We are running this funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the UKRI Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
Each research organisation may submit one application to this full opportunity unless their research office has been otherwise notified by MRC head office. We would encourage organisations to discuss and prioritise their submissions as soon as possible. Potential applicants are advised to contact their research office at the earliest opportunity.
To apply
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
- Confirm you are the project lead.
- Sign in or create a UKRI Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service.
- Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the UKRI Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
- Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
- Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
- Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.
The funding requested on your application under Costings should be the costs being sought from MRC, inclusive of VAT if applicable and net of any discounts and contributions from elsewhere (value in Column F of the Cost Summary table (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section)). Costs should be requested at 100% FEC.
Watch our research office webinars about the new UKRI Funding Service.
Deadline
MRC must receive your application by 16 January 2024 at 4.00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the close of the UKRI funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow this guidance, it may be rejected.
Personal data
Processing personal data
MRC as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your UKRI 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.
Publication of outcomes
MRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at Board and panel outcomes.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.
We may make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, so make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
- opinion-formers
- policymakers
- the public
- the wider research community
Guidance for writing a summary
Clearly describe your proposed equipment in terms of:
- its context
- the challenge the equipment addresses and how it will be applied to this
- its aims and objectives
- its potential applications and benefits
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- technician
Only list one individual as project lead.
Research technical professionals
A research technical professional can be listed as a project lead or co-lead, provided that:
- their appointment is resourced from the central funds of their institution at the time of application
- their level of responsibilities and duties is appropriate to a person with substantial research experience
Find out more about UKRI’s new grant roles.
Purpose
Word limit: 1,000
What is the equipment, why is it needed, and why should we support it?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Complete the Equipment Classification table (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section) and paste into the text box.
Also in the text box, you should explain how the equipment will:
- deliver an unmet need
- meet national needs by establishing or maintaining a unique or world leading activity, or both
- enhance and complement the existing regional or national research capability
- meet the needs of a diverse and inclusive user base. You should provide evidence of strong demand and community needs
- align with MRC strategy, as outlined as in the scientific areas of our website and MRC’s strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025
Describe alternative plans for how the research would be achieved should the equipment not be funded. The plans should reflect:
- host organisation strategies for this equipment
- host organisation commitment to the equipment landscape
- a summary of existing facilities beyond the host organisation, including identification of similar instruments overseas or in industry, outlining reasons why they cannot be utilised for the intended research
Guidance
Your response should ensure that you demonstrate an awareness of what other options you have for carrying out your research, their availability and wider usage and outline why they cannot be used (for example, due to being at capacity).
Vision
Word limit: 2,250
What research will be enabled by this equipment?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a detailed plan of research which includes a description of the projects that will be supported by the equipment with sufficient experimental detail to allow the Panel to assess the quality of the research, including preliminary results where possible.
Within this section we also expect you to explain how the equipment will enable research that:
- is high quality, novel and transformative
- is timely, given current trends and context
- is relevant to identified stakeholders, including users
- will have a measurable impact beyond the immediate team, with an appropriate approach to achieving impact
Guidance
Ensure that you outline detailed, specific use cases, including preliminary results where possible. Applications that only outline the groups that will use the equipment are unlikely to be successful without presenting specific detailed projects.
Please ensure that you engage the academic leads for the proposed research in putting together your application.
We recommend that you use up to 250 words for figure legends for presentation of your preliminary results, if appropriate.
Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.
Approach
Word limit: 2,000
What are your plans to manage the proposed equipment?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Complete and paste the Timeline and Usage tables (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section) into the text box. These should be pasted in separately.
Also, in the text box, you should explain how your approach includes:
- a credible plan for managing the equipment, including a work plan with discussion of associated risks, milestones and deliverables. Funding will need to be spent by 28 February 2025 and your Timeline table (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section) will need to reflect a viable and realistic timeline for completion by this timeline, based on an award date of 1 July 2024
- specific long-term technical support which will be available to support the requested equipment
- details of the contribution the proposed equipment will make to the physical infrastructure, specifically, how the equipment will improve or complement the existing facilities in the department(s) or organisation(s) and the wider local and UK landscape, Whether the equipment will be used for multidisciplinary purposes, and how the equipment can contribute to training activities
- a plan for providing access to and supporting users, including external users
- a plan for prioritising access to and optimising usage of the infrastructure. This should include any application and assessment processes and an estimate for the balance of users from the host organisation, academics from external organisations and industrial users. Please refer to the Usage table (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section) and explain how the usage has been derived
Within the Approach section, we also expect you to:
- detail the arrangements for professional development of technical staff, including appropriate plans to ensure support and career development for staff involved in managing and supporting the equipment
- identify where equality, diversity and inclusion principles have been incorporated into the design of the project. One common approach is to reference institutional strategies and policies related to equality, diversity and inclusion and indicate that the proposed project would be delivered in alignment with these activities. Learn more about our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy
Guidance
You should ensure that you give sufficient consideration to this section, as your approach to managing the equipment will be a key consideration in the assessment of your application. You should give due consideration to the technical support that we will be in place to support the equipment and engage technical staff in putting together the application.
