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 fellow is responsible for completing the application process on the UKRI Funding Service, but we expect you to consult with sponsors and any project partners and mentors throughout the application process for advice.
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 fellow.
- 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
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the UKRI Funding Service.
- 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.
- 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
We must receive your application on 19 October 2023 by 4.00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
You will not be able to apply after the funding opportunity has closed. We will not consider late applications.
Following the close of 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
We 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
We will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at Board and panel outcomes.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word count: 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, 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
- only include information that you are happy to be made publicly available
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- specialist
- professional enabling staff (assign your sponsors this role)
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- fellow
Only list one individual as fellow.
You must list at least one sponsor and assign them as professional enabling staff.
Mentors should not be listed in the core team.
Find out more about UKRI’s new grant roles.
Vision and Approach
What are you hoping to achieve with and how will you deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. The document should not be more than four sides of A4, single spaced in paper in 11-point Arial (or equivalent sans serif font) with margins of at least 2cm. You may include images, graphs, tables. You can have an additional page for your project plan (Gantt chart).
If the additional page is completed the maximum length of the document is five pages. If you do not want to provide a project plan, or it is not relevant to your application, you must limit the length of your document accordingly and not use the additional page for anything other than the specified purpose.
For the file name, use the unique funding service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Vision and Approach’.
Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, please do not include any personal data within the attachment.
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.
For the Vision, 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, 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
- identify potential improvements in human or population health, whether through contributing to relieving disease or disability burden, improving quality of life or providing benefit to the health service or health-related industry
- outline your plans for engagement, communication and dissemination about your research and its outcomes with the research community and, where appropriate, with potentially interested wider audiences
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
- uses a clearly written 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
- demonstrates how your research environment will contribute to the success of the work, in terms of the place and relevance to the project
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
- provide a detailed and comprehensive project plan of training and development to support career advancement, including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar (additional one-page A4)
- demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work
- explain and justify how you will approach diversity and inclusion in the study population and follow the MRC embedding diversity in research design policy, if applicable
- show how you will use both sexes in research involving animals and tissues and cells, if applicable. If you are not proposing to do this, justify why
Transition support
Word count: 700 words
Why do you need additional support to fully establish yourself as an independent researcher and be competitive for funding at the next career stage?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Ensure that you explain:
- why you haven’t yet achieved the outputs that will enable you to be competitive for funding at the next career stage
- the issues you have experienced and the impact these have had on your progress
- the added value that a transition support award will offer you, clearly articulating how your proposed plans for the resources and time requested will enable you to regain research momentum and provide a platform towards research leadership
Applicant capability to deliver
Word count: 1,500
Why are you the right individual 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 make best use of the benefits presented by this funding opportunity to develop your career
- the right balance of skills and aptitude to deliver the proposed work, or feasible plans to develop these
- 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 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, 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 types for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service.
For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
References
Word count: 1,000
List the references you have used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Include all references in this section, not in the rest of the application questions.
You should not include any other information in this section.
We advise you not to include hyperlinks, as assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application.
If linking to web resources, to maintain the information’s integrity, include persistent identifiers (such as digital object identifiers) where possible.
You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
Head of department statements
Word count: 10
Provide your head of department supporting statements
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide evidence that the host organisation for your fellowship is committed to helping you realise your full potential in terms of establishing yourself as a research and innovation leader, including how they will support you and ensure your time commitment to the fellowship transition support is protected.
A signed letter of support must be provided by the head of the department where you are applying to host your fellowship transition support and uploaded to the application.
This letter of support should include:
- name and position of the person providing the statement
- how long they have known you
- their assessment of your suitability for transition support
- how they have supported you to date (if applicable)
- the commitments the department will make to support you, such as laboratory space, access to equipment, facilities and PhD students
- a commitment to provide 50% of your salary
- confirmation that 100% of your contracted working time will be protected for research, training and development
- a commitment to provide you with an open-ended position at the end of the award, in line with institutional policies
Additional letters of support may also be required, from:
Second centres
If a new second centre is involved in your fellowship application, you must also include an additional letter of support from the industrial partner or second research organisation head of department, confirming their commitment to support you.
Previous head of department
If you have recently moved department or plan to undertake your fellowship at a different department to your current affiliation, an additional letter of support should be included from your previous or current head of department, with their assessment of your suitability for transition support.
Create a PDF document that combines all your letters of support. Each letter should not be more than two sides of A4, single spaced in paper in 11-point Arial (or equivalent sans serif font) with margins of at least 2cm.
The UKRI Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
Sponsors
Word count: 3,000
Provide details of your sponsors and their support.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
A statement must be provided by at least one sponsor who is a senior member of the department where you are applying to host your fellowship transition support and who will have academic responsibility for you. If they are the same sponsor as your current fellowship they must provide an updated statement. Other sponsors can be named if necessary to support all areas of the proposed work and may be from other organisations.
