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Faculty of Humanities

Key Faculty highlights

Prospective applicants interested in these calls must contact their School RSS.

This space pretends to highlight projects with an important income for the Faculty of Humanities, projects with allowed budgets of above £250k.

Internal deadlines for external calls

Internal deadlines are set at School/Faculty/central level to coordinate processes of submissions at the desired level to introduce any specific selective management timelines and assure the desired quality of the submissions. These processes will relate to the strategic importance of the scheme and specific requirements from the funding bodies. Research support staff will communicate deadlines to schools at the earliest opportunity. Internal deadlines will be included in these pages when communicating within a reasonable timeline.

UKRI's new Funding Service and submission tool

UKRI is changing the way they support researchers and all those involved in research funding. From 2023 to 2025 it seems that the transition to the new Funding Service will last, which will impact in the way that open call responsive mode schemes are processed. Further information from ‘Council transition to the new Funding Service’, UKRI website.

UKRI Research Councils Responsive mode no deadlines

(Page version 06/02/24)

Below some key schemes running without deadline for submissions: 

  • ESRC New Investigator Grants. Responsive mode. New Investigator scheme to support early career researchers. High-quality candidates from anywhere in the world to enable them to further their research careers. Any discipline within the social sciences and with interface with the wider sciences (but 50% of the research focus and effort should be for social sciences disciplines). 35 grants will be funded each year. Up to 60, and from £100k to £300k, fEC.
  • ESRC Research Grants Scheme. Responsive mode. Supporting excellent ideas with considerable flexibility in subject areas but these must fall within ESRC’s remit. Awards from £350K to £1M FEC funding standard research projects, large-scale survey, methodological development, etc. The inclusion of international co-investigators is allowed but not project linked studentships. Up to 60 and from £350k to £1m, fEC.
  • ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative SDAI. Responsive mode. To deliver high-quality high-impact research through the deeper exploitation of major data resources created by the ESRC and other agencies. Up to £300K fEC per grant. Funding 20 proposals per year. Round to transition to the UKRI's new Funding Service. Up to 24, and £300k, fEC.
  • ESRC|Brazil - São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Working with Brazilian researchers (responsive mode). The Memorandum of understanding stablishes the rules of participation. UK partner following ESRC Research Grants rules. Up to 60, and from £350k to £1m, fEC.
  • ESRC|FNR - Fonds National de la Recherche, responsive mode. UKRI and the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg (FNR) are charged with fostering and supporting academic research within their own communities in their respective countries. Up to 60, and from £350k to £1m, fEC.
  • ESRC|USA - National Science Foundation (NSF), responsive mode. Memorandum of Understanding: Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences Directorate US National Science Foundation NSF and the UK Research Councils. Two-way lead agency funding agreement.  Areas of intersection of NSF/SBE an under UK Research Councils remit. A single proposal will undergo a single review. Up to 60, and from £350k to £1m, fEC.
  • AHRC responsive mode: Curiosity Award. Flexible awards to fund fundamental research that leads to new research agendas, networking activity and idea generation, which enables the development of further research opportunities and new research agendas.
  • AHRC responsive mode: catalyst awards. AHRC awards to support researchers without prior experience of leading a significant research project to accelerate their trajectory as independent researchers, to unlock their potential and build leadership and convenor experience. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for AHRC funding.
  • AHRC Research Grants - standard Grant. Apply for the standard research grant funding to support well-defined collaborative projects across the arts and humanities, in areas covered by our remit.
  • AHRC | Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR) joint projects. AHRC standard grant rules for UK applicants.
  • AHRC | USA -  National Science Foundation (NSF) funding scheme. AHRC standard grant rules for UK applicants.
  • AHRC | Brazil - São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Working with Brazilian researchers. AHRC standard grant rules for UK applicants.
  • NERC|FAPESP - State of São Paulo Research Foundation Working with Brazilian researchers responsive mode. This opportunity allows UK-based researchers and researchers in the State of São Paulo, Brazil to submit a collaborative proposal under existing NERC funding opportunities. This will go through a single review process.  Applications must be submitted under existing programmes, specifically NERC pushing the frontiers and large grants funding opportunities. fEC award.
  • NERC|FNR - Fonds National de la Recherche joint projects - responsive mode.This is not a separate research funding scheme. UKRI and FNR will co-fund applications to UKRI councils’ responsive mode funding opportunities, in some cases named standard research grant opportunities.
  • NERC|USA Natural Science Foundation (NSF): Work with US-based researchers on environmental science. Collaborative work is governed by a lead agency agreement between NERC and NSF and must adhere to the remits of both NERC and NSF GEO or BIO-DEB schemes.

