We are running this funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. 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 link to TFS in the email sent from the ESRC Centres mailbox.
- 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 them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the ‘How to apply’ section on this Funding finder page.
- 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
We must receive your application by 7 November 2023 at 4:00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
You should ensure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place.
Processing personal data
ESRC 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.
Outcomes publication
ESRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding Opportunity at What ESRC has funded – UKRI
If your application is successful, some personal information will be published via the UKRI Gateway to Research.
UKRI Funding Service: section guidance
Summary
In plain English, provide a summary that can be sent to potential reviewers to determine if your proposal is within their field of expertise.
This summary may be made publicly available on external facing websites, so please ensure it can be understood by a variety of readers, for example:
- opinion-formers
- policymakers
- the general public
- the wider research community.
Guidance for writing a summary
Succinctly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- its context
- the challenge the project addresses and how it will be applied to this
- its aims and objectives
- its potential applications and benefits.
Word count: 550
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
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and Innovation Associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
Only list one individual as project lead.
Find out more about UKRI’s new grant roles and eligibility.
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:
- meets a clearly defined challenge that is critical to the future of our society or the economy, or both
- 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
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)
Files must be:
- In JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
- Be smaller than 8MB
Word count: 1,000
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 interdisciplinary, bringing together the right disciplines to respond to your proposed challenge.
- 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
- makes use of existing data where relevant and justifies the collection of any new data in line with the challenge area
- 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
- ensures that impact is multisectoral with evidence of user engagement from inception throughout all stages of the planned timeframe for the award. This should be backed up by a clear logic model demonstrating the changes the centre will bring about to respond to the challenge
- 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
- demonstrates evidence that issues relating to equality, diversity, inclusion have been considered throughout your approach
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
- demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposal
- provide a detailed and comprehensive project plan including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar
- include a detailed and appropriate plan for how you will acquire and manage data
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)
Files must be:
- In JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
- Be smaller than 8MB
Word count: 4,000
Section: Governance
Question: How will you manage the centre to successfully deliver its objectives?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how the proposed centre will be managed, demonstrating that your centre:
- will be effectively governed, including details about advisory groups
- will be effectively and inclusively managed, demonstrated by a clear management plan
- has clear leadership team roles and responsibilities
- will manage and encourage partnerships with non-HEI organisations across government, industry and civil society
- has plans for monitoring your progress against your logic model (included in the Approach section), as well as self-evaluation throughout the lifetime of your award
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)
Files must be:
- In JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
- Be smaller than 8MB
Word count: 1,000
Section: Capacity building
Question: What do you think the capacity-building needs associated with this research challenge are and what is your approach to address them?
What the assessors are looking for in your response:
Explain your approach to and plans for building capability, including how you will:
- support careers and capacity building, in line with the challenge area
- demonstrate how you will enhance equality, diversity and inclusion across career stages and job roles in your centre
Within this section you can also:
- demonstrate how you will support all career stages, pathways and types
- demonstrate how you will add value by convening and aligning existing training activity across the UK
- demonstrate how you will share good practice in skills and career development
- explain what the skills needs are in the challenge area in context of activities already on offer either within participating research organisations or nationally and justify how you are going to address them
- identify your intended training, careers and capacity building outcomes, actions to achieve these, and the relevant timescales, success criteria and evidence for each outcome
Within this section we also expect you to:
- provide details of the studentships requested and the PhD topic(s) to be undertaken including:
- proposed start and end date of the studentship(s)
- duration of each studentship in years
- name of the student(s), if known at the point of application
- name of main supervisor
- details of the accredited subject area in which the student will be based
- confirmation that the DTP/CDT Director supports the proposed studentship arrangements
- a summary statement of the PhD topic(s) to be undertaken and a justification for the length of the programme of study
- a clear statement of how this is independent from, but will add value to, the principal research objectives set out in the application
- a letter of support from the DTP Director should be submitted with this application. A letter should be within one side of A4 per student
Word count: 2,000
Section: References
Question: List the references you’ve used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response:
Ensure your application is a self-contained description. You can provide hyperlinks to relevant publications or online resources. However, assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application. You must not include links to web resources in order to extend your application. If linking to web resources, to ensure the information’s integrity is maintained include, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers.
