Before applying for funding, check the following:
- your proposal is suitable for AHRC funding
- the eligibility of your organisation
- remit query form if you are unsure whether your proposed research falls within the remit of the research councils involved
Who is eligible to apply
We strongly encourage researchers and consortia who were funded through the phase one and phase two funding opportunities to apply for funding:
- phase one: scale up health inequality prevention and intervention strategies
- phase two: build community research consortia to address health disparities
However, this is an open funding opportunity and funding from phase one or phase two is not a requirement.
Leadership team
Applications should be led by a strong, interdisciplinary leadership team who can articulate a clear shared vision for the project. You should ensure partnerships within the leadership team are equitable and support novel interdisciplinary approaches.
Co-investigators from community assets and other relevant sectors, as well as representation from people with lived experience, must be included as part of the leadership team. These co-investigators from outside of academia can be costed at 100% FEC where justified. This should be utilised to ensure equitable representation from different partners.
More detail about community assets and the inclusive interdisciplinary approach expected from applications can be found in the ‘What we are looking for’ section.
For administrative purposes it is necessary to identify a single principal investigator who must be affiliated with the lead research organisation. The principal investigator and their research office will be ultimately responsible for administration of the grant.
However, the balance of activity and management across the team and partner organisations can be shared however you see fit. For example, you could adopt a shared leadership approach with co-principal investigators included. Your approach to management, leadership and decision making must be clearly specified in your application.
Your application should be submitted by the principal investigator but must be co-created with input from all partners. This should be evidenced in the application.
Principal investigator
Standard AHRC eligibility criteria will apply to this funding opportunity for UK principal investigators and research organisations.
You must be a resident in the UK and be hosted by an eligible research organisation (higher education institutions or recognised independent research organisations) as stated in the research funding guide.
Co-investigators based at eligible research organisations
Standard AHRC eligibility criteria will apply to this funding opportunity for UK co-investigators based at eligible research organisations.
You must be a resident in the UK and be hosted by an eligible research organisation (higher education institutions or recognised independent research organisations) as stated in the research funding guide.
Co-investigators not based at eligible research organisations
Co-investigators not based at eligible research organisations must also be included in the leadership team, for example:
- policymakers
- local and national government
- third sector and voluntary organisations
- practitioners from relevant sectors
- people with lived experience or community researchers
- private sector
- health systems
- community organisations
Where justified, the time of these co-investigators can be listed under ‘Exceptions’ and will be funded at 100% FEC. 100% FEC ‘Exceptions’ costs are only for staff time and cannot include estates and indirect costs.
The combined costs for co-investigators not based at eligible research organisations must be a minimum of 10% of the total FEC of the grant application. If the combined cost for co-investigators not based at eligible research organisations is below 10%, you must clearly articulate why and how partners from outside academia are equitably included within the project. The combined cost cannot exceed 30% of the total FEC.
The intention behind this requirement is to ensure partners from outside of academia are appropriately included and funded within applications.
We recognise that some partners may be employed by a government-funded organisation. To avoid the double counting of public funds in the costings, no salary costs will be covered for co-investigators from government bodies where the person’s involvement in the project falls within their regular duties. Government organisations can only charge to the grant any additional costs they incur as a result of being involved in the project.
Please note that if there are international co-investigators in your application, the combined costs for co-investigators not based at eligible research organisations, and any international co-investigators must not exceed 30% of the FEC. You should consider what balance of co-investigators is needed and explain this clearly in your application.
Co-investigators not based at eligible research organisations should submit a statement of support from their organisation (if they are based at an organisation) as part of your application. This will be used to assess how effectively the proposed work integrates with community assets and other organisations outside of academia.
Interdisciplinary team
All applications must have a minimum of three individuals on the leadership team.
Applications requesting between £625,000 and £1.25 million FEC must include representation in the leadership team from remits of at least two UKRI research councils. At least £6.25 million of the total budget will be reserved for applications in this funding range.
Applications requesting between £1.25 million and £2.5 million FEC must include representation in the leadership team from remits of at least three UKRI research councils.
All applications must include at least one researcher from an arts and humanities discipline.
Disciplines included in your leadership team could include, but are not limited to, expertise from across:
- arts (for example, creative health, culture and heritage, design research)
- humanities (for example, health and medical humanities, ethics)
- social sciences (for example, psychology, demography, sociology, geography, education)
- environmental sciences (for example, natural sciences, environmental microbiology)
- biosciences and biomedicine (for example, agri-food production, diet, nutrition and health, lifelong health and wellbeing, microbiology)
- medical or health research (for example, population health sciences, nursing and other allied sciences, health systems and improvement, implementation sciences, mental health research)
- law and criminal justice
- policy
- economics
- built environment
Early career researchers
We particularly encourage applications from early career researchers (both as principal investigators and co-investigators) and regard this programme as an important pipeline for growing interdisciplinary researcher capacity in the UK. Support for leadership from early career researchers and showing that you have the right skills at the right level should be clearly explained in your application.
If the principal investigator is an early career researcher, as defined by AHRC, a mentor must be included within the application. This mentor must be clearly outlined in the resources and cost justification section of the application form.
For mentoring cost, an hour per month of the mentor’s time should be built into the budget as a directly allocated cost and entered in the application form in the other directly allocated costs section. Estates and indirect costs for this one hour can also be charged to the grant.
Institutions may provide additional mentoring support alongside other forms of leadership or career development support for early career applicants.
Applicants at other stages of their career can also include mentorship in the application if it is felt it would support the project leadership and benefit delivery of the proposed work.
International applicants
Applications can include international project partners and co-investigators (for example international organisations, businesses, and government organisations) where established expertise is not available within the UK. International co-investigator costs can be funded as ‘Exceptions’ at 100% FEC.
Funded collaborative research grants will be UK-focused. The inclusion of international co-investigators and associated costs must be fully justified and how their inclusion will support the grant objectives clearly explained.
It is important to note that the combined costs for international co-investigators and co-investigators not based at eligible research organisations must not exceed 30% of the total FEC of the the grant application. You should consider what balance of co-investigators is needed and explain this clearly in your application.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers and partners.
We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:
- career breaks
- support for people with caring responsibilities
- flexible working
- alternative working patterns
Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI.
