Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: ESRC research grant

Opportunity status:: Open
Funders:: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Funding type:: Grant
Award range:: £350,000 - £1,000,000
Publication date:: 20 September 2020
Opening date:: N/A
Closing date:: Open - no closing date

Last updated: 15 August 2022

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.

Please note that the eligible attachments for proposals to this funding opportunity have changed. For more information, please see the changes to eligible attachments notification under the additional info section.

Who can apply

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, 150KB).

What we're looking for

ESRC funds research within the social sciences, including:

area and development studies
demography
economic and social history
economics
education
environmental planning
human geography
linguistics
management and business studies
political science and international relations
psychology
science and technology studies
social anthropology
social policy
social statistics, computing and methods
social work
socio-legal studies
sociology.

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, 150KB).

How to apply

You must apply using the Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S). To be able to do this your host organisation must be registered for Je-S, and you must hold a Je-S account. If you are unsure about this you should contact your research organisation’s research office for further guidance.

Proposals will need to show 100% of the full economic cost of the proposed research, with ESRC covering 80% of the costs.

When applying select ‘New document’, then:

council: ESRC
document type: standard proposal
scheme: research grants
call/type/mode: research grants (open call).

Mandatory attachments with the application include:

case for support
justification of resources
Data Management Plan (for grants planning to generate data)
CV(s).

You can apply at any time, but should consider the timing against other applications from your research organisation, as large volumes of applications for one assessment round will reduce the success rates. Grant assessment panels meet in March, July and November of each year.

To begin writing your proposal, please select the New Document menu and search for and select ‘Research Grants (Open Call)’ using the Call Search function to find the ESRC research grant. Please read the ESRC Je-S guidance for applicants (PDF, 359KB) for assistance in filling in the application.

How we will assess your application

Your application will be assessed based on four key criteria:

originality, potential contribution to knowledge
research design and methods
value for money
outputs, dissemination and impact

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.

Contact details

For further queries please email esrcenquiries@esrc.ukri.org. For help with the Je-S application please email JeSHelp@je-s.ukri.org.

Additional info

Changes to eligible attachments

Please note that the following attachments for proposals to this funding opportunity have changed and are no longer permitted. Guidance for these attachments will be removed:

technical appendix
final or interim reports.

From 1 December 2022, all proposals which include these attachments will be returned to the applicant or research organisation for their removal. In instances where the information contained within the attachment is essential to the proposal, applicants may be advised to withdraw and resubmit their proposal with the attachment removed.