Over the last week… reporting
The week before this one, it was cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning database files of the Forbes collection. This is not yet quite completed, but has been put on hold because of an urgent matter. This involves writing all the information required to report back on the project’s outcomes at funding completion date, which was 31 December 2016. This is required by the ESRC, the funding-body, and the cut-off date for submitting it is 16 March – that’s next Wednesday. The entirety of this week, including last Sunday, has been spent drafting the different sections of information that are required. Hopefully, the button on the ESRC’s ‘Researchfish’ website can be pressed and the submission of required information made in the next day or so.
So does this mean that the project is now over? Certainly not! No!
It just means that the financing period is over, and that there are some minimum thresholds for project activity and outcomes that were listed in the original grant application which now need to be thought about and and an evaluation made of what has been successfully achieved and anything less so. However, the research will continue, as will the production of research publications.
Once the Researchfish submission button is pressed, then it will be back to Forbes. After that, there are other collections in addition that need to be finalised ready for publication. Then after that, it will be back on the fieldwork trail and a return to South Africa to complete work on some of more collections, databases of which will be added later to the published website. This website and many research tools for users are being designed for us by HRIOnline at the University of Sheffield, and they will also include the capacity to add new databases even after the website there is launched. There is also a list of additional planned project publications to be worked through and sent off to journals and to publishers. More on all of these activities will be added on a week-by-week basis, and the weekly blog will continue, as will new contributions to Traces, Curiosities and other popular features among visitors and users.
Last updated: 9 March 2017
