Apply for funding to establish a centre in community participation and connectedness.
This centre will be a world-leading centre of excellence carrying out interdisciplinary, cutting-edge and impactful research.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be between £5 million and £9.7 million. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC.
Funding is available for up to 5 years.
The principal investigator for this funding opportunity must be based at an organisation eligible for UKRI funding for the duration of the grant.
Eligible organisations are:
Check if your institution is eligible for funding.
This funding opportunity is being administered by ESRC on behalf of UKRI.
Standard ESRC eligibility rules for co-investigators apply.
It is likely that successful applications will be led by experienced researchers who are internationally recognised, with proven ability to deliver a large-scale project successfully and lead an investment of this nature.
The amount of time committed to the grant by the principal investigator and co-investigators must be costed into the proposal, but very small fractions of co-investigator time should be avoided.
Our standard research funding rules apply for staff engaged in more than 1 grant (see the ESRC research funding guide).
International co-investigators can be included in proposals.
Academic researchers (at PhD or equivalent status) must be from established overseas research organisations of comparable standing to UKRI-eligible UK research organisations to be listed as international co-investigators under this funding opportunity.
Applicants should note ESRC’s policy on the inclusion of international co-investigators on proposals.
International collaboration is not limited to co-investigators but may also involve partnerships to:
We welcome inter-institutional applications and strongly encourage collaboration to fulfil the aims of the centre.
Partnerships are encouraged with non-HEI organisations and across third sector, business and the public sector, either as project partners or as co-investigators.
We will fund all justified costs associated with international co-investigators and co-investigators from UK business, civil society or government bodies at 100% FEC. However, these combined costs must not exceed 30% of the full 100% FEC cost of the grant.
Applications to the centre in community participation and connectedness competition will not be counted in the demand management measures in place for ESRC’s open centres funding opportunity.
Please note that proposals for this centre cannot also be submitted through ESRC’s open centres funding opportunity. Applicants submitting the same or a similar proposal to this funding opportunity and the open competition will be withdrawn from the open funding opportunity.
We are looking to fund a centre that is focused on supporting and strengthening connectedness and participation in place-based communities across the UK.
The centre will bring together the right people, disciplines, institutions, and infrastructure to provide the evidence needed for this challenge within a 5-year timeframe.
When participation is low, communities can struggle to mobilise social capital and coordinate to identify and address challenges. Strengthening connectedness within and between communities can play an important role in reducing the social and economic marginalisation of individuals, groups, and areas.
There is still much to understand about how disparity in opportunities and outcomes, attachment to place, and external pressures intersect at the community level, and what this can mean for community connectedness and levels of participation. There also remains a lack of evidence on the impact of interventions designed to strengthen community:
Evidence is needed at a local, regional, and national level to ensure that decision makers understand the causal relationships between place-based disparities and community connectedness and can draw upon clear strategies that support community efforts to address these disparities.
We expect this evidence and research centre to bring together research disciplines that span UKRI’s remit, for example, but not limited to:
The aim is to deliver cutting-edge interdisciplinary research that supports decision makers in understanding, developing and testing approaches that strengthen:
This interdisciplinary centre will advance understanding of the factors and conditions that affect levels of community connectedness and cohesion within and across areas and extrapolate learning about the transferability of these lessons.
The successful applicants will have to demonstrate that their ambitions for the centre go beyond describing barriers and enablers to delivering impactful solutions within the lifetime of the award.
The centre will need to demonstrate a strong commitment to working with community partners – collaborating with communities in specific locations to understand how contextual factors and the actions of local, regional, and national institutions and actors combine and relate to levels of community connectedness and participation.
Applicants should demonstrate the wider applicability of, and capacity to scale, their community-level work.
The centre must also undertake broader activity such as the collection and use of data to build a comprehensive evidence base that has national-level relevance.
The centre’s objectives will be to:
We invite applications that focus on a range of different topic areas relevant to community connectedness and participation. Examples of potential topics could include:
Developing new approaches to measuring community participation and connectedness that would allow for the impact of interventions to be evaluated. For example, the use of machine learning for social network analysis.
Advancing understanding of people’s psychological and behavioural responses to their built environment and the impact on community behaviours. For example, public order, local consultation.
