Funding application guidance

This can seem like a daunting task and if it is your first proposal, where do you start? To help with this process, we have compiled a bid writing guide to help you navigate the process along with tips on how to produce a competitive bid.

Research ethics

Ethical approval is required for research activities that directly involve humans, human tissue, data relating to humans and it is the responsibility of the principal investigator to decide whether ethical approval is required. The research ethics and integrity page provides details of the faculty ethics committee approval process.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The University believes equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is a critical aspect of a healthy research culture. As part of our internal approval process, you will need to consider if your research project involves EDI, any of the protected characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act and how to embed EDI into your research.

Research impact

Impact should form a core component of your proposal and you will need to demonstrate a mind-set in which research and impact are intertwined. Our research impact page offers guidance and support on how to achieve this.

Research dissemination

Effective dissemination is sharing the findings of your research with stakeholders and wider audiences. You need to understand your target audience, the key outcomes of the project and the impact you want your dissemination to have. Dissemination is crucial for the success of the project and the sustainability of outputs in the long term. In your proposal you will need to demonstrate this along with the approach you will take to disseminate your findings e.g. website, presentations, seminars, conferences, newsletters, social media and research papers.

Submission checklist

When putting together your proposal or grant application, there are many aspects to consider. To avoid missing important steps and having last minute panics, we’ve put together a handy Applying for Funding Checklist.

This checklist will help you navigate institutional and funder requirements, ensuring you submit your proposal on time.

With so many aspects to consider when putting together your proposal or grant application, important information can easily be forgotten or key dates missed. To avoid missing important steps and last minute panics, we’ve put together a handy Applying for Funding Checklist.

This checklist will help you navigate institutional and funder requirements, ensuring you submit your proposal on time.

Embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion into your Research

The University of Northampton is committed to providing a vibrant, ethical and sustainable work, study and living environment that values equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

EDI is a critical aspect of a healthy research culture, and you need to consider if your project involves any of the nine protected characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act as well as how you will embed EDI into your research.

You will find a host of information and resources including our Equality and Inclusion Policy on the University’s EDI page.

See how other projects have promoted EDI in their research.

For advice and support on embedding EDI into your project, get in touch with us.

Useful Resources

• National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit
• European Commission FET Flagship project: Human Brain

Setting a goal

The first step in any impact plan is to set the goal of the impact(s) you want to achieve. This may change as the project develops, there are many steps along a project which can change this. This can be a basic simple impact to begin with, that will develop as the project continues, but it needs to be a precise objective. This will help you identify the indicators of successful impact and define the outcomes of your research project. Also, by defining a goal you will know what type of evidence you will need to collect to verify the impact claimed.

Stakeholder analysis

Stakeholders and beneficiaries can either be two separate groups of people or they can be the same group. A stakeholder is anybody interested in your research or anybody that could have an impact upon your research. A beneficiary is anybody that will be impacted by you research. When analysing who your stakeholders or beneficiaries are you need to ask yourself three important questions:

• Who is interested in my research?
• How might they influence my ability to achieve impact?
• Who is impacted?

Using the Stakeholder Analysis Document, you can map out who may be your stakeholders/beneficiaries and the kinds of influence they will have on your project.

Integrating impact into the bid

There is no one size fits all integrating impact into your bid. When writing a bid, you should be tailoring the level of impact you detail to the criteria featured in the guidance. If it is an ‘impact-lite’ call then you should only put a small amount on impact into the bid, if the bid asks for a lot of detail on impact then you should follow accordingly.

You should be integrating impact into each level of your bid ensuring that the problem statement includes your potential impact and the stakeholders/beneficiaries; your objectives section includes impact; and your research methods section details how you will achieve and evidence impact. You want to make it clear to the reviewer throughout these sections that impact is threaded throughout your bid: be as clear as possible even going as far as including diagrams and tables to illustrate your point.

