Seedcorn and Research Capacity Network grants

Grant summary

BAICE Seedcorn grants fund small-scale pilots and scoping activities for larger projects. This may be through a combination of activities including (but not limited to) literature review, mapping exercises, data generation, analysis of secondary data, scoping visits and partner visits.

BAICE Research Capacity / Network grants fund the inception and development of innovative collaborations in new and priority research areas, aligned with the aims of BAICE. It is expected that the Research Capacity / Network grants do more than simply provide an opportunity for people to come together – they must demonstrate potential for building a new community of researchers to facilitate ongoing work and funding.

For both Seedcorn and Research Capacity / Network grant we especially welcome applications that emphasise collaboration across different contexts, disciplines and career stages.

We aim to fund up to two awards each year in this joint category. The maximum amount you can apply for is £5000 per grant, but we welcome applications for any amount up to this maximum.

For the Seedcorn and Network grants we fund reasonable travel and subsistence costs, administrative costs, project related materials and resources, hire of rooms and facilities, catering costs, staff-time for non-salaried contributors (e.g. research assistants), dissemination activities and conference or event registration costs. We do not fund staff-time for salaried applicants and we do not cover estate costs or other costs related to core institutional full-economic costings. If you have an expense that is not included in this list, please get in touch at grants@baice.ac.uk to check if it is an eligible cost. The maximum length of projects or activities is two years, but there are no restrictions on how funds are distributed across the project period.

Lead applicants and research team members can be based anywhere in the world. However, at least one member of the research team must be based in a UK registered organisation for contractual purposes in order for us to be able to transfer funds. The lead applicant and research team can be based at non-academic institutions if a clear case for the alignment of their work with BAICE can be demonstrated (also see note on ethics, below).

Students cannot be the lead researcher but are welcome to be included as a team member.

BAICE encourages diverse research teams in terms of career stage, background and institutional affiliation.

If you have been awarded a Seedcorn or Network grant in the past three years, you cannot submit a proposal as lead researcher, but you can be a member of the research team if there is a clear rationale for this.

You cannot be a named applicant on more than one application for a Seedcorn or Research Capacity / Network grant in one grant cycle.

If your proposal involves generating data, funds will only be released when ethical approvals have been granted by an academic institutional ethics board. In your application you must indicate which ethics board/s will assess the proposal. Therefore, while the lead researcher does not have to be based at an academic institution, please ensure that at least one member of the research team has access to an academic ethics board.

Funds for the BAICE Seedcorn and Research Capacity / Network grants are transferred to the UK-based institution of the named applicant employed by the named organisation. It is expected that the financial management of the grant will be administered by the UK-based institution, according to their payment and reimbursement principles and processes.

Each application is initially checked for eligibility by the BAICE administrator. Eligible applications are assessed by the grant panel for this award, which consists of three members of the BAICE Executive Committee. Proposals recommended for funding are submitted to the BAICE Trustees for consideration and approval. Applications are assessed against six criteria:

  • Relevance to BAICE’s aims and objectives
  • Originality and potential contribution to knowledge
  • Clarity and coherence of project design (including conceptual framing and methodology where appropriate)
  • Meaningful involvement of ECRs
  • Reasonable and realistic costings that demonstrate value for money
  • Demonstrated potential for follow-on work/funding (including engagement activities – see below)

It is an expectation that BAICE grant holders will commit to sharing knowledge generated through BAICE grants with the wider BAICE community. Seedcorn and Network grant holders must commit to contributing at least one blog article or podcast for the BAICE website. Additionally, at least one academic journal article arising from this grant, or funding awarded as a result of this grant, should be submitted to the Compare Journal. We welcome suggestions for additional engagement activities – please indicate these in your application.

You can download the application forms for the Seedcorn grant and the Research Capacity / Network grant in the Downloads section below. There is one round of funding per year for these grants, with a deadline of May 1st. Please send your application to grants@baice.ac.uk with BAICE Seedcorn or Research Capacity Network Application in the subject heading. We aim to let applicants know the outcome of their application within eight weeks.

BAICE aims to provide constructive feedback to all applicants, whatever the outcome of their application.

If the proposal requires ethical approval, no monies can be transferred until confirmation of ethical approval from the nominated institution’s ethics board has been submitted to BAICE.

Occasionally, the BAICE Research and Capacity Networks panel identify an application that is fundable but may carry certain risks. As Network Grants do not necessarily require institutional ethical review (unless an associated research study is built within the network activity), we would request applicants to complete a risk assessment to be signed off by the appropriate person in their institution as a condition should their application be found suitable to be awarded the grant. No monies can be transferred until the attached risk assessment form from an appropriate person with the lead (grant holding) institution is submitted to BAICE.

It is the responsibility of the grant holder to ensure that appropriate insurance is in place before embarking on any activity funded by a BAICE grant.

You do not need to submit receipts to BAICE. However, BAICE grant recipients must submit a 1-2 page financial report summary to BAICE within six months of the completion of the grant. This report must be signed by the grant holder and an administrator who was involved in the management of the grant.

An underspend of more than 5% of the awarded grant total must be returned to BAICE.

The name/s and affiliation/s of BAICE award winners will be shared on BAICE’s website and social media channels.

It is expected that BAICE will be acknowledged as the funder in any outputs resulting from the grant (including posts on social media).

If you have any questions about this grant, please contact grants@baice.ac.uk, with either BAICE Seedcorn grant or BAICE Research Capacity / Network grant query in the subject heading.