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Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Research networking scheme

The scope of this scheme will be widened to enable a greater range of scholarly exchange and debate.

The Research Networking Scheme is intended to support forums for the discussion and exchange of ideas on a specified thematic area, issue or problem. The intention is to facilitate interactions between researchers and stakeholders through, for example, a short-term series of workshops, seminars, networking activities or other events.  The aim of these activities is to stimulate new debate across boundaries, for example, disciplinary, conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and/or international. Proposals should explore new areas, be multi-institutional and can include creative or innovative approaches or entrepreneurship.  Proposals must justify the approach taken and clearly explain the novelty or added value for bringing the network participants together. 

Proposals for full economic costs up to £30,000 for a period of up to two years may be submitted.  The exact mechanism for networking and the duration is up to the applicants to decide but must be fully justified in the proposal.  An additional threshold of up to £15,000 full economic cost may be sought to cover the costs of any international participants or activities in addition to the £30,000 fEC scheme limit. Proposals will need to be submitted by an eligible Research Organisation but must involve collaboration with at least one other organisation, as well as having significant relevance to beneficiaries in the UK.

Applications can be made throughout the year.

For more information see http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/ResearchNetworking.aspx

BUPA Foundation

Communication award for effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients

This award recognises effective communication between the medical profession and patients.

It is run in association with the Patient Information Forum (PiF) - an independent group united by a common purpose; the development, production and dissemination of high quality information for patients, carers and their families.

Applications are open to healthcare professionals who are UK residents only. All entries should have their origins in work which commenced after 2003 and which has been completed recently or is currently active.

Full reference must be made to all relevant work published in medical journals circulated in the UK.

The award is not open to students.

The submission must demonstrate:

• enhanced mutual understanding between patients and healthcare professionals, and should describe work which could be widely adopted for the benefit of patients
• tangible evidence of improvement in communication, eg through case studies

And improvement in at least one of the following:

• healthcare professionals/patient communication
• communication between healthcare professionals and the general public
• communication skills of individual healthcare professionals as a result of the project
• methods of transferring information between healthcare professionals and patients
• in-patient systems

In addition, the submission should also give a clear outline showing how the prize money will be used to further the work should you win the award.

Entries are now open for more information visit http://www.bupafoundation.com/asp/awards/eligibility.asp#communication_award  

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's leading research funding and training agency addressing economic and social concerns. They aim to provide high quality research on issues of importance to business, the public sector and government.

Research Grants Scheme
This is a flexible research grants scheme awards ranging from £15,000 to £1.5 million (100% FEC) to eligible institutions allowing individuals or research teams to undertake anything from a small project to a large-scale survey. Applications may be for basic research or more applied research topics. For those applications on more applied topics, the Research Grants Board will also consider their value to potential users, outside of the research community. There is considerable flexibility when it comes to subject areas, however, the choice of research topic needs to falls within the ESRC's remit, but it need not be relevant to its Strategic Framework.
For funding of more than £100,000 you need to apply to Standard Grants Scheme.
For funding of less than £100,000 you need to apply to the streamlined Small Grants Scheme. This scheme is particularly useful for new researchers making their first application to the ESRC.  This is an 'open dates' scheme, so applications for all grants can be made at any time using the same application form - there are no fixed closing dates. 

Research Fellowships Scheme
Whatever stage you have reached in your postdoctoral career, you can apply for funding under the Research Fellowships Scheme. This scheme gives both senior and less experienced researchers the opportunity to undertake a period of concentrated research activity. Fellowships fund a wide variety of academic activities ranging from further training to the consolidation of previous research. Fellowships offer a salaried period of two to three years (five years in exceptional circumstances) to researchers working in all areas of social and economic science.  Another funding opportunity for researchers who have recently completed a PhD is the Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme.  Applications for Fellowships can be made at any time.

ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships
ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships provide a career development opportunity for those at a relatively early stage of their academic career who can demonstrate great potential in social science research.  The scheme is also open to those returning to research following a career break.  Applicants should have no more than three years' active postdoctoral experience when they take up the award. The awards are designed to enable the following:

• to produce publications in order to help establish a track record in their chosen specialisation and secure opportunities for long term employment in the HEI sector;
• to disseminate their research findings that have come out of previous doctoral work to both academics and non-academic audiences;
• to further improve their research and related skills through additional specialised training; and

• to carry out further limited research based on their PhD work and related work through developing proposals for further funding.

