British Council’s Research Environment Links grants program

Deadline: 8-Oct-21

The British Council invites proposals for the establishment of Research Environment Links (REL) between universities and research and innovation institutes in partner countries and the UK.

Research Environment Links grants provide financial support for capacity-strengthening and collaboration activities to develop and sustain medium to long term relationships proposed by applicant institutions in partner countries and the UK.

The key aim of each collaboration will be to support capacity strengthening in the partner institution in either Egypt, Malaysia, Morocco, Thailand or Turkey as well as to stimulate longer-term interactions between the partner country and the UK.

Objectives

All REL grants will have the following three overarching objectives:

Contribute to the development of systems, processes or structures that strengthen capacity and promote collaboration between the UK and the partner country. The proposal must include a description of how the collaboration and capacity strengthening activities will both contribute to structural change in a particular institution and how these could be relevant at a local/regional/national level. Lead applicants should indicate how they envisage this, including a sustainability plan. For example, when the activities focus on the delivery of training, structured mentoring and cascading activities should always be included in the activity plan.
Establish new links or significantly develop existing links in areas relevant to the partner country and the UK. As well as supporting the research and innovation ecosystem between the partner country and the UK, REL should also aim to stimulate longer term links between participating institutions and other potential collaborators.
Support international development objectives. The capacity strengthening activities are intended to support areas relevant to the economic development and welfare of partner countries, and link to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Aims

Part of Going Global Partnerships, the British Council Research Environment Links (REL) programme aims to:

Support dialogue and knowledge exchange on academic standards, research governance and strategic research policy development.
Help promote an academic and research environment between partner countries and the UK, conducive to achieving maximum impact from high-quality research.
Build opportunities for the universities and institutions in the UK and partner countries to engage with the wider community and with policymakers.
Enable researchers to be more responsive to development needs in their countries and enable up-to-date research evidence to support policy decisions.
Support skills development to communicate and translate research into benefits for social welfare and economic growth.
Amplify researchers’ ability to conduct excellent research in areas most relevant to national priorities and fully realise its impact.

Funding Information

Size of grant: Up to £50,000
Duration of the grant: Up to 12 months

Eligibility Criteria

Proposals must fulfil the following criteria in order to be eligible for funding under this Programme:

Each proposal must have both
- one Lead Applicant from the partner country; and
- one Lead Applicant from the UK, submitting one joint application.
Each institution from the partner country can submit one application. This is to encourage institutions to support their strongest applications and prioritise the projects most aligned with their interests and strengths.
Lead Applicants are limited to one REL application per call.
Lead Applicants in the partner country and the UK must be based at one of the following Institutions:
- A not-for-profit higher education institution with the capacity to undertake high quality research, including their Technology Transfer Offices.
- A Catapult Centre (in the case of the UK Principal Applicant)
- A not-for-profit research organisation with the capacity to undertake high-quality research.
The Lead Applicant’s institution in the partner country (the ‘Lead Institution’) must have the capacity to administer the grant and capacity must be confirmed in the support letter.
Lead Applicants can include in their proposals Associated Partners (from both the partner county and the UK) affiliated with:
- Research or higher education institutions
- Other Education Organisations/Charities/Foundations
- Not-for-profit organisations, including Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)
- For-profit/commercial organisations, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
For-profit organisations are not eligible to apply as Lead Institutions. Furthermore, for-profit organisations are not eligible to receive any grant funds, except to cover travel-associated costs.