The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) works with partners in the UK and abroad to help researchers and research organisations get maximum value from international collaborations and opportunities. As well as undertaking joint funding activities in strategically important areas, we seek to put in place agreements with research funding organisations overseas where opportunities present themselves.
We have also signed an agreement under Science Europe’s ‘money follows researcher’ initiative to allow researchers to transfer grants between the UK and other Science Europe member countries, subject to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) agreed conditions.
Lead agency agreements
Lead agency agreements provide a framework for joint peer review of proposals by two funding agencies in different countries. One organisation takes the lead in managing the review process with an agreed level of participation by the other, and both agencies accept the outcome of the review process and fund the costs of the successful applications in their respective countries.
Through UKRI we have lead agency agreements and opportunities with:
- Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR) in Luxembourg
- Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) in Brazil
- National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US
We also have lead agency agreements with:
- Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
- the International Institute of Advanced Systems Analysis (IIASA) with the Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council
Money follows cooperation agreement
Money follows cooperation agreements are a mechanism that allow the opening of, under set conditions, national funding programmes for co-investigators from the other signatory country. This strengthens cross-border cooperation and supports researcher-driven international cooperation.
Both organisations involved reciprocally open agreed national research funding opportunities to applications involving researchers from the other country as co-investigators.
Through UKRI we have a money follows cooperation agreement with:
- Research Council Norway in Norway