A new funding opportunity is being launched as part of a decade-long partnership between the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) which aims to place innovation and appetite for risk at the centre of world-class research.
Sitting within the ESRC-DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research, this new call will fund innovative, strategic and catalytic research that offers new ways to tackle the challenges encountered at the intersections between sustainability, poverty and conflict/fragility in specific geographic contexts.
Proposals will be invited for projects with a full economic cost (fEC) value between £200,000 and £300,000.
The ESRC intend to announce the full call for proposals in October 2016. This notice is being issued now to allow interested researchers to begin discussions with potential research partners and research users in advance of the formal call for proposals.
How to apply
Proposals must be submitted through the Research Councils’ Joint Electronic Submissions system (Je-S). Detailed guidance about how to apply will be provided with the call for proposals.
The ESRC will operate a two-stage process for this call.
In the first stage the shortlisting panel will assess the anonymous Case for Support and Pathways to Impact documents. Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to attend a ‘Pitch-to-Peers’ assessment workshop where they will be assessed by members of the commissioning panel and other applicants.
Final funding recommendations will be made by the commissioning panel based on both the pitch and the full proposal. Decisions will be communicated to applicants shortly afterwards. Applicants must be able to attend the ‘Pitch-to-Peers’ assessment workshop at the end of April 2017 in order to apply to this call. The dates for this workshop will be provided in the call documentation.
The deadline for proposals will be 16.00 (UK time) on 26 January 2017. The earliest start date for successful projects is 1 September 2017 and all grants must complete by 31 March 2019.
Further information
The call specification and associated documentation will be available when the call for proposals is launched in October 2016. The ESRC will not be able to provide additional information about the full call in advance of its publication.
For more information, and to be alerted when the call is announced, please contact frontiers@esrc.ac.uk