Eligibility
- This call is invite-only to researchers who attended the Culture Innovation event on the 25th March.
- Though projects should be a genuine collaboration between the cultural partner and the researcher, we require the LU researcher to be Principle Investigator (PI) and to manage the IAA funding. This ensures adherence to Lancaster's financial regulations and original IAA terms & conditions from UK Research & Innovation. However, we can fund collaborative activities with businesses/organisations/charities or other third-parties to enable projects to be delivered.
- The PI does not need to have received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to be eligible to apply. However, there should be pre-existing AHRC-discipline based research underpinning the IAA project.
- The IAA is not intended to support 'engaged research', nor is it a vehicle for consultancy projects - there must be genuine collaboration, exchange of knowledge, and mutually agreed outcomes and impacts with an external non-academic partner.
- Proposals should align to AHRC remits - further details about this are below. An explanation of alignment should be provided within the application. If you are not sure then contact the IAA Manager to discuss, who can confirm alignment or otherwise prior to application.
- All proposals must involve working with an external, non-academic partner.
- The PI may supervise and involve other staff (e.g., RAs or Post-Doctoral Researchers) in the delivery of IAA projects, but they remain the PI.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI)
We encourage Early Career Researchers to apply, under whichever definition is appropriate to your circumstances. The IAA may be able to cover costs related to parental leave, and we have made allowance for childcare costs to also be claimed via the IAA project.
Our data on previous LU IAA applicants has demonstrated that certain groups are less likely to apply for an IAA, and though we won’t ask specific questions about protected characteristics, we do encourage applications from individuals representing any of the following groups:
- Individuals who identify as female
- Individuals with a declared disability
- Individuals are representative of ethnic groups other than white.
Scope
Though we expect a broad range of ideas, activity types, and partner representatives, proposals must:
i) Include activity aligning to at least one of the following activity streams:
- Strengthen knowledge exchange through culture change, including through the development of skills for knowledge exchange activity
- Strengthen research organisation and researcher–research user engagement
- Support knowledge exchange – including at early stages of progressing research outputs and outcomes to the point when they can be supported by other funding
- Support new, innovative and imaginative approaches to KE and impact, including processes that enable “fast failure” and appropriate learning
- Support activities that enable impact to be achieved in an effective and timely manner, including secondments and people exchange
ii) Evidence alignment to AHRC remits
Your project must align to at least one of the AHRC research areas. For clarity on which discipline areas are eligible, please see the ‘AHRC Disciplines’ available via the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding guide (pp 67-74),
In your application you will be asked to state the research area(s) that your proposal aligns to, and to expand on remit alignment in your written application.
iii) Include expected impacts aligned to one of the following themes:
- Health & wellbeing
- Sustainability and net-zero
- Digital transformation
iv) Work with at least one external partner attending the Culture Innovation event.
It is mandatory that you have an external (non-academic) partner for this funding scheme. We welcome projects with cash match where available. For projects citing cash match (not in-kind) from your external partner(s), a signed collaboration agreement will be required outlining payment terms and intellectual property ownership. A template of this agreement can be supplied to the partner as part of the preparation of the proposal as this will potentially save time later.
Duration
Projects must conclude by December 2025.
Eligible Costs
- Grants can be up to £10,000 but smaller awards of <£5,000 also encouraged. Amounts over £10,000 will be considered on an exceptional basis (with expectation of 1:1 cash match). Please discuss with the IAA Manager prior to application if >£10k.
- Full Economic Costs are not applicable/eligible (i.e. estates and indirect costs, permanent staff time etc.)
- We are looking to support the new direct costs of projects through this call – so additional Research Assistant/Post-Doctoral Researcher time, travel, consumables, payments to facilitate partner involvement and small items of equipment. Any equipment purchases must be <£10K.
- Costs and approvals do not need to go through the Research Support Office, though we advise seeking assistance with staff costs from RSO, if applicable. See https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/research/research-services/pre-award-development/costing-and-pricing/
- Other support costs to enable project delivery (such as childcare costs for working away etc.) are allowable.
- We expect that projects will include costs for the cultural/creative partner to facilitate their involvement and/or artists to deliver work. If you are proposing to pass a portion of your IAA grant to a third party (i.e. the cultural/creative partner) then VAT will be incurred. Ensure you include allowance for any VAT on ‘taxable supplies’ – see www.gov.uk/how-vat-works/what-vat-charged-on.
- For artists costs, you should be guided by the creative/cultural partner but may also want to make reference to: www.artistsunionengland.org.uk/rates-of-pay/
How to apply
There is one funding level offered via this invited IAA call:
- Seed funding for up to £10,000 per project, intended for short 3-6 month duration projects to enable initial researcher and external partner collaborations or for critical, emerging opportunities.
To apply, please submit an application via the online form, which will be circulated to researchers and cultural organisations attending the Culture Innovation event. The online form has additional guidance embedded within it. To review the questions to be asked and the associated guidance you can review a PDF here: Culture Innovation IAA Call .
Please note, you will be required to upload Head of Department approval emails via the online application form.
To support applications we may also run an online webinar w/c 1st April.
Applications will need to be submitted by the deadline of 5.00pm, 16th April.
Proposals will be scored against the weightings outlined in the application form, ranked, and then funding allocated based on available funds and panel discussions. For this call, we have reviewers outside the University.
AHRC Panel (24th April): Sarah Tooze (FASS Engagement & Partnership Manager), Nathan Jones (LICA Engagement Director), Sharon Phillips (Lancaster & District CVS), Julie Brown (Executive Director, Imitating The Dog).
Panel secretary: Jamie Hodge (IAA Manager)
- To maintain their impartiality, panel members are asked to not provide detailed advice to prospective applicants. For example, they can advise informally about the IAA scheme (though be mindful of capacity) but cannot review drafts or heavily influence proposal development.
- As this is a closed call, the IAA Manager is happy to field enquiries and provide more detailed advice to applicants. Please contact j.p.hodge@lancaster.ac.uk.
- Outcomes are expected to be communicated by C.O.P on 25th April. Detailed feedback will follow but won’t be provided immediately.
Q1: Can I, as a researcher or cultural partner, be on more than one project?
Yes - you can be on more than one submission. Just be mindful of whether any projects should (or could) be combined with perhaps different strands of activity to reflect the differences. We'd prefer to fund a smaller number of larger projects that contributed to a common aim (see below if this increases the budget beyond £10k).
Q2: Is their flexibility in the £10k limit?
Yes, particularly if projects have combined and/or involve multiple partners and researchers. As above, we would prefer to fund projects that are of increased scales of activity and collaboration. Please just explain in the proposal as justification and contact j.p.hodge@lancaster.ac.uk to advise on exceeding the £10k limit.
Q3: What is the difference between the themes and the discipline areas?
The three themes for this call are: "health & wellbeing | sustainability & net zero | digital transformation". Projects should align to one of these themes. The project also needs to draw on research related (by at least 50%) to one of the AHRC discipline areas listed in the AHRC funding guide PDF, see pp67-74 . Funding for this call is from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) so we need to make projects are sufficiently aligned to their remit to full our obligations and terms & conditions of the grant. If you have any questions about AHRC alignment contact j.p.hodge@lancaster.ac.uk as it can sometimes be hard to discern (but we can also interpret these remits flexibly).
Q4: Who can submit the application?
The online form is only accessible to LU staff. This is because they will need to upload approvals and ultimately manage the funding. Because the funding comes from the Research Councils, we also need to ensure there is a researcher involved (actively) in the process, and that there is some research underpinning the activity. This is why we expect the researcher to lead on the funding application. You can see a PDF of the application under 'How to Apply'.
