We are running this funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
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, 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
You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so following a successful stage one application. The start application link will be provided via email.
- 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 1 February 2024 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.
Publication of outcomes
MRC as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at Applied global health research board – funding decisions.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word count limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary that can be sent to potential reviewers to determine if your application is within their field of expertise. 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 general public
- the wider research community.
Guidance for writing a summary
Succinctly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- goals to be addressed, please identify a concise and clearly articulated ultimate aim of the research
- its context
- the global health challenge the research addresses and its potential impact
- its aims and objectives
- its 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
Related applications
Word limit: 1,000
How have you addressed the feedback from your AGHRB stage one application?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Ensure you:
- describe how you have responded to feedback from stage one
- clearly outline any changes that have been made to the project plans, including any decisions made following correspondence with MRC staff
Include in this section the reference number to your stage one application.
Vision
Word limit: 750
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
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 in LMICs
- is driven by the needs of populations in the LMIC where the research is taking place
- is generalisable beyond the research setting
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
- consider issues such as burden of disease and priority for the relevant local, regional, and national health services
- provide evidence that the answer to your research question is needed and wanted by relevant users, policymakers or both
- identify the evidence-gap that the research will fill
- describe the changes that might be implemented as a result of the project, and by whom
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: 3,000
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
- 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
- has appropriate engagement plans with users, key stakeholders and target populations, and the appropriate communication and knowledge exchange plans
- if applicable, summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed
- uses a clear and transparent methodology
- provide details of the methodological approaches, study design and techniques that will be used. Enough detail must be given to show why the research is likely to be competitive in its field. Particular care should be taken to explain any innovation in the methodology or where you intend to develop new methods
- briefly describe any pilot or preliminary data you have available to help the reviewers assess the feasibility of the proposed study
- if applicable, clearly explain the intervention you will be testing, what it consists of and why
- if applicable, demonstrate that you have carried out a datasets review, and explicitly state why currently available datasets are either appropriate or inadequate for the proposed research
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
- outline how co-production with relevant stakeholders, such as end-users, healthcare workers, policy makers and implementers, is embedded throughout the design and delivery of the study
- identify the research participants and the setting(s) in which the research will take place. Where a particular setting is proposed which excludes the most vulnerable, for example the school setting, considerations should be made to include vulnerable groups or justify the choice not to
- fully justify the target population identified in your application, with clear consideration of the potential for differences according to socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, age group or other characteristics. Refer to the MRC embedding diversity in research design policy (if applicable)
- explain the proposed timeline including milestones and a diagrammatic workplan, such as a Gantt chart, which can be embed within the text box
You have the option to use 500 words to provide additional information about reproducibility and how you will ensure reliability and robustness of your work, such as further details of statistical analyses, methodology and experimental design. If this information is not applicable, then you should not use this space to expand on other areas of your approach and your response to this section should be around 2,500 words.
The reproducibility information should be clearly identified using the heading ‘Reproducibility and statistical design’. We expect you to seek professional statistical or other relevant advice in preparing your response, which may include:
- experimental approach to address objectives
- sample and effect sizes
- planned statistical analyses
- models chosen (for example animal model, cell line)
Refer to the MRC guidance for applicants, section 2.2.3.5 ‘Reproducibility and statistical design’, for further information, examples and online tools.
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
Research capacity strengthening
Word limit: 500
What are your capacity strengthening plans for the research project?
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 capacity building needs, opportunities and planned activities
- explain who will participate in delivering these activities and who will benefit from them
Gender equality
Word limit: 500
How will your research project contribute to reducing gender inequalities?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Outline how you have taken meaningful yet proportionate consideration to how the project will contribute to reducing gender inequalities. Within this section we expect you to consider:
- whether measures have been put in place to ensure equal and meaningful opportunities for people of different genders to be involved throughout the project. This includes the development of the project, the participants of the research and innovation, and the beneficiaries of the research and innovation
- the expected impact of the project (benefits and losses) on people of different genders, both throughout the project and beyond
- the impact on the relations between people of different genders and people of the same gender. For example, changing roles and responsibilities in households, society, economy, politics or power
- how any risks and unintended negative consequences on gender equality will be avoided or mitigated against, and monitored
- whether there are any relevant outcomes and outputs being measured, with data disaggregated by age and gender (where disclosed)
ODA Compliance
Word limit: 500
How does your proposed work meet ODA compliance eligibility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
As part of your application, you are required to provide an ODA compliance statement which explains how your research is compliant. Your statement should answer the following questions:
- which country or countries on the OECD DAC list of ODA recipients will directly benefit from this application and are these countries likely to continue to be eligible to receive ODA for the duration of the research? Refer to the DAC list for information about countries that will be considered for graduation at the next review
- how is your application directly and primarily relevant to the development challenges of these countries? Provide evidence of the development need and articulate how the proposed activity is appropriate to address this need
- how do you expect that the outcome of your proposed activities will promote the economic development and welfare of a country or countries on the DAC list?
