BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants 2023 guidance notes

In January 2018 the British Academy (BA) announced the continuation of the partnership with the Leverhulme Trust to support the funding of the Small Research Grants scheme. The awards are co-sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust with funding for five years adding to the public funding deriving from the grant made to the Academy via the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. In addition, the Academy continues to be able to offer some awards derived from funds generously donated by other funders including the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies, the Sino-British Fellowship Trust, British Accounting and Finance Association, Journal of Moral Education Trust, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, the Honor Frost Foundation, EY, and the Wellcome Trust. The Academy also expresses its partnerships with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS).

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)

The British Academy has partnered with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) who will co-fund two Small Research Grants for this round.

• UK applicants should submit an application for a British Academy Small Grant and ensure that their Chinese co-applicant submits an application to CASS in English and Chinese (on its prescribed application form) at the same time.
• China-based applicants must be of postdoctoral (or above) status and have a permanent position (spanning the duration of the project) at a CASS institute.
• China-based applicants must first submit an expression of interest, together with a written recommendation letter issued by their CASS institute to the Bureau of International Cooperation of CASS (http://www.bic.cas.cn/) before submitting a proposal to the British Academy in the same year.
• Applications will be considered by each side, who will jointly agree the final list of successful applicants to receive co-funded awards.
• The application to the British Academy must indicate the total cost requested (up to £10,000) and if the award is recommended for co-funding, the British Academy will cover costs of the participants from the UK side (up to £5,000) and CASS will cover costs of the participants from the Chinese side (up to RMB 50,000).

Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS)

The British Academy has partnered with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) who will co-fund two Small Research Grants for this round.

• UK applicants should submit an application for a British Academy Small Grant and ensure that their Chinese co-applicant submits an application to SASS in English and Chinese (on its prescribed application form) at the same time.
• China-based applicants must be of postdoctoral (or above) status and have a permanent position (spanning the duration of the project) at a SASS institute.
• China-based applicants must first submit an expression of interest, together with a written recommendation letter issued by their SASS institute to the Bureau of International Cooperation of SASS before submitting a proposal to the British Academy in the same year.
• Applications will be considered by each side, who will jointly agree the final list of successful applicants to receive co-funded awards.
• The application to the British Academy must indicate the total cost requested (up to £10,000) and if the award is recommended for co-funding, the British Academy will cover costs of the participants from the UK side (up to £5,000) and SASS will cover costs of the participants from the Chinese side (up to RMB 50,000).

Grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. The first recourse for funding should be to your own institution (where applicable).

The maximum grant is £10,000 over two years – applications will not be considered for less than £500.

Applications for collaborative or individual research projects are equally welcome under this scheme. Applications from international groups of scholars are welcome, provided there is a UK-based scholar as lead applicant.

Funds are available to facilitate initial project planning and development; to support the direct costs of research; and to enable the advancement of research through workshops or visits by or to partner scholars. Applicants may seek support for any combination of eligible activity and cost up to the overall limit of £10,000. The Academy will assess applications equally on their merits, with no preference as to mode of enquiry.

Grants are not intended to support interchange between UK and overseas scholars where there is no planned programme of activity to meet a clearly specified research objective (dissemination of results of research conducted under the aegis of the project for which funding is sought is a permitted purpose, but applications purely to organise an international conference, whether held in the UK or overseas will not be considered); nor are grants intended solely to support attendance at open conferences organised by a third party or international organisation.

All applications should demonstrate that funds are sought for a clearly defined, discrete piece of research, which will have an identifiable outcome on completion of the Academy-funded component of the project.

NB - The British Academy welcomes proposals for high-quality research in all its subject areas. While all proposals should be situated in an appropriate field of study, they may vary considerably in their approach to conceptualisation, methodology and/or outputs, depending on the discipline. In some cases, creative and professional practice may play a significant role in shaping the methods and/or outcomes of research. In all proposals, whether practice-led or not, a clear scholarly rationale is required for the choice of research methods, processes and outputs.

Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Grants are available for research, at postdoctoral or equivalent level, in the fields of the humanities and the social sciences. Equivalent experience may include holding, or having held, an established post, having a record of publications in the field and/or having teaching experience.
• Postgraduate students are not eligible to apply.
• Applicants must be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands (that is, classed as ‘ordinarily resident’ for tax purposes) or currently employed overseas by a recognised UK overseas research organisation.
• UK research organisations based overseas may apply to be recognised by demonstrating that they satisfy both the following conditions:

1. Organisations which are, or which are constituent parts of, charities registered with the Charity Commission; and
2. Which must be able to demonstrate an independent capability to undertake research in the field or discipline in which they wish to be funded, and to lead the research for which funding is received.

• Awards will not be made retrospectively: this means that the work for which support is requested must not have commenced before the award is announced.

The Academy offers awards in this scheme in two rounds of competition each year.

Please note the earliest point at which research can commence, and to help regulate the flow of applications, the latest starting date also. The Academy is inviting proposals in this round with the closing date noted below.

Funds may be sought to cover the direct expenses incurred in planning, conducting, and developing the research, including:

• project planning and development costs (cost of travel for discussion in the UK and overseas; initial workshops with potential partners)
• travel and maintenance for UK scholars; including travel to disseminate results of the research at conferences held either in the UK or abroad
• travel and maintenance for overseas scholars engaged in collaborative research activity with UK partner(s)
• research assistance (based in UK or abroad)
• workshops or conferences to advance the programme of research (principally the costs of travel and maintenance for key participants, though organisational costs may be considered)
• consumables
• specialist software
• costs of interpreters in the field

Bids for the cost of child or parent care may be considered if the carer is conducting research away from home and it is not possible to make alternative arrangements. The costs of normal regular childcare whilst at home are not eligible for support. Consumables include the purchase of datasets, photocopies, microfilms, etc, and any other minor items that will be used up during the course of the project. Applicants may apply for short-term consultancy or salary costs for expert staff, or short periods of research assistance. Provided they are central to the research process and an adequate case is made, the costs of preparing illustrations (including photography, acquisition of images, draughtsmanship and cartography or other bespoke illustrative material) may be considered. The cost of reproduction rights for text or images may be considered provided there is a contract for publication in place. Costs associated with deposit of digital material in an appropriately accessible repository may be considered. Costs related to conservation may be considered provided there is a clear research context to the work that falls within the remit of the Academy; if an application is purely for technical or practical work with no research objective, it is not eligible for funding. Incidental translation expenses may be considered.

The following items are not currently eligible for funding (applicants registered with special needs may consult the Academy about possible exceptions): institutional overheads, or any element that should properly be ascribed to institutional overheads; computer hardware including laptops, electronic notebooks, digital cameras, etc; books and other permanent resources; the preparation of camera-ready copy, copy-editing, proof-reading, indexing, nor any other editorial task; subventions for direct production costs (printing, binding, distribution, marketing etc); costs of publication in electronic media; payment to the principal researcher(s) in lieu of salary, or for personal maintenance at home; replacement teaching costs; travel and maintenance expenses for purposes such as lecture tours or to write up the results of research.

Please note, The British Academy has set aside specific funding to support any additional needs that applicants and award holders may require. Each request will be considered on a case by case basis. Please find further details, and how to apply, here.

Applicants should not apply for expenditure that will take place over more than 24 months. (Note that if application includes an element for dissemination of results of research at conferences, the timing of such a conference must be within the 24-month limit and the end date of the award calculated accordingly to include this element).

There is no bar to reapplying for further funding, providing the conditions of award relating to the preceding grant have been satisfactorily fulfilled. Please note, however, that once a pilot project has been successfully completed further applications relating to the main project may be more appropriately directed elsewhere for funding (ESRC/AHRC). There is no guarantee that a re-application will be successful, so applicants with longer-term projects in mind should ensure that their research is so designed that a single phase will have an appropriate and worthwhile outcome, even if further phases are not funded.

Please note that only one British Academy Small Research Grant or another similar Academy grant may be held, or applied for, at any one time.