When outlining the usage for your application, you should ensure that your figures are realistic and based on user demand. The usage figures should be based on this specific equipment and specification and not broader use of the facility. Ensure that you have sufficient users that need the particular specifications of the requested machine.
Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.
Financial and technical sustainability
Word limit: 700
What are your plans for financial and technical sustainability of the proposed equipment beyond the end of this funding?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Using the text box, explain how your plans for sustainability include:
- an appropriate cost recovery model
- a plan for maintaining provision of the equipment and technical support
- a plan for the development or expansion of the user base after the initial period of funding and any “free-at-the point of access” period
Guidance
The equipment you’re requesting will hopefully run for many years. But this will have cost implications for regular maintenance and consumables. Show you understand the cost implications of having the machine and have put in place good practice to manage them.
Environmental Sustainability
Word limit: 500
How will your application contribute to promoting environmental sustainability?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you will promote environmental sustainability and address the priority areas and objectives set out in the UKRI Environmental Sustainability Strategy. This can include:
- environmental impact of the manufacture and use of the equipment
- energy efficiency of the equipment and use of greener energy
- consumable usage
- housing
- strategies to mitigate the impact of equipment, for example, through management of the energy consumption or reducing the impact in other areas such as through remote access or use of consumables
- how the equipment will tie into the broader environmental strategy of your research organisation
Where the manufacture of the equipment has a high environmental impact, you should consider sharing between departments and organisations and ensure that the machine is used at its optimal capacity.
Guidance
Environmental sustainability will be one of the assessment criteria and applicants must show that they have provided due consideration to a move towards lower impact solutions and that the choice of equipment and the proposed management plans will aim to minimize the environmental impact of the equipment. You should ensure that your plan addresses the specific considerations for this equipment and not just the broader environmental strategy of the facility or department.
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 2,000
Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Using the textbox, provide evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
- the relevant experience, appropriate to your career stage, to deliver the proposed work
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work, including the right technical expertise to manage and make full use of the equipment and the appropriate leadership and management skills on your approach to develop others
- a track record or potential in managing multi-user capital equipment capabilities
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
Provide evidence of why your host organisation:
- is the most appropriate place for the proposed equipment
- will use its existing inventory to best complement the proposed infrastructure
The word count for this section is 2,000 words: 1,500 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 (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help 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. 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
Additions
Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).
Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service.
For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
References
Word limit: 1,000
List the references you have used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Include all references in this section, not in the rest of the application questions.
You should not include any other information in this section.
We advise you not to include hyperlinks, as assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application.
If linking to web resources, to maintain the information’s integrity, include persistent identifiers (such as digital object identifiers) where possible.
You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
Your organisation’s support
Word limit: 500
Provide details of support from your research organisation.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a Statement of Support from your research organisation detailing why the proposed work is needed. This should include details of any matched funding that will be provided to support the activity and any additional support that might add value to the work.
The committee will be looking for a strong statement of commitment from your research organisation.
You must also include the following details:
- a significant person’s name and their position
- office address or web link
Guidance
Host institution contributions can include contribution towards the equipment, its local environment, training, services costs and staff time to run and maintain the equipment.
Project partners
Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.
Add the following project partner details:
- the organisation name (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
- the project partner contact name and email address
- the type of contribution (direct or in-direct) and its monetary value
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
If your application includes industry project partners, you will also need to complete the Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF) section.
Find out more about ICF.
Project partners: letters or emails of support
Word limit: 10
Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the project partner 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.
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
- confirmation that what is being supplied is suitable for the proposed work
Unless specifically requested, do not include any sensitive 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.
Do not provide letters of support from host and co-project lead research organisations.
Industry Collaboration Framework (ICF)
Word limit: 1,500
Does your application include industry project partners?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If industry collaboration does not apply to any of your project partners, or you don’t have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box.
If your research project involves collaboration between an academic organisation and an industry or company you are likely to need to follow the industry collaboration framework and answer this question, check using the ICF decision tree.
By ‘industry or company’ we mean an enterprise that puts goods or services on a market and whose commercial activities are greater than 20% of their overall annual capacity.
The assessors are looking for information relating to the nature, goals and conditions of the collaboration and any restrictions or rights to the project results that could be claimed by the project partner.
Find out more about ICF, including:
- collaboration agreements
- definitions of basic or applied research
- internationally based companies
- subsidy control
- Intellectual property (IP) arrangements
- fully flexible and gated contributions
- the ICF assessment criteria
In addition to the project partner information completed in the previous section, confirm your answers to the ICF questions in the text box, repeat this process for each ICF project partner:
- Name the industry or company project partner considered under ICF.
- Indicate whether your application is either basic research or applied research.
