Unsuccessful applicants and resubmissions - BBSRC

BBSRC policy on resubmissions and revised submissions

We do not accept applications that have been peer reviewed or are currently undergoing peer review by another research council or funding body. Multiple resubmissions of essentially the same work, without revisions reflecting further advances in the research or solely addressing reviewer feedback, puts extra pressure on everyone involved in our peer review process, with limited chances of success.

If you submit an application to another research council and it is judged to be out of their remit before undergoing peer review, you can submit it to BBSRC if it is within our remit.

If an application is identified as being an uninvited resubmission, it will be rejected.

If in any doubt as to whether an application falls within the remit of BBSRC, contact the remit team by emailing remit@bbsrc.ukri.org

BBSRC expects submitted applications to have been carefully planned and written by the applicants. They should also be quality assured, for example through institutional or departmental processes, so they are highly competitive for funding.

Considerations when preparing new applications

BBSRC expects previously unfunded applications to be substantially updated and revised before being submitted for funding again.

For an application to be considered significantly different, and therefore not a resubmission, we expect:

  • more than 50% of the objectives or work packages to be ‘new’ and not listed in applications previously submitted to BBSRC by the applicants
  • the scientific approach to meet the objectives to be different
  • required resources to be different

Any decision regarding whether an application is deemed to be significantly different will be made by BBSRC and will be considered as final.

It is the responsibility of the project lead to ensure that their application is not a resubmission to the satisfaction of BBSRC.

Invited resubmissions

The committee may invite an applicant to resubmit their application to allow for small modifications or further development and improvements

There is no guarantee that a resubmitted application will be successful, as it will be in competition with a new set of applications. We will invite some reviewers and assessors who commented on the previously submitted application.

Where a resubmission is invited by the committee, you must inform BBSRC by emailing peer.review@bbsrc.ukri.org

In the subject line of your email include:

  • funding opportunity
  • application number

See the ‘Sensitive information’ section of the funding opportunity page for further information.

Last updated: 8 July 2025

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