An application cannot be accepted if there is a report outstanding on any previous research grant awarded by the Academy to the principal investigator or co-applicant(s) named in the current proposal. Failure to follow this guidance will result in your application being withdrawn from this round of competition. Duplicate applications for the same purpose to more than one Academy scheme will not be accepted.

Please note the following:

• An International Fellowship co-applicant can apply to this scheme providing there is no duplication of costs.
• You can apply to both this scheme and the Mid-Career Fellowship Scheme but cannot be successful in both as the Mid-Career Fellowship Scheme includes some research expenses and buys 100% of your time.
• You can apply to both this scheme and the Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme providing there is no duplication of costs.
• Providing it is for the same project, it is acceptable to apply for a BA\Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship at the same time, and to hold both awards if successful in both schemes, as there will be no duplication of costs.

The Academy will accept one resubmission of a previously unsuccessful application. A fresh proposal must be prepared, and a new statement of support supplied by a referee (who may be either the same or different from that named on the first application). Applicants should clearly demonstrate if and how the proposal has been modified. Proposals which have previously passed the quality threshold assessment, and were not selected in the randomisation process, can be resubmitted without modification.

Applicants are required to nominate one referee and ensure that the supporting statement from their chosen referee is submitted on the British Academy Flexi-Grant® Grant Management System (GMS) by the application submission deadline. Please note this deadline is final.

The reference must be submitted before the application can be approved. Any application without a supporting reference will not be able to be submitted. Please also note that the reference must be submitted in time to allow you to submit the application for approval by your employing organisation for the same deadline.

Your referee has to be drawn from outside your own employing institution and from outside the employing institution of your co-applicant(s), if any.

Before listing your referee on your application form you should seek permission from them that they are happy to provide this by the deadline. It is essential that you enter the correct email address for your referee, otherwise your referee will not receive the automated messages delivered from the British Academy Flexi-Grant® GMS (link).

Your referee must register on Flexigrant first, before you can send them this invitation.

We strongly advise that you complete your application as early as possible to allow your referee enough time to provide their reference in the system. An application cannot be considered for an award unless the proposal and reference have been submitted on time.

Please note that references must be provided through the GMS, they cannot be provided as an email attachment nor sent by post in hard copy. Any references received after the deadline, or outside of the system, or by another academic at the same institution as you or a co-applicant(s) will not be accepted, and your application will be withdrawn from this competition.

The British Academy has decided to trial a new approach to the peer review and assessment of British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants. Applications will be assessed in the normal way by assessors at the initial stage to determine whether an application is fundable or not.

Assessors will be asked to confirm that applications are good enough to be considered for funding against specific criteria – the quality and interest of the research proposal; the ability of the applicant (and any co-applicants) to make a success of it based on their past track record; the feasibility of the methodology; the feasibility of the timescale; and the appropriateness of costs requested.

The primary assessment of quality will be based on the specific research objective of the proposal, and whether the methodology and research programme outlined are likely to lead to successful achievement of the objective. The details of how the objective will be achieved - whether through research visits, use of research assistance, workshops, or any combination of eligible activities/costs - will be assessed only in relation to each individual application. No preference will be shown between individual or collaborative modes of research. There are no quotas for different types of application, and no comparisons will be made across applications on the grounds of their operational and financial specifications. For projects involving partners from other countries, assessors may take into account the availability of partner funding: in cases where partner funding is likely to be scarce, assessors may give priority to those projects which are likely to contribute to capacity building and lead to benefits for the wider scholarly community. In addition, Assessors may consider evidence of language competence where the understanding of material in a foreign language is crucial to the achievement of the research objective.

All applications that are deemed fundable at this stage - i.e. meeting the quality threshold - will then be entered into a random allocation process.

As a result of this revised process, the Academy will be able to give all unsuccessful applicants feedback on their applications. Applicants whose applications are judged not to meet the quality threshold on one or more of the criteria will be informed of this when given the result at the end of the assessment process. Applicants who are entered into the random allocation process but not selected for award will be informed that their applications were fundable and the only reason for being unsuccessful was that there were not enough funds to support everyone entered into the random allocation.

