schemes.
Institute Projects - research activity at BBSRC sponsored Institutes previously supported via the Core Strategic Grant and now via Institute Strategic Programme Grants.
Fellowships - schemes which are supported by BBSRC to enable scientists to devote their time to independent research and scholarships.
Studentships - the term used for directly funded (not Training Grants) studentships that provide an opportunity for graduates to receive one year’s Masters training or three or four years PhD training in research, research methods and employment-related skills.
Training Grants - funding for four-year PhD studentships and one-year Masters studentships are now awarded to university departments and other organisations (not to students) in the form of a Training Grant (TG) to allow institutions greater flexibility over the duration of the award and the level of stipend offered. Departments and supervisors then advertise for students.
Students - the term used to identify students funded by BBSRC Training Grants (TGs).
At least one award type must be selected to carry out a search of the Awards section of the system.
An indicator of whether the award is active (i.e. current) or completed. Note that Institute Projects are updated on an annual basis in July and may be shown as current if they are active at any point during the current or forecast financial year.
At least one award status must be selected to carry out a search of the Awards section of the system.
Expressed in UK pounds £, this is:
BBSRC science programmes are administered via committees, each dealing with applications for funding in the major areas of the council’s scientific remit. The committee processing an award provides an indication of the nature of research or training being undertaken.
BBSRC occasionally reorganises its committees and therefore past awards may reflect the structures in place at the time of issuing the award.
An award which has started and is active or a completed award awaiting financial reconciliation or action.
A facility that allows the user to design a detailed report to analyse a set of search results by defining what data columns should be included and their order. The report provides subtotalling facilities and the ability to further drill down to awards ‘sub’ list and the details of a specific award.
BBSRC operates a number of initiatives to encourage specific research or training activity and / or that may have specific eligibility or application requirements, or that have a specific focus e.g. knowledge transfer.
The institutes deliver innovative, world class bioscience research and training, leading to wealth and job creation, generating high returns for the UK economy. They have strong links with business, industry and the wider community, and support policy development.
The institutes’ research underpins key sections of the UK economy such as agriculture, bioenergy, biotechnology, food and drink and pharmaceuticals. In addition, the institutes maintain unique research facilities of national importance.
BBSRC has a set of Council-wide strategic research priorities that are applicable to the research grants portfolio. The current priorities were introduced in 2009 and therefore will only apply to awards from 2009 onwards.
The classification scheme used to categorise the nature of BBSRC’s research portfolio. This classification has currently only been applied to awards active as at April 2008 onwards and therefore does not cover the full portfolio. More recent awards may also still be awaiting classification and therefore the information should be checked for updates.
Funding schemes operated by BBSRC to encourage specific research or training activity and / or that may have specific eligibility or application requirements. The following schemes are currently included:
A predefined report on a specific aspect of BBSRC’s supported research and skills development portfolio.
A facility that allows the user to select one or up to three predefined simple reports at any one time to analyse a set of search results. The reports provide the ability to further drill down to awards ‘sub’ lists and the details of a specific award.
Portfolio Analyser data is based on a ‘calendar’ year.
All results tables in Portfolio Analyser provide a data sorting capability. Results can be reordered by clicking the column heading to perform an ascending or descending alphabetic or numeric sort, as appropriate.
The Awards System provides facilities to export data via a number of file formats i.e.
Users must accept the terms and conditions (opens in new window) before being permitted to proceed with an export.
Portfolio Analyser contains details of awards active as at 1997 to the present. A small number of schemes covering support for international activities, innovation and skills, and information on the individual studentship projects supported through Training Grants are not currently available through this interface, but further details will become available in the near future.
Some of the information held within Portfolio Analyser, particularly award titles, abstracts, technical and impact summaries, is provided by applicants. BBSRC does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of these statements.
A number of links within the system are to external websites over which BBSRC has no control. We do not accept responsibility for the information contained on these websites.