When you apply for most opportunities in the Funding Service you will see the following sections and questions.
Some opportunities may require answers to one or more questions to be submitted as PDF attachments. Over time we will reduce the number of attachments requested.
Councils will append specific guidance as needed to help you answer the questions for their area or field. Councils may also add additional questions if needed to help assess applications for particular opportunities.
The ‘ethics and responsible research innovation (RRI)’ section will also contain additional questions to collect information and specific ethical considerations about:
- research misuse
- research involving animals
- human participants in health research
- genetically modified organisms
If these additional questions are not relevant to your application you will be able to indicate it at the application stage.
Trusted research and innovation questions: internal UKRI assessment
UKRI will assess the answers to the trusted research and innovation (TR&I) questions as part of the TR&I due diligence process prior to an award being made. Where necessary applicants may be required to provide UKRI with additional information. UKRI operates a risk-based approach and projects that are deemed to be higher risk may also be required to implement additional mitigations or controls.
Section: Vision
Question
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work:
- is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s)
- has the potential to advance current understanding, generates new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
- is timely given current trends, context and needs
- impacts world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment
Section: Approach
Question
How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you have designed your approach so that it:
- is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
- is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
- if applicable, uses a clear and transparent methodology
- if applicable, summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed
- will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
- describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place, its location, and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
Section: Applicant and team capability to deliver
Question
Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
- the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you, and if relevant your team (investigators, researchers, other (technical) staff for example research software engineers, data scientists and so on, and partners), have and how this will help to deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
You should use each R4RI module heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:
- contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
- the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
- contributions to the wider research and innovation community
- contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences, and towards wider societal benefit
Additions: Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences or outputs, but any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).
You should complete this as a narrative and you should avoid a CV type format.
Section: Resources and cost justification
Question
What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:
- project staff
- significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
- any equipment that will cost more than £25,000
- any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all facilities and infrastructure costs
- all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’
You can request costs associated with reasonable adjustments where they increase as a direct result of working on the project. For further information see Disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders. Where a funding limit is imposed on the opportunity, requested costs for reasonable adjustments may exceed the maximum funding amount.
Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. They want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:
- are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
Ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)
Question
What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:
- the relevant ethical and RRI considerations, including the research or topic area and the design and delivery of the project
- the wider implications of the proposed work
- how you will maximise the positive societal, environmental, and economic benefits arising from the project
- how you will minimise unintended negative impacts, such as research misuse or accidental harm
- how you will manage these considerations throughout the lifecycle of the project
Research misuse
You will be asked how could your research be misused and what mitigations are you putting in place.
Research with potential misuse risk is research that is done to provide benefits but may have potential to be:
- used for harmful purposes
- used to cause harm through accidental release
- targeted for malicious intent
For example, a study to find a cure for a disease or dealing with threats posed by a pathogen or toxin.
Research can be used in both domestic and international contexts. You should consider all elements of research, like research tools and technologies and all intended outputs.
Trusted research and innovation questions
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is the protection of the UK’s intellectual property, sensitive research, people, and infrastructure from potential theft, misuse, and exploitation.
Organisations receiving UKRI funding are obliged to act in line with UK government legislation. They are also expected to undertake appropriate due diligence assessments of organisations involved in research partnerships, collaboration agreements, and commercial contracts.
You will be asked about:
- which areas of the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act your project relates to
- who you intend to collaborate with and how
- if your project requires an export control licence
Your answers may affect the T&Cs of your funding agreement if you are successful. We may use your answers to determine if our current T&Cs are sufficient or if additional T&Cs are required.