AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Urgency Grants pilot

Recognising the fast-moving nature of many of the challenges facing low or middle income countries (LMICs), the AHRC has launched this scheme to provide an accelerated funding outlet for urgent research priorities. Funded as a part of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), it is an open, responsive mechanism through which arts and humanities researchers (working with other disciplines where appropriate) can respond in an agile way to unanticipated urgent research needs.

PLEASE NOTE: The AHRC GCRF Urgency Grants Pilot is still running and is open to applications addressing the Covid-19 pandemic and associated international development challenges and impacts, providing they meet the eligibility requirements for the pilot.

Eligible projects must be fully compliant with the requirements of Official Development Assistance (ODA), addressing a development need or challenge with the potential to support low or middle income countries meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition, applications must demonstrate the case for urgency, explaining why the research needs to be done within specified time constraints that cannot be supported through other funding routes.

NB: The primary focus of this scheme is to provide an accelerated route for funding projects where there is a demonstrably time-limited window of opportunity to conduct research or deliver project impact/outputs. It is not intended to provide a funding route for projects that may address urgent GCRF related problems, but that could reasonably be expected to be funded through existing AHRC/UKRI funding schemes and calls.

Applications for AHRC urgency grants could fall under either of the two main categories below: 

i.Research (including the collection, analysis or critical interpretation of data) into the short term impacts of / informing responses or resilience to or recovery from a range of specific events affecting LMICs which could not have been planned for in advance, such as: 

• cultural, humanitarian, political or economic emergences or crises and their impacts on issues such as cultural production /expression, equalities, marginalisation, vulnerabilities, social exclusion, etc.); 
• unexpected (de-)escalation or rapid changes to conflicts, human rights abuses, threats to human security, or peacebuilding processes;
• unanticipated large scale forced population displacement/ migrations; 
• environmental disasters (both natural and/or resulting from human activity), e.g. earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, hurricane, major pollution incident, dam collapse, etc.; 
• famines, health emergences (e.g. disease outbreaks /pandemics); and/or 
• sudden large scale destruction of/damage to cultural heritage/assets                              

ii. An unexpected opportunity to conduct substantive research over a period of months informing, observing or collecting data at, or to participate in (e.g. placements) a one-off time-limited major policy or practice event (e.g. a peacebuilding / reconciliation process, public inquiry, policy review process) which offer a substantial and unique opportunity for innovative research, research synthesis and/or knowledge exchange relating to international development and/or directly relating to development in one or more LMIC.

The following situations will not be accepted as grounds for an urgency proposal:

• proposals without clear research context, aims, objectives, added-value and outcomes or where the prime focus of activities is not directly related to research;
• additional / unexpected development impact activities up to £30,000 fEC from past / current AHRC projects which could be considered through the accelerated route under the AHRC’s Follow-on Scheme for Impact and Engagement (applications for £30k-100k can be considered where existing FoF timetables would not provide decisions in sufficient time to meet the research need / opportunity);
• unforeseen opportunities to participate in time-limited / one-off/ short logistical events, such as a particular cultural, arts, experimental or observational programme /event / exhibition/ performance, or to exploit the unexpected availability of staff or facilities;
• events where planning could have allowed support for study via published funding opportunities, such as anniversaries, commemorations, seasonal, relatively frequent, annual or periodic events, regular festivals, future planned exhibitions or where the urgency results from a slow response by the applicants in preparing proposals or plans;
• attendance at, or organisation of, academic conferences/ workshops;
• replacement funding for activities for which funding has unexpectedly been withdrawn, although it is recognised that the withdrawal of funding could in some cases create an unexpected urgent research need or opportunity; 
• proposals for infrastructure or facilities (e.g. building repairs or reconstruction) (although research could inform such activities funded through other sources) or primarily concerned with heritage conservation/ preservation activities, although urgent research / data collection activities linked to heritage which has unexpectedly become ‘at risk’ may be considered; 
• proposals which do not lead to open access publications, data or other research outcomes (for example, where the prime outputs or data are solely intended for internal use by a partner organization); 
• responding to unexpected research findings or continuation of existing projects, unless this would also meet the urgency criteria outlined in this call.

Applicants interested in applying should first submit an expression of interest to the AHRC at the earliest opportunity following the emergence of the urgency need or context. If the expression of interest is considered to fall within the scope of the scheme, applicants will then be invited to 

submit a full application through Je-S for consideration through an accelerated peer review process.

For full details see Call Guidance document.

The principal investigator must normally meet standard AHRC eligibility criteria and awards will normally be made to a UK research organisation eligible to receive AHRC funding. International coinvestigators and project partners may be included. Moreover, it is recognised that in some urgency contexts it may be appropriate for a significant elements of the research to be led or conducted by LMIC or other partners ‘on the ground’ or with relevant contextual / cultural knowledge. Therefore, there are no limits on the proportions of funding within awards which may be allocated to overseas or other partners.

 Exceptionally, proposals led by researchers at LMIC organisations may be considered. Given the time required to complete due diligence processes, such proposals would normally only be considered where the LMIC organisation has already completed UKRI due diligence processes and has received UKRI funding as lead research organisation or with which UKRI has a formal partnership agreement. Such applications should involve a significant collaborative element with researchers / research organisations in the UK, normally including an academic co-investigator at a UK research organisation eligible for Research Council funding.   

In some cases urgency funding may be channelled through current AHRC awards such as Network Plus where the Network Plus may fund an LMIC-led proposal. In such cases the Network Plus would need to submit an application in collaboration with the proposed LMIC lead organisation.