Eligibility

• You can apply even if you did not utilise the opportunity as part of the 'pre-announcement' to register your interest
• We welcome proposals from individual researchers but require Principal Investigators (PIs) to have an employment contract at Lancaster for the duration of their proposed project.
• You do not have had to have received funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council or Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to be eligible to apply.
• As part of this calls focus on interdisciplinarity, we would expect proposals to be cross-disciplinary partnerships. This could be intra or inter-faculty across engineering & physical sciences and the arts & humanities
• Collaborations should be well-balanced, but one discipline may be naturally dominant (represented by the PI) with Co-Investigators representing the opposing discipline area. (e.g., a PI in FST and Co-I in FASS).
• One of the chief purposes of this call is to promote interdisciplinary working between Lancaster researchers, and proposals with diverse teams across both AHRC/EPSRC disciplines and/or multiple faculties will be prioritised. Proposals that evidence interdisciplinarity by working with external collaborators or partners in a different discipline area (e.g., a data scientist working with a cultural partner but no humanities researcher) will be scored lower. An external partner is still compulsory.
• The PI may supervise and involve other staff (e.g., RAs or Post-Doctoral Researcher) in 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.

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 representative of ethnic groups other than white.

Scope

Though we expect a broad range of ideas, activity types, and partner representatives, proposals must:

i) Align 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) Be truly interdisciplinary

Your project must be interdisciplinary in nature and must therefore combine at least one discipline areas from both the ‘arts & humanities’ and ‘engineering & physical sciences’. 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), and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 'list of research areas'. Note, in your application you will be asked to cite the discipline / research areas (across both AHRC & EPSRC) that your proposal aligns to. It is allowable to have one dominant discipline / research area(s) but you must include at least one from each (and for this to be reflected in the activity and/or partnership).

iii) Include expected impacts aligned to the University's Strategic Plan and/or the following themes:

• Health and social care
• Sustainability and net-zero
• Cyber security, digital and data
• Place-based innovation
• Arts, culture, and creative industries.

iv) Work with at least one external partner

It is mandatory that you have an external (non-HEI) partner for this funding scheme. We welcome projects with cash match where available. For projects citing over £20,000 of 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. Please note: Only in exceptional circumstances will amendments to the terms of the agreement be considered by the University.

Duration

Projects must conclude by March 2025.

Eligible Costs

• Grants can be up to £25,000 but smaller awards of <£5,000 also encouraged. Amounts over £25,000 will be considered on an exceptional basis (with expectation of 1:1 cash match)
• Full Economic Costs are not applicable/eligible (i.e., estates and indirect costs, permanent staff time etc).
• We are looking to support the additional direct costs of projects through this call – so additional Research Assistant/Post-Doctoral Researcher time, travel, consumables and small items of equipment (<£10K).
• Costs and approvals do not need to go through the Research Support Office, though you may find it helpful to seek assistance with staff costs, if applicable.

How to apply

To apply, you will need to complete both an online form and an accompanying case for support document. Both should be completed by 22nd October 2023 11.59pm. Supporting guidance is embedded within the case for support and should be uploaded to the online form.

Head of Department approval emails also need to be uploaded via the online form. Please note you will either have to save the email as a PDF or if you do not have an Adobe Acrobat licence, use the snipping tool or screen shot functionality to save the email as an image file (.msg files cannot be directly uploaded via MS forms).

Your application will be assessed by a panel of individuals concerned with management and leadership of impact, engagement and knowledge exchange within Lancaster University. We will confirm the panel shortly and do not expect panel members to provide detailed advice to prospective applicants in order to maintain their impartiality. Detailed advice can be sought from the relevant Partnership or Business Development Manager for your faculty area or the IAA Partnership Development Manager (j.p.hodge@lancaster.ac.uk).

This call will be managed by Jamie Hodge (IAA Partnership Development Manager) and Mark Bowen (Business Gateway Manager).