British Academy/ Cara/ Leverhulme Researchers at Risk Research Support Grants scheme notes

Purpose of Grant

The Leverhulme Trust is providing funding of £1,000,000 over five years targeted at providing research support for researchers at risk.

Grants are available to support research project activities for eligible researchers in all disciplines except medical and health sciences.

The maximum grant is £10,000 over the remaining duration of the relevant fellowship award held by the applicant – applications will not be considered for less than £2,000.

Applications for collaborative or individual research projects are equally welcome under this scheme.

Funds are available to facilitate initial project planning and development; research assistance; and to enable the advancement of research through conference/workshop 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. Applications will be assessed equally on their merits, with no preference as to the mode of enquiry.

All applications should demonstrate that funds are sought for a clearly defined, discrete research activity, which will have an identifiable outcome.

The deadline for applications for this second round is 17:00 GMT on 27 September 2023. The Academy will announce the timings of future rounds in due course.

Researcher Eligibility

Eligible researchers include the following except where their research falls within the medical and health sciences which is not eligible:

Existing award holders through Cara’s Fellowship Programme.
Applicants to Cara’s Fellowship Programme who have been deemed eligible for support and for whom a placement is being sought (awards will only be paid over once the placement is secured).
Existing award holders through the British Academy’s Researchers at Risk Fellowship Programme.
Applicants to the British Academy’s Researchers at Risk Fellowship Programme (awards will only be paid over once the placement is secured).

In addition, to be eligible for this funding applicants must possess an appropriate UK visa and be active postdoctoral (or equivalent level) researcher.

Level and Duration of Award

The award period for any research support funding will not exceed the duration of the relevant fellowship award that the applicant holds from either the British Academy or Cara.

The funding available will be for up to £10,000 per award with applicants only allowed to apply for funding once during the course of their fellowship award.

Eligible Costs

The funding must be utilised for distinct activity or activities in the support of a research project. The funding is for research support only. Eligible costs include:

Project planning and development costs (cost of travel for discussion in the UK and overseas; initial workshops with potential partners).
Travel and maintenance for the applicant, including travel to disseminate results of the research at meetings/workshops held either in the UK or abroad.
Travel and maintenance for overseas scholars engaged in collaborative research activity with the applicant.
Research expenses.
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.
Language training.
Costs of interpreters in the field.
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.

The funding is not for the support of:

Administration, overheads or any other costs at the host institution.
The applicant personally or their dependents.
Purchasing equipment.
Payment in lieu of salary.
Replacement teaching.
Advocacy or lobbying.
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.

It is expected that a non-exhaustive set of examples of research support could include the below.

Initial project planning and development.
To enable to advancement of research through workshops or conferences with a specific relevant research objective both being organised by the applicant or through their participation at.
Visits by or to partner researchers or to specific infrastructures, archives or similarly relevant places where there is a clearly specified research objective.

Grants are not intended to support interchange between researchers where there is no planned programme of activity to meet a clearly specified research objective. Applications purely to organise a conference, whether held in the UK or overseas will not be considered.

Selection Principles

All applications will undergo an eligibility check to ensure the application is complete and the researcher meets the eligibility criteria.

Eligible proposals will be considered by a Selection Panel convened by the British Academy, which will include representatives of the UK National Academies.

This funding is available on a competitive basis. It is not expected that all applications for funding will be successful.

Applications for this research support funding will be assessed using the following criteria:

Code of Practice

The British Academy has a Code of Practice for assessing applications, setting out the principles of equity, integrity and confidentiality governing the treatment of all applications. 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. Feedback is not a feature of this Programme and the Academy is, regretfully, unable to enter into correspondence regarding the decisions of the awarding committee, which are governed by the Code of Practice. Please note that by applying to this programme, applicants undertake to accept the terms under which applications are assessed.

Application Information

Applications can only be submitted online using the British Academy Flexi-Grant® Grant Management System (GMS). If you have not previously used the British Academy’s Flexi-Grant® GMS and were not registered in the previous 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.

The call will remain open on a rolling basis until all funding has been utilised. The Academy will announce on its website when the funding has been fully utilised.