Nuffield Foundation Research, Development and Analysis Fund. Annual deadlines in March and September.

For projects to inform the design and operation of social policy and practice across our three core domains of Education, Welfare, and Justice.

The Foundation funding approach is set out in the strategy.

To see full funding priorities and application criteria the Guide for applicants. Two possibilities: 

  • Applications to the Fund are usually between £10,000 and £500,000 but could reach up to £750k with two annual deadlines in March and September.
  • Strategic grants: From 2022, Nuffield funds larger, strategic projects over £750,000 up to £3 millions in value by embedding the Strategic Fund into the core Research, Development, and Analysis Fund with deadline once annualy in March. This scheme is currently under revision.

The criteria for projects is innovation, rigour, impact, engagement, resources. It is possible to apply for funds to the Foundation in a collaborative basis. 

Awards meet 100% eligible costs, all ‘directly incurred’ costs, subject to certain conditions, and most ‘directly allocated’ costs (except the estates costs of PIs and permanent university staff); no indirect costs.

Link to the call announcement.

Next deadline 1 April 2025.

HORIZON Europe ERC - European Research Council 2025 deadlines

UKRI encourages UK individuals to apply but please check with your RS team about suitability for submissions, the Horizon Europe pages including notes about and links to the UKRI Guarantee Funding. The ERC website is the main source of information about the Council and calls, the funding and tenders portal reference documents provide with the latest versions of the work programmes.

The ERC's 2025 Work Programme officially approved.

ERC calls

Call identifier

Call deadline
ERC Consolidator ERC-2025-CoG 14/01/2025 
ERC Advanced ERC-2025-AdG 28/08/2025 (this opens 11 May 2025)
ERC Proof of Concept       ERC-2025-PoC                        

13/05/2025, 18/09/2025
ERC Starting ERC-2025-StG

15/10/2024
ERC Synergy ERC-2025-SyG

06/11/2024

It is always advisable to consult the official publication on the funding and tenders portal, also UKRO is a source of funding clarification as the UK National Contact Point for ERC. 

HORIZON Europe MSCA - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions 2023/2024 deadlines

The MSCA Work Programmes 2023-2024 have confirmed call deadlines. The participant portal websites can be accessed to find updates on the schemes.

UKRI encourages UK individuals to apply but please check with your RS team about suitability for submissions, the Horizon Europe pages including notes about and links to the UKRI Guarantee Funding. 

UKRO and the MSCA website provide further support for prospective applicants.

UKRI encourages UK applicants to apply. Current deadlines:

  • HORIZON-MSCA-2025-COFUND. Deadline: 24/06/2025.
  • HORIZON-MSCA-2024/25-SE (Staff Exchanges). Deadline: 08/10/2025.
  • HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF (Postdoctoral Fellowships). Deadline: 10/09/2025.
  • HORIZON-MSCA-2024/25-DN (Doctoral Networks). Deadline: 25/11/2025.
  • HORIZON-MSCA-2025-INCO-01-01(International Cooperation). CSA. n/a.
  • HORIZON-MSCA-2024-RR-01-01 (Researchers at Risk). Deadline 14/01/2025.
  • HORIZON-MSCA-2025-CITIZENS-01-01 (Night). Deadline 22/10/2025.

