Scope

ESRC is commissioning a new infrastructure investment to support research skills development in the social sciences. This new investment will take the form of a strategic leadership hub and will involve leading change in the UK research sector to implement ESRC’s new approach to supporting research skills development. We seek to support social scientists working across academia, government, business, third sector and beyond. It will provide leadership across the social science community in these sectors, innovating the way in which research skills TCB is both conceived and delivered. It will create a connected community of research skills training and capacity building (TCB) providers that work collaboratively, and at scale, to simplify how researchers navigate the provision they need.

This investment will deliver part of ESRC’s commitment to sustain a world-class, diverse and inclusive research base that supports talent across the entire research career and powers the best research across the breadth of our disciplines. Our new approach to supporting research skills TCB in the social sciences seeks to coordinate strategically our research skills TCB provision and innovate to enable effective learning and a culture of continuing skills development.

Our new approach has four core components:

• a focus on the breadth of research skills needed throughout the chronology of a typical research grant, from research design to impact and engagement with users of research
• a federated structure of research skills TCB led by a new leadership hub
• enabling a culture of lifelong learning with targeted support for researchers at all career stages
• creation of a single, streamlined ‘shop window’ of TCB resources

Details of our ambition, new approach, and what we mean by ‘research skills’ (for example research methods, evidence synthesis, evaluation, policy engagement) can be found in the ‘Additional information’ section. You must read this before applying.

The new strategic leadership hub will:

• lead the development, availability and accessibility of training, ensuring it reflects needs across career stages and remains relevant and future-proofed, through collaboration with TCB providers
• create the mechanisms, partnerships and networks to coordinate research skills TCB delivered by ESRC’s existing and new investments (including specialist investments already funded to deliver a programme of TCB), and identify and address any gaps in TCB provision
• design and build an accessible and inclusive IT infrastructure to coordinate and make available TCB provision
• work with the social science community to promote the importance of research skills development, and to improve provision, access and uptake
• phase activity to expand delivery and impact beyond the academic social science community to other disciplines and sectors

Our goals are ambitious and to effect real change this will need to be a long-term venture with a phased approach to delivering activity. We will initially fund the strategic leadership hub for five years (funding period one); the hub will be invited to apply for a further five years of funding (funding period two), subject to positive stage gate reviews. Further information can be found in the ‘Duration’ section below. You will be expected to have a clear vision for the hub and be able to articulate how activity will be phased over the two funding periods to achieve its aims and objectives.

This funding opportunity is for expressions of interest only at this stage. To help you prepare your application, we have indicated where you will need to provide detailed information on requirements only if invited to submit a full application. A high-level summary is also provided at the end of this section.

Responsibilities and requirements of the new strategic leadership hub

The hub will have three key areas of responsibility:

• strategic development of research skills TCB opportunities
• strategic leadership, partnerships and collaboration
• innovation and culture change

The detailed requirements for each area are set out below:

Strategic development of research skills TCB opportunities

• identify research skills training and development needs in the social science community and put in place mechanisms to prioritise and address gaps in TCB provision
• promote a life course approach to researcher development, ensuring that targeted TCB opportunities are available for researchers at all career stages
• create an integrated and inclusive programme of TCB activities and resources, working with appropriate providers
• put in place a technical infrastructure to provide an accessible and inclusive user-driven portal that provides researchers with a single point of access to relevant TCB provision and resources, and maximises the user experience
• develop and implement a strategy to expand delivery and impact beyond the academic social science community to other disciplines and sectors

Strategic leadership, partnerships and collaboration

• engage with and promote collaboration between TCB providers by creating appropriate structures, networks, partnerships and fora to deliver research skills TCB effectively and efficiently. This should also enable providers to identify common challenges and develop opportunities to work together to add value for researchers
• coordinate and streamline existing TCB activities

Innovation and culture change

• think innovatively about pedagogical practice, drawing on the latest research and evidence of good practice. This philosophy will drive the hub’s approach
• actively encourage the:
  • development of research skills capability throughout a researcher’s career by facilitating access to TCB provision
  • removal of any barriers to social scientists developing their research skills at different career stages (which may be non-linear)
  • trialling new mechanisms that encourage take up of TCB at different career stages, or that incentivise and reward researchers who contribute to TCB activities
  • sharing good practice in this area from both within the UK and internationally

In developing its provision, the hub will need to respond to the skills needs of the social science community, supporting the uptake of cutting-edge approaches as well as established techniques.