Funder requirements

Impact is an increasingly pressing issue for funders of research projects with a majority of funders now specifically requiring an impact plan as a condition of their grant. These funders have a number of resources and tools that you can access to develop the level of impact that they require in any grant applications:

• NIHR Plan for Impact
• ESRC Impact Toolkit
• EPSRC Impact Framework
• BBSRC Impact Guidance
• MRC Impact Guidance

An external resource by Fast Track Impact on learning how to embed Impact into a UKRI bid can be found on YouTube.

Major funders

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are one of the main sponsors of UK research. Launched in April 2018, UKRI invests approximately £2.8 billion per annum in research covering arts and humanities to astronomy, physics, chemistry, engineering, economics, social sciences and medical and biological sciences.

UKRI is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). It brings together the seven research councils, Research England, which oversees the functions of UKRI in relation to university research and knowledge exchange in England, and the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

The seven individual research councils are:

• AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)

Funds world-class research across the whole range of the arts and humanities.

• BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council)

Funds bioscience research that tackles major challenges and delivers a healthier sustainable future.

• EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)

Funds research and training in engineering and the physical sciences.

• ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)

The UK’s largest organisation that funds research on economic, social, behavioural and human data science.

• MRC (Medical Research Council)

Funds research at the forefront of science to prevent illness, develop therapies and improve human health.

• NERC (Natural Environment Research Council)

The leading public funder of environmental science.

• STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council)

Funds research in astronomy, particle and nuclear physics and space science.

View each Research Council website for further information on their key priority areas, current research news and open funding opportunities. Their funding schemes are highly competitive and when planning your application, get in touch with us for guidance and support.

The other two councils are:

• Research England

Engages with higher education providers on research and knowledge exchange systems.

• Innovate UK

Supports businesses to develop new products, services, processes and collaborate with research.

Other UKRI funding streams

• The Global Challenges Research Fund supports groundbreaking research to address the challenges faced by developing countries.
• The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with developing countries across the world to promote the economic development and social welfare of the partner countries.

Charities, foundations and trusts

If your project idea is more niche or relates to a specific topic of research then charities could be another stream of funding for you to consider. There are a wide range of charities, foundations and trusts who support research that fits in with their charitable aims and objectives. These can vary from major charities e.g. Wellcome who support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, to small foundations offering modest grants for equipment and travel.

Charities provide an independent stream of research funding which complements the aims of the Research Councils and Government organisations. You will find there are a lot of research funding charities covering all stages of research and it is worth researching their opportunities thoroughly.

Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC)

AMRC is a member organisation that brings together and supports health and medical charities to produce high-quality research. The database currently has over 150 member charities covering basic and applied science projects to clinical trials in all areas of health and disease. Funding varies from small seed-corn funding grants to substantial funds for programmes of research. To search for a charity of interest, see on the member directory.

Other Charities and Foundations

If your research is non-medical, view our List of Charities and Foundations.

Each Charity will have their own criteria and eligibility rules, before proceeding with an application please get in touch with Research Support.

European Commission: Horizon Europe Programme (2021-2027)

Hundreds of funding calls published on the European Commission Funding and Tenders Portal. Researchers, institutions and other organisations can now access the seven-year, €95.5 billion research and innovation programme.

UKRI is urging researchers to start applying with funding available for a wide variety of research and innovation areas including medical science and cancer treatment, adaptation to climate change, ocean health, and agriculture. UK funding recipients are eligible to participate for all Horizon Europe calls, apart from applying for equity funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC). Read UKRO’s regularly updated pageson the EU-UK Relationship and UK Participation in EU-funded Programmes.

Further information about continued UK participation in EU-funded programmes including Horizon 2020 can be found on the dedicated UKRI website.

For guidance and support on applying for EU funding, contact research@northampton.ac.uk.

UK Government funding

There are other funding sources to consider when looking for funding for your project. Some government organisations provide funding covering a range of research activities that fall within the scope of the University. From conducting scientific research, informing and supporting government policies, to identifying future policy making processes.

You will find below a list of Government organisations. View each website for further information and open funding calls.

