We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The 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.
Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
To apply
Follow the ‘Start application’ link that has been individually emailed to you.
- 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
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
- 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 it 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.
Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You should:
- 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)
- ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Watch our research office webinars about the Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
References
Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. Applicants should use their discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.
References should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors, for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019).
You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
Deadline
AHRC must receive your application by 23 January 2025 at 4:00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the submission of your application to this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.
Personal data
Processing personal data
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), as part of UKRI, 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 the Mission funding opportunity your personal data will be anonymised, aggregated, and shared with the Thrive team for the purposes of comparing Mission with our standard responsive mode approach.
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 usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. 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
Please note that this section will not form part of the assessment, and that we are supportive of applicant teams using the summary text they provided at outline stage or providing updated wording if this is more appropriate.
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 individual as project lead.
This is a team-based application, and the title of project lead is not intended to denote seniority. Please nominate the accountable individual who will be responsible for reporting and award administration as the project lead.
The composition of your team should be appropriate to the project. Individuals named within the application should meet the eligibility criteria and be appropriately costed for the core team role type selected for them.
We recognise a potential tension between using the role types within the application form and how your team would wish to conceptualise its members within the context of a team-convening approach. We therefore encourage you to use the written sections of the application form to articulate to assessors how your team will work in practice and demonstrate the importance of each individual to the overall delivery of the project.
Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.
Application questions
Successful outline application
Word limit: 5
Please provide the application reference number for your successful outline application.
Discipline classification – primary
Word limit: 5
Please provide the primary research area of your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You must select one of these research disciplines.
This information will be used for the purposes of processing your application and in the selection of appropriate assessors. The research disciplines are:
- 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
Discipline classification – secondary
Word limit: 50
Please describe, using keywords, the research area of your application and where relevant the approach, time period or geographical area.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
This will further help with the selection of appropriate assessors.
Vision
Word limit: 1,100
What is your proposed research agenda and how would your team use a Mission award to advance it?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You will need to explain the nature of your research agenda, the scale and nature of the transformation you will enact and why you need a Mission award to do it. Assessors will be looking to see that your vision:
- is aligned to the scope and programme aims of this funding opportunity
- 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
- is genuinely novel and is only achievable in the context of AHRC’s funding opportunities with a Mission award
- meaningfully engages with how a team-convening approach will add value in delivering your vision
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
References may be included within this section.
Approach
Word limit: 3,000
How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your approach:
- 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 previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed (if applicable)
- will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
Within the ‘Approach’ section we also expect you to:
- embed an image of a detailed and comprehensive project plan, including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar
While explaining your approach you should demonstrate how you have, and will continue to, integrate the team-convening principles to:
- identify individuals with the appropriate expertise to collectively deliver the project
- establish collective leadership, empowering team members to lead in their area of expertise
- design inclusive governance practices and clear decision-making processes
- identify ways to embed development for all, realised through the delivery of the project
- engage in reflexive practice, enabling adaptive ways of working and continuous learning
We anticipate that the strongest applications will integrate these team-convening principles to inform all aspects of their full stage application.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
References may be included within this section.
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 2,500
Why are you the right team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how 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
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
The word count for this section is 2,500 words: 2,000 words to be used for Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.
Use the R4RI format to showcase the range of relevant skills your team (project leads and 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, 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
As a minimum, all named members of your Mission’s core team (as defined by you) should be discussed within this section of the form.
If references or citations are deemed appropriate, these will be included within the section’s word count. We would advise you not to include hyperlinks, as assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application. If you are linking to web resources, to maintain the information’s integrity, include persistent identifiers (such as digital object identifiers) where possible. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
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.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the Funding Service.
For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
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 or individual 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, 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 partners: letters (or emails) of support
Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the ‘Project partners’ section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter N/A. 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
- have a page limit of two sides of A4 per partner
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 ‘Project partners’ section.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
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 following, making specific reference to your project and team-convening approach where appropriate:
- the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
- how you will manage these considerations
If you are collecting or using data, you should 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 re-use of data)
- formal information standards that your proposed work will comply with
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
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
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 consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all facilities and infrastructure costs
- all resources associated with project co-lead internationals, which have therefore been costed as ‘Exceptions’
Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, 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
Additionally, where relevant you should explain:
- support for any project partners organisations
We do not provide funding for individual items of equipment over £10,000. Please see our Research Funding Guide for further information.
Given the size and scale of these awards, applicant teams are encouraged to engage with their organisation’s internal processes regarding costings.