When completing your application on the British Academy Flexi-Grant® GMS, it is recommended that you take particular 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 represents a personal record of your account in the system and will help to populate the contact details in any application form you complete. It is useful if this information is kept up to date, but it is not essential to the progress of an application.
Automatic log-out: You are strongly advised to save your work regularly to prevent accidental loss of information. In particular, you should be aware that if the system does not detect any activity for 1 hour it will log out and save the application at that time. Please note that moving between pages within an application form will save the page that you are exiting but completing a field on a page is not considered an activity. It is recommended that you write the text for longer sections/fields in a word processor such as Word and then copy and paste into the relevant text box to avoid being timed out in this way.
Multiple sessions: 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.
Plain text: If entering plain text, please avoid using symbols as some may not be accepted by the British Academy Flexi-Grant® system. You should generate and view a PDF of your application to check that the application appears as you want it to by clicking on ‘print application’.
Uploading 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. Please note we will only print your applications in black and white. Each PDF cannot exceed 3 pages in length or 3 Mb in size.
Email addresses: The British Academy Flexi-Grant® GMS relies heavily on automatic email contact. It is essential that you ensure you enter accurate email addresses where requested as it may cause considerable delay in the submission/processing of your application if any of these are incorrect. You cannot make changes to email addresses after your application has been submitted for approval.
Submission of application: 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 a designated approver at your host organisation at least 5 working days before the closing date to allow for your host organisation’s administrative procedures. The institutional approver is a person within the UK host organisation who has authority for approving all applications submitted to the British Academy.
Application sharing: All applications must be started by an individual at the host university on behalf of the researcher. You can invite other contributors to join the application (e.g. Head of Department, Finance Office contact etc.) by sharing a link. You can let other British Academy Flexi-Grant® GMS users view your draft application in advance of submission by providing their email address. They will be able to log in using their existing password and see your application and, depending on permissions, amend your application.
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 7 days after deletion. After this, it will be permanently removed from the system.
Application returned for editing: The approver can return your application to you for further editing before the closing deadline of the call. See ‘Submission of Application’ above.
Guidance: In the tables below you will find in the left-hand column each question as set out in the application form and in the right-hand column useful guidance on its completion.
Further clarification: If any of this advice is unclear, or you need further information, please do not hesitate to seek clarification from the British Academy’s International Team (contact details at the end of these notes).

Please note that it is essential that you create a PDF of your completed application (by clicking 'Print Application') and check it thoroughly, including email addresses and uploaded PDFs, before submitting it for approval by your UK 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.

Completing the application form

This section covers page one of the application form.

Title of Research Proposal

In this field, please avoid using any unnecessary quotation or other punctuation marks (e.g. do not use quotation marks round the full title simply to indicate it is a title). Consider the presentation by checking the ‘print application’ option to ensure that the title appears as you wish it to.

Abstract

Please provide a short abstract summarising your proposed research in terms suitable for an informed general audience, not one specialised in your field. This is a mandatory field and the limit is 150 words

Start date/end date

To select a date in the future using the calendar feature, click on the month and year in between the two arrows at the top of the box. To change the year keep clicking on the box – a second click will produce a decade. Use the arrows to move back or forward in time. To change the month, a second box will appear where you can select the month you wish and then you can type the year you require in the box provided. Click on the date and the calendar will take you to the month and year you have selected where you can select the relevant date for display.

The end date must coincide with the end of the fellowship award and cannot be later.

Proposed programme/plan of action

The proposal must:

clearly specify the context, and research objectives of the proposed study,
describe the methodology to be used, and
set out a realistic research programme, describing the activities that will take place, and explaining how they will contribute to the achievement of the research objectives

Applicants should give an account of their research which is complete of itself and should not rely on special prior knowledge on the part of assessors.

Where the bulk of funding sought is to finance a workshop(s) or conference(s), applicants should give a clear account of the overall research programme, provide a justification of the contribution of the event(s) to the achievement of the research objective, and give an account of the onward research planned.

It is essential that applicants clearly state the reasons why funds are needed. For example, it is not sufficient to state that the applicant will visit a particular archive: adequate details must be provided of sources to be consulted, and the length of visit must be clearly justified. The applicant should briefly explain why alternative access to material, such as microfilm or internet access, is not appropriate.

Grants are intended only for the planning and conduct of primary research. They are not available to cover the costs of spending time at another institution for purposes such as the writing up of primary research. All applications must clearly itemise the research programme to be undertaken at any location. Convenience is not a justification.

