When submitting applications under this opportunity, Luxembourg applicants will need to be included as project co-lead(s) International. No staff costs should be included for the Luxembourg applicants.
Luxembourg applicants should also complete the following as additional attachments, which are available on the FNR website, and pass them onto their UK based project lead to upload alongside their proposal:
- INTER budget sheet
- INTER budget justification
- project plan to be submitted to FNR
Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). You do not need to apply to FNR as well, but you should include the costs you are requesting from FNR in your UK proposal.
Applications submitted to UKRI under this agreement must also be submitted to FNR by the Luxembourg applicant no later than seven days after the submission to a UKRI council, including a copy of the application submitted to UKRI and a project plan. Further information on application submission to FNR can be found on the FNR website.
We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The UK project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
To apply:
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
- Confirm you are the project lead.
- Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
- Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
- Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
- Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
- Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.
Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.
Deadline
During the initial phases of the Funding Service, the system will continue to develop in response to internal and external user needs. AHRC responsive mode funding opportunities will run as consecutive rounds with defined closing dates. Opening in rounds means we will be able to accommodate system developments and assess applications in a batch submitted under the same conditions.
Applications may be submitted at any time while a round is open; you do not need to wait until the closing date. We will begin to process applications as soon as we receive them so, if an application is submitted early in a round, we may be able to provide you with an earlier decision.
We must receive your application by 7 December 2023 at 4.00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply to round one after this time, instead you will need to complete a new application and submit it to round two.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
The proposed start date of your project must be at least nine months after the date of your application.
The second round will open in early January, details will be published in the autumn. Details of subsequent rounds will be published at a later date.
Proposals may be submitted at any time, within the deadlines indicated via the AHRC standard research grants scheme, until the termination of the UKRI/FNR agreement on 5 June 2027. Successful projects that extend past the end of the Memorandum of Understanding will continue to be supported by UKRI and FNR.
Personal data
Processing personal data
As part of UKRI, we will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.
As part of UKRI, we will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with FNR so that they can participate in the assessment process. For more information on how FNR uses personal information, view the FNR Privacy Statement.
Publication of outcomes
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word limit: 500
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.
We may make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, so make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
- opinion-formers
- policymakers
- the public
- the wider research community
Guidance for writing a summary
Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- context
- the challenge the project addresses
- aims and objectives
- potential applications and benefits
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
- specialist
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
Only list one UK individual as project lead.
All Luxembourg based applicants for whom funds are being requested from FNR must be listed as Project Co-Lead International. Any such individuals must be eligible for funding from FNR as their costs will not be covered by AHRC.
Find out more about UKRI’s new grant role names.
Vision
Word limit: 500
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 fields or areas
- has the potential to advance current understanding, or generate 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
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
- identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be
Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You must:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
Approach
Word limit: 2,500
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
- uses a clearly written and transparent methodology (if applicable)
- summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed (if applicable)
- 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 and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You must:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 1,500
Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
This should cover all applicants including the Luxembourg based team.
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
The word count for this section is 1,500 words: 1,000 words to be used for R4RI modules and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.
Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, including the Luxembourg based 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 you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).
Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has introduced new role names for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service.
For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You must:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
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 or responsible research and innovation considerations
- how you will manage these considerations
If you are collecting or using data, identify:
- any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies to not preclude further reuse of data
- formal information standards with which your study will comply
Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You must:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,000
What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Use the resources and cost summary table to enter the full UK only costs. The FNR INTER budget spreadsheet should include the FNR consolidated budget, therefore applicants are not required to include Luxemburg based researcher costs within this section.
All Luxembourg based applicants for whom funds are being requested from FNR must be listed as project co-lead (international). Any such individuals must be eligible for funding from FNR as their costs will not be covered by AHRC.
Justify the UK 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 consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all facilities and infrastructure costs
- all resources that have been costed as ‘exceptions’
Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Use the justifications text box to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work in the UK:
- are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
Additionally, where relevant you should explain:
- support for any project partners organisations
The FNR justification of costs form should justify the costs requested from FNR. These costs should not be inserted into the Funding Service.
Discipline classification – primary
Word count: 5
Please provide the primary research area of your proposal.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You must select from one of these research disciplines:
- archaeology
- area studies
- classics
- cultural and museum studies
- dance
- design
- development studies
- drama and theatre studies
- education
- history
- human geography
- information and communication technologies
- languages and literature
- law and legal studies
- library and information studies
- linguistics
- media
- music
- philosophy
- political science and international studies
- social anthropology
- theology, divinity, and religion
- visual arts
This information will be used for the purposes of processing your proposal and in the selection of appropriate assessors.
Discipline classification – secondary
Word count: 50
Please describe, using keywords, the research area of your proposal and where relevant the approach, time period or geographical area.
This will further help with the selection of appropriate assessors.
FNR application
Word count: 10
Please upload the appropriate documents relating to the FNR application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Luxembourg researchers should complete the following, which are available on the FNR Website, and the UK project lead should upload a single PDF containing:
- project plan form
- budget spreadsheet
- justification of costs form (for costs being requested from FNR)
Demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work in Luxembourg:
- are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
Project Partners
Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.
A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.
Add the following project partner details:
- the organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
- the project partner contact name and email address
- the type of contribution (direct or in-direct) and its monetary value
If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, please remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Project partner letters or emails of support
Word limit: 10
Provide letters or emails of support from each named partner (if applicable).
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Each letter or email you provide should:
- confirm the partner’s commitment to the project
- clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them
- describe any additional value that they bring to the project
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the contributions template.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Do not provide letters of support from host, project co-leads’ research organisations and other UK research organisations.