Effective delivery of the strategic leadership hub will require:

• a clear vision: you will have a long-term vision for the role of the hub and an understanding of how it will grow and evolve over time. Early decisions made setting up the hub should not restrict the hub’s ability to respond to opportunities later
• effective leadership: you must be able to articulate the leadership approach that will be adopted by the hub
• effective partnerships and collaborations: applications will detail how the hub will work with ESRC’s wider portfolio to deliver its goals. This includes the hub’s approach to:
  • building and developing meaningful partnerships that deliver relevant outputs or outcomes
  • collective leadership, including how decision making will be inclusive and representative where appropriate
• knowledge of the skills landscape in the social sciences: you must demonstrate an appreciation of the expertise within ESRC’s existing portfolio as well as the wider TCB landscape. The hub will need to have strong sector engagement to ensure its knowledge of the landscape is maintained and it is able to identify opportunities to enhance access for social scientists to TCB provision outside the social sciences and beyond academia
• agility: the hub will need to be structured in a way that enables it to adapt and respond effectively to an evolving research landscape that is increasingly interdisciplinary, reaches across sectors, and facilitates a diversity of research careers, including those that are non-linear
• feedback on performance: the hub will need to have mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate progress, and ensure it remains at the cutting edge of TCB. Feedback from users will be a critical evidence source that will need to inform future activity
• appropriate balance of resourcing: the hub will not be able to deliver everything possible with the budget it has therefore activity will need to be prioritised. The allocation of resourcing will need to be fully justified and sufficient time must be committed by key members of the team
• the development of a skills taxonomy: the hub will need to organise its training portfolio in a way that can be easily communicated to and understood by all stakeholders including both users of the hub and TCB providers. A skills taxonomy could be an effective tool, acting as a building block for the hub’s wider work
• professional support: the hub will be a complex grant to manage and will require a mix of both academic and professional expertise. You should consider how expertise in project management, business development, organisational learning and development expertise, and stakeholder management and engagement will ensure and enhance the hub’s ability to deliver its goals (see ‘Team composition and leadership’ section below for more information)

Expressions of interest will detail how funding will be used to achieve the hub’s goals. Funding can be used to:

• enable skills needs analysis and the identification of TCB gaps
• commission training and capacity building activities: this can include a breadth of activities not only traditional training courses and online reference materials
• co-create new TCB activities or provision
• experiment with innovative pedagogy
• pilot initiatives to increase uptake of training opportunities at mid and senior career stages
• pilot approaches to incentivise and reward researchers who contribute to TCB delivery and sharing of good practice
• enable the discovery and navigation of and access to TCB provision
• enable networks that support the delivery of the hub’s responsibilities
• develop and maintain the IT infrastructure required to support the hub
• support the hub’s governance, including external advisory functions

We will not fund research or PhD studentships.

The strategic leadership hub could be based at a single organisation or comprise a consortium of organisations eligible for ESRC funding. Funding can be used by the hub to deliver its aims and objectives or awarded externally to other providers. Policies and processes for allocating funding across the hub’s partners must be detailed at the full proposal stage. The lead research organisation (RO)’s processes must be followed when contracting externally and professionally qualified procurement staff consulted, where appropriate.

It is expected that resources and other outputs developed will use software with high interoperability and that they will be designed in such a way that they can be transferred to another RO should the need arise. Robust system design methodology should be used to ensure best practice is followed across the entire delivery system. For example, high quality documentation and guidance should be maintained to support this process. To ensure resources continue to be made available for use by the community, all training outputs, tools and resources created by the hub are expected to be made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

Flexible funds

The award will allow the use of flexible funds; a mechanism used by networks, hubs and other similar types of investments to contract further projects or activities. Where utilised, clear and transparent processes will need to be put in place for awarding funding and you will need to set out what these are in your full application. This must include processes for dealing with conflicts of interest.