A sponsor is not expected to fulfil a supervisory role during the fellowship transition support, but they act as a supporter for the application and the fellowship.
A sponsor should have expertise in the research area of the application and will act as guarantor for the quality of the proposed research, suitability of you as a fellowship transition support candidate and the quality of training and development you will receive.
An entry should be included for each sponsor, detailing:
- the sponsor’s name and current position
- in what capacity they know you
- how long they have known you
- their views on your research progress and suitability for transition support
- how they have supported you to date (if applicable)
- measures of research activity where you will be based, such as the number of academic staff
- the suitability and quality of the support, training and skills that you will receive, including how your research area fits with the priorities of the research environment
A sponsor statement should be up to 1,000 words, only use the full word count if you have multiple sponsors.
Project partners
Word count: 1,000
Provide details of any new project partners’ contributions, and letters or emails of support from each new named partner.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Download and complete the Project partner contributions template (DOCX, 52KB), to inform us of any new project partners, that are providing direct or in-kind contributions to your fellowship transition support. When completed, copy the table and paste into the text box.
Enter N/A in the text box if you do not have any new project partners.
Each new project partner must provide you with a letter or email support statement, which 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 research organisations.
Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF)
Word count: 1,500
Does your application include new industry project partners?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you don’t have any industry project partners, or your industry partners are the same as your current fellowship, you do not need to complete this section, simply enter ‘N/A’ into the text box. Only complete for new industry collaborations.
If your research project involves collaboration between an academic organisation and an industry or company, you are likely to need to follow the industry collaboration framework and answer this question, check using the ICF decision tree.
By ‘industry or company’ we mean an enterprise that puts goods or services on a market and whose commercial activities are greater than 20% of their overall annual capacity.
The assessors are looking for information relating to the nature, goals and conditions of the collaboration and any restrictions or rights to the project results that could be claimed by the project partner.
By ‘industry or company’ we mean an enterprise that puts goods or services on a market and whose commercial activities are greater than 20% of their overall annual capacity.
Find out more about ICF, including:
- collaboration agreements
- definitions of basic or applied research
- internationally based companies
- subsidy control
- Intellectual property (IP) arrangements
- fully flexible and gated contributions
- the ICF assessment criteria
In addition to the project partner information completed in the previous section, confirm your answers to the ICF questions in the text box, repeat this process for each ICF project partner:
- Name the industry or company project partner considered under ICF.
- Indicate whether your application is either basic research or applied research.
- Explain why, in the absence of the requested UKRI funding, the collaboration and the planned research could not be undertaken.
- State whether your application is under the category of either fully flexible contribution or gated contribution (based on the IP sharing arrangements with the ICF partner).
- Outline the pre-existing IP (‘background IP’) that each project partner (including the academic partner) will bring to the collaborative research project and the terms under which project partners may access these assets.
- Outline the IP that is expected to be developed during the collaborative research project (‘foreground IP’) and briefly outline how it will be managed, including:
- which project partners will own this IP
- what rights project partners will have to use academically-generated foreground IP during and after the research project, for internal research and development or for commercial purposes
- any rights of the academic partner to commercialise the foreground IP (including foreground IP generated by project partners)
- Outline any restrictions to dissemination of the project results, including the rights of the project partner to:
- review, approve or delay publications (including the time period associated with such rights)
- request or require the removal of any information
- Declare any conflicts of interest held by the applicants in relation to the project partners and describe how they will be managed.
- If applicable, justify collaborating with an overseas industry or company under ICF.
Failure to provide the information requested for industry partners under ICF could result in your application being rejected.
You are recommended to discuss the goals and conditions of any collaboration with an industry or company project partner with your university technology transfer or contracts office before applying.
Facilities
Word count: 250
Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you will need to use a facility, follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Ensure you have prior agreement so that if you are offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.
For each requested facility you will need to provide the:
- name of facility, copied and pasted from the facility information list (DOCX, 35KB)
- proposed usage or costs, or costs per unit where indicated on the facility information list
- confirmation you have their agreement where required
If you will not need to use a facility, you will be able to indicate this in the UKRI Funding Service.
Resources and cost justification
Word count: 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
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
- all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’
- support to work at a second centre in the UK or overseas
- support for training activities
- support for public and patient involvement and engagement
- support for preserving, long-term storage, or sharing of data
- NHS research costs, when they are associated with NHS studies
- animal costs, such as numbers that need to be bred or maintained and to achieve high welfare standards
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
Related applications
Word count: 500
Is this application related to another application to MRC or other funding organisation?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
State your current fellowship reference number and explain how this new application is related to the other application.
If the related application was submitted to another funder you should identify the name of the funder and when you applied.
If this is a resubmission describe how it differs from the previous application and how feedback on the previous application has been considered and acted on.