If support is sought for visits between UK and overseas scholars, applicants should clearly explain the purpose of the meeting(s).

If a research assistant is to be employed, applicants should provide a brief job description, clearly stating the nature of the work to be undertaken by the research assistant, and the arrangements for ensuring adequate supervision. Applicants should state the skills and qualifications sought.

Applicants should justify the period of employment (or number of hours) for which funding is sought (e.g., has a pilot study or sample been conducted to show how long it will take the assistant to achieve the task in question?). Please note that PhD candidates employed as research assistants on projects funded by the Academy should work for no more than 10 hours per week on projects outside their own PhD research. British Academy research grants may not be used to fund work by PhD candidates that is directly related to their PhD thesis.

If the study will involve the use of a questionnaire as a research tool, a sample of the questionnaire (in English) should be submitted, if available at the time of application. Please note no other attachments can be uploaded. The PDF cannot exceed 3 Mb in size.

Research proposal impact

Applicants should detail the impact of the proposed activity on their career development and how they view the application aiding that considerably. In this context, applicants should demonstrate how this research support funding would be particularly beneficial given the applicant’s current level of research support funding.

Planned research outputs/plans for publication/ dissemination

Under ‘planned research outputs’, please only state the type of output expected. Please give more detail about potential publishers etc. under plans for publication. In assessing value for money, the assessors may consider the intended outcome as compared with the amount of money sought, although it is fully appreciated that some modes of research are more expensive than others and proposals will not be discriminated against on grounds of cost alone.

Digital Resource/Deposit of Datasets

Digital resources created as a result of research funded by the Academy should be deposited in an appropriately accessible repository. Of course, we do not expect confidential data to be readily available.

If applicable to your project, you will need to provide details of how and where any electronic or digital data (including datasets) developed during the project will be stored, along with details on the appropriate methods of access.

Applicants should ensure that any necessary technical advice is obtained before commencing work that involves the creation of digital resources. Please confirm whether the primary product of the research will be a digital resource, and if so how and where it will be deposited.

Overseas Travel: Institution

Where overseas travel is to be undertaken, please list the most significant country to be visited and if your research involves working in a particular overseas institution, and/or working in other countries to which you will travel in connection with this application, please give details under ‘Overseas travel – institution’.

This information is used for monitoring purposes and may be provided to sister Academies or other organisations which have agreements or links with the British Academy, or the British International Research Institutes. Relevant information about the proposal, including, with the consent of the applicant, contact details, may be shared with the sister Academies or Institutes where this is part of the assessment process, or where joint funding is available (see https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/international/research-institutes for list of organisations with which the Academy has links).

Other participants/ Role of other participants/ Added value of collaboration

Under ‘Other participants’ please give the names, appointments and institutional affiliation of any other participants in the proposed research. If detail is not known yet, please indicate numbers and status of people who might be involved. Please describe the contribution to the project to be made by other participants, citing any particular specialisms and expertise, under ‘role of other participants’; and under ‘Added value of collaboration’, please provide any comments you wish to make on the particular relevance, timeliness or other aspects of the collaboration, and the benefits envisaged.

Ethical Issues

This field is mandatory and must be addressed by all applicants.

Are there any special ethical issues arising from your proposal that are not covered by the relevant professional Code of Practice? Have you obtained, or will you obtain, ethical approval from your employing institution or other relevant authority?

It is not expected that any special ethical issues will arise that are not already covered by relevant professional Codes of Practice. The normal expectation, therefore, will be that applicants should answer the pair of questions with the answers no and no.

If there are any special issues arising, but they have already been cleared by approval from a relevant authority, please answer yes and yes.

If any special issues arise and approval has not yet been obtained, please answer yes and no, and provide more explanation.

This section covers page two of the application form.

Employing Organisation

Please be aware that it is your responsibility to ensure that you complete your application in time for your employing institution to process it and provide their approval by the closing date

Please select your current employing organisation. The majority of appropriate establishments are registered in the system. If your employing organisation is not there, however, please contact the institution’s research support services, or equivalent, and ask them to provide the Research Awards Department with contact details of an appropriate person in the organisation to act as an approver on its behalf.

