Frequently Asked Questions

Applications must: 

• Be led by a researcher at a recognised Research Organisation that is eligible to apply for and receive funding from UK Research and Innovation (such as higher education providers; research institutes; NHS bodies; Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs); Independent Research Organisations (IROs); research and technology organisations).
• Have one named Project Lead based at the submitting institution and not based outside of the United Kingdom
• Applications should be co-funded (cash or in-kind) by the applicant’s organisation or other partners.

Applications may have: 

• Co-applicants from outside of the UK. 

Business, third or government sector applicants are welcome.  However, the following should be noted: 

• Businesses must comply with the UK Subsidy Control Act 2022
• Costs must not be more than 30% of the overall grant
• Overheads and any other indirect costs are not eligible for inclusion.

Where an application includes co-applicants from UK business, third sector or government organisations and international co-applicants not on the OECD DAC list (plus any based in organisations in India and China), the combined costs of all co-investigators must not exceed the 30% maximum limit. 

BR-UK is a consortium funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) that involves behavioural researchers from a range of academic disciplines, along with partners including the Scottish Government, Welsh Government, government departments and agencies in Northern Ireland, the UK Health Security Agency, Public Health Wales, the Transport Research Laboratory, and Zinc Ventures. 

The total value of the BR-UK Commissioning Fund is £1.3 million Full Economic Costs (FEC).  Unless specified, all awards will be made at 80% of full economic costs as per standard UKRI rules. 

In this final funding call, applications may be up to £50,000 (FEC).  We expect to fund between 4 and 5 proposals.

If you apply for the maximum amount, it is essential that your application demonstrates exceptional value for money.  

The Commissioning Fund will support one type of proposal in this funding call.

Accelerator proposals are intended to provide initial funding to provide proof of concept and/or generate new data and evidence that will allow applicants to pursue additional funding to further knowledge in this area. Funding of up to £50,000 FEC is available for these projects, which are expected to be between 12 and18 months duration. 

These proposals should be led by early career behavioural researchers.  ECRs can self-identify, in line with ESRC guidelines. They may be individuals employed on fixed term or project-funded contract and/or who have not previously held a research grant (as Principal Investigator) exceeding £100,000. This includes grants from funders other than UKRI.  Other co-investigators or collaborators can be named on the grant to contribute and support the early career principal applicant. All applications submitted should be costed on the basis of full economic costs (fEC).  BR-UK will only fund the initial project – how future funding will be sought from other sources should be mentioned in the bid. 

• Unless otherwise specified, all awards will be made at 80% of full economic costs.
• The applicant organisation(s) must agree to find the balance of fEC for the project from other resources as is standard with UKRI awards.  Read more about FEC on the UKRI website.
• Co-investigators or collaborators can be based in other countries, but the Principal Investigator must be based in the UK, the research should be conducted in the UK and be relevant to the UK.
• Will require applicants to outline the co-funding they have/will secured for their proposals.  This may include in-kind resources or staff time for example and is a requirement for this funding call. 

Please email any outstanding questions to enquiries@br-uk.ac.uk with the subject title "Commissioning Fund".

Ensure to answer all the questions in the application form fully. Proposals should explain how the proposed research would benefit from being linked with BR-UK and why it is suited to being supported by this fund rather than other initiatives. 

Proposals that promote and maximise the value of existing and novel data and data infrastructure would be welcomed. 

Clearly outline the resources requested and explain why this is appropriate.

Clear approaches and consideration of the impact of the proposed research and its findings must be explained. ESRC have published guidance on how to (generally) include impact in your research proposal that may be helpful. Read the guidance.

Sustainability should be a primary consideration throughout the research lifecycle - from study design and data collection to dissemination and follow-on work.  We ask interested parties to think about adopting approaches and methods that reduce these harms and increases positive environmental impacts.

We strongly encourage the inclusion of open science practices and the pre-registration of research protocols on the BR-UK Open Science Framework (or equivalent).   If this is not possible, please make sure to explain the rationale behind not following open science approaches and / or using alternative platforms. 

Below are some suggestions to help consider the inclusion of PESI principles which you can explain within your application. 