Funding rules for flexible funds:

• flexible funds must be funded as ‘Directly incurred (DI) other costs’. While the flexible fund is awarded to the hub as a DI Other cost, these funds do not have to remain as DI costs when awarded to the subsequent small grants; they can be awarded as directly allocated (DA), DI and indirect as appropriate
• flexible funds will be ring-fenced and any specific spend requirements added as a grant condition. Funding allocated to the flexible pot will not be eligible to be vired to cover other costs related to the core funding of the hub without prior approval from ESRC
• the hub must follow ESRC funding rules. As with the main grant, costs associated with academic staff will be funded in the usual way with ESRC contributing 80% of these costs and the remaining balance being guaranteed by the RO. All other costs are eligible to be claimed under ‘Exceptions’. Where activity should be funded at 80% full economic cost (FEC) funding, the remaining 20% will be met by the recipient grant ROs. The RO hosting the hub will not need to bear the cost of the 20% matched funding

Expected outcomes

We seek to support social scientists working across academia, government, business, third sector and beyond. Investing in a new strategic leadership hub will enable ESRC to:

• improve access and navigation for researchers by:
  • simplifying how researchers navigate the provision they need
  • offering tailored support for researchers at different career stages and across the talent pipeline
  • enabling the development of research skills across the full chronology of a typical research project; from design to impact
  • enabling researchers to benefit from TCB opportunities within and beyond the social sciences
• achieve the goals set out in ESRC’s strategic delivery plan by:
  • systematically identifying TCB needs and addressing gaps in provision
  • maximising the effectiveness and efficiency of our TCB portfolio
  • supporting our response to the data-driven research skills steering group report
  • supporting interdisciplinary research by enabling social scientists to access training delivered in other research council domains and opening up social science TCB provision to researchers outside the social sciences
  • improving inclusion within the TCB provision we support by embedding EDI good practice

As noted above, our goals are ambitious and to effect real change this will need to be a long-term venture with a phased approach to delivering activity. By the end of the initial five year funding period the hub is expected to have achieved all of its aims and responsibilities. The hub should have moved from an initiation or start-up phase through to a steady state of ‘business as usual’ (BAU). You must clearly identify key outputs and outcomes that will be delivered during the funding period as well as articulate what BAU will look like. You must also briefly outline what the hub’s priorities will be in the second period of funding.

Our priorities

The strategic leadership hub will have a critical role to play in helping ESRC meet our emerging strategic skills needs. We have already identified the following areas that need to be addressed as a priority:

• research methods
• data-driven research skills
• achieving impact through research

Additionally, responses from our engagement survey undertaken in spring 2024 highlighted a strong demand for support in interdisciplinary working. You should consider how this will be incorporated into your vision for the hub.

Applications must detail how the strategic leadership hub will support skills development in these areas as part of its broader programme of work. Activity should be embedded rather than addressed in isolation.

Team composition and leadership

We are looking for a team with an ambitious and innovative vision to realise ESRC’s goals as well as the expertise, networks and collaborations required to deliver it. Collectively, the team composition must demonstrate the hub has the skills and expertise necessary to deliver the work set out in your application.

The team should have a diverse range of skills and experience including the professional skills needed to deliver the following responsibilities:

• leadership, management and organisation of the hub
• Learning and development and research skills pedagogy
• administration of TCB activities
• stakeholder management and engagement
• sustainable development and growth
• development and maintenance of the IT infrastructure

The hub must be resourced adequately and the time committed by core staff to their hub responsibilities will need to be fully justified at the full application stage. The director must commit at least 40% of their time to the hub.

Career and skills development

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, and the Technician Commitment, through which UKRI commits to support the professional and career development of researchers and technicians through its funding opportunities. We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment and you will need to articulate your plans for the professional development of staff in your team at the full application stage. You are encouraged to consider both leadership development and capacity building in your plans.

Structure, management and governance

The hub should be structured in a way that enables it to deliver successfully the objectives of the funding opportunity, whether through a consortium approach or single institution.

The hub will be expected to have good governance and mechanisms in place to provide it with strategic oversight and advice that meets the full spectrum of the hub’s responsibilities. These structures should include:

• an advisory committee with a strategic and research focus. It will include a diversity of stakeholders at different career stages and will have a strong role in the development of the hub. Non-academic and international representation is expected in order for the hub to gain insight into activity taking place outside of UK academia, enabling cross-fertilisation of ideas and opportunities
• a decision-making group with responsibility for allocating funding, including funds awarded through flexible funds (if required)
• clear mechanisms for capturing and responding to user feedback

A full management plan must be provided at the full application stage, demonstrating how you will provide leadership across collaborators, and how the management of the hub and its activities will be carried out, including details of project management and administrative resource. You will also be expected to indicate your plans for monitoring progress against the hub’s goals as well as any plans for self-evaluation throughout the lifetime of the hub.