Word count 1,000
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
The word count for this section is 3,000 words, 2,000 words to be used for R4RI modules and, if necessary, a further 1,000 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 (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.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed below. You should 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
Additions: Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 1,000 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 CV type format.
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)
Word count: 3,000
Section: Your Organisation’s support
Question: Provide details of support from your research organisation.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a statement of support, no more than two sides of A4, from your research organisation detailing why the proposed work is needed. This should include details of any matched funding that will be provided to support the activity and any additional support that might add value to the work.
The committee will be looking for a strong statement of commitment from your research organisation.
We recognise that in some instances, this information may be provided by the Research Office, the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) or equivalent, or a combination of both.
You must also include the following details:
- a significant person’s name and their position, from the TTO or Research Office, or both
- office address or web link
Upload details are provided within the service on the actual application.
Word count: 10
Section: Project partners
Question: Provide details about any project partners’ contributions using the template provided.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Download and complete the Project partner contributions template (DOCX, 52KB). Paste the completed table into the funding service.
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
- be no more than one side of A4
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 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 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 and project co-leads’ research organisations.
Word count 1,500
Section: Facilities
Question: Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not, enter N/A into the text box, mark this section as complete and move on to the next section.
If you will need to use a facility (including access to, and use of data, infrastructure and resources) you should follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Where prior agreement is required, ensure you obtain their agreement that, should you be offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project. ESRC encourages the use of secondary and linked datasets.
In the text box below, for each requested facility you should provide:
Do not put the facility contact details in your response.
Word count 250
Section: Data management
Question: How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed research?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a data management plan which should clearly detail how you will comply with our published Research Data Policy, which includes detailed guidance notes.
If you are not generating new data as part of your grant application, you are not required to complete this section. Please enter ‘N/A’ in the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next question.
We recognise the importance of research data quality and provenance. Research data generated by ESRC-funded research must be well-managed by the grant holder to enable their data to be exploited to the maximum potential for further research.
You should:
- describe how you will publish your research findings
- demonstrate that you comply with ESRC’s Research Data Policy and ESRC Framework for Research Ethics. This should include confirmation that existing datasets have been reviewed and why currently available datasets are inadequate for the proposed research. You should cover any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data, including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical issues
- explain how data collected, generated or acquired through the proposed research (such as primary input into research and first order results of that research) will be managed, including planning for the research through the life cycle of the award until data is accepted for archiving by the UK Data Service (UKDS). See the importance of managing and sharing data on the UKDS website for further information. Detailed advice on what assessors are looking for in your response can also be found on the UKDS site. We expect you to provide a summary of the points provided
- critically consider any challenges to data sharing (e.g., copyright or data confidentiality), with possible solutions discussed to optimise data sharing. Most data collected, generated or acquired as a result of economic and social research can be successfully archived and shared. However, some research data are more sensitive than others. It is a responsibility of the grant holders to consider all issues related to confidentiality, ethics, security and copyright before initiating the research
Word count: 500
Section: 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
Using the text box, demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations, and how you will manage them.
All proposals have to comply with the ESRC Framework for Research Ethics which includes guidance for applicants and links to related web resources.
All necessary ethical approvals must be in place before the project commences, but do not need to have been secured at the time of application.
If you are generating new data as part of your project, you should complete the Data Management question and should cover ethical considerations relating to data in your response.
If you are not generating new data and have not completed the Data Management question you should address any legal or ethical considerations relating to your use of data here.
Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) relating to research involving:
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)
Word count: 500
Section: Research involving human participation
Question: Will the project involve the use of human subjects or their personal information?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not, enter ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move on to the next section.
If you are proposing research that requires the involvement of human subjects, provide the name of any required approving body and whether approval is already in place. Then, justify the number and the diversity of the participants involved, as well as any procedures.
Provide details of any areas of substantial or moderate severity of impact.
Word count: 700
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 £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 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 activities to either increase impact, for public engagement, knowledge exchange or to support responsible innovation
- support for access to facilities, infrastructure or procurement of equipment
- support for preserving, long-term storage, or sharing of data
- support from your organisation or partner organisations and how that enhances value for money
- support for activities outsourced to a third party (such as consultancy or social surveys)
- support for project co-leads under ESRC’s international, business and third sector eligibility policies
- Evidence that environmental sustainability has been considered and reflected in your proposed resource and justified appropriately
For detailed guidance on eligible costs please see the ESRC Research Funding Guide.
Word count: 1,000