The scheme is open to all disciplines.  However, during 2008 ESRC is specifically encouraging applications in a number of disciplines identified as having particular capacity building difficulties.  These are Economics, Education, Management and Business Studies, Advanced Quantitative Methods, Social Work, and Socio-Legal Studies. Awards are tenable for 1 year on a full time basis (2 years Economics) and up to 2 years on a part time basis (4 years in Economics).

ESRC - Follow on funding scheme

The Scheme provides follow-on funding to undertake additional knowledge transfer and impact generation activities that can demonstrate the potential for significant economic, social, policy and/or practice benefit(s). Applications that seek to commercialise research and those from resources and methods research investments will also be eligible to apply.

The Scheme offers Follow-on Funding awards of up to £100k for a maximum of 12 months

The first call of 2010 commences 1 March 2010 and ends 29 April 2010.

Training Bursaries

The ESRC Research Resources Board wishes to improve the standards of research methods and to stimulate the uptake of high quality training courses across the UK social science community. Each year there are 50 bursaries for up to £1,000 each to enable staff in the UK social science community engaged in research, teaching research methods or supervising research to update their skills. Contract researchers working in HEIs are also eligible for the bursaries. See http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/about/funding/training/ for more details.

For more information on all these awards and for updates on other ESRC funding announcements visit: http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/opportunities/

Efficacy and mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme

The EME programme is funded by the MRC and managed by the NIHR as the lead organisation for clinical trials and evaluation. The programme is broadly aimed at supporting science driven studies with an expectation of substantial health gain. The clinical studies are likely to be mostly randomised controlled trials but other forms of evaluation appropriate for the intervention under study will also be supported.

The EME programme is an ongoing research funding opportunity. Applicants are welcome to submit a preliminary application at any time, however there are three submission deadlines each year. The submission deadline for consideration in the next round is Monday 12 July 2010 (before 1pm).

Closing date for application is 12^th July 2010

For more information visit http://www.eme.ac.uk/funding

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is responsive to requests for support across the broad range of our interests, which are: the cultural life of the UK, education and learning, the natural environment and enabling disadvantaged people to participate more fully in society.

We will prioritise work that:  

• Addresses a significant gap in provision
• Develops or strengthens good practice
• Challenges convention or takes a risk in order to address a difficult issue
• Tests out new ideas or practices
• Takes an enterprising approach to achieving its aims
• Sets out to influence policy or change behaviour more widely

Amount of funding available is unspecified and The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation accept applications all year round.

For further information see http://www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk/index.html

Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness: Research Initiation Grant

The objects for Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness are to promote and improve social scientific research, education and scholarship in the field of the sociology of health and illness. The Research Initiation Grant funds development work by groups of individuals seeking to submit a future research application. The objectives of the grants are to:

1) To pump-prime innovative, high-quality research in the sociology of health and illness of  
    an international standard.
2) To facilitate collaboration between different research disciplines and research centres by    
    the development of new or existing multidisciplinary research networks incorporating   
    significant input from the sociology of health and illness.
3)  To aid the development and advancement of new methodologies in the sociology of
     health and illness.
4) To add value to ongoing studies in the sociology of health and illness

Examples of expenditure that might qualify as such development work are: travel (including overseas travel); payment of a research associate; and pre-pilot work. Inter-disciplinary applications are welcomed, but all applications should involve significant input from medical sociologists. The expected output would be a grant proposal.

For further information see http://www.shifoundation.org.uk/?q=node/20

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme

The HTA programme produces independent research about the effectiveness of different healthcare treatments and tests for those who use, manage and provide care in the NHS. The NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) is home to a growing number of research programmes managed on behalf of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

HTA Clinical Evaluation and Trials
The HTA programme aims to fund pragmatic clinical trials and proof of concept studies will not be eligible. This is an on-going opportunity to submit outline proposals to the HTA programme. Proposals are sought addressing any health problems.  Outline proposals for the HTA Clinical Evaluation and Trials work stream to assess the effectiveness of treatments and tests within the NHS are accepted on an ongoing basis. Proposals are assessed for importance to patients.  Shortlisted research teams are invited to submit more detailed full proposals for consideration by the Board. The remit for HTA Clinical Trials funding stream has expanded and grants are available for evaluation studies falling within the remit of the HTA programme, alongside normal clinical trials.

