UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service
We are running the funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply for this opportunity on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
If you do not already have an account with the UKRI Funding Service, you will be able to create one by selecting the ‘start application’ button at the start of this page. Creating an account is a 2-minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
If you are a member of an organisation with a research office that we do not have contact details for, we will contact them to enable administrator access.
This provides:
- oversight of every UKRI Funding Service application opened on behalf of your organisation
- the ability to review and submit applications
Research offices that have not already received an invitation to open an account should email support@funding-service.ukri.org
Watch our research office webinars about the new UKRI Funding Service.
Submitting your application
Applications should be prepared and submitted by the lead research organisation but should be co-created with input from all investigators, and project partners, and should represent the proposed work of the entire consortia.
To apply:
- Select the ‘Start application’ button at the start of this page.
- This will open the ‘Sign in’ page of UKRI’s Funding Service. If you do not already have an account, you’ll be able to create one. This is a 2-minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
- Start answering the questions detailed in this section of ‘How to apply’. You can save your work and come back to it later. You can also work ‘offline’, copying and pasting into the text boxes provided for your answers.
- Once complete, use the service to send your application to your research office for review. They’ll check it and return it to you if it needs editing.
- Once happy, your research office will submit it to UKRI for assessment. Only they can do this.
As citations can be integral to a case for support, you should balance their inclusion and the benefit they provide against the inclusion of other parts of your answer to each question. Bear in mind that citations, associated reference lists or bibliographies, or both, contribute to, and are included in, the word count of the relevant section.
Deadline
BBSRC must receive your application by 24 July 2023 at 4:00pm UK time. You will not be able to apply after this time. You should ensure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place.
Processing personal data
BBSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your funding service account and the registration of your funding applications. We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.
BBSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) so that they can participate in the assessment process.
For more information on how Defra uses personal information, visit the personal information charter page.
If your application is successful, some personal information will be published via the UKRI Gateway to Research.
UKRI Funding Service: section guidance
Summary
In plain English, provide a summary that can be sent to potential reviewers to determine if your proposal is within their field of expertise.
This summary may be made publicly available on external facing websites, so please ensure it can be understood by a variety of readers, for example:
- opinion-formers
- policymakers
- the general public
- the wider research community
Guidance for writing a summary
Succinctly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- its context
- the challenge the project addresses and how it will be applied to this
- its aims and objectives
- its potential applications and benefits.
Word count: 550
Applicants
List the key members of your team and assign them roles, for example:
- principal investigator
- business partner
- co-investigator
- researcher
- technician
You should only list 1 individual as principal investigator.
Section: Vision
Word count: 500
Question: What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work:
- is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s)
- has the potential to advance current understanding, generates new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
- is timely given current trends, context and needs
- impacts world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
- identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be
- explain the potential to address challenges relating to the sustainability, productivity and resilience of the horticultural sector
Section: Approach
Word count: 2,500
Question: How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you have designed your approach so that it:
- is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
- is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
- if applicable, uses a clear and transparent methodology
- if applicable, summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed
- will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
- describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place, its location, and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
- engage any project partners so that the consortia together achieve shared objectives
- demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposal
- provide a detailed and comprehensive project plan including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar (additional 1-page A4)
- include a detailed and appropriate plan for how you will acquire and manage data (additional 1-page A4)
Section: Project partners: contributions
Question: provide details about any project partners’ contributions using the template provided.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
If you do have project partners, download and complete the project partner contributions template (DOCX, 52KB) then copy and paste the table within it into the text box below.
Ensure you have obtained prior agreement from project partners that, should you be offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the template.
Word count: 500
Section: Project Partners: letters (or emails) of support
Question: upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the table in the previous ‘contributions’ section.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
If you have named project partners in the previous ‘contributions’ section, enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box below.
Each letter or email you provide should:
- confirm the partner’s commitment to the project
- clearly explain the value, relevance and possible benefits of the work to them
- describe any additional value that they bring to the project
- please refer to BBSRC’s guide for more guidance
Please do not provide letters of support from host and Co-Investigator’s research organisations.
