Newton Fund’s Institutional Links Grants 2016: Research and Innovation Challenges in Economic & Societal Benefit

Deadline: 19 September 2016

The Newton Fund is seeking applicants for its Institutional Links Grants 2016 in order to enhance the quality of their research and enable them to translate research and innovation into economic and societal benefit.

This programme is designed to establish links beyond the level of the individual researcher and innovation practitioner, opening up opportunities for more sustainable, solution-oriented collaborations between academic groups as well as with the private and third sector (e.g. SMEs, NGOs, technology transfer offices and other not-for-profit organisations).

Challenge Areas

Agriculture (e.g. irrigation, crop yields)
Climate and environment (e.g. climate change, green technology, sustainable development, ecosystem services, resource scarcity)
Sustainable energy for all
Education research and innovation for development
Economic growth (e.g. equitable growth, financial sector development, private sector development)
Health (e.g. HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, child mortalitymaternal health)
Water and sanitation
Food and nutrition (including food security)
Demographic change and migration
Rural and urban development
Infrastructure (including civil engineering, information and communication technologies, big data for social and economic development, transportation)
Humanitarian disasters and emergencies, disaster risk reduction
Resilient and connected communities
Governance, society and conflict (e.g. transparency, accountability, effective institutions, land and natural resource rights, poverty alleviation, social development, structural inequalities, violence and security, peace building, civil society)
Development-relevant data collection, quality and access (including administrative data and macroeconomic statistics).

Grant Information

Grants range from £50,000 to £300,000 for up to two years

Eligibility Criteria

Each proposal must have one Principal Applicant from the UK and one Principal Applicant from the partner country
Both Principal Applicants must be Leading Researchers or Established Researchers
Principal Applicants are limited to one Institutional Links application per call.
Principal Applicants must be based at one of the following:
- A not-for-profit higher education institution with the capacity to undertake high quality research
- A UK higher education institution (all UK higher education institutions are eligible)
- A not-for-profit research organisation with the capacity to undertake high-quality research
- A Catapult Centre (in the case of the UK Principal Applicant)
Both of the Principal Applicants’ institutions (the ‘Lead Institutions’) must have the capacity to administer the grant.
Individual departments within a single institution can make multiple applications per call provided that the proposed activities are clearly different and that each is led by separate Principal Applicants.
Principal Applicants can apply for funding for the same activity in subsequent calls provided the project has not already been funded.
Principal Applicants that have previously received Institutional Links grants can submit further applications for Institutional Links provided the proposed activities are clearly distinct from, or build on, any already funded through the Newton Fund.
Organisations affiliated to UK higher education institutions (e.g. an overseas campus) may be the Lead Institution in the partner country provided that other eligible higher education institutions or research organisations not directly affiliated with UK higher education institutions in the country are also involved as Associated Partners. However, organizations cannot apply as Lead Institutions in Links with their own affiliates in other countries.