- what approaches will you use to deliver development impact within the lifetime of the project and in the longer-term? Consider the potential outcomes, the key beneficiary and stakeholder groups in the DAC list country or countries and how they will be engaged to ensure opportunities for them to benefit and to enable development impact to be achieved
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 limit 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 have 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
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.
If your application includes industry project partners, you will also need to complete the Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF) section.
Find out more about ICF.
Project partners: letters or emails of support
Word limit: 10
Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the project partner section.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
Important note: Related to the content of your project partner support document, you should:
- only provide letters or emails of support from individuals or organisations named in the project partner role in this application unless:
- the letter is from a Ministry/Department of Health
- the letter is from an intergovernmental organisation such as the World Health Organisation
- not upload any other information apart from project partner letters of support
- not provide letters of support from host and co-project lead research organisations
Important note: If you include additional information we have not asked for, your application will be rejected.
Each letter or email you provide should:
- be no more than two A4 pages
- 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
If the project partner is responsible for recruitment of people as research participants or providing human tissue their letter or email should include:
- agreement that the project partner will recruit the participants or provide tissue
- confirmation that what is being supplied is suitable for the proposed work
- confirmation that the quantity of tissue being supplied is suitable, but not excessive for achieving meaningful results (if applicable)
Unless specifically requested, do not include any sensitive personal data within the attachment. Upload details are provided within the service on the actual application.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF)
Word limit: 1,500
Does your application include industry project partners?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If industry collaboration does not apply to any of your project partners, or you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box.
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.
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 limit: 250
Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not, enter ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move on to the next section.
If you will need to use a facility, you should follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Where prior agreement is required, ensure you obtain their agreement that, should you be offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.
In the text box following, for each requested facility you should provide:
- the name of facility, copied and pasted from facility information list (DOCX, 36.7KB)
- the proposed usage or costs, or costs per unit where indicated on that list
- confirmation you have their agreement where required
Do not put the facility contact details in your response.
Data management and sharing
Word limit: 1,500
How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed research?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a data management plan which should clearly detail how you will comply with MRC’s published data management and sharing policies, which includes detailed guidance notes. Provide your response following the MRC data management plan template.
The length of your plan will vary depending on the type of study being undertaken:
- population cohorts; longitudinal studies; genetic, omics and imaging data; biobanks, and other collections that are potentially a rich resource for the wider research community: maximum of 1500 words
- for all other research, including less complex, the plan may be as short as 500 words
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.
Genetic and biological risk
Word limit: 700
Does your proposed research involve any genetic or biological risk?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
In respect of animals, or microbes, are you proposing to:
- use genetic modification as an experimental tool, like studying gene function in a genetically modified organism
- release genetically modified organisms
- ultimately develop commercial and industrial genetically modified outcomes
If yes, provide the name of any required approving body and state if approval is already in place. If it is not, provide an indicative timeframe for obtaining the required approval.
Identify the organism or organisms as a plant, animal or microbe and specify the species and which of the three categories the research relates to.
Identify the genetic and biological risks resulting from the proposed research, their implications, and any mitigation you plan. Assessors will want to know you have considered the risks and their implications to justify that any identified risks do not outweigh any benefits of the proposed research.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving the use of animals
Word limit:10
Does your proposed research involve the use of vertebrate animals or other organisms covered by the Animals Scientific Procedures Act?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing research that requires using animals, download and complete the Animals Scientific Procedures Act template (DOCX, 74KB), which contains all the questions relating to research using vertebrate animals or other Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 regulated organisms.
Save it as a PDF. The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Conducting research with animals overseas
Word limit: 10
Will any of the proposed animal research be conducted overseas?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing to conduct overseas research, it must be conducted in accordance with welfare standards consistent with those in the UK, as in Responsibility in the use of animals in bioscience research, page 14.
