International Interdisciplinary Research Projects 2026

More about the programme 

The British Academy is inviting proposals for the next round of its International Interdisciplinary Research programme. Projects will be led by UK-based researchers in the humanities and social sciences working with international partners and wishing to develop genuinely interdisciplinary projects that range across all SHAPE and STEM disciplines on the theme of Transnational and Planetary challenges.

Aims

The purpose of each project will be to develop new international research led by and grounded in the humanities and/or social sciences, to further understanding of transnational and planetary challenges. Genuinely productive and integral interdisciplinarity is a requirement, with the expectation that this will involve collaboration across disciplines. The collaboration can include any SHAPE or STEM discipline as long as the research is led by and grounded in the humanities and/or social sciences. Applications that do not meet this requirement will be considered ineligible and will not be taken forward through the assessment process. The Academy particularly encourages applications led from the humanities.

The Academy will only accept applications that focus on one or more of the following four transnational and planetary challenge domains. Applications should engage with both the important technical and/or scientific components of each domain, and also with those aspects which make the challenge difficult for a single sovereign states to manage individually. To do so, applications must address how non-state actors and transnational organisations might contribute to the selected challenge.

• Earth system governance, including problems related to climate change, biodiversity loss, oceanic degradation, and other forms of environmental pollution
• Digital and other transformative technologies, including the challenges presented by artificial intelligence (AI), cyber, synthetic biology, nanotech, and other breakthroughs
• Global health, particularly the rising threat posed by pandemic disease and the linkages among human, animal, and environmental health (“One Health”)
• Outer space governance, encompassing the dilemmas posed by accumulating orbital debris, space traffic congestion, property and sovereignty claims, and arms racing.

The Academy envisages the awards made through the Programme will:

• Advance deeper, more nuanced, and historically aware thinking about the relevant challenge;
• Identify how humanities and social sciences research working in an interdisciplinary fashion can contribute  to international and national knowledge exchange, practice, and policy development in this area, and what lessons can be learnt to navigate any future landscape(s);
• Develop ways of communicating and collaborating in cross-disciplinary and multilingual working through appropriate international partnerships.

This round of the programme is supported, as in previous years, by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Eligibility requirements

Applications must meet the Programme Aims set out above, demonstrating a genuinely interdisciplinary approach through international research collaboration. The Academy wishes to encourage novel thinking rather than offering a pre-designed idea of the form of the research.

The Principal Investigator (PI) must be a researcher from the humanities and social sciences and be based at an eligible UK university or research institute and hold an established role that will last at least the duration of their prospective award. The PI must be of postdoctoral or above status (or have equivalent research experience) and must plan to spend at least 20% of their time (0.2 FTE equivalent) on their prospective award.

The involvement of Co-Applicants based overseas is required.

It is required that the PI be from the humanities or social sciences, and that amongst the PI and Co-Applicant(s) there is collaboration across disciplines. The collaboration can include any SHAPE or STEM disciplines as long as the research is led by and grounded in the humanities and/or social sciences. Genuinely productive and integral interdisciplinarity is a requirement. Applications that do not meet this requirement will be considered ineligible and will not be taken forward through the assessment process.

For more details about the eligibility requirements, please see the Scheme Notes.

Value and duration

The total funding available per award in this call is up to £300,000 over 2 years. Within that limit of £300,000 over 2 years the award is offered at 80% FEC (i.e. the total contribution requested from the Academy may not exceed £300,000 and the total project value at 100% FEC may not exceed £375,000).

Funding can be used to support the time of the Principal Investigator and Co-Applicants; postdoctoral (or equivalent) research assistance; travel, fieldwork and related expenses; and networking costs. Awards are offered on an 80% full economic costing basis.

Projects must begin in March/April 2026.

Application process

Applications must be submitted online using the British Academy's Grant Management System (GMS), Flexi-Grant®.

The deadline for submissions and UK institutional approval is 17th September 2025, 17:00 (BST).

Scheme guidance

For more details about the programme and information on how to apply, please see the Scheme Notes.