Read BR-UK’s guidance and approaches to EDII and consider how your project fits BR-UK’s EDII aims.  To help with this, consider the following:

• How will you ensure that a diverse range of perspectives are considered?
• Are you evaluating the impact of your findings on EDII?
• How will EDII considerations guide the creation of research participant groups?
• Have you thought about how to disaggregate EDII data where/if necessary?
• Do you have specific plans to encourage and support a positive research culture?
• Have you considered how to communicate your findings in an inclusive way?   
• Have you/will you complete an Equality Impact Assessment?

Awards will be made using a standard Funding Agreement which complies with BR-UK’s own funding contract with ESRC and is in line with UKRI funding rules.  Awards will be made to the lead institution who will be responsible for the disbursement and management of funding to other project partners as needed.

Commercial partners will be subject to due diligence checks and will be required to comply with the UK Subsidy Act 2022 and any other relevant legal statutes (for example, applicants from commercial partners in Northern Ireland may be impacted by EU law). These must be completed before any funding is awarded.  

A potential or actual conflict of interest may pose a reputational risk for BR-UK, ESRC and/or colleagues involved in the decision-making processes relating to the Commissioning Fund.  The BR-UK Conflicts of Interest Policy is in place to manage the process of identifying and declaring conflicts. All conflicts of interest must be declared. The existence of an actual, perceived or potential conflict of interest does not necessarily imply wrongdoing on anyone’s part.

Any private, personal, or commercial interests, which give rise to such a conflict of interest must be recognised, disclosed appropriately and either eliminated or properly managed. For example, if you own shares in a company that may benefit from the proposed research  then you should declare this.  

Further examples of conflicts of interest can be found on the UKRI website. 

In line with ESRC/UKRI guidelines, all data created or repurposed during the lifetime of an ESRC grant must be made available for re-use or archiving within three months of the end of the grant. 

Unless otherwise stated, all intellectual property shall belong to the party that generates them. 

You should outline your approaches to managing research data in the relevant section of the application form. A separate document is not required.  It is important to consider and plan what data you will be collecting, how you will use, handle and store it in addition to describing how you will be the data available for others to use in the longer term. You should also note how you will store and share sensitive data (if relevant) and how you will protect participant confidentiality. It is important to note that anyone who receives funding from ESRC (including via this award) must deposit all data from the project in the UK Data Service or a responsible data repository.

No. If your application is successful you will be responsible for ensuring ethics are in place. 

Ethics are granted by your local institution, and you should check the application procedures and timelines with your research office prior to application. 

Details of eligible costs are outlined in the UKRI funding guidance. Salary, travel and subsistence, and other directly incurred costs are allowed for business and third sector parties. Academic partners may also request overheads in addition to these categories.  Government bodies may only apply for travel and subsistence costs. 

If you apply for the maximum amount, it is essential that your application demonstrates exceptional value for money.  

Please provide an explanation of your costs including a breakdown of directly incurred costs (for staff please include an indication of their time on the project) and the split across institutions/partners where relevant.

Please refer to the funding guidance for details of costs that are not permitted which include, as examples, Article Processing Charges (APCs) and other publication charges relating to peer-reviewed research articles and conference papers, general printing or postage costs which are not specific to the project and its dissemination plans and costs related to alcohol are not permitted and should not be sought as an eligible cost. 

This funding cannot be used to cover PhD fees or living costs. 

PhD students are not eligible for inclusion on applications while they are completing their studies on a full-time basis. This is to avoid students becoming over committed.  They may be costed to applications on casual basis only - these costs are classified as Other DI Costs.  Please refer to the UKRI funding rules to ensure you classify costs correctly. 

Successful applicants are expected to provide co-funding (cash or in kind) for the project from their or other partner organisations and so should explain their intention to do so in their applications.  

This means including information in the application about resources that will be added to those requested from BR-UK to complete the project. This could include a direct contribution of a specified amount of funding from (for example) a departmental budget or an industry partner. It could also involve ‘in kind’ contributions such as staff time (for example a senior colleague providing advice or support to the project without any salary costs), access to equipment, travel costs or consumables. It does NOT include the 20% funding which the lead institution is expected to supply as part of the FEC funding model. 

