Submissions open for Research Grant Development Awards (UK)

They are intended to support groups to work together to develop a research grant application and to submit it to a major national or international funding body within three months of the end of the award.

Funding Information

• Grants can be used to cover the costs of a range of activities, up to a maximum of £6,000, as required in the development of a grant application to submission. In 2023/24, a maximum of six awards will be made.

Expected Outputs

• Successful applicants are expected to produce substantive outputs in the form of a full grant application to a major national or international funding body and, where appropriate, publications in peer-reviewed journals. These outputs are expected to be completed within three months of the end of the award, unless otherwise agreed in advance.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications will be considered from groups comprising at least four researchers, based in at least two different institutions, at least two of whom (including the lead applicant) have a track record as active researchers in the sociology of health and illness. As of the autumn 2020 round, the minimum number of institutions contributing to an application is reduced from three to two. They continue to welcome multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary applications.
• The lead applicant must be based in a UK university or research institution and be an active researcher in the sociology of health and illness. Other applicants may be based outside the UK.
• Successful applicants may reapply for funding in subsequent years. Individual researchers may participate in more than one research group applying for a research grant development award, but may not hold more than one award at any one time.
• Trustees are not eligible to be lead applicants for awards (though they can act as co-applicants). Other members of their department are not excluded from applying as lead applicants or co-applicants.

Criteria for Assessment

• An application should be made by the lead applicant, using the application form below, and should involve at least three other applicants. It should also be signed off by an appropriate university finance officer or similar.
• Applications will be considered by a panel of three trustees of the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness. Criteria used in assessing applications are:
  • the contribution of the proposed work to the development of a research proposal / grant application that will lead to high-quality research in the sociology of health and illness, including innovative theoretical and/or methodological developments;
  • the contribution to establishing or strengthening collaboration between research centres and academic disciplines, with the main focus on the sociology of health and illness;
  • the experience and expertise of the collaborators in relation to the research topic;
  • the appropriateness and standing of the proposed funding body; and
  • the other proposed outputs from the research grant development award beyond the external grant application to a major national or international funding body.

For more information, visit FSHI.