• Department for Education (DepEd) creates and implements policies, plans and projects in formal and non-formal basic education.
• Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) funds research that protects and promotes the UK’s cultural and artistic heritage.
• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) programmes develop and implement policy on the environment, food and rural issues.
• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) sets the overall strategy, funds and oversees the health and social care system in the UK. It funds significant programmes of research and development in the NHS through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). NIHR programmes fund a broad range of healthcare matters including the provision of funding to support the training and education of future health researchers.
• Department for Transport (DfT) supports policy, guidance and funding on the delivery of existing and new transport schemes.
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissions social science research that impacts on work and pensions policy.
• Home Office (HO) research and analysis programmes cover a range of topics including alcohol, counter terrorism, crime, drugs, migration, policing, fire and rescue.
• Ministry of Defence (MOD implements the government’s defence policy and for the British Armed Forces. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is an agency of the MOD and QinetiQ is a defence technology company. Both organisations supply scientific, technical research and advice to the MOD.
• Ministry of Justice (MOJ) conduct analytical and research-based work that includes social research and research reviews.
• Public Health England (PHE) advises and supports action by local government, the NHS and the public. Formerly known as the Health Protection Agency.

US government

The two main USA funders are the National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering, and its medical counterpart the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Please note the University is currently not registered on the USA Federal System for Award Management (SAM) and at the present time researchers are unable to apply for NSF and NIH opportunities.

If you have an existing collaboration with a USA partner and are interested in applying for USA funding for your project, get in touch with the Research Support team to discuss alternative international funding streams.

For more advice and support on international funding, contact Research Support. We can help you develop your collaborations and international networks as well as guide you on the do’s and don’ts of applying for international funding.

What is a tender?

Tendering is a formal process where businesses are invited to bid for contracts from public or private sector organisations. A tender notice is published via one of the contract opportunity websites, e.g. Contracts Finder, for potential suppliers to apply. The process is designed to be fair and transparent to ensure contracts are not awarded unfairly.

There are several contract opportunity websites that publish a range of current and future contracts. You can search for the latest opportunities based on industry, location and value. For global tender opportunities, visit the Openopps or TED sites.

• Contracts Finder 
• Find a tender
• Bidstats 
• Openopps 
• TED (tenders electronic daily)

Tender Portals

Tender portals are designed to make the tendering process more efficient and gather all the information in one place online. You will find each contract has its own dedicated section in the portal where you express an interest, download the documents, ask clarification questions and submit your tender. Each portal is different, some are fairly easy to follow while others can take a while to grasp. Some of the most common tender portals are:

• ProContract (Proactis)
• DELTA eSourcing
• In-Tend
• MultiQuote

If you find a tender opportunity you wish to apply for, get in touch with the Research Support team. The University is registered with several portals and we can create a username or account for you and guide you through the portal process.

Tendering Tips

• There is often a short turnaround to submit a tender, be sure to check the deadline.
• Start the Pure Award Management  process to obtain internal approval.
• A tender can be awarded within a couple of days or weeks and the project expected to start within a month of the tender deadline date.
• Allow sufficient time to work with your faculty accountant and the research support officers. It is unlikely the tender documents will include typical research costing (fEC, indirect costs/estates, etc) and you will find the financial guidance less detailed than a research grant.
• Engage with the buyer and ask questions. All Q&As will be available for everyone to see (published anonymously) to ensure the tendering process is fair and equal.
• Supplier questionnaires are essentially questions about the University. If you have a subcontractor, they will also be required to complete a supplier questionnaire. Act quickly as you may need to gather information from multiple areas.
• Research the buyer to understand what the buyer is looking for and tailor your response around this.
• Prepare your tender response – show that you have the skills and experience to fulfil the tender through evidence, show the benefits you can bring and where you can add value.
• Submit before the deadline. The portal will close at the time and date stipulated in the tender notice.

Once submitted, your tender will be scored and evaluated. Hopefully you will be successful but if not, be sure to request feedback from the buyer, do an internal debrief, and notify the Research Support team. The Research Support team can work with you to improve on the tender for future submissions.