This funding is managed by the BR-UK Leadership Hub and is available to support research proposals that are innovative and address behavioural research gaps identified through our capability scoping work and other mechanisms. 

All applications will be administered in line with UKRI Funding Rules and are expected to align their research practices and cultures with those of BR-UK such as open science and equality, diversity, inclusion and intersectionality.  This includes accepting our contracting terms and conditions and, for commercial partners, passing our due diligence checks and complying with the UK Subsidy Act 2022 where necessary.

Successful projects must be completed by 30th August 2028 (in line with the current BR-UK award timeline) and will be required to provide an End of Award report that clearly provides sufficient information to allow BR-UK to provide the required information to the ESRC. 

All projects will be encouraged to lodge their protocols and methods on BR-UK's Open Science Framework.  Successful awards will be listed on the BR-UK website along with a copy of the accessible summary provided in the application. 

Successful projects will be expected to engage with BR-UK’s wider research programme through attendance at BR-UK Annual Meetings and/or participating in the BR-UK biennial conferences.  Costs to facilitate the attendance of at least one member of the research team to join these meetings should be included in the application. 

No supplementary funding will be available beyond that outlined in your application. No extensions past the end date of 30th August 2028 will be possible.

We do not recommend submitting multiple applications. Academic applicants are limited to 1 submission as PI and 2 submissions as Co-I.  There is no limit on the numbers of bids that non-academic applicants can partner on.  Applications must be suitably distinct in their design and goals however. 

An ECR is an individual employed to conduct research activities on a precarious contract (e.g. fixed term or project-funded) and/or someone who has not previously held a research grant (as Principal Investigator) exceeding £100,000. This includes grants from organisations other than UKRI. 

This restriction does not apply to Co-Investigators playing a supporting role in a project or to named research staff.  

ECRs may self identify and may include those returning from a career break.

We welcome a range of methods and approaches in your project design which must be clearly explained in your application.  

Interdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged.  

Applications that pass the eligibility check will be blinded and subjected to a specific and transparent peer review process. Specifically, applications will be scored independently by up to three reviewers.  A score of up to five points will be assigned for each of the following categories:

• Scientific Merit: Originality, significance, outputs and rigor of the research
• Feasibility: Practicality of the research plan and methodology.
• Impact: Dissemination and potential to influence policy or practice (dissemination plans) and engagement with relevant publics/stakeholders.
• Value for Money: Efficient use of funds and resources.
• Team: Qualifications, experience and diversity of the research team.
• Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Intersectionality: Principles and considerations. 

We will be using a blind screening process as part of our commitment to EDII best practices. It may not be possible to completely blind the application however best efforts will be made to do so. 

Reviewers will be provided with all sections of the application form except that which contains the names of the proposed research team and summary of their skills and experience when reviewed in the first round of peer review.  This means the focus will be on the research plans and proposals initially. Applicant CV’s will be withheld until this first review stage is complete. 

To help with this, please try to avoid including identifying information (such as names of institutions, people, organisations, reports, publications etc.) in your answers to questions about research plans specifically.

Applications will be initially reviewed by a member of the administration team who may remove identifying references to people or institutions that could be used to identify the research team. 

You may include references to your previous work (including publications) within the text and these will be shared with the peer review panel after the initial round of scoring has been completed.  

No. You can add references as an appendix, but keep these to a manageable number.

All applications should be completed fully and emailed to: enquiries@br-uk.ac.uk. You may submit either a Word or PDF version of the form. You will receive an email confirmation within 24 business hours.

We will not routinely provide detailed feedback on applications due the high number of applications that we expect to receive.  

We will make every effort to provide feedback which may be in the form of limited bullet points where possible. 

As this award is from the University of Edinburgh (as the BR-UK budget holder), successful applicants should be eligible to apply for UKRI New Investigator awards if they meet the criteria for that funding stream. 

CVs should be up to two pages maximum and include qualifications, employment, publications, grants and any other relevant experience relevant to the application. There is no fixed template.