In this blog post, Nicholas Duvall, Research Funding Manager in Edinburgh Research Office, shares information and resources about the UKRI’s new application portal, the UKRI Funding Service.
If you plan to apply for a grant or fellowship from one of the Research Councils now or in the future, you need to know that their umbrella body, UK Research and Innovation, is changing its application system. A new portal, the UKRI Funding Service, is being rolled out and the previous system Je-S is scheduled to close at the end of 2023.
About the UKRI Funding Service
The UKRI Funding Service is quite different from Je-S, but it is more straightforward for applicants. We’ve produced guidance to explain how to use the new system. This new resource is for academic and professional services colleagues at the University of Edinburgh.
The Funding Service is being developed over a number of iterations, so there may be procedural differences between calls. Remember, the call page on UKRI’s Funding Finder will contain all of the instructions on how to apply for a particular opportunity. This is also where you will find all of UKRI’s funding opportunities.
Here are some new aspects of the Funding Service which you might find useful to know:
- The names for some project roles have changed. For example, a ‘principal investigator’ is now known as a ‘project lead’.
- Application questions for responsive-mode calls have been standardised across research councils.
- At the moment, only the project lead can edit an application. We have produced guidance on entering costs on the form.
- For fellowships and new investigator awards, how statements of institutional support are added to the application has changed. The Edinburgh Research Office Funding Service online resource explains what applicants and schools/centres/institutes need to do for this.
Information about all of these changes can be found on our Using the UKRI Funding Service online resource.
Changes to responsive-mode schemes – new deadlines
UKRI has also made some changes to when you can apply to some individual funding schemes, specifically responsive-mode schemes for AHRC, ESRC and EPSRC. These now operate in rounds with published deadlines. Check our special webpage for these schemes for more information about the change and what you need to do to let us know if you plan to apply.
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