We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
For teams where there is more than one project lead, the team should choose one of the project lead’s organisations to be responsible for submitting the application and administering the award should the application be successful.
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 administrative research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
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
- 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.
Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. If using visual elements, 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)
- ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
Deadline
EPSRC must receive your application by 4.00pm UK time on 9 May 2024.
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. If an application is withdrawn prior to peer review or office rejected due to substantive errors in the application, it cannot be resubmitted to the opportunity.
Personal data
Processing personal data
EPSRC, 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
EPSRC as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
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:
- context
- aims and objectives
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
With this funding opportunity we are piloting a flexible leadership model. Please see the ‘Who can apply’ section for more information. You may list up to four individuals as project leads.
Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.
Application questions
Vision
Word limit: 1,000
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work:
- has the potential to advance current EDI good practice understanding, generate new knowledge transfer across the UK, facilitate enhanced sharing of what works and more collaborative ways of working by promoting cohesion and coordination of EDI action across the engineering, physical and mathematical sciences community
- is timely given current activity, context and needs of the engineering, physical and mathematical sciences research and innovation community
- will impact and add value by contributing to a positive culture change in equality, diversity, and inclusion within the engineering, physical and mathematical sciences research and innovation community across the UK
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant, see guidance in ‘How to apply’.
Please evidence the types of activities you expect the sharing hub would undertake, we expect these will evolve during the lifetime of the sharing hub and should be co-created and collaborative in nature.
Approach
Word limit: 2,500
How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you have designed your approach so that it:
- is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
- is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
- utilises the flexible fund effectively to empower and support the community to embed and share EDI good practice
- maximises the added value from any project partners and host support
- will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and deliver added value and impact to the engineering, physical and mathematical sciences research community while the hub is ‘in flight’. With key performance indicators or success features and a methodology for evaluation and tracking impact over time embedded into the hub
- will enable the sharing hub to work with EPSRC to put in place key performance indicators and a methodology for evaluation and tracking impact over time. In your application, include suitable key performance indicators or metrics and success features that you will use in determining value
- will maximise the sustainability of hub activities
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant, see guidance in ‘How to apply’.
Please evidence the types of activities you expect the sharing hub would undertake, we expect these will evolve during the lifetime of the sharing hub and should be co-created and collaborative in nature.
Governance and advisory structure
Word limit: 500
How will you lead and manage the sharing hub to successfully deliver its aims?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you will successfully deliver the hub’s aims by providing:
- a description of the leadership and management structure, that ensures clear delineation of roles and responsibilities among the project leads, co-project leads, and any project manager and support roles, while utilising advice obtained from an independent advisory group. This advisory group should be set up by the sharing hub leadership team. We would expect the prospective Chair to be identified in the application
- the approach to the oversight and coordination of the sharing hub and its activities
- the approach to the governance and management of the flexible fund, giving a clear indication of what the flexible fund will be used for
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant, see guidance in ‘How to apply’.
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 2,500
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 (including collaborators), have:
- the relevant skills and experience, appropriate to career stage, to design, lead and build geographically distributed networks across the UK, as well as coordinate community led EDI activities that support knowledge exchange on good practices across the engineering, physical and mathematical sciences research and innovation community
- the proven ability to work respectfully and collaboratively across disciplines and diverse stakeholder groups, demonstrating wide and inclusive reach
- the appropriate leadership, management skills and exemplary EDI practice to deliver the work and to develop the career of others
- the ability to bring about positive culture change in the wider community
Ensure to include any changes and why you have made these changes to your team since your stage one outline application. Add this information to the R4RI additions heading , see guidance below.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the service.
The word count for this section is 2,500 words; 1,500 words to be used for R4RI modules and, if necessary, a further 1,000 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 including any changes and why you have made these changes to your team since your stage one outline application. This section is optional and can be up to 1,000 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
Include all references in this section, 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.
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.
Add the following project partner details:
- the organisation name and address (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
If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
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
Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter N/A. Each letter or email you provide should:
- 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
Save letters or emails of support from each partner in a single PDF no bigger than 8MB. Unless specially requested, please do not include any sensitive personal data within the attachment.
For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Project partner’.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the contributions template.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Do not provide letters of support from host and project co-leads’ research organisations.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,000
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 or to conferences)
- any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’
- any equipment/resources to support networking, events and communication including the cost of any external communication, including website development
- flexible funding allocation – this devolved funding is to be awarded to sharing hub members for small projects (typically less than £100,000). it is expected that these projects will be scoped in collaboration with people in the community. Include the flexible commissioning fund in your application costings, specifying the total size of the fund according to the balance of activity that the leadership team propose to undertake directly versus devolve to community members via the fund
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
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
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
If you are collecting or using data, identify:
- any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies to not preclude further reuse of data
- formal information standards with which your study will comply
EDI plan
Word limit: 1,000
How will you ensure EDI is considered in all aspects of how the sharing hub will operate?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You are expected to prepare a full equality, diversity and inclusion plan for the duration of this award to underpin how this hub will operate and to demonstrate exemplary practice in equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the lifetime of this funding award.
Plans should include but are not limited to:
- how the leadership team will ensure an inclusive approach to engaging stakeholders across the four nations of the UK, particularly underrepresented and /or marginalised groups
- how the leadership team, when engaging with people from across the community, will provide a psychologically safe environment
- how the leadership team will ensure fair recruitment of any staff that are employed to support the hub, with career development opportunities and flexible working practice
- the approach and process ensures inclusive, fair, transparent and objective decision making when allocating funding
- that the proposed approaches ensure the hub embeds inclusive and accessible practices in the way that it operates, and that EDI is embedded throughout all aspects of the sharing hub
Community and Engagement Plan
Word limit: 1,000
What is your community engagement strategy and how will you use this plan to engage with a wide range of people with different expertise and experiences?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You are expected to develop and execute a strategy and plan for engaging with a wide range of people with different expertise and experiences from across the research and innovation community.
Plans should include but are not limited to:
- an explanation of the key groups or individuals you consider to be the key stakeholders with whom you will engage with, in the context of the EDI challenges and opportunities in the engineering, physical and mathematical sciences research and innovation system
- the approach to ensuring wide reach across the four nations of the UK and inclusive engagement will be obtained with a wide diversity of people and stakeholders, with different expertise and experiences from across the research and innovation community, including people who are not already EDI champions
- details of proven experience of engaging with a variety of stakeholders from across the community
- how the sharing and knowledge exchange of EDI expertise, good practices and ‘what works’ will be maximised
- steps that will be taken to ensure that the outputs of the sharing hub will be embedded and disseminated broadly across the community to facilitate and empower action, resulting in improved, more inclusive practices and positive culture change, supporting the wider development of implementation of EDI practices
- how the engagement and communication activities that are supported by the sharing hub will be overseen and embedded
Please evidence the types of activities you expect the sharing hub would undertake, we expect these will evolve during the lifetime of the sharing hub and should be co-created and collaborative in nature.
This strategy should be reviewed and updated regularly as part of the formal management and reporting process agreed for this grant.