Understanding how cultural, heritage, environmental assets (for example, museums, waterways, and parks) and other public or private spaces affect, and can be used to strengthen, community connectedness and participation.
Developing community engagement methodologies that account for the ethical issues that arise in testing the effectiveness of approaches to strengthening community connectedness and participation. For example, from public trust to the representativeness of community-level organisations, groups, and networks.
Using existing local, regional, or national administrative data to address the centre’s aims. This could also include drawing upon existing UKRI data collections and infrastructure as appropriate, for example:
The centre will advance understanding of how communities can achieve high levels of connectedness, social capital and participation and extrapolate learning about the transferability of these lessons.
Key outcomes should include:
Applicants will develop and add to this agenda and can propose a title for this UKRI centre in line with the focus described here. Successful applicants will need to seek approval for a new title for this centre from the UKRI Creating Opportunities, Improving Outcomes Programme Board.
We expect to fund a single centre through this funding opportunity.
You must demonstrate that your centre will deliver:
High-quality, interdisciplinary, internationally recognised research findings to address unanswered questions about a defined challenge to our society, economy or both.
In this case, the centre will need to articulate how the proposed programme of work will increase understanding of, and develop and test approaches that strengthen, community connectedness and participation.
Significant economic and societal impact, demonstrating that the centre is responding to their specified challenge.
Impact should be a major consideration throughout the scoping of a proposal, and during and beyond the lifetime of a centre. Research users should be engaged from the initial planning phases through to the end of an award.
The resources needed to become a centre of excellence that adds value to the wider community. This will include developing the people, producing the data and creating the infrastructure needed to respond to their specified challenge, as well as making use of existing datasets and infrastructure.
You should clearly articulate your plans for career development.
UKRI is a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, and the Technician Commitment, through these UKRI commits to support the professional and career development of researchers and technicians through its funding opportunities. You are encouraged to consider both leadership development and capacity building in your plans.
Leadership development skills should be considered at all career stages to equip researchers in the centre with the leadership skills needed to be able to design, lead and deliver large and complex or interdisciplinary projects and teams.
Research leadership should go beyond project management to include a capacity to enthuse, ignite and sustain an intellectual vision that is inclusive, flexible and open to challenge. The report fit for the future: research leadership matters gives insight into the skills related to research leadership at different career stages and some preliminary suggestions for how those skills might be supported across the career life-course.
You should also demonstrate how you plan to build capacity among decision makers to use evidence as well as building skills in academia, policy and industry engagement among research staff and technicians at all career levels, from PHD students to early and mid-career academics to established professors.
Up to 3 associated studentships may also be included in this application, for those Doctoral Training Partnerships eligible to receive studentships from 2024.
Centres should maximise the use of relevant existing data resources in the first instance, as well as (where appropriate) producing data that responds to their proposed challenge and is of value to the wider community.
Data collection and management should be in accordance with our research data policy.
UKRI funds a range of data infrastructures that are available and free to use for all bona fide researchers (subject to appropriate data sharing considerations).
You should consider the structure of your proposed centre to ensure it can successfully deliver the objectives of the funding opportunity, whether through a consortium approach or single institution.
The successful centre will be required to partner, collaborate and engage with a wide range of stakeholders and disciplines to agree priorities and deliver key activities.
Partnerships with non-higher education institutions organisations across government, industry and civil society, as well as internationally are encouraged where appropriate.
You must include a brief management plan in your case for support, demonstrating:
You should also include details of any advisory group that will be appointed to oversee the development of the centre.
ESRC will work with the appointed centre on their governance arrangements to ensure suitable representation from government departments and representation from the UKRI creating opportunities, improving outcomes theme (see the ‘additional information’ section).
You are also expected to indicate your plans for monitoring progress against your logic model, and any plans for self-evaluation throughout the lifetime of the award.
The successful centre will be allocated an ESRC investment manager who will work with their centre to agree a monitoring and evaluation plan in the starting phase of the award. This will include submitting quarterly updates on progress to UKRI’s creating opportunities, improving outcomes programme board and regular reporting and meetings between ESRC and the centre, for the centre to update ESRC on activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts as well as spend and any key challenges or concerns.