The HTA programme is now managed by NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC).  This is an on-going opportunity to submit outline proposals to the HTA programme. The Clinical Evaluation and Trials funding stream is particularly interested in receiving proposals in health technologies used to prevent, diagnose or treat alcohol misuse and its clinical complications during the current funding round.
Forthcoming cut-off deadlines for research proposals:

• Thursday 1 July 2010 - 1pm with a topic focus on learning disabilities

Applications four times a year from 2009 onwards.  For further information, see http://www.hta.ac.uk/funding/clinicaltrials/index.shtml

Further information about the research and the assessment process can be obtained from the Specification document, which is currently being updated and will be available on 29 January 2010

HTA Clinical Evaluation and Trials

HTA programme is funded by the NIHR, with contributions from the CSO in Scotland and WORD in Wales.

The HTA Clinical Evaluation and Trials funding stream funds grants for evaluation studies and clincial trials supporting research that is immediately useful to clinical practice and decision makers in the NHS.

Proposals can be submitted on an ongoing basis. There are four cut-off deadlines a year and proposals received by the stated deadline will be considered in the next available assessment cycle

Forthcoming cut-off deadlines for research proposals*

Thursday 1 July 2010 - 1pm with a topic focus on management of disabilty after trauma. We are interested in receiving proposals addressing any health problem in areas not otherwise well covered in our portfolio.

For the cut-off date of 1pm on 1 July 2010, the programme is making a specific call for proposals concerning people needing physical or psychological rehabilitation following major trauma. This includes the military or civilian context, but we are particularly interested in proposals that have relevance to military trauma. The interventions should relate to longer term management, i.e. at least a year after the injury.

Thursday 7 October 2010 - 1pm with a topic focus on learning disabilities

*Please note those wishing to submit an application to be considered as part of a topic focus need to ensure it is submitted during the relevant funding round (i.e. after the previous cut-off date and before the cut-off date for the topic focus).

For more information please visit: http://www.hta.ac.uk/funding/clinicaltrials/index.shtml

International Psychoanalytical Association Research Grants 

The RAB conceives of psychoanalytic research along the broadest lines, including: scholarly or conceptual and empirical investigative contributions that can advance knowledge of psychoanalytic theory, practice, and links between psychoanalysis and neighbouring disciplines such as developmental psychology or neuroscience. The aims of the research grant include:

• To support basic, applied, and conceptual research involving psychoanalytic perspectives and observations;
• To support young scholars interested in empirical and conceptual psychoanalytic research;
• To provide psychoanalytic scholars an opportunity to consult with experienced investigators around an idea, methodological issue, existing dataset, or theoretical study;

• To provide opportunities for beginning psychoanalytic investigators to meet individually and as a group with experienced investigators.

The scope of this research includes (but is not limited to):

• Systematic research into psychoanalytic treatment processes and outcomes (including the development of reliable and valid measures of appropriate variables related to process and outcome);
• Developmental studies including both experimental and naturalistic investigations of infant and child development or of adult development;
• Psychophysiological and other experimental studies, other relevant social science studies, intellectual history, philosophical studies, and scholarly applications of psychoanalysis in fields such as history and literature;
• Studies of psychoanalytic theory including hermeneutic analyses.

The award limit is £10,000.  The average grant awarded is £50,000 (taken from 156 grants awarded since May 2003). 

The closing date for 2010 applications has passed, please visit http://www.ipa.org.uk/Public/Page.php?ID=4435&ancestor1=4715&language=eng&websiteID=3270  for announcement of 2011 application dates and further details.

Knowledge Transfer Partnership

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships is a UK-wide programme to encourage business/knowledge base collaborations. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships help businesses and organisations to improve their competitiveness and/or productivity through the use of the knowledge, technology and skills that reside within academic institutions, namely:

• Higher Education institutions
• Research Organisations
• Further Education Colleges

For further information see http://www.ktponline.org.uk/academics/default.aspx

Leverhulme Trust

1) Large Research Project Grants Details
The awards are principally for the salary costs of a researcher or researchers to work on a specific and discrete research project proposed by the applicant. The aims of the grant are to enable established scholars at eligible institutions to obtain:

• support for a research assistant or research assistants;
• support for a postgraduate student or students linked to the research project;
• replacement teaching costs for the applicant;

• associated costs to meet modest direct support costs for the research project.

