UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service
We are running the funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply for this opportunity on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
If you do not already have an account with the UKRI Funding Service, you will be able to create one by selecting the ‘start application’ button at the start of this page. Creating an account is a 2-minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
If you are a member of an organisation with a research office that we do not have contact details for, we will contact them to enable administrator access. This provides:
- oversight of every UKRI Funding Service application opened on behalf of your organisation
- the ability to review and submit applications
Research offices that have not already received an invitation to open an account should email support@funding-service.ukri.org.
To find out more about the role of research office professionals in the application process, watch a recording of a recent research office webinar on YouTube.
Submitting your application
Applications should be prepared and submitted by the lead research organisation but should be co-created with input from all investigators, and project partners, and should represent the proposed work of the entire consortia.
To apply:
- Select the ‘Start application’ button at the start of this page.
- This will open the ‘Sign in’ page of UKRI’s Funding Service. If you do not already have an account, you’ll be able to create one. This is a 2-minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
- Start answering the questions detailed in this section of ‘How to apply’. You can save your work and come back to it later. You can also work ‘offline’, copying and pasting into the text boxes provided for your answers.
- Once complete, use the service to send your application to your research office for review. They’ll check it and return it to you if it needs editing.
- Once happy, your research office will submit it to UKRI for assessment. Only they can do this.
As citations can be integral to a case for support, you should balance their inclusion and the benefit they provide against the inclusion of other parts of your answer to each question. Bear in mind that citations, associated reference lists or bibliographies, or both, contribute to, and are included in, the word count of the relevant section.
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:
- Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this 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 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 UKRI Funding Service.
Deadline
ESRC must receive your application by 12 October 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.
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.
ESRC, as part of UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with AHRC, NERC and Defra so that they can participate in the assessment process. For more information on how Defra uses personal information, visit Defra’s privacy notices page.
If your application is successful, some personal information will be published via the UKRI Gateway to Research.
UKRI and Defra may publish the outcomes of this funding Opportunity on their websites.
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
Applicants
List the key members of your team and assign them roles, for example:
- Project lead (PL)
- Project co-lead (UK) PcL)
- Specialist
- Grant manager
- Professional enabling staff
- Research and innovation associate
- Technician
- Visiting researcher
You should only list 1 individual as project lead.
Section: Vision and approach
Question: What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work and how will you deliver it?
We will ask you to submit a single seven-page PDF attachment covering the ‘Vision’ and ‘Approach’ sections of the application and enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box below. The document must have single line spacing, margins of at least 2 cm and be typed using Arial 11pt, or another ‘sans serif’ font with an equivalent size to Arial 11pt.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
For the Vision, explain how your proposed work:
- 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 we also expect you to:
- identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be
For the Approach, explain how you have designed your work 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
- if applicable, uses a clear and transparent methodology
- 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
- 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
Section: Flexible Fund
Question: how will you use and manage the Network’s flexible fund?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you will use and manage the flexible fund so that it:
- supports the Network’s objectives
- distributes funding appropriately across a diverse range of activities
- where appropriate, distributes funding through clear, transparent competitive processes
- builds capacity in key fields and career stages
- ensures appropriate processes for monitoring, reporting and governance of funded activities
Word count: 1,000
Section: Data management and sharing
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 ESRC’s published Data Sharing Policy, which includes detailed guidance notes.
Word count: 1,000
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 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.
Assessors will be looking for a strong statement of commitment from your research organisation.
ESRC, AHRC, NERC and Defra recognises 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: 500
Section: Project partners: contributions
Question: provide details about any project partners’ contributions using the template provided.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
If you do have project partners, download and complete the project partner contributions template (DOCX, 52KB) then copy and paste the table within it into the text box below.
Ensure you have obtained prior agreement from project partners that, should you be offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the template.
Word count: 1000
Section: Project Partners: letters (or emails) of support
Question: upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the table in the previous ‘contributions’ section.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
If you have named project partners in the previous ‘contributions’ section, enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box below.
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
- please refer to ESRC’s guide for more guidance.
Please be aware that Defra should not be included as a project partner on applications, or be asked to provide letters of support, as they are a co-funder for this programme.
Please do not provide letters of support from host and project co-leads research organisations.
Unless specifically requested, please do not include any personal data within the attachment.
Upload details are provided within the service on the actual application.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
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
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
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.
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 taken to not preclude further reuse of data
- formal information standards with which study will be compliant
Word count: 1000
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: References
Question: List the references you’ve use 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: 250
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, 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.
In the text box below, for each requested facility you should provide:
- the name of facility, copied and pasted from this list
- the proposed usage or costs, or costs per unit where indicted on that list
- confirmation you have their agreement where required
Do not put the facility contact details in your response.
Word count: 100
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
Use the resources and cost summary table to enter the full costs. Include high-level costs only, not a breakdown of individual items. Use the Justification textbox 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
This section should not simply be a list of the resources requested, as this will already be given in the detailed ‘costs’ table. Costings should be justified on the basis of full economic costs (FEC) of the project, not just on the costs expected from UKRI. For some items we do not expect you to justify the monetary value, rather the type of resource, such as amount of time or type of staff requested.
Where you do not provide adequate justification for a resource, we may deduct it from any funding awarded.
You should identify:
- 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
Word count: 1000
