Responsive Mode IAA Applications

If you are considering an IAA Responsive Mode application, please review the information below:

'Responsive mode' is a facility for IAA project proposals to be considered outside the normal call windows in exceptional circumstances. Though the majority of the funding received from the EPSRC and AHRC IAA is already earmarked for planned ‘Calls’, we do retain some flexibility. However we ask that responsive mode be reserved for opportunities that are genuinely time-bound and represent a significant opportunity for LU to engage with a strategic partner.

Therefore, in addition to the normal system of independent appraisal plus alignment to either the EPSRC 'list of research areas' or ‘AHRC Disciplines’ (see funding guide pp 67-74), we stipulate that the following conditions must also be met for an IAA responsive mode application:

1. Projects must articulate how they support the University's Strategic Plan, a Lancaster Research Institute or Centre and/or the following theme(s): health and social care; sustainability and net-zero; cyber security, digital and data; place-based innovation; arts, culture and creative industries.

2. Projects should have clearly defined outcomes and a clear pathway to impact(s) that help us to deliver against EPSRC’s or AHRC’s aims and objectives.

3. Projects should involve collaboration with a key strategic partner, and the opportunity to collaborate be time-bound (i.e. an opportunity which may not be present by the next IAA ‘Call’)

4. PI’s must be able to provide a credible rationale for submission outside the main ‘Calls’

Responsive mode grants are typically up to £20,000, but larger grants can be made in exceptional circumstances and depending on the strength of the case.

*Please note the EPSRC IAA now has very limited funds and a responsive mode application is unlikely to be successful*

*The AHRC IAA has some funds available but large requests are unlikely to be successful*

How to apply

In all cases, please discuss your proposal with the IAA team at the earliest opportunity (Jamie Hodge [AHRC/EPSRC] and/or Mark Bowen [EPSRC]).

We may then ask you to complete an online expression of interest form to briefly gather key information related to points 1-4 above on the rationale for a responsive mode application. If the application is for a lesser amount (e.g. <£5,000) this may be all that is required to make a decision.

We will seek approval (or not) to progress to application stage from Dr Mark Rushforth (Associate Director, Enterprise & Innovation) as Institutional IAA-Lead as well as relevant Operational IAA Leads.

If required, and for all requests >£5,000, we will ask you to complete an application form outlining full project details and budgets, to be reviewed by a panel comprising of an FST/FASS Associate Dean for Engagement/Research, KE Senior Lead, Senior Research Development Manager, FST/FASS Impact Development Manager. For requests >£20,000, we will seek additional approval from the Cross-faculty Associate Dean for Research.

If applications meet Research Council remits and thresholds for quality, the project will be approved subject to any clarifications and the standard terms and conditions for IAA grants.

Examples of successful responsive mode applications

  • Collaboration with (and significant in-kind support from) a major international software company

    In computer science, researchers worked with Oracle to attract significant in-kind match (through access to cloud computing credits) to undertake a project with the British Library. The project used machine learning and natural language processing to scan 50,000 items in the British Library 19th Century Books corpus, generating rich new data on landscape change and species distributions.

  • In engineering, researchers were invited to work on a major decommissioning challenge

    In engineering, researchers collaborated with government entities (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) as well as a Lancaster University spin-out company, to test new radiation detection methods in one of the most significant nuclear decommissioning challenges in the world (the Dounreay shaft).