Grants of between £250,000 and £500,000, for up to five years. There are no closing dates for the submission, of an outline application so applications can be submitted at any time, but there will typically be a period of at least twelve weeks between submitting your outline application and receiving notice of a decision.

2) Small Project Grants Details
The aim of these awards is to provide financial support for innovative and original research projects of high quality and potential, the choice of theme and the design of the research lying entirely with the applicant.  Proposals are favoured which: reflect the personal vision of the applicant; demonstrate compelling competence in the research design; surmount traditional disciplinary academic boundaries; involve a degree of challenge and evidence of the applicant's ability to assess risk. Applications for research on any topic within the entire array of academic disciplines are eligible for support. However, an exception is made for areas of research supported by specialist funding agencies and, in particular, for medicine. Funding available up to £250,000 over a duration of two to three years. There are no closing dates for the submission, so applications can be submitted at any time, but there will typically be a period of up to 12 weeks between submitting an Outline Application and receiving notice of a decision.

3) Standard Research Project Grants
These awards are principally for the salary costs of a researcher or researchers, to work on a specific and discrete research project proposed by the applicant. The duration of the grant is up to 5 years.The aims of the grants are to enable established scholars at eligible institutions to obtain:

• support for a research assistant or research assistants;
• support for a postgraduate student or students linked to the research project;
• replacement teaching costs for the applicant;

• associated costs to meet modest direct support costs for the research project.

The great majority of awards involve a spend of up to £250,000 over a duration of two to three years. If compelling evidence is provided, awards may be made for sums between £250,000 and £500,000 for research over a period of up to five years. There are no closing dates for the submission of an outline application so applications can be received at any time, but there will typically be a period of at least twelve weeks between submitting your outline application and receiving notice of a decision.

Eligible institutions for all the above grants:

• Universities and other institutions of higher and further education in the UK, including joint applications (for details, see website).
• Registered charities in the UK.
• Institutions or organisations of similar status in developing countries where, in the opinion of the Trustees, the provision for research funding is seriously limited.

For a long list of other restrictions / eligibility criteria, please see the website.

For further details of all the above grants please visit: http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk

4)         Fellowship Awards
The Trust also offers a wide range of fellowship awards.  For further details of these please their website: http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/

National Institute for Health research (NIHR)

We commission and fund NHS and social care research that is essential for delivering our responsibilities in public health and personal social services. Our role is to develop the research evidence to support decision making by professionals, policy makers and patients, make this evidence available, and encourage its uptake and use, for example, through NHS Evidence, which provides clinical and non-clinical evidence and best practice, to make informed decisions.

The NIHR funds a range of programmes addressing a broad range of health priorities. Funding is based on the quality and relevance of the research to personal social services and the NHS.

The current calls for proposals are detailed below. For more information on research funding from NIHR see http://www.nihr.ac.uk/research/Pages/default.aspx

NIHR HTA - Clinical Evaluation and Trials

The NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme invites outline research proposals for clinical trials and evaluation studies on topics proposed directly by researchers, that are of importance to patients and the NHS.  The deadline for proposals is 1 July 2010, 1pm.

Link to Page: http://www.hta.ac.uk/funding/clinicaltrials/

Closing Date: 01/07/2010

National Institute for Health Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC)

The NIHR HTA programme's new specific call for research into the management of disability after trauma.

The call is for proposals concerning people needing physical or psychological rehabilitation following trauma in a military or civilian context. It is part of the Department of Health's ongoing commitment to provide care to service veterans and builds on investment over the last decade in research capacity in the field of acute trauma, repair, reconstruction and long-term rehabilitation.

Up to £10 million of funding available.

Closing date: 01 July 2010

For more information please visit: http://www.hta.ac.uk/news/newsitem240310.shtml

NIHR HTA - physical or psychological rehavilitation following major trauma

The NIHR HTA programme's new specific call for research into the management of disability after trauma was announced last week by Health Minister Mike O'Brien.

