Purpose and objectives
The activities supported by grants under this highlight notice can include:
- activities enabling commercial knowledge exchange
- activities enhancing self-sustaining commercial impact from UKRI research
- activities aiding the development of commercial products through applied arts and humanities research or methodologies
- activities that build upon commercial knowledge exchange and pathways to commercial impact already undertaken. You must demonstrate clear added value to activities already undertaken
- building the evidence base on research impacts in order to support the scalability, transferability, inclusivity, sustainability or longevity of benefits from research in a commercial environment
- feasibility studies to test the potential application of ideas emerging from the research in different commercial contexts
Ineligible activities
This highlight notice will not cover applications that:
- seek support for principally academic outputs (such as an academic paper, conference or a publication)
- do not include a commercial element and collaboration with commercial project partners
- do not use arts and humanities-led methodologies to build upon research funded by UKRI and do not include significant commercial research impact activities within the remit of AHRC
Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL)
AHRC will work with the funded projects from the outset to develop a light-touch monitoring and evaluation framework. Aligning with AHRC’s MEL strategy, AHRC and the funded projects will co-design a suite of ways to identify benefits and impact, and embed learning to help develop future commercialisation programmes within the arts and humanities. You are encouraged to consider how learning can be captured within the project.
Project collaborators
We welcome proposals with co-investigators and project partners from both UK and overseas.
You should seek contributions from project partners (for example, business, government and third sector organisations) where appropriate. In acknowledgement of the fact that some smaller third-sector organisations do not have the capacity to co-fund research activities, costs to support partners from third sector organisations (for example, non-governmental organisations) are eligible under this opportunity. Cases may be considered where the research impact activities require additional work by partners that fall outside their normal activities. A full case for any exceptions should be made in the justification for resources.
Total costs associated with third sector bodies’ contribution should not normally exceed 30% of the overall cost of the grant at 100% full economic cost (FEC).
Funding
A maximum of £50,000 will be available to support each award for a maximum 12 months. The awards must start 1 September 2023.
Applications should be costed in accordance with normal FEC rules. AHRC will contribute 80% of the costs, and the remaining balance must be guaranteed by the principle investigator’s research organisation.
Eligible costs
The nature of the scheme means that only the following costs can be requested.
Staff costs
Salary costs of the principal investigator and any co-investigators. These should be recorded under directed allocated (DA) staff.
Salary costs of other staff such as research assistants or technical support in addition to the applicant themselves are eligible and should be listed under DA staff.
Other directly incurred costs
Costs of other items dedicated to the project, including consumables, books, survey fees, purchase or hire of vehicles, publication costs or recruitment and advertising costs for staff directly employed on the project. Items of equipment costing less than £10,000 should also be included under this heading. Salary costs for international co-investigators, when eligible, should be included in your Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) application using the ‘Exception’ option.
Directly incurred travel and subsistence costs
Funds for travel and subsistence, for use by staff who work on the project. Costs should be costed in accordance with the rules of the applicant’s employing institution.
Exceptions costs
These are directly incurred costs that research councils will fund in full (that is at 100%), for example costs incurred by the international co-investigator, including salary, where applicable.
Indirect and estates costs
Please note the following costs are not eligible for this opportunity:
- project students
- non-specialist computers
- contingency costs
Further detailed guidance on costs is set out in AHRC’s research funding guide.