All applications must be approved by the employing organisation authorities e.g. research grants office, finance department, etc. The approving department will receive email notification once you have completed your application and submitted it. They will be asked to provide approval and then submit the application to the British Academy. The deadline for this round is the deadline by which approval must be given.

It is strongly recommended that the applicant maintains an open dialogue with the approving department at your employing institution as the British Academy cannot be held responsible for emails being caught in spam filters or not being received.

It is recommended that you allow at least five working days for this process. Once they have checked your application, they will contact you if any changes are required, please note if changes need to be made these will have to be done before the deadline as they cannot be done afterwards.

Scheme participation

Please state whether you are a British Academy Researcher at Risk award holder or a Cara Fellow.

This section covers page four of the application form.

Financial Details/ Justification

Please provide details of funding in the relevant fields.

The funding available will be for up to £10,000 per award with applicants only allowed to apply for funding once during the course of their fellowship award.

The funding must be utilised for distinct activity or activities in the support of a research project. The funding is for research support only. Eligible costs include:

Project planning and development costs (cost of travel for discussion in the UK and overseas; initial workshops with potential partners).
Travel and maintenance for the applicant, including travel to disseminate results of the research at meetings/workshops held either in the UK or abroad.
Travel and maintenance for overseas scholars engaged in collaborative research activity with the applicant.
Research expenses.
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.
Language training.
Costs of interpreters in the field.
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.

The funding is not for the support of:

Administration, overheads or any other costs at the host institution.
The applicant personally or their dependents.
Purchasing equipment.
Payment in lieu of salary.
Replacement teaching.
Advocacy or lobbying.
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.
Travel and maintenance expenses for purposes such as lecture tours or to write up the results of research.

Applicants should prepare accurate costings for the proposed research expenses and should be particularly careful not to overestimate the resources required.

Costs should be clearly itemised and justified in terms of the research programme.

It is advised that travel costs should be clearly justified; that the length of time for which subsistence is sought should be justified in the application; that per diem rates should be explained. If a claim for child or parental care is included, please supply sufficient justification for the case to be assessed.

Per diem rates: The Academy will normally offer no more than £2,000 per month for subsistence away from home, or a maximum daily rate of £100 for shorter visits, to include food, accommodation and local daily travel. If you are going to be requesting more than this, we ask that you make your case and explain the reasons for this. Applicants are asked to quote realistic daily rates, bearing in mind that the Academy reserves the right to reduce the amount requested if it is thought excessive. In all cases the Academy is looking to ensure value for money.

Please note that no payments can be made for salary costs or for replacement teaching.

Please note that grants are cash-limited, and there is no scope for supplementation of an award. Projects should be fully costed from the outset.

Please do not use ‘£’ signs in the amount boxes.

Submission of Application

Once you have submitted your application for approval by your host UK institution, automatic emails will be sent to your host UK 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 UK organisation for approval. The host UK 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 UK 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 UK institution as their internal timetables may require earlier submission.

If your host UK organisation approver requests modifications through the British Academy 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 UK organisation.

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

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

Outcome of Application

Once your application has been submitted, and if it has been approved by your institution, you will not be contacted again by the British Academy until the decision has been made. You can track the progress of your application by logging in again to the Flexi-Grant system at any time. It is anticipated that applicants will receive notification of the outcome within two months following the submission deadline. If there is a delay, then applicants expecting an outcome will receive an update on the anticipated date for an outcome. Outcomes will be conditional upon the visa approval and no funds will be released until all conditions of the award are met. Results are issued by email.

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

The British Academy

International Office 10-11 Carlton House Terrace

London SW1Y 5AH

Email: [email protected]

British Academy/ Cara/ Leverhulme Researchers at Risk Research Support Grants scheme notes

Purpose of Grant

Researcher Eligibility

Level and Duration of Award

Eligible Costs

Selection Principles

Code of Practice

Application Information

Completing the application form

Submission of Application

Outcome of Application

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British Academy/ Cara/ Leverhulme Researchers at Risk Research Support Grants scheme notes

Purpose of Grant

Researcher Eligibility

Level and Duration of Award

Eligible Costs

Selection Principles

Code of Practice

Application Information

Completing the application form

Overview

Page one: research proposal

Page two: eligibility criteria

Page three: lead applicant personal details

Page four: financial details

Page five: equal opportunities

Submission of Application

Outcome of Application

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