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

The strategic leadership hub is expected to improve inclusion within the TCB provision ESRC supports by delivering an inclusive programme of TCB activities and resources and embedding EDI good practice throughout its activities. Applicants invited to submit a full proposal will be expected to:

• detail how the team intends to develop and implement good practice for inclusive TCB at all stages of activity, for example planning, delivery, outputs and so on
• demonstrate and evidence the team’s commitment to embedding EDI in TCB practice
• explain what policies and systems will be necessary to achieve these commitments
• detail how the hub will ensure inclusive ways of working as a team and throughout the collaboration (if relevant)

The hub is expected to have a clear EDI policy and will be expected to evaluate its inclusive practice throughout its funding period, responding to conclusions and recommendations as they arise.

Investment management and stage gate reviews

The hub will be subject to two stage gate reviews at the end of year one and at the end of year three. Further information on the stage gate reviews will be provided at the full application stage.

The hub will be required to participate in regular management meetings with ESRC. These meetings will take place quarterly in the first year. Progress reports will need to be submitted for discussion at these meetings. The frequency of meetings will be reviewed after the first stage gate.

Impact

We expect you to consider the potential academic, societal and economic impacts of your activity. Outputs, dissemination and impact will be a key component used to assess full applications.

The hub will need to be able to demonstrate the outcomes and impacts of its work, putting in place a strategy to develop and communicate an impact narrative. You will be expected to detail your approach at the full application stage.

Organisational support and co-funding

We will be looking for evidence of long term strategic and financial institutional commitment to the proposed hub, above the required 20% (where we fund at 80% FEC). This should be through direct co-funding or the provision of grant associated activities. Examples include but are not limited to, summer schools, refurbishment of facilities for the hub, provision of equipment, administration and new lectureships.

The hub will be expected to grow its user base during the course of the grant in a sustainable way. ESRC is not able to increase its contribution to support this growth in users and the hub will be expected to explore opportunities to attract additional external funding. By the end of the funding period, the hub should have developed a plan for how it will broaden its funding base and will have trialled approaches to generate revenue.

Continuity of online training provision

ESRC has funded the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) since 2004 and during this period a rich database of training resources has been compiled (see the current NCRM website). The successful applicants will be expected to adopt these resources and continue to make them available, updating them where appropriate.

Applicants will need to set out how this will be achieved at the full application stage and commit to working with ESRC, the current NCRM team and the University of Southampton on the development and implementation of a transition plan.

Costs for the hub’s IT infrastructure should be included in applications. The transfer of resources from NCRM to the new hub will be funded separately.

Duration

The duration of this grant is five years and it must start by 1 October 2025.

The successful applicants will be invited to apply for a further five years of funding, subject to positive stage gate reviews. Funding is expected to be at a similar level and the proposal will be peer-reviewed by a commissioning panel. The budget for this second phase of funding, as well as the commissioning process and timeline, will be confirmed after the second stage-gate review.

Funding available

We will fund one grant through this funding opportunity and will contribute a maximum of £5 million over five years.

All proposals will be subject to ESRC’s funding rules as outlined in our Research Funding Guide.

Costs associated with academic staff will be funded in the usual way with ESRC contributing 80% of these costs and the remaining balance being guaranteed by the research organisation. All other costs are eligible to be claimed under ‘Exceptions’. Please note that indirect and estate costs cannot be claimed for staff costs listed under ‘Exceptions’.

All salary costs, expenses and equipment costs must all be clearly and adequately justified at the full application stage and costings provided as instructed on the UKRI Funding Service.

The overall total budget of the hub may be higher than the budget requested in the application. Additional funding leveraged by the investment, either through its participating research organisations, other funders or external co-funding partners, should be noted in the application but not included in the budget requested.

Expectations of expressions of interest (EoI)s and full applications

Expectations of EoIs

Your EoI is an opportunity to set out your general approach to delivering the requirements set out in this funding opportunity. You are expected to summarise your:

• vision for meeting the overarching objectives, responsibilities and requirements of the strategic leadership hub and the expected outcomes
• approach to delivering your vision and ESRC’s priorities
• proposed team composition and leadership required to successfully deliver the goals of the hub

The questions you will need to respond to can be found on the Funding Service.

