Overview of the application process
The ‘Future proofing plants for a changing climate’ funding opportunity is comprised of two mandatory stages. The UK project lead will be responsible for assembling all the information required for each stage from the wider team and this will be submitted using the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service by their research organisation.
As each stage of the funding opportunity you will be able to access the corresponding Funding Service page to submit your application using the ‘Start application’ button on this page.
Stage one: expression of interest stage
Project leads will be required to complete a short application using the Funding Service. The application will require the following information:
- a short summary describing the proposed project and how it aligns to the funding opportunity
- details of the UK, US and German applicants involved in the project
- approximate costings for the UK, the US and German components
Stage two: full stage
The full stage is only open to applicants who have been invited to submit following stage one.
The research team will provide a full description of their project idea, people involved, and other information including letters of support, management plans, and full justification of resources using the Funding Service.
Separate budgets and budget justifications will be required for each agency. All budget items must conform to the national rules applicable to each applicant. Further information on what is required will be provided with the invitation to submit a full proposal following stage one.
DFG submission
A copy of the full proposal including the CVs and publication lists of the applicants must be provided by the German project lead to DFG after submission to BBSRC.
The UK project lead is to provide a PDF copy of the application that has been submitted to BBSRC full proposal stage to the German project lead who will upload this application to the DFG’s submission portal ‘elan’.
Further details of Stage two can be found on the UKRI funding finder.
UKRI Funding Service
BBSRC will run this funding opportunity on the new Funding Service on behalf of the involved funding agencies. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
Your team can be led by either UK, German or US applicants, or may involve co-leads from the three countries. Please indicate roles within your proposal.
For administrative purposes, the project lead (lead UK applicant) is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all international team members and project partners to contribute to the application where appropriate.
Only the lead UK research organisation can apply to UKRI, joint submissions involving multiple UK research organisations must be made using the same Funding Service 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.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
Deadline
You should ensure you are aware of and follow any deadlines that may be in place within your research organisation.
Stage one: expression of interest
BBSRC must receive your outline by 6 February 2024 at 4:00pm UK time. You will not be able to submit an expression of interest after this time.
Stage two: full stage
Only applicants who are invited by BBSRC may submit a full stage submission.
The full stage will open shortly after the expression of interest stage closes.
BBSRC must receive your full proposal by 22 May 2024 at 4:00pm UK time. You will not be able to submit a full proposal after this time.
DFG must receive a PDF copy of the application that has been submitted to BBSRC full proposal stage, including the CVs and publication lists of the applicants within one week after the closing date of the full proposal submission to BBSRC, by 29 May 2024. The German project lead will upload this application to the DFG’s submission portal ‘elan’.
Further details of Stage two can be found on the UKRI Funding Finder.
Personal data
Processing personal data
BBSRC, 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.
BBSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with DFG, NSF and USDA-NIFA so that they can participate in the assessment process.
For more information on how NSF uses personal information, visit NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), Privacy Act and Public Burden Statements. In general, all proposals, reviews and so on are confidential, only the public award abstract is published.
Please see the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding.
Publication of outcomes
BBSRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at Awarded research grants.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word limit: 5
Guidance for writing a summary
Please write N/A in this section.
Core team
List the key members of your UK team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
- 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.
German applicants
Word limit: 350
Please provide the following details of the German applicants on this application:
- name
- institute
- job title
- role in project (for example, project lead or project co-lead)
- email address
Please also indicate who the lead German applicants will be.
DFG will use this information to confirm applicant eligibility.
Please do not include details of German applicants in the ‘Core team’ section.
US applicants
Word limit: 350
Please provide the following details of the US applicants on this application:
- name
- institute
- job title
- role in project (for example, project lead or project co-lead)
- email address
Please also indicate who the lead US applicants will be.
NSF and USDA-NIFA will use this information to confirm applicant eligibility.
Please do not include details of US applicants in the ‘Core team’ section.
Vision
Word limit: 750
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 your vision you should:
- describe how your application addresses the ‘future proofing plants to a changing climate’ scope of the funding opportunity
- provide the overall aims and objectives of your research, typically as a small number of bullet points
- describe your aims in the context of relevant prior work by your team and by the wider bioscience research landscape
- highlight features that are particularly original or unique
Approach
Word limit: 750
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 clear how your team and research environment will contribute to each work package
- is clear how relevant previous work from each international partner will be built upon and progressed (if applicable)
- describe the overall research effort needed to fulfil the programme of work and explain how this will be organised in relation to and the UK, the US and German international partners delivering them
Research area
Word limit: 50
What three phrases best describe the science area, or areas, covered in your proposed research project?
Resources
Word limit: 500
What are the estimated overall cost and staffing full time equivalent (FTE) estimates for the UK, German and US components of the project?
What the funders are looking for in your response
- overall estimates for costings and staffing FTE
- clear separation of UK, German and US costings, in GBP, EUR and USD respectively
- the UK component may request between £300,000 to £800,000 (at 80% FEC)
- the US component may request between $300,000 to $800,000
- the German component may request between €300,000 to €800,000
- a detailed calculation and breakdown of resources is not required at this stage
For example:
UK team:
Total cost estimate 400,000 GBP BBSRC contribution
0.2 FTE project lead time, 1.0 FTE PDRA, 0.5 FTE technician
German team:
Total cost estimate 300,000 EUR DFG contribution
0.2 FTE project lead time or 1.0 FTE doctoral researcher
US team:
Total cost estimate 500,000 USD NSF or USDA-NIFA contribution
0.2 FTE project lead time 1.0 FTE PDRA or 1.0 FTE doctoral researcher
Total funder contribution estimate
1,200,000
Project partners
Word limit: 500
Please provide details of any additional project partners who will contribute to the project (outside of the core UK-German-US collaboration). This might be either providing cash or in-kind resources, or other collaborative contributions.
This section includes any:
- industry partners
- unfunded collaborators
- policy or third sector involvement in the proposal
Please provide this information in a bullet point list.