We will be looking for evidence of long-term strategic and financial institutional commitment to the proposed centre, above the required 20% (as UKRI funds at 80% FEC). This should be through the provision of grant-associated parallel activities. Examples include but are not limited to:
Outline proposals must include an institutional letter of support from the pro-vice chancellor of research (or equivalent role) from the lead organisation that confirms the research organisation’s commitment to the centre application.
If the application is from an existing UKRI investment then this should be noted in the letter of support.
You must ensure that the proposed research will be carried out to a high ethical standard.
You must clearly state how any potential ethical, safeguarding and health and safety issues have been considered and will be addressed, ensuring that all necessary ethical approval is in place and all risks are minimised before the award commences.
All proposals must comply with the ESRC framework for research ethics.
Promoting EDI is an integral part of UKRI’s vision to deliver new knowledge and an enriched, healthier, more sustainable and resilient society and culture, and to contribute to a more prosperous economy.
You are expected to demonstrate throughout your proposal how you will consider EDI during the centre’s lifetime.
UKRI recognises that we must embed environmental sustainability in everything we do.
You are expected to consider the environmental impact of the centre’s activities and to put in place actions that encourage sustainability and mitigate any risk of environmental harm.
Outline proposals must be submitted to the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system by 17 May 2023 at 4:00pm UK time.
Electronic acknowledgements will be sent to the principal investigator and submitting organisation.
All proposals must be submitted in English or Welsh, costed in pounds sterling using the Je-S system.
Proposals can only be accepted by electronic submission through the Je-S system.
The proposal has 2 elements:
All attachments should be completed offline and uploaded as attachments in Je-S. We recommend uploading attachments as PDF documents.
Generic guidance on the completion of the structured boxes and sections of the form is available from the Je-S help screens, which can be found at the top righthand corner of each Je-S screen.
You must ensure that you have read and complied with:
Where funding opportunity-specific guidance provided in these documents differs from generic Je-S help, the funding opportunity-specific guidance should always be followed. Care and attention must be given to completing the proposal correctly and complying with all technical requirements. Proposals that are not completed correctly may be rejected by the ESRC office.
The final submission process is the responsibility of the host institution, and ESRC cannot accept responsibility for any delays which may occur. It is recommended that applicants submit in good time before the funding opportunity deadline.
We strongly advise applicants to confirm with their relevant administrator that the proposal has been submitted successfully to ESRC.
The assessment of applications will be a 2-stage process:
Outline proposals will be assessed and shortlisted by an interdisciplinary assessment panel. Shortlisted applicants will subsequently be invited to submit applications to the full proposal stage.
Full proposals will be subject to external peer review and assessed by an interdisciplinary commissioning panel. Shortlisted proposals will be invited to interview. Representatives from the funders will participate in the interview panel. Representatives from government departments, as a key user group of the evidence generated by the centre, may also be invited to participate in the assessment panel.
Scientific excellence with impact is the primary criterion and is an essential requirement of all proposals.
All outline proposals will be scored according to ESRC’s scoring scale for panel introducers (page 3).
Proposals which demonstrate that they meet the following criteria are most likely to likely to be invited to apply for the full stage:
For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.
Email: esrc.centres@esrc.ukri.org
This centre is jointly funded by central funding from UKRI and ESRC.
By working collectively and leveraging new and existing investment and activity, we are harnessing the full power of the UK’s research and innovation system to tackle large-scale, complex challenges.
This award falls under the umbrella of the UKRI creating opportunities, improving outcomes strategic theme, 1 of 5 UKRI strategic themes identified through our 5-year strategy transforming tomorrow together 2022 to 2027.
Through this theme, UKRI aims to increase understanding of the causes and effects of place-based disparities and identify empowering new solutions that promote prosperity and improve outcomes for people and communities across the UK.
Investments made under the creating opportunities improving outcome’s theme are intended to support research and innovation activity across the full breadth of UKRI’s remit and are overseen by a cross-UKRI programme board.
The full proposal stage of this funding opportunity is likely to run on TFS our new funding platform, rather than via Je-S.
If successful at the outline stage, you will be invited to submit a full application, and will receive guidance at that point.
TFS has a digital form-based format with sections addressing application questions which are the assessment criteria for the funding opportunity.
