Background
Following the announcement by the Prime Minister on 27 January 2020 of up to an additional £300 million for mathematical sciences, EPSRC can now announce a scheme specifically aimed at providing freedom to grant small amounts for initial research and early-stage idea generation.
The design of this scheme has taken into account steer from the mathematical sciences community including consultation through the mathematical sciences strategy workshop held in March 2019, the Mathematical Sciences Strategic Advisory Team, learned societies, and the Advisory Group for the additional funding for mathematical sciences programme.
More information about EPSRC’s portfolio and strategies.
Scope
Small grants are a mechanism for supporting mathematical sciences research which does not require funding at the level generally seen within standard research grants.
Projects must be focused on original research projects or feasibility studies for research projects. Proposals focused purely on networking or community building are not appropriate (and can be supported by other funding routes).
This scheme is for research, therefore proposals better suited to the workshop, network or overseas travel grant schemes will be rejected.
Requests for equipment over £10,000 in value should not be made.
Funding available
It is expected that proposals will be:
- up to 12 months in duration
- costed at between £10,000 and £80,000 (EPSRC provides 80% value of the full economic costing, total cost up to £100,000).
Grants costed higher than this will be permissible but applicants are asked to consider the spirit of the scheme and the impact a larger request will have on the number of grants EPSRC will be able to fund when applying.
In the first instance, a rising funding level of up to £2 million each year will be allocated to this initiative however, this will be reviewed and may be subject to change.
Please ensure you account for adequate resources to enable the delivery of your proposed plans.
Equipment over £10,000 in value (including VAT) is not available through this funding opportunity. Smaller items of equipment (individually under £10,000) should be in the ‘Directly Incurred – Other Costs’ heading.
More information on equipment funding.