We believe that this approach will have wide benefits. We hope that the transparency and simplicity of the system will improve research culture more generally

• Between the very best applications, we will be removing human bias and partiality, which may be fairer to traditionally overlooked groups.
• Allow us to give applicants feedback on which elements of the proposal did not pass the quality threshold. Please note that we will not be able to enter into correspondence about feedback or provide further detail.

Overall, we believe that partial randomisation will ease the burden on applicants and research officers without impacting the quality of applications and assessment. An application needs to pass our rigorous quality threshold, but it does not need to be checked and edited time and time again, so more time will be freed up for both applicants and research officers.

The British Academy is working with researchers at the University of Oxford to evaluate the Partial Randomised Allocation Trial. These researchers are requesting your consent for the British Academy to share some details of your SRG application to enable you to be involved as a study participant. The researchers will use this information to gather data on your past and future research outputs. We will be in touch after you have submitted your application with further details. Your decision to participate or not is entirely independent from the allocation of funding for the Small Research Grants scheme.

The Academy has a Code of Practice for assessing research applications, setting out the principles of equity, integrity and confidentiality governing the treatment of all applications for research support. The Code of Practice also covers Data Protection, the Academy’s ethics policy and the appeals procedure. The Code of Practice may be viewed on the Academy’s website at https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/code-practice.

Applications can only be submitted online using the British Academy Flexi-Grant® Grant Management System (GMS). Further information about the Flexi-Grant® GMS is available. If you have not previously used the British Academy’s Flexi-Grant® GMS and were not previously registered in the e-GAP system, please follow the registration process from the Flexi-Grant® homepage. Applications cannot be submitted on paper or in any other format.

Before completing the online form, all applicants should check that they comply with the eligibility requirements and ensure all necessary information is presented in the application. These requirements are strictly adhered to, and applications without all the necessary information, or evidence to show the assessment criteria are met, will be rejected.

Registered approving organisations will be available in the search bar. If your organisation is not listed, and is not affiliated with any organisations already in the system, then please contact us at [email protected] to request the addition of the organisation.

Applicants should be aware that this application form will be considered by appropriate assessors who will be subject specialists. Applications assessed as being worthy of funding will be submitted to the Research Awards Committee for final decision on awards. The application will be treated as confidential at all times.

When completing your application, it is recommended that you take note of the following points:

Personal details: When registered in the British Academy Flexi-Grant® GMS, a user has the option to add or update personal information such as contact details, log-in details (including email address and password), interests, research and employment details, at any time. This does not form part of the specific application form for any individual scheme but represents a personal record of your account in the system. Please keep this information up to date.

Automatic log-out: You are strongly advised to save your work regularly to prevent accidental loss of text. The Flexi-Grant website will automatically log people out if no activity is detected. It is recommended that you work offline in a separate word processor and copy and paste completed text online once complete.

Multiple sessions: Do not have multiple browser windows/tabs of your application open at the same time as this may cause information to be lost. Only one user should edit an application at a time.

Word limits: If you exceed the word limit, you will not be able to save the page you are working on. Longer-length text should be completed separately and backed up in a word processor.

Plain text: If entering plain text, please avoid using symbols as some may not be accepted by the Flexi-Grant: This includes the following symbols: < >

PDF documents: When uploading PDF documents, please add your name and a heading at the top of every page to show what the document is. Please avoid uploading documents containing illustrations with fine details or colour as this can cause problems when creating a PDF of the application. Each PDF cannot exceed 3 Mb in size.

Email addresses: It is essential that you ensure your email address is up to date and actively monitored, or you may miss important notification emails.

Submission: You will not be able to submit your application until you have completed each section in full. You should submit your application for approval by your host organisation at least five working days before the closing date to allow for your host organisation’s administrative procedures. You should also check whether your institution has its own internal deadlines. We strongly advise that you contact your referee as early as possible to avoid any last-minute issues before the submission deadline.

