This invitation-only opportunity will enable the Economics Observatory (ECO) to apply to maintain its activities for a further nine to 12 months. The proposed funding is intended to support the observatory to sustain the networks and activities established over two prior phases of funding.
You may only apply to this opportunity if we have invited you to do so.
The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) 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:
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
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 funding 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 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 new 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. You should use your discretion when including reference 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
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) must receive your application by 4:00pm UK time on 8 October 2024.
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 the 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
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.
Publication of outcomes
ESRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at What ESRC has funded.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word limit: 550
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, 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
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 core team roles in funding applications.
Application questions
Vision
Word limit: 500
What are you hoping to achieve with the proposed infrastructure?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how the proposed infrastructure will:
- be timely, given current trends and context
- meet the evidenced needs of clearly identified user groups
- have measurable impact
- meet the strategic aims of the funder or government
- offer training opportunities
- enhance, benefit and complement the existing landscape
- be of international importance (if applicable)
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.
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
- demonstrate ECO’s commitment to sustaining the networks, collaborations and activities established through prior phases of funding
- demonstrate how ECO will use an in-depth understanding of the needs and demands of UK policymakers to help them access the evidence they need to answer pressing economic questions
- outline how ECO will engage relevant stakeholders to co-produce and respond to priority policy questions
- explain how the observatory will build on and further develop its strategic insights about policymaker engagement in order to share those lessons with ESRC
- outline how ECO will support ESRC in developing strategic insights about emerging priorities relevant to the council’s economics portfolio
Approach
Word limit: 2,500
What are your plans to manage and deliver the proposed infrastructure?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
We expect you to show how your approach includes:
- a credible management plan including strategic and operational matters
- details of governance
- feasibility of the project plan including a work plan, milestones, and deliverables in the form of a Gantt chart or similar
- identification of risks and appropriate mitigation
- plans for support and maintenance of the proposed infrastructure over the estimated life span
- training and development of staff and those who may interact with the infrastructure
- a description of the working environment
- identification of how accessibility and inclusiveness have been incorporated into the design of the project
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.
Contextual information
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
- provide details of how ECO employs an effective, evidence-based approach to respond appropriately to demonstrable demand from policymakers and relevant opportunities
- demonstrate how ECO will maintain its previous strands of activity while adapting to the changing needs of its audiences at pace
- identify high priority cross-cutting themes across government as well as mechanisms to connect these themes to relevant specialist expertise
- give an overview of ECO’s impact, communication and engagement plans
- provide details of how the approach to monitoring and evaluation will:
- Inform reflective and iterative practice within ECO
- Contribute knowledge on effective approaches to social science advisory mechanisms for public policy and public engagement.
If relevant, you may discuss plans to formalise relationships with targeted policymakers through ECO’s governance structure.
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 1,650
Why are you the right individual or team to deliver and manage the proposed infrastructure?
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)
- the right balance of skills and expertise
- the appropriate leadership and management skills and your approach to develop others
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
- the connections and networks to achieve ECO’s policy engagement objectives.
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 1,650 words: 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) 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 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 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).
You should complete this section as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
References may be included within this section.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service. For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
What are the ethical and 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
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 and manage the proposed infrastructure 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
- engagement activities, for example events or publications, required to deliver ECO’s aims and objectives
- 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
Data management and sharing
Word limit: 500
How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a data management plan that clearly details how you will comply with UKRI’s published data sharing policy, which includes detailed guidance notes.
Demonstrate that you have designed your proposed work so that you can appropriately manage and share data in accordance with ESRC’s Research Data Policy and ESRC Framework for Research Ethics (if applicable).
Within the ‘Data Management’ section we also expect you to:
- plan for the research through the life cycle of the award until data is accepted for archiving by the UK Data Service (UKDS) or a responsible data repository
- demonstrate compliance 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
- cover any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data, including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical issues
- include any challenges to data sharing, for example copyright or data confidentiality, with possible solutions discussed to optimise data sharing
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
Word limit: 500
What approaches and activities do you have planned that will embed EDI into your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your EDI plan:
- is effective and appropriate to embed EDI
- comprehensively identifies the key EDI challenges and how they will be addressed or managed
- will report and measure EDI outcomes
- will maximise awareness of and mitigate against bias in your team and the wider community in terms of gender, ethnicity or any other protected characteristic through processes, behaviours and culture
- describes how your approach will build upon and integrate existing EDI good practice into your proposed work
- will share good practice with the wider community to ensure your research has maximum impact
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.