Unless specifically requested, please do not include any personal data within the attachment.
Upload details are provided within the service on the actual application.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Word count: 10
Section: Applicant and team capability to deliver
Question: why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
- the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
The word count for this section is 1500 words, 1000 words to be used for R4RI modules and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.
Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you, and if relevant your team (investigators, researchers, other (technical) staff for example research software engineers, data scientists and so on, and partners), have and how this will help to deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed below. You should use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:
- Contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
- The development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
- Contributions to the wider research and innovation community
- Contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit
You should complete this as a narrative and you should avoid CV type format.
Word count: 1,500
Section: Outsourcing
Question: are you outsourcing any research activity?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are not, enter ‘N/A’ in the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next question.
UKRI recognises that in some instances, it may be appropriate to outsource elements of the proposed work. If that is the case in this application, please provide the following information:
- the scope of the outsourced activity, that means what is being undertaken and what will be delivered
- the relevance of the outsourced activity to the application
- why the outsourced activity cannot be undertaken in house
- why this provider is the most appropriate
- the cost or costs of the outsourced activity and the tendering process that has been followed.
Please provide any goods and services quotations.
Word count: 700
Section: Ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)
Question: what are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Using the text box, demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations, and how you will manage them.
If you are collecting or using data you should identify:
- any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies taken to not preclude further reuse of data
- formal information standards with which study will be compliant
Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) relating to research involving:
- animals
- human participants
- genetically modified organisms
Word count: 500
Section: Genetic and Biological Risk
Question: does your proposed research involve any genetic or biological risk?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not, enter ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move on to the next section.
In respect of animals, plants or microbes, are you proposing to:
- use genetic modification as an experimental tool, like studying gene function in a genetically modified organism
- release genetically modified organisms
- ultimately develop commercial and industrial genetically modified outcomes?
If yes, provide the name of any required approving body and state if approval is already in place. If it is not, provide an indicative timeframe for obtaining the required approval.
Identify the organism or organisms as a plant, animal or microbe and specify the species and which of the three categories the research relates to.
Identify the genetic and biological risks resulting from the proposed research, their implications and any mitigation you plan on taking. Assessors will want to know you have considered the risks and their implications to justify that any identified risks do not outweigh any benefits of the proposed research.
Word count: 700
Section: Research involving the use of animals
Question: does your proposed research involve the use of vertebrate animals or other organisms covered by the Animals Scientific Procedures Act?
If not, enter ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and do the same for the next question.
If you are proposing research that requires using animals, write ‘Yes’ in the text box. Then download and complete this document (DOCX, 74KB), which contains all the questions relating to research using vertebrate animals or other Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 regulated organisms. Then, save it as a PDF.
Word count: 10
Section: Resources and cost justification
Question: what will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Full economic costings template (DOCX, 96KB).
Use the resources and cost summary table to enter the full costs. Include high-level costs only, not a breakdown of individual items. Use the Justification text box to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:
- are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
This section should not simply be a list of the resources requested, as this will already be given in the detailed ‘costs’ table. Costings should be justified on the basis of full economic costs (FEC) of the project, not just on the costs expected from UKRI. For some items we do not expect you to justify the monetary value, rather the type of resource, such as amount of time or type of staff requested.
Where you do not provide adequate justification for a resource, we may deduct it from any funding awarded.
You should identify:
- support for activities to either increase impact, for public engagement, knowledge exchange or to support responsible innovation
- support for access to facilities, infrastructure or procurement of equipment
- support for preserving, long-term storage, or sharing of data
- support from your organisation or partner organisations and how that enhances value for money
Word count: 1,000
Section: References
Question: list the references you have used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Ensure your application is a self-contained description. You can provide hyperlinks to relevant publications or online resources. However, assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application. You must not include links to web resources in order to extend your application. If linking to web resources, to ensure the information’s integrity is maintained include, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers.
Word count: 250
