We are running this funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
Submitting your application
Pre application stage
You must contact us at international@mrc.ukri.org before you apply to check if your application is suitable. MRC international team will confirm if you are able to apply. You must do this at least six weeks before the deadline.
You should email the programme manager, attaching a brief description of your application. The document may be up to two pages outlining the proposed partnership. The document should include:
- the title of the potential partnership
- a list of the project lead and co-leads and their affiliations
- a list of collaborators (if known at this stage)
- an estimate of the likely cost to MRC including staff and equipment
You should explain the aims of the partnership, including:
- why the partnership is important
- the applied health research the grant will build on
- the nature of the partnership and its activities
- how these activities align with the partnership grant scope
- the applied health research that will be enabled by the partnership
Stage one application stage
You should only start the stage one application if you have been invited by email to do so after the pre-application stage. The start application link will be provided via email.
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.
If the lead research organisation is an NHS organisation or an international research organisation based outside the UK, check it is available in the Funding Service. You are encouraged to check this early as there may be additional steps for the organisation to be set up before you can apply.
To apply
- 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 Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the 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 Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
- Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
- 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 Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
Deadline
We must receive your application by 13 February 2024 at 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.
Following the submission of your application to 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
MRC, 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.
Summary
Word limit: 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:
- goals to be addressed, please identify a concise and clearly articulated ultimate aim of the research
- the global health challenge the partnership addresses and its potential impact
- aims and objectives
- potential applications and benefits
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
Only list one individual as project lead.
Project leads can be from eligible UK or LMIC research organisations.
We expect all applications to this opportunity to include project co-lead (international).
Find out more about UKRI’s new grant roles.
Application questions
Keywords
Word limit:10
Provide up to five keywords that describe your application.
What assessors are looking for in your response
Provide up to a maximum of five keywords, for example: maternal health, malaria, implementation science, sub-Saharan Africa
This is for administrative purposes to help with the initial application processing and will not affect the overall assessment of your application.
Vision
Word limit: 750
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
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
We also expect you to:
- identify potential direct or indirect benefits and potential improvements in applied global 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
- explain how your work is strategically important for the LMIC(s) involved, and how the partnership will contribute to the current or future applied research landscape
- explain why establishing a partnership is necessary in this area, how the partnership is novel or adds value to the current research landscape
- explain the applied research in which the partnership is embedded
Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You must:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
- files must be smaller than 8MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Approach
Word limit: 1,250
How will you deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you have designed your work so that it:
- is innovative, 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
- ensures an equitable role for the LMIC researchers in setting the research agenda and strategic direction of the partnership
We also expect you to:
- explain how the partnership will be planned and managed
- explain how the partnership will enable researchers to work together, network and build capability in a strategic area
- demonstrate how the partnership will benefit the wider research community
- if applicable, explain how partnership services, equipment or infrastructure will be accessed by the wider research community
- outline future plans for sustaining the partnership beyond MRC funding, or for funding applied research which may develop from the partnership
- outline how engagement of relevant stakeholders, such as end-users, healthcare workers, policy makers and implementers, is embedded throughout the design and delivery of the partnership.
- explain the proposed timeline including milestones and a diagrammatic workplan, such as a Gantt chart, which can be embed within the text box
Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You must:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
- files must be smaller than 8MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Capacity strengthening
Word limit: 250
What are your capacity strengthening plans for the partnership?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you have embedded appropriate capacity building activities within the proposed work. Within this section we expect you to:
- detail research capacity building needs, opportunities and planned activities
- explain who will participate in delivering these activities and who will benefit from them
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 1,500
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
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 and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) 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.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service.
For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
References
Word limit: 1,000
List the references you’ve used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response:
You should include all references in this section of the application, and 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.
Project partners
Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities. The individual named as the contact for the project partner organisation cannot also be a named applicant, such as all those with a role of project lead, project –co-lead UK, project co-lead (international) and any other named member of staff.
Add the following project partner details:
- the organisation name (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
- the project partner contact name and email address
- the type of contribution (direct or in-direct) and its monetary value
Letters or emails of support are not required from project partners at stage one of the application process (they will be required if you are invited to apply to the full application stage two.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
If an individual or organisation outside the core team is responsible for recruitment of people as research participants or providing human tissue for this project, list them as a project partner.
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
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
Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:
- the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
- how you will manage these considerations
Consider the MRC guidance on ethics and approvals.
Financial information and equity
Word limit: 500
Provide a high-level indication of how much each research organisation will need.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a breakdown of the funding requested for each eligible organisation, by copying and pasting the table provided into the text box. You should then add the cost figures relevant to each organisation involved. The table has separate column headings, which will allow you to clearly define the costs you are claiming for each participating organisation, depending on where they are based:
- low and middle-income countries (LMIC)
- the UK
- non-UK high income countries (HIC) including India
Important note: a narrative justification of your costs is not required during stage one of the application process.
Further organisation finance guidance
Low and middle-income countries (LMIC)
LMICs are defined as those on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list.
You must include costs associated with LMIC organisations as exceptions (100%).
Important note: You can claim an additional 20% on top of the total LMIC exception costs for each specific LMIC organisation. These additional funds are a contribution towards indirect costs incurred by the LMIC overseas organisation over the duration of the project (excluding India).
Important note: There is no cap on eligible funds attributed to international project co-leads from DAC list countries, excluding India.
UK based research organisations costs
All UK based costs must comply with the principles of full economic costing (FEC) of applications and claimed accordingly (if the application is successful, we would typically fund 80% of the UK based costs claimed).
High Income Country based international organisation (including India) costs
A HIC international organisation (based overseas, including India), will not be on the OECD/DAC list of official development assistance recipients (therefore not defined as an LMIC).
Costs associated with HIC international organisations must be claimed as an exception (100%).
All costs attributed to international HICs, including India must not exceed 30% of the total FEC costs claimed.
Do not include indirect costs for organisations based within any HIC international organisation, as these are not permitted. Do not claim the 20% extra costs as this is for LMIC based organisations only (excluding India).
Provide a breakdown of the funding request per organisation by completing the table provided in the Funding Service.
Related applications
Word limit: 800
Is this application related to another application to MRC or other funding organisation?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not enter ‘N/A’.
If yes, state your previous 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.
