Intention to submit
To help EPSRC plan for this opportunity, applicants are asked to submit an ‘intention to submit’ by 16:00 on 7 December 2021.
This should contain:
- name of the principal investigator
- host organisation of the principal investigator
- email address of the principal investigator
- person ID (PID) of the principal investigator from Je-S contact record (if known)
- name of any co-investigators
- host organisations of any co-investigators
- the primary EPSRC engineering or ICT theme research area that the idea aligns to (the ‘what we’re looking for’ section lists these eligible research areas)
- proposed title of the research idea
- acknowledgement that your organisation’s research office is aware of your intention to submit an application to this funding opportunity.
The above information (investigator details, research area, title) can change prior to submission of the outline proposal.
Email confirmation for completion of this survey will only be sent once the survey has closed.
Submitting an outline proposal through Je-S
You should prepare and submit your outline proposal using the research councils’ Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S).
Applicants should ensure they are aware of and comply with any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place.
When adding a new proposal, you should go to documents, select ‘new document’, then select:
- ‘create new document’
- council: ‘EPSRC’
- document type: ‘outline proposal’
- scheme: ‘standard/outline/ …’
- ‘New Horizons 2021 Outline’ on the project details page.
Guidance for completing the Je-S form
For the ‘keywords’ page, copy the name of the primary EPSRC engineering or ICT theme research area that your idea aligns to from the lists in the ‘What we’re looking for’ section. Paste this single research area into the ‘keywords’ box.
The box is not wide enough to view the full text of the research area name at once, please use your keyboard arrow keys to check the single research area has copied across correctly from this funding opportunity guidance.
The mandatory sections of the Je-S form are:
- project details
- disciplines
- principal investigator
- resource summary
- keywords
- attachments.
The ‘co-investigator’, ‘project partners’ and ‘notes and comments’ sections are all optional. However, information on co-investigators and project partners should be included if they are known to be part of the application.
There is no requirement to include co-investigators or project partners, they should only be included if they are considered to add value to the research idea. When providing project partner details, note that project partner letters of support are not required at this outline proposal stage and therefore cannot be attached to the application.
Researcher co-investigators are allowed to be included in successful proposals from this funding opportunity, however they cannot be included on the Je-S form at this stage. If you are invited to submit a full proposal, instructions for adding researcher co-investigators will be made available to you.
Costings
Outline costings should be confirmed with your institution’s research office and included in the Je-S form.
Please provide estimated total costs for each of the ‘directly allocated’, ‘directly incurred’ and ‘indirect’ headings.
Costs under the ‘exceptions’ heading are not allowed. Proposals requesting exceptions costs will be rejected.
For applicants invited to submit a full proposal the costs can change from the outline proposal stage, as long as the total cost remains within the £250,000 full economic cost maximum.
This funding opportunity follows typical EPSRC funding guidelines. This means indexation will be added by EPSRC and so costings should exclude indexation as usual.
Case for support
You must attach a one-page ‘case for support’ document on the attachments page.
The case for support for this opportunity follows a non-standard format.
It must address these key questions:
- what is the engineering or ICT research idea?
- why is this idea speculative and high-risk?
- if the proposed idea is successful, what is the potential reward and why is this exciting?
The idea must be within either the EPSRC engineering or ICT theme’s remit or across these two remits. By this we mean that the majority of the research idea should fit within one or more of the EPSRC engineering and ICT theme research areas, which are listed in the ‘Scope’ section.
The one-page case for support should focus on the ‘what’ and ‘why’, rather than the ‘how’. Therefore the specific methodology or detail of work packages should not be included.
The peer review for stage one of the assessment process is being performed anonymously and therefore your proposal will be considered with the panel members not having knowledge of your identity or your affiliations.
For that reason, no track record should be included in the case for support. Your academic publications or research track record should not be included in your outline proposal, nor any references that may reveal your identity or the identity of your institution. EPSRC reserves the right to reject proposals where the identity of an applicant or institution is revealed or can be inferred.
Formatting and attachment guidance
You should attach your case for support as a PDF to avoid errors. It should be completed in single-spaced Arial 11 font or similar-sized sans serif typeface, with margins of at least 2cm.
EPSRC will reject all outline proposals which do not conform to these formatting rules with no exceptions made. Please be aware that converting to PDF can alter the formatting and result in layout changes, for example converting from LaTeX to PDF can add small serifs or alter font size. You should ensure documents converted to PDF still meet the formatting guidelines outlined prior to submission.
EPSRC will not be returning any outline proposals for amendment due to errors in submission, such as wrong attachment types. EPSRC will reject these outline proposals with no exceptions made.
After completing the form
After completing the application you must ‘submit document’ which will send your application to your host organisation’s administration.
Your host organisation’s administration is required to complete the submission process. Applicants should allow sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the funding opportunity closing date.
EPSRC must receive your application by 16:00 on 25 January 2022.
Ethical information
EPSRC will not fund a project if it believes that there are ethical concerns that have been overlooked or not appropriately accounted for.
Ethical information is not requested at the outline proposal stage for this opportunity.
Invited applications at full proposal stage will need to provide ethical information. See what information will be needed in the guidance on completing ethical information on the Je-S form.
EPSRC guidance can be found in ‘related content’.
Submitting an invited full proposal through Je-S
Note that this funding opportunity information is for outline proposals only. Some detail on the process for full proposals is given here to enable applicants to start to prepare in advance.
For this stage invited applicants will need to submit a four-page case for support. In addition to the information provided at the outline proposal stage, this should describe the project’s methodology and the applicant team’s ability to deliver the proposed research.
The ability to deliver information should not be written as a standard track record. Instead, it should contain evidence that the applicant team has the skills and expertise required to carry out the project.
More detailed information about this stage, including what to include in your case for support and documentation required, will be provided in early 2022.
