The British Academy: Funding Call – #Horizon Europe Pump Priming Collaboration between #UK and #EU Partners

Introduction

The British Academy with the support of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Engineering are inviting proposals from UK researchers and proposals from UK-led consortiums containing EU/Associated Countries-based to pump prime collaborations to support the effective uptake of the opportunities provided by the UK’s association to Horizon Europe.

Proposals are welcome in all disciplines – engineering, natural sciences, medical and health sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

Assessment will be undertaken over multiple rounds with applications submitted by Wednesday 4 December 2024, 17:00 (GMT) considered initially, then a second deadline (if funding remains available) of Wednesday 15 January 2025, 17:00 (GMT), then a third deadline (if funding remains available) of Wednesday 12 February 2025, 17:00 (GMT), and then a final deadline (if funding remains available) of Wednesday 5 March 2025, 17:00 (GMT). If there is a high number of applications submitted before the 4 December 2024 deadline, the Academy reserves the right to begin assessment prior to the formal deadline.

Innovate UK are leading a separate scheme focused on supporting Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to develop and join proposals. This is open to both Pillar 2 and Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe. The lead applicant of the Innovate UK scheme must be a UK-based businesses that meets the criteria of a SME and similarly, research organisations can be included in bids as consortia members. For more information, please visit the website.

Aims  

This programme is providing pump priming funding to seed collaborations for applications to specific Horizon Europe topics in Pillar 2. The aim is to build collaborative activity between UK and EU/Associated Countries’ entities in Pillar 2 where the major consortia building type of applications in Horizon Europe are centred. This will help UK-based entities overcome the barriers to collaborative engagement with EU/Associated Countries’ partners to maximise the opportunities Horizon Europe presents. For the purpose of this call, Associated Countries include those countries in the process of associating, as listed on the ‘List of Participating Countries in Horizon Europe‘. Third country partners, such as Switzerland, can also be considered as appropriate, but projects and proposed consortia must provide confidence that they will address necessary eligibility and impact criteria.

Eligibility requirements  

Each project will be led by a named Principal Investigator (PI). The PI must be a researcher from an eligible UK-based organisation and must be of postdoctoral or above status (or have equivalent research or innovation experience). The PI’s position must last at least the duration of the grant funded by the Academy. The PI is expected to direct and manage the grant and has responsibility for the overall project reporting requirements. An individual cannot be the PI on more than one bid under this call.

Proposals are welcome from research institutes and universities based in the UK, and proposals that involve working closely with UK SMEs are strongly encouraged. Proposals can also seek to engage with any other type of organisation eligible for Horizon Europe funding (based in the UK and/or the EU/Associated Countries), including third parties, end users and similar bodies/organisations such as hospitals, libraries, regulators, commercial partners, creative industry partners, museums, local authorities and associations, NGOs, charities and companies as appropriate to the selected Call and Topic.

Scope of the call

The call is focused solely on Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness.

Within Pillar 2 the Calls and Topics that this pump priming funding can be used to target must be from one of two sources.

• The first is Calls and Topics from the 2024 Work Programmes onwards (i.e. Calls and Topics with 2024 in the call code) that are listed on the Horizon Europe funding portal as either ‘open for submission’ or ‘forthcoming’. Such Calls and Topics may target any type of action and focus on any cluster: 1 (Health), 2 (Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society), 3 (Civil Security for Society), 4 (Digital, Industry and Space), 5 (Climate, Energy and Mobility) and 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment). There are only a limited number of calls currently listed on the portal, however, applications targeting them are most welcome.

• The second is to review the Strategic Orientations documents that the European Commission has published as listed on our website, which give an indication of the content that future calls will focus on.

The Academy will also be running a series of webinars and information drop-in sessions. The webinars will be on the following dates.

• Tuesday 19 November 2024, 14:00-15:00 (GMT)
• Wednesday 8 January 2025, 14:00-15:00 (GMT)
• Wednesday 5 February 2025, 14:00-15:00 (GMT)

To register your interest, please sign up by completing this form.

Value and duration  

We are able to offer awards of up to £10,000.

Award activity and use of funds must conclude with an interim report by the deadline of the Horizon Europe call being applied to. Awards will be required to provide further reporting on their award, including in relation to the outcome of their application to Horizon Europe.

Application process

Expressions of Interest must be submitted online using the British Academy’s Grant Management System (GMS), Flexi-Grant®.

Contact details

Email: internationalgrants@thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Drop-in session: Signup form