International Interdisciplinary Research Projects 2025 (UK)

The programme aims to support projects which engage with questions concerning the relationship between expertise, public understanding and policy delivery internationally, and highlight the importance of collaboration between communities of practice, disciplines, capacities and borders.

Aims

• The purpose of each project will be to develop new international research in the humanities and social sciences, to further the understanding of Just Transitions. Productive and integral interdisciplinarity is a requirement with the expectation that this will involve at least collaboration between the humanities and social sciences. The Academy particularly encourages applications led from the humanities. If this is not clearly demonstrated by applicants, applications will be considered ineligible and will not be taken forward through the assessment process.
• The complexities of global change and the proliferation of diverse communities of knowledge, practice and intelligence highlight the necessity of collaborative engagement between communities of practice and disciplines. The Academy is keen to support and work with proposals that strengthen understanding of international challenges in this context and engage with questions concerning the relationship between expertise, public understanding, and policy delivery internationally.
• Climate change is an existential challenge of the time. Ensuring Just Transitions whilst tackling climate change and biodiversity loss is key to supporting inclusive economies and societies in the future. Evidence from the social sciences and humanities is critical to supporting just transitions and understanding of how it can be possible to shape a positive future locally, nationally, and globally.
• The Academy envisages the awards made through the Programme will:
  • By such understandings of Just Transitions bring to bear a deeper, more nuanced, and historically aware thinking to the topic;
  • Identify the contributions that could be made to international and national knowledge exchange, practice, and policy development in this area and what lessons can be learnt to navigate any future landscape(s);
  • Develop ways of communicating and collaborating in cross-disciplinary and multilingual working in partnership with colleagues internationally.

Funding Information

• Awards of 24 months in duration and up to £300,000 are available.
• Funding can be used to support the time of the Principal Investigator and Co-Applicants; postdoctoral (or equivalent) research assistance;  travel, fieldwork and related expenses; and networking costs.
• Awards are offered on an 80% full economic costing basis.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:
  • Each project will be led by a named Principal Investigator (PI). The PI must be a researcher in a discipline within the social sciences or the humanities. The PI is expected to direct the research and the management of the project and has responsibility for the overall project reporting requirements.
  • The PI must be of postdoctoral or above status (or have equivalent research experience). The PI must hold an established role in an eligible UK university or research institute. The PI’s position must last at least the duration of the grant funded by the Academy.
  • The PI can spend a minimum of 20% of their time and a maximum of 100% of their time on the grant. The time spent on the grant can change over the course of the award but may not be under 20% across the duration of the award. Staff employed on the award may be employed full or part time regardless of the time the award holder spends on the award.
  • PIs may not hold more than one British Academy award of a comparable nature at any one time.
  • An individual cannot be the PI on more than one bid under the British Academy’s Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research programme.
  • Applicants can be of any nationality.
  • Applicants must hold a doctoral degree (or have equivalent research experience).
  • Awards are available to individuals, to be held in an institutional context.
  • Awards will not be made retrospectively: this means that the work for which support is requested must not have commenced before the award is announced. Applications must be for new research ideas that are coherent on their own and are cutting-edge.
  • Applications under this call will not be accepted if the applicant or any collaborators have any outstanding reports or statements of expenditure which are still to be submitted to the Academy following previous awards.
  • Duplicate applications to more than one British Academy funding programme will not be accepted. It is required that amongst the PI and Co-Applicant(s) there is representation of disciplines from both the humanities AND the social sciences.
• Co-Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:
  • Must include at least one researcher who is based internationally.
  • Must be of postdoctoral or above status (or have equivalent research experience).
  • Can include other researchers based in the UK or internationally at all career stages.
  • No individual may be a Co-Applicant on more than two projects under this call (nor may a PI be additionally a Co-Applicant on more than one other project).
• Other Participants: Projects may also include any number of specified ‘Other Participants’, who may, for example, be relevant stakeholders participating in networking or dissemination events, academic or policy advisers, practitioners, industry representatives, etc.
• Research assistance is an eligible cost under this programme, and it can be supported where a reasonable case is made in line with the type of work that is required to be undertaken. PhD studentships, however, are not an eligible cost.
• Disciplines: Applicants are reminded that the Academy expects all applications to fundamentally involve and integrate both the humanities and social sciences.
• Institutions: The award must be held at a UK-based institution recognised by the Academy. The following types of organisations will be eligible to apply to host the Fellowship:
  • Higher Education Institutes that received funding from one of the UK higher education funding bodies.
  • Research institutes (RIs), for which research councils have established a longterm involvement as major funder as part of the national research base.
  • Approved relevant Independent Research Organisations.
  • Public Sector Research Organisations.
• All grants will be paid to the employing institution of the PI, and not to the individual researchers involved. Institutions must be officially recognised by the British Academy prior to the proposal being submitted.
• The UK host organisation is expected to adopt the principles, standards and good practice for the management of research staff set out in the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (2019) and subsequent amendments. Research staff should be appointed on terms that are no less favourable than those of comparable posts in the host organisation.

For more information, visit The British Academy.