Special Research Grants: COVID-19 guidance notes

The British Academy is inviting Humanities and Social Science researchers to bring their specific insights to bear on the global health pandemic resulting from COVID-19. Across health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic affects individuals, communities, and society in the UK and globally. The economic, social and cultural effects are far reaching.

The insights to be brought to bear by researchers in fields covered by the British Academy are wide-ranging and there is a clear role for both humanities and social sciences research to play to inform and enrich our understanding and response. From literature, drama, history and languages, to political sciences, psychology, economics and sociology it is the humanities and social sciences that make sense of the world around us. The potential for researchers to understand, compare, and inform the impact of COVID-19 that draws on and combines humanities and social science is extensive, and primary and secondary research can explore issues such as the:

• ethical and behavioural issues raised by the pandemic;
• implications of migration on disease transmission;
• feasibility and effectiveness of policy responses aimed at preventing or containing Covid-19, including secondary impacts such as school closures, quarantine etc;
• past experience of epidemics, pandemics and quarantine;
• communication of risk to the wider public;
• behavioural studies understanding how people have been affected, both mentally and physically by living through the pandemic;
• community responses to crisis;
• access and equity to essential services, including digital communications and technologies;
• translation and analysis of information for multilingual populations;
• role of arts and culture in community building, recovery and resilience;
• strategies to combat misinformation;
• impacts on socio-economically disadvantaged groups.

This subset of examples, which is not exhaustive, highlights the contribution that humanities and social sciences can offer and small research project funding is being made available by the British Academy to support research across our disciplines. Researchers should think creatively about how funding could best be used, with a view to making a significant contribution to the understandings of and range of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The British Academy will fund projects costing up to £10,000, following a model similar to the Academy’s existing BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants, but awarded through this special research grant targeted response call and accelerated assessment process.

This call does not replace the standard Small Grant call which is proceeding as normal. Application may be made by relevant researchers both to this special call and to the standard call which is open to all researchers on the normal basis, but only one application can be successful.

Grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences that will directly address issues relevant to the current Covid-19 pandemic. The insights to be brought to bear by researchers in fields covered by the British Academy are wide-ranging and we wish to stress that we encourage all potential applicants to think carefully and creatively about this call, and to propose innovative ideas and projects with the potential to improve understanding both now and in the future. Proposals should clearly describe in straightforward language, without jargon, the potential impacts on society that will result if the research is funded.

The maximum grant is £10,000 over two years – applications will not be considered for less than £500. The Academy expects to keep closely in touch with researchers funded under this call throughout the period of the grant to ensure the maximum value of communication of findings to the public.

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 when travel restrictions are eased. 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 either physically or virtually, 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 identifiable outcomes from the Academy-funded component of the project.

NB - The remit of BA funding schemes does not include primarily practice-based outputs such as in musical composition and performance, visual practice, creative writing, and filmmaking. Such outputs will be considered to fall within the BA's remit only when they form part of an integrated project of demonstrable critical or historical significance.

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 of 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 relevant dates for this call are shown in the table 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.

Applicants may bid for up to £10,000, for research taking place over a maximum period of 24 months.

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 applying at the same time to the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant programme, but only one application may be successful. There is also no bar to applying again, if successful, to a future round of BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants for follow-up funding if necessary.

Applicants who already hold as PI any other BA award of a similar nature (i.e. a current BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant) are not eligible to apply to this call.

For this call, applicants are not required to nominate a referee. This is to help facilitate rapid decision-making. All judgements on the applications will be made by a specially appointed panel of the British Academy.

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.

Feedback is not a feature of this scheme and the Academy is, regretfully, unable to enter correspondence regarding the decisions of the awarding Committee, which are governed by the Code of Practice. Please note that by applying in this scheme, applicants undertake to accept the terms under which applications are assessed.

Applications can only be submitted online using the British Academy Flexi-Grant® Grant Management System (GMS). Further information about the 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 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: eligibility criteria
Page 2: lead applicant details
Page 3: lead applicant career summary
Page 4: co-applicant details/career summary
Page 5: second co-applicant details/career summary
Page 6: research proposal
Page 7: financial details
Page 8: 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.

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.

Assessment criteria: assessors will evaluate the proposal on the basis of its academic merit, taking into account its originality, its relationship to, and the volume of, research already in the field, the scholarly importance of the research proposed and its relevance to issues arising from the current Covid-19 pandemic, the suitability of the methodology, the feasibility of the research programme, the specificity of the scheme of research, the presentation, and intended outcomes.

Assessors will evaluate the ability of the applicant(s) to undertake the proposed research, taking into account their track record in terms of publication, their academic age and stage of career. Backlogs of publication (including any reasons given by applicants) may be taken into account in assessing the current proposal.

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.

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.

Comparative judgements about value for money may be considered at the final stage of assessment.

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.

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.

Email: [email protected]
The British Academy
Research Funding Office
10-11 Carlton House Terrace
London SW1Y 5AH

Table 1: items eligible for funding from this call