Philip Leverhulme Prizes 2025

Recognising the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising.

Nominations from heads of departments or equivalent.

The award (£100k over two to three years) may be used for any purpose related to the advancement of the research or artistic practice of the Prize Winner, provided that the items of expenditure fall within the categories classically eligible for the support of the Trust.  

  • 2025: Archaeology, Chemistry, Economics, Engineering, Geography, Languages and Literatures.
  • 2026: Biological Sciences, History, Law, Mathematics and Statistics, Philosophy and Theology, Sociology and Social Policy.

Further information from the Leverhulme Trust website.

The next Leverhulme Trust deadline 14 May 2025. Applications for the Philip Leverhulme Prizes should be demand managed as each institution may only submit a maximum of three applications for each subject area, therefore an internal selection process should be put in place before the Trust deadline.

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships: round 10 - preannouncement

This is a wide research council funding opportunity, including ESRC, AHRC, NERC, and most of the UKRI research councils.

This opportunity announced on 23 October 2024, with the University internal deadline for EoIs, and external submissions to the councils by 18 June 2025, via the new UKRI Funding Service. The Faculty of Humanities internal process explained online.

The previous call aimed to:

  • "develop, retain, attract and sustain research and innovation talent in the UK
  • foster new research and innovation career paths including those at the academic, business and interdisciplinary boundaries, and facilitate movement of people between sectors
  • provide sustained funding and resources for the best early career researchers and innovators
  • provide long-term, flexible funding to tackle difficult and novel challenges, and support adventurous, ambitious programmes"

Without limits to the amount of funding requested, - the FLF scheme has funded fellowships from £300k to £2m -, and duration of up to seven years, hosting organisations are contributing to the funding of their fellows, they should commit to the salary of the fellow.

All the relevant information about this opportunity on the UKRI funding finder website.

HORIZON Europe Cluster 2 - Culture, creativity and inclusive society 2025

Horizon Europe Culture, Creativity, and Inclusive Society (Cluster 2) 2025 calls. UK NCP advised that the calls and topics will officially be published in April/May, with deadline around September 2025 most likely. Updates will follow in due course, probably early 2025.

100% costs plus 25% indirect costs for HEIs participants.

Previous destinations and topics for reference only:

Democracy and Governance 

  • Protest politics and cultures of opposition in democracy HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-01. Proposals should analyse further the shift towards politics of collective action, and their impact on European democracies, including their role in resisting the rise of authoritarian tendencies and in taking down authoritarian regimes. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Multilevel governance in times of digital and climate transitions HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-02. Proposals should analyse how different levels of government in the EU work in developing and implementing policy on the digital and climate transitions. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • What is the long-term impact of rule of law and other European values on socio-economic outcomes? HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-03. Proposals should explore changing valuation of public/common goods depending on different network topologies, also investigate historical developments to provide better understanding of present situation and present challenges. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • The interrelation between social, cultural and political identities, as well as the sense of belonging, and democracies HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-04. Proposals should help further investigate the way that democracy and its key tenets such as political representation, participation or trust are interrelated to social, cultural, and political identities and a sense of belonging and identification with different communities. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Gender-roles in extremist movements and their impact on democracy HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-05. Building on the evidence-based insights, proposals should develop innovative methods, policy approaches and tools for policymakers and practitioners to address the underlying roots of violent, discriminatory and illiberal political discourse and actions in both public and online spaces. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Computational Social Science approaches in research on democracy HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-06. Proposals may choose whichever research focus, in the area of democracy, deemed relevant to exploit the potential of CCS. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Digital democracy HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-07. Proposals should investigate - building on existing literature and data - the most recent developments, especially as regards the pandemic-induced innovative e-democracy and e-participation solutions at all levels of governance (international, EU, national, regional, local). Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Culture, the arts and cultural spaces for democratic participation and political expression, online and offline HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-08. Proposals are expected to investigate cultural activity and engagement, online and offline, as political expression, civic participation and political engagement, historically, in contemporary society, and to provide forecasts for the future. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • The role and functioning of public administrations in democratic systems HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-09. This area of research intends to investigate how European Union governments are approaching public administration and governance reform i.e. what areas they strategically invest in, what challenges they encounter, what support (expertise, finance) they capitalise on, and how they generally approach transforming their government administrations. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Political participation in multilingual spaces HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-10. Proposals should consider outcomes from the Conference on the Future of Europe. They should explore how deliberations in multilingual settings can be best mediated, by design or through technological assistance. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Future scenarios and young visions for European democracy 2040 HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-11. In light of the current discourse about the need to rethink and redesign virtual and real public spaces and civic engagement, this research will also investigate the future of democracy and its instruments, and will also explore the views of political institutions. Projects of up to €4m. RIA.
  • Testing and implementation of research results fostering democracy and governance HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-12. Proposals have to credibly identify a targeted democracy and/or governance related issue that can be addressed by implementing existing research and innovation results. Projects of up to €3m. CSA.

