We award research grants to fund individuals or research teams based at research organisations eligible for UKRI funding.
Grants range from £350,000 to £1 million for a period of up to five years. Funding is based on the full economic costs of the research, with ESRC providing 80% of the cost and the research organisation covering the balance.
Proposals can draw from the wider sciences, but the social sciences must represent more than 50% of the research focus and effort.
You can apply for funding if you are an established member of an approved research organisation, or you have an agreement with a recognised research organisation to work there and have access to appropriate research facilities for the duration of the grant.
Funding is available for individuals based at approved universities and independent research organisations in the UK.
Co-investigators from business, third sector or government can be included in research proposals. We encourage active collaboration between UK researchers and those in other countries, and co-investigators based in overseas research organisations can be included through our International Co-investigators policy.
For more information please read our specification for this funding opportunity (PDF, 151KB).
ESRC funds research within the social sciences, including:
As well as research on economic and social issues, we also support the national data infrastructure that underpins this research. Research grant applications can draw from the wider sciences, but the social sciences must represent more than 50% of the research focus and effort.
Your proposal can cover anything from a standard research project through to a large-scale survey, research methodology or infrastructure development (such as the compilation, classification and cataloguing of data). For infrastructure applications you should clearly outline the value for a broad community of researchers or wider audiences.
You can submit an application for two or more linked projects, provided that the relationship between them is properly explained and justified.
For more information please read our specification for this funding opportunity (PDF, 151KB).
You can no longer apply to this funding opportunity through the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system. Please visit ESRC responsive mode: research grants round one for details of how to apply via the Funding Service.
Your application will be assessed based on four key criteria:
The proposal will be sent to a minimum of three reviewers primarily drawn from ESRC’s peer review college. We may include reviewers from outside the college if college members lack necessary knowledge and expertise for a particular application, and ask for comments from non-academic research users, such as businesses or charities.
We encourage you to nominate two academic and two non-academic/user reviewers to respond to peer review comments. The application, reviewers’ comments and your responses will be considered by a grant assessment panel that will agree a prioritised list of proposals that it recommends for funding. The list will then be considered by ESRC’s Grants delivery group who make the final funding decisions.
For further queries please email esrcenquiries@esrc.ukri.org. For help with the Je-S application please email JeSHelp@je-s.ukri.org.
