Pre-announcement: ESRC applicant-led: challenge awards

Upcoming UKRI funding opportunity · Grant. Open with no closing date. Opportunity page: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/esrc-applicant-led-challenge-awards/

Apply for funding to bring people, expertise and ideas together in ambitious, larger-scale programmes. Challenge awards tackle major research, economic and societal challenges, generating impactful new knowledge and innovation.

You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for ESRC funding.

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be between £2 million and £10 million. ESRC will fund 80% of the FEC. Projects can be up to five years in length.

This is a pre-announcement and the information may change. More information will be available on this page when the funding opportunity opens.

What we're looking for Aim

Tackling important and complex challenges requires ambition, scale and collaboration. Challenge awards bring together world-leading expertise in programmes of activity that address defined issues, knowledge gaps and unmet needs that significantly limit scientific progress or affect society and the economy. These innovative programmes will meaningfully strengthen and accelerate collaborations within and beyond the social science ecosystem, enhance national capability and generate new insights and solutions that contribute to a more prosperous, resilient and sustainable future.

Scope

Challenge awards support ambitious programmes of research, innovation or infrastructure that bring people, expertise and ideas together at scale. This includes mobilising collaborations between researchers from across disciplinary and methodological boundaries, across national borders, and between academic and non-academic partners to enhance the relevance, reach and impact of the project.

Challenge awards must address an evidenced knowledge gap, either by pushing the boundaries of social science to tackle significant research challenges, responding to societal or economic challenges or bringing…