The call is for proposals concerning people needing physical or psychological rehabilitation following trauma in a military or civilian context. It is part of the Department of Health's ongoing commitment to provide care to service veterans and builds on investment over the last decade in research capacity in the field of acute trauma, repair, reconstruction and long-term rehabilitation.

Deadline for application is 1^st July 2010. For more information visit: http://www.hta.ac.uk/news/newsitem240310.shtml

Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues - Grants-In-Aid Program

The SPSSI Committee on Grants-in-Aid (GIA) wishes to support scientific research in social problem areas related to the basic interests and goals of SPSSI and particularly those that are not likely to receive support from traditional sources. The Committee especially encourages proposals involving

(a) unique and timely research opportunities,

(b) underrepresented institutions, graduate students, and junior scholars,

(c) volunteer research teams, and

(d) actual, not pilot, projects.

Funds are not normally provided for travel to conventions, travel or living expenses while conducting research, stipends of principal investigators, costs associated with manuscript preparation, or the indirect costs of institutions.

Funding up to $1000 is available for graduate student research, with strong preference given to applications from students at the dissertation stage of the graduate career.

Funding up to $2000 is available. The closing date is 10 May 2010.

Society for the Study of Addiction

The Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) aims to support, facilitate, and enhance the work of members for the mutual benefit of all concerned with the study of addiction.   It also aims to support projects in the following areas: evidence based policy implementation; multi-disciplinary reviews in neglected areas directly relevant to addiction policy; stimulation and support for addiction researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas across countries and subject areas. Projects can be proposed in a number of different formats. For example, the project may consist of a closed meeting designed to generate ideas, discussion and a publication or be a more formal piece of research using paid researchers.   Support will only generally be given to projects and initiatives from the Members of the Society, including the Executive. The Society will not support initiatives that also receive support linked to the alcohol or tobacco industry.  Applications can be submitted at any time. For projects requiring support of more than £10,000, co-sponsors should be sought.  For further details please visit http://www.addiction-ssa.org/  Email: membership@addiction-ssa.org  Tel:  0113 295 2787

The Allen Lane Foundation

The Foundation is interested in funding work which benefits people in the following groups, or generalist work which includes significant numbers from more than one such group:

• Asylum-seekers and refugees (but not groups working with a single nationality)
• Gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender people
• Gypsies and Travellers
• Migrant workers
• Offenders and ex-offenders
• Older people
• People experiencing mental health problems
• People experiencing violence or abuse

The Allen Lane Foundation process applications continuously. There are no closing dates.

For further information see http://www.allenlane.org.uk/.

The Artemis Charitable Trust

The trust was set up in 1985, its 2005 trustees' report states:: 'The policy of the trust has continued to be the making of grants to aid the provision of counselling, psychotherapy, parenting, human relationship training and related activities.'

Applicants should be aware that most of the trust's funds are committed to a number of major ongoing projects and that spare funds available to meet new applications are very limited.

For further information please contact Richard Evans on 01243 573475.

The Nuffield Foundation 

The Foundation aims to bring about improvements in society through research and practical experiment. The wide range of activities supported by the Foundation fall into two main categories:

• support of research and innovation that will bring about beneficial social change
• development of research and professional capacity in the sciences and the social sciences, targeted at people in the early stages of their careers

• Also there is the Elizabeth Nuffield Educational Fund that supports women students.

1) Social Science Small Grants Scheme
This Scheme makes small grants for social science research expenses. Awards are normally up to £7,500, although in exceptional circumstances awards may be made of up to a maximum of £12,000. The Scheme has no closing date. Applicants must be resident and working at a UK institution, although the research may be undertaken outside the UK.
The small grants scheme has three priorities for funding:

• projects that develop social science research capacity particularly by supporting the work of those new to social science research;
• self-contained or pilot or preliminary projects that address the wider objects of the Foundation, namely a broad concern with the 'advancement of social well-being';

• outstanding small projects in the social sciences.

For further information visit www.nuffieldfoundation.org/

2) Elizabeth Nuffield Educational Fund (ENEF)
The Elizabeth Nuffield Educational Fund was set up in 1956 by Lady Nuffield to help women improve their employment prospects through education. ENEF is no longer making grants to individuals. The scheme giving grants to women in higher education for help with the costs of caring for children or adult relatives with special needs has now been closed. Information about the future of ENEF funding will be posted on the website as it becomes available.