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 UKRI Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
Only the lead UK research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
To apply
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
- Confirm you are the project lead.
- Sign in or create a UKRI 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 UKRI 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 UKRI Funding Service.
Deadline
During the initial phases of the UKRI 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 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.
The proposed start date of your project must be at least nine months after the date of your application.
Personal data
Processing personal data
As part of UKRI, we will need to collect some personal information to manage your UKRI 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 FAPESP so that they can participate in the assessment process. For more information on how FAPESP uses personal information, visit the FAPESP website
Publication of outcomes
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
UKRI Funding Service: section guidance
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 São Paulo-based applicants for whom funds are being requested from FAPESP must be listed as project co-lead international. Any such individuals must be eligible for funding from FAPESP 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 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
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
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 Sao Paulo 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 Sao Paulo 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 UKRI 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
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
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
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 FAPESP SAGe proposal form should include the FAPESP consolidated budget, therefore you are not required to include São Paulo-based researcher costs here. Include high-level costs only, not a breakdown of individual items.
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 £10,000
- 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’
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 both the UK and Brazilian elements of your proposed work:
- are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
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.
FAPESP Application
Word count: 10
Please attach the FAPESP proposal form as submitted through SAGe.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Please upload as a single PDF to include the following:
- the FAPESP letter of eligibility
- a copy of the FAPESP proposal form as submitted through SAGe
The UKRI Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
Further documentation may be required by FAPESP, to be supplied by the São Paulo based project lead to complete the analysis of the proposal.
Project partners
Word limit: 1,500
Provide details of any project partners’ contributions, and letters or emails of support from each named partner.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Download and complete the project partner contributions template (DOCX, 52KB).
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
Save letters or emails of support from each partner in a single PDF no bigger than 8MB. Unless specially requested, please do not include any personal data within the attachment.
For the file name, use the unique UKRI Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Project partner’.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
The UKRI 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 UKRI 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.