- Explain why, in the absence of the requested UKRI funding, the collaboration and the planned research could not be undertaken.
- State whether your application is under the category of either fully flexible contribution or gated contribution (based on the IP sharing arrangements with the ICF partner).
- Outline the pre-existing IP (‘background IP’) that each project partner (including the academic partner) will bring to the collaborative research project and the terms under which project partners may access these assets.
- Outline the IP that is expected to be developed during the collaborative research project (‘foreground IP’) and briefly outline how it will be managed, including:
- which project partners will own this IP
- what rights project partners will have to use academically-generated foreground IP during and after the research project, for internal research and development or for commercial purposes
- any rights of the academic partner to commercialise the foreground IP (including foreground IP generated by project partners)
- Outline any restrictions to dissemination of the project results, including the rights of the project partner to:
- review, approve or delay publications (including the time period associated with such rights)
- request or require the removal of any information
- Declare any conflicts of interest held by the applicants in relation to the project partners and describe how they will be managed.
- If applicable, justify collaborating with an overseas industry or company under ICF.
Failure to provide the information requested for industry partners under ICF could result in your application being rejected.
You are recommended to discuss the goals and conditions of any collaboration with an industry or company project partner with your university technology transfer or contracts office before applying.
Data management and sharing
Word limit: 1,500
How will you manage and share data collected or acquired using the equipment?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a data management plan which should clearly detail how you will comply with MRC’s published data management and sharing policies, which includes detailed guidance notes.
Provide your response following the MRC data management plan template.
The length of your plan will vary depending on the type of equipment:
- For equipment with complex data requirements, such as those that collect genetic, omics and imaging data; maximum of 1,500 words
- all other equipment with less complex requirements, the plan may be as short as 500 words
Guidance
You should ensure that you demonstrate that you understand the data challenges that the new equipment will present and how you will mitigate these. The Expert Panel includes data experts who will have a good knowledge of the likely data requirements and you should ensure that you provide a plan based on realistic calculations of the data requirements.
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
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
Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:
- the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
- how you will manage these considerations
Consider the MRC guidance on ethics and approvals.
Guidance
Consider the ethical considerations for the equipment and the research that will be carried out. You do not need to go into detail of the ethical implications of individual projects but please provide an overview across the proposed research and describe how the ethical considerations for research using the equipment and the data produced, will be managed.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,250
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a detailed justification of the requested costs and resources for this application.
You should enter a single equipment cost that represents the total request from UKRI-MRC. To calculate this cost use the Cost Summary table (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section). This should be inclusive of VAT if applicable and net of any discounts and contributions from elsewhere (value in Column F of the Cost Summary table under Supplementary tables (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section)). Costs should be requested at 100% FEC and should be added under Exceptions – Equipment rather than Directly Incurred –Equipment.
In addition, in the text box you should complete and paste in the Cost Summary table (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section) and provide:
- details and justification of the equipment requested
- details and justification of the service/maintenance service requested (if applicable)
- details of any cash contributions to the equipment from other sources reasons for choosing a quoted equipment (versus other quotes)
- reasons for requesting a particular specification of equipment or a particular manufacturer
Contributions from the host organisations and other external sources are welcome but not mandatory. The host organisation statement or project partner letter (as applicable) must confirm any contribution listed here.
Assessors want you to demonstrate how the costs requested for your equipment are:
- comprehensive, appropriate and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
The package and specification presented should be appropriate to the needs of the proposed research and the management plan.
Guidance
The figures in the Cost Summary table (see ‘Supporting documents’ in the ‘Additional info’ section) must match the requested funds requested from MRC (Value in row F). The value in row F should equal A + B + C – D – E.
You must obtain quotes for the equipment (from multiple suppliers where possible) and use these as the basis for your costings. We may ask successful applicants for quotes prior to award. The Panel will generally expect that you should not use list prices where discounts are typically available and by obtaining quotes you will be able to ensure that your costings are accurate, realistic and present good value for money for the requested equipment.
You should ensure that you take into account the needs for your research and consider whether the specifications of this machine meet your needs, or whether a higher or lower specification would meet your needs better. It is often helpful to show why you discounted other technologies and what evidence you have that this is the best solution to address all your science needs. Please be aware that the Expert Panel have a breadth of knowledge across mid-range equipment and will have in-depth knowledge of the technology, the strengths and weakness of particular equipment and what it should cost.
When considering the value for money of your application the panel will also take into account whether the equipment will be used at its optimal capacity and capability. The proportion of the proposed research that is under MRC remit will also be considered. Where a substantial proportion will be outside MRC remit, financial contributions from other sources are strongly encouraged.
Related applications
Word limit: 500
Is this application related to another application to MRC or other funding organisation?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not enter N/A.
If yes, state your previous reference number and explain how this new application is related to the other application.
If the related application was submitted to another funder you should identify the name of the funder and when you applied.
If this is a resubmission describe how it differs from the previous application.