Application sharing: You can invite other contributors to join the application. All contributors must be registered on the Flexi-Grant grants management system and mark their work as ‘Complete’ before you can submit your application – including the referee.

Application deletion: You can delete your application at any time although it is often a lot easier to just re-edit your existing application. We will be able to recover a deleted application for a period of seven days after deletion. After this, it will be permanently removed from the system.

Application returned for editing: The Organisation Approver can return your application to you for further editing, but the original deadline remains in place.

Please note the following:

It is essential that you create a PDF of your completed application (by clicking ‘print application’), and check it thoroughly before submitting it for approval by your host organisation. It may not be possible to rectify mistakes in time for the deadline.

Word limits apply to plain text only. Page limits apply to PDFs only.

All fields marked with an asterisk* are mandatory.

You should not have multiple browser windows/tabs of your application open at the same time as this may cause information to be lost. Only one user should edit an application at a time, otherwise changes might be lost.

The application can be completed by using the navigation tabs on the application summary page, with each page categorised as follows:

Page 1: Research Proposal

Page 2: Eligibility criteria

Page 3: Lead Applicant details

Page 4: Lead Applicant Career Summary

Page 5: Co-Applicant details/career summary

Page 6: Second Co-Applicant details/Career Summary

Page 7: Financial Details

Page 8: Nominated Referee

Page 9: Equal Opportunities

A full list of question fields to be completed as part of the application can be found in the following table. Each box in the table represents a page of the application form: the left-hand column contains the questions within each of these pages as set out in the form; the right-hand column contains useful guidance on its completion. A red asterisk (*) indicates which questions are mandatory and therefore must be complete before the application can be submitted.

Please read the guidance notes carefully before completing the form.

The Academy will only process complete, submitted applications.

Once you have submitted your application for approval by your host organisation, automatic emails will be sent to your host organisation approver asking them to log on to the system. You will not be able to edit your application after it has been submitted to your host organisation for approval. The host organisation approver will either: approve and submit your application, ‘send back’ your application and contact you to request modifications or decline your application and contact you.

Please be aware that it is your responsibility to ensure that you complete your application in time for your host organisation to process it (including requesting changes) and provide their approval by the closing date. It is recommended that you allow at least five working days for this process, but please check with your proposed host institution as their internal timetables may require earlier submission.

If your host organisation approver requests modifications through the British Academy Flexi-Grant® GMS email facility, they can unlock your application, allowing you to edit it. They can do this by selecting ‘Return to Applicant’. An automatic e-mail will be sent to you alerting you of this fact. Once you have completed and saved the requested changes, please re-submit your application for approval by your host organisation.

Once your host organisation has approved your application and submitted it to the British Academy it will not be possible to make any changes.

Please note that once the closing date has passed, host organisation approvers cannot approve applications and submit them to the British Academy; unapproved applications are removed from consideration. No late applications will be accepted.

It is recommended that you check that your application is submitted in time. To see the details of the host organisation approver and to check the status of your application, you should log into the British Academy Flexi-Grant® GMS and click on the link to the Application Portal where a summary of your application will be displayed.

NB. The administration of the scheme is undertaken solely by the British Academy and all aspects of the application process, assessment process and award management is undertaken by the Academy.

Please see the flowchart below for an overview of the application to award process.

Once your application has been submitted, complete with the reference, and it has been approved, you will not be contacted again by the British Academy until the decisions have been made. You can track the progress of your application by logging in again to the Flexi-Grant system at any time. Results are issued by email.

Applicants in any doubt about their eligibility or any other aspect of their application are advised to contact the Research Funding Office at the Academy, where staff will be pleased to assist.

The British Academy

10-11 Carlton House Terrace

London SW1Y 5AH

Due to remote working we recommend contacting us by email only

Email: [email protected]

Important Dates

Deadline for application submission and organisation approval: 5pm (UK time) 31 May 2023

Results announced by email to address on application: 30 August 2023

Table 1: items eligible for funding from Small Research Grants (the case made must be explicitly approved by the Academy)