Transformations (innovative research on social and economic transformations)

  • Policy recommendations from socio-economic impacts of loneliness in Europe HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-01. Capitalising on available data to identify commonly agreed socio-economic and geographical risk factors,, drivers and trends of loneliness within and across Member States including of specific populations, as well as gender and intersecting aspects and provide recommendations. Work is expected to nurture the public debate on loneliness and in particular on the stigma that is associated to it. Projects of up to €3m. CSA.
  • Strengthen economic fairness and resilience of active labour market policies and address high unemployment HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-02. More research is needed to survey the different types of active labour market policies enacted by the Member States, especially in the area of skills development during economic downturns, and their effects on people facing economic challenges. Proposals should focus on the ways in which active labour market policies can be strengthened to provide economic fairness and resilience. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Minimise costs and maximise benefits of job creation and job destruction HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-03. Need to develop effective policies to minimise costs and maximise benefit. The topic should identify the best ways to train refugees, immigrants, women, older and younger people, people affected by disabilities. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Social services: economic and social returns and value added HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-04. The proposals should consider social services in a broad manner, including both universal social services of general interest such as healthcare, education, as well as other social services childcare, employment services, long-term care and social inclusion services for persons at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Proposals should focus on estimating the impacts from a life course perspective. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Social dialogue in the new world of work HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-05. Research activities should focus on the interplay between non-standard forms of work (temporary employment; temporary agency work, part-time work, platform work, and other forms of non-standard employment) and social dialogue. Alternately, they can investigate legislative barriers prohibiting social partners from engaging in dialogue, such as competition law in the case of self-employed workers. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Beyond the horizon. A human-friendly deployment of artificial intelligence and related technologies HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-06. In-depth analysis of successful existing deployment of AI; analysis of future and long term potential. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Methodologies for teamworking of researchers – reinforcing transversal collaborative skills, behavioural and implementation sciences HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-07. Proposals under this topic should combine communication, management and collaborative skills with behavioural sciences and implementation sciences for the lifelong training of researchers in ‘transferrable’ skills. Projects of up to €3m. CSA.
  • Arts and cultural awareness and expression in education and training HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-08. Proposals should support policymakers and professional development providers in identifying effective actions and gaps in their systems, and better understanding how their investments could be improved. Proposals should include a lifelong learning perspective. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • The role of social economy in addressing social exclusion, providing quality jobs and greater sustainability HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-09. Comprehensive analysis of the extent to which social economy contributes to countering social exclusion in the EU, in Associated Countries and in Third Countries, what services it provides, and compare efficiency, cost and quality aspects of services provided by the social economy with those of other providers. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Effective education and labour market transitions of young people HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-10. Proposals should use quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse transitions between educational levels (including between general education and vocational training) and/or between education/training and the labour market and improve the evidence base for policy decisions by addressing several interrelated research questions. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.
  • Assessing and strengthening the complementarity between new technologies and human skills HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-11. Research activities carried out under this topic include the development of criteria to assess the complementarity of specific new technologies with human skills and vice versa. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.