Ensure all named applicants in the UK and overseas are aware of this requirement. Provide a statement to confirm that:
- all named applicants are aware of the requirements and have agreed to abide by them
- this overseas research will be conducted in accordance with welfare standards consistent with the principles of UK legislation
- the expectation set out in Responsibility in the use of animals in bioscience research will be applied and maintained
- appropriate national and institutional approvals are in place
Overseas studies proposing to use non-human primates, cats, dogs, equines, or pigs will be assessed during NC3Rs review of research applications. Provide the required information by completing the template from the question ‘Research involving the use of animals’.
For studies involving other species, select, download, and complete the relevant Word checklist or checklists from this list:
Save as a PDF. If you use more than one checklist, save it as a single PDF.
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving human participation
Word limit: 700
Will the project involve the use of human subjects or their personal information?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing research that requires the involvement of human subjects, provide the name of any required approving body and whether approval is already in place.
Justify the number and the diversity of the participants involved, as well as any procedures.
Provide details of any areas of substantial or moderate severity of impact.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving human tissues or biological samples
Word limit: 700
Does your proposed research involve the use of human tissues, or biological samples?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing work that involves human tissues or biological samples, provide the name of any required approving body and whether approval is already in place.
Justify the use of human tissue or biological samples specifying the nature and quantity of the material to be used and its source.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,200
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)
- any equipment that will cost more than £10,000
- any consumables beyond typical requirements, or required in exceptional quantities
- all facilities and infrastructure costs
- public and patient involvement and engagement costs
- costs related to preserving, long-term storage, or sharing of data
- demonstrate all exception costs associated with organisations based in non-UK high-income countries (HIC) (as well as India) do not total more than 30% of the FEC. There is no cap on costs requested for organisations based within low and middle-income countries (LMICs)
- all LMIC exception costs
- NHS research costs, when they are associated with NHS studies
- animal costs, such as numbers and husbandry
Assessors are not looking for a detailed or a line-by-line breakdown of costs, they would like 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
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
Adding costs for each organisation
Further details are provided within the Funding Service how to include your costs.
You should ensure all costs related to LMIC and overseas HIC based organisations are added as ‘Exceptions’.
Staff costs and non-staff costs relevant to research organisations based within the UK are at claimed 80% of the full economic cost.
LMIC international organisations only
You may claim up to an additional 20% on top of the total LMIC organisation exception costs claimed (this additional 20% is a contribution towards indirect costs related to the work being undertaken at the LMIC organisation (excluding India). This additional cost is claimed as an exception cost, under the ‘Other’ funding heading within the funding service.
Important note: There is no cap on eligible funds attributed to international project co-leads from DAC list countries.
Lead agency applications
Word limit: 50
Is your application using a lead agency agreement?
What assessors and looking for in your response
If not enter ‘N/A’ in the text box.
If your application is using a lead agency agreement (LAA), identify the agreement concerned by answering ‘Yes’ followed by ‘FAPESP’ or ‘FNR’:
- lead agency agreement with Luxembourg (FNR)
- lead agency agreement with Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
The assessors are looking for you to create and upload the required lead agency documents, to support your application. You must complete all the relevant documentation and attach it to this application as a single PDF.
FAPESP
FAPESP applicants must complete the FAPESP-specific forms.
Documents and guidance are available on the FAPESP website, including a FAPESP:
- consolidated budget form
- proposal form
- letter of eligibility
FNR
FNR applicants should complete the FNR-specific forms.
Documents and guidance are available on the FNR website, including:
- INTER budget sheet
- INTER budget justification
- INTER budget plan
- FNR eligibility letter of support
You must also complete the project partners section, with information about the international research partner, including:
- international lead applicant contact name and organisation details
- contribution from the international funder (FAPESP or FNR)
Include the experience, skills and contributions of your international research partners in the response to Applicant and team capability to deliver.
You should ensure that you have read and understood the specific requirements for the LAA you are applying to, especially for costing the applications. Failure to comply with the specific LAA guidance may result in the rejection of your application.
You must submit the joint application to the international funder within seven days after your submission to MRC.
For general FAPESP guidance please see the FAPESP website.
For general FNR guidance please see the FNR website.