Expectations of full applications

To help applicants develop their ideas and EoIs, we have noted throughout this funding opportunity where further information will need to be provided at the full application stage rather than within EoIs. To summarise, applicants invited to submit a full application will be expected to provide more detailed information on their:

• vision for meeting the overarching objectives of the strategic leadership hub and the expected outcomes
• approach to delivering their vision and ESRC’s priorities
• team composition and leadership required to successfully deliver the goals of the hub

Additionally, applications will need to set out the hub’s approach to:

• improving inclusion, including embedding EDI
• flexible funds (if relevant)
• structure, management and governance
• impact
• organisational support and co-funding
• continuity of online training provision

The questions applicants will need to respond to will be made available on the Funding Service when the funding opportunity is launched. Full grant costings will have to be provided in the full application and fully justified.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

Further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.

The project lead is responsible for completing the expression of interest process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.

Only the lead research organisation can submit an expression of interest to UKRI.

To apply

Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.

1. Confirm you are the project lead.
2. Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
   Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this funding opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
3. Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
4. Allow enough time to check your Expression of Interest in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
5. Send the completed Expression of Interest to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
6. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You should:

• use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
• insert each new image onto a new line
• provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
• ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:

• how applicants use the Funding Service
• how research offices use the Funding Service
• how reviewers use the Funding Service

References

Expressions of Interest should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. Applicants should use their discretion when including reference and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.

Reference should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors, for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019)

You must not include links to web resources to extend your expression of interest.

Deadline

ESRC must receive your expression of interest by 9 October 2024 at 4:00pm UK time.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Following the submission of your expression of interest to the funding opportunity, your expression of interest cannot be changed, and expressions of interest will not be returned for amendment. If your expression of interest does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

Personal data

Processing personal data

ESRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.

Publication of outcomes

ESRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at What ESRC has funded.

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

Summary

Word limit: 550

In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.

We may make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:

• opinion-formers
• policymakers
• the public
• the wider research community

Guidance for writing a summary

Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:

• context
• the challenge the application addresses
• aims and objectives
• expected benefits and impacts

Core team

List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:

• project lead (PL)
• project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
• project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
• specialist
• grant manager
• professional enabling staff
• research and innovation associate
• technician
• visiting researcher

Only list one individual as project lead.

Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.

Application questions

Vision

Word limit: 500

What are you hoping to achieve with the proposed infrastructure?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how the proposed infrastructure will:

• be timely, given current trends and context
• meet the evidenced needs of clearly identified user groups
• have measurable impact
• enable high quality and important research
• meet the strategic aims of the funder or government
• offer training opportunities
• enhance, benefit and complement the existing landscape
• support innovation in research

Within the Vision section we also expect you to:

• describe your long-term vision for the role of the hub and how it will grow and evolve over time
• demonstrate the alignment of your EoI to the strategic aims of the funding opportunity, the expectations of the hub, and the expected outcomes
• clearly state the research skills challenges that you will address
• explain how activity will be prioritised, describing what ‘business as usual’ will look like at the end of the funding period briefly outlining the hub’s priorities in the second phase of funding
• include a logic model demonstrating how the change the hub will bring about will deliver the expected outcomes and how and why its programme of activity will bring about those changes. Guidance on how to develop a logic model, including a suggested template, has been shared as an additional document in the funding opportunity on the Funding Finder

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Outline Approach

Word limit: 2,000

How are you going to deliver your proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how you have designed your approach so that it:

• is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives

Within the Approach section we also expect you to:

• explain how your approach will meet the approach and delivery requirements set out in the funding opportunity as well as deliver ESRC’s priorities
• identify key deliverables, milestones, and timelines
• highlight areas of innovation, steps, or both taken to deliver a step change in the way research skills training and capacity building is supported in the social sciences
• summarise what steps you will take to provide opportunities for users to both inform the development of and benefit from the work of the strategic leadership hub
• identify key risks to delivery and how they will be managed
• outline how your approach will maximise the academic, societal and economic impact of the hub and how impact will be evidenced

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

References may be included within this section.

Outline Applicant and team capability to deliver

Word limit: 500

How will the application team deliver the proposed programme of work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:

• relevant research experience and skills to develop and deliver the proposed programme of work
• planned to identify and embed additional expertise where gaps in the team exist

The core leadership team should consist of the project lead (hub director) and the project co-leads identified on the EoI. There will be scope to expand this team and include new collaborators on the full application and you will be able to add further detail.

Showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project lead and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. In doing so, you should:

• summarise how collectively the team composition demonstrates the hub will have the skills and expertise necessary to deliver the work set out in your EoI.
• confirm adequate levels of staffing will be available to deliver your proposed vision and objectives

UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the Funding Service. For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.