Heritage and cultural and creative industries 

  • New European Bauhaus-innovative solutions for greener and fairer ways of life through arts and culture, architecture and design for all. HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-01. Proposals should test, demonstrate and refine innovative solutions to achieve strategic investments in cultural heritage and the CCIs in the spirit of the New European Bauhaus initiative and search for links with the ESFRI Research Infrastructures in the Social and Cultural Innovation. Projects of up to €3m. IA.
  • Cultural and creative industries for a sustainable climate transition. HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-02. Proposals should provide for testing and refining such model(s) through small scale pilot trials under real world conditions. These pilot trials should verify the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the action(s), as well as the efficacy. Proposals should choose a suitable set of CCI sector(s), or/and cross-sectoral issues. Projects of up to €3m. IA.
  • Leverage the digital transition for competitive European cultural and creative industries. HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-03. Proposals should provide for devising effective and cost-efficient measures to support CCIs to embrace and make full use of digital technologies for competitiveness and sustainability. Projects of up to €3m. IA.
  • Europe's cultural heritage and arts -promoting own values at home and abroad. HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-04. The objective of this innovation proposal is to test existing practices and policies that enable arts and culture to promote European values and identities outside Europe, allowing people to experience European arts, culture and traditions both in their original environments and settings and by visiting the rich European cultural landscapes. Projects of up to €3m. IA.
  • Strategies to strengthen the European linguistic capital in a globalised world. HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-05. Research should address tensions between globalisation and the preservation of European identities as expressed by languages, paying attention to policies and practices regarding the use of national and ‘international’ languages and their place in each country’s cultural, scientific, academic, social, political and economic life. Projects of up to €3m. RIA.  

International bilateral agreements with NSF/FAPESP/FNR and AHRC/ESRC/NERC responsive mode projects

Note that these open responsive mode schemes could currently be under deadlines for submissions of applications due to the implementation of the new UKRI funding service. 

Agreements have been reached with the following funding agencies:

The UK and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have been for some years promoting research collaboration under specific guidelines provided by the AHRC, ESRC and NERC, on the basis of different Memorandum of Understandings. These agreements allow US and UK researchers to submit a single collaborative proposal that will undergo a single review process.

ESRC/AHRC | USA - National Science Foundation (NSF)

The Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) support international collaboration under the SBE-UKRI Lead Agency Opportunity to promote transatlantic collaborative research by reducing some of the barriers to conducting international research that researchers may encounter.

Two countries – two budgets. The UK component will include a fEC budget following ESRC/AHRC grant guidelines, with the possibility of large grants.

The ESRC & AHRC support an open submission. The NSF website should be consulted for this reason as well as the schemes/topics available. 
NERC | USA National Science Foundation (NSF) MoU

NERC agreement operates with the NSF Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) and the NSF Directorate for Geosciences (GEO). It is advisable to contact the chosen leading agency (NERC or NSF) prior to any submission to discuss the projects.

ESRC/AHRC | Brazil - São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

“Working with Brazilian researchers” scheme. The Memorandum of understanding stablishes the rules of participation.

The UK participants could receive large fEC awards.

ESRC/AHRC | FNR - Fonds National de la Recherche  

Research Councils UK and the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg (FNR) are charged with fostering and supporting academic research within their own communities in their respective countries. All proposals under the RCUK-FNR agreement will need to be submitted to one of the UK Research Councils, therefore UK and Luxembourg based researchers should identify the UK Research Councils funding scheme which is most appropriate to support their common research project.

AHRC, ESRC, NERC funding guidelines will apply for UK participants under the fEC funding rules and the possibility of large grants.

All these schemes can be found on the UKRI's Funding Finder. 

AHRC/EPSRC/ESRC/MRC/NERC - Research Council of Norway (RCN)

"Norway co-investigators can be included in UK-led applications and receