Your eligibility to work on a project as an individual will depend on whether you’re applying for:
- an individual funding opportunity (for example, a fellowship)
- a role in a research team (for example, principal investigator or co-investigator)
Fellowships and other individual funding opportunities
Some funding opportunities are for a single person only. These include research fellowships and Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation and Ideas Mean Business – Young Innovators Awards.
If you’re interested in applying for one of these funding opportunities the first thing to do is to check the specific eligibility criteria.
Each has its own criteria. For example, some fellowships will require you to be in a specific career stage or situation, such as returning to research after a career break.
Find out more about fellowships and other funding for researchers.
Individual roles on research teams
You usually need a certain level of experience or job status to be eligible for particular roles in UKRI-funded projects.
For example, to be a principal investigator you might need to:
- hold a PhD or equivalent qualification
- be a permanent employee or treated as one throughout the proposed research project – see eligibility as an organisation for more information
- devote a set amount of your working hours to delivering the research project
Eligibility varies. You should check the specific criteria of a funding opportunity before applying.
You can participate in UK-based projects if you are a researcher based outside the UK. Find out more about getting funding as an international researcher.