Outline costs

Word limit: 500

What are the expected costs of the proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

• confirmation the plans set out in your expression of interest can be delivered within the budget available
• provide the approximate total values in GBP (£) for the expected directly incurred, directly allocated, indirect costs and exceptions

View the guidance on the costs you can apply for please see the ESRC Research Funding Guide.

Expressions of interest (EoI) assessment process

Eols will be assessed by an expert panel and shortlisted. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a full application.

Feedback

If your application was discussed by a panel, we will give feedback with the outcome of your application.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI Principles of Assessment and Decision Making.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Assessment areas

The assessment areas we will use to assess EoIs are:

• Vision
• Approach
• Applicant and team capability to deliver
• Costs

Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the Helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding Finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility or content/remit of an opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact researchskills@esrc.ukri.org

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org

Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

• Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
• Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries quicker, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

For further information on submitting an application read How applicants use the Funding Service.

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email researchskills@esrc.ukri.org

Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

Typical examples of confidential information include:

• individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
• declaration of interest
• additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
• conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
• the application is an invited resubmission

For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.

Background

What is ESRC’s ambition for developing research skills in the social sciences?

The UK’s continued success as a global leader in social science research depends on well-trained and highly skilled people with a diversity of knowledge and skills. ESRC is committed to supporting social scientists to maintain and develop world-class skills. Our ambition is to foster a research environment within which:

• social scientists can acquire the research skills needed to design and deliver high-quality, impactful research through projects that are increasingly interdisciplinary, cross-sector and international in nature
• researchers at all career stages can participate in inclusive, relevant and high-quality research skills TCB opportunities in the social sciences and beyond
• research skills training and TCB provision is developed by collective strategic leadership informed by the expertise and active engagement of ESRC’s full portfolio
• development and delivery of research skills TCB is effective and efficient

What is ESRC’s new approach?

We are investing in a new model which will bring about change and innovation in the development, delivery and provision of research skills training and capacity building (TCB). It will encourage a culture of lifelong learning for researchers at all career stages and brings together research skills development provision so that it’s accessible to the community all in one place. Offering a route into all TCB opportunities from a rich range of training and providers will make it simpler and easier to address priority research skills needs, as well as improving the researcher experience.

Our new approach consists of four core components:

• a focus on research skills utilised throughout the chronology of a typical research project, from research design and research methods to engagement with users of research and impact
• a federated structure coordinated by a strategic leadership hub, thereby facilitating access to a wider range of expertise across our investment portfolio (and new opportunities) to develop cutting-edge training. This will respond more effectively to evolving user, sector and societal needs
• a drive to enable a culture of lifelong learning with targeted support for researchers at all career stages including mid-career and senior researchers, from doctoral students through to established scholars
• a single, streamlined ‘shop window’ of TCB resources, which is more effective and efficient than the current distributed approach

This new approach will be inclusive and relevant, tailored to researchers at all career stages, whether doctoral students focused on building research skills or supervisors and principal investigators responsible for leading others. It will also reflect the expertise needed throughout an entire project, from design to impact. Responsive and agile, our new model will provide what we need today but also look to the future to ensure that we have the right expertise in years to come.

Longer term, we expect the model to improve access for social scientists to TCB provision outside the social sciences and for researchers outside the social sciences to be able to access provision available through the hub.

How have we developed our new approach?

Find out about the work we have undertaken to inform this new approach on our website.

What do we mean by research skills?

It is important researchers can develop the breadth of research skills needed throughout the chronology of a typical research grant, from research design to impact. Research skills include, but are not limited to:

• research design
• research methods (qual, quant, mixed methods, trial methods)
• data access, management and sharing
• data analysis
• synthesis skills
• evaluation skills
• knowledge mobilisation
• engaging with research users
• policy engagement skills
• impact skills
• co-production
• public engagement

Additional disability and accessibility adjustments

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process if required.

Webinar for potential applicants

We will hold two webinars for potential applicants on:

• 25 July 2024 at 10:30am to 11:30am UK time
• 3 September 2024 at 11:00am to 12:00pm UK time

The webinars will provide more information about the funding opportunity and give you the chance to ask questions. The content covered in the webinars will be the same.

Register to attend a webinar:

Register for 25 July webinar.

Register for 3 September webinar.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

• breaks and delays
• disruptive working patterns and conditions
• the loss of ongoing work
• role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.

Supporting documents

EIA for the opportunity (DOCX, 97KB)

Guidance on developing a logic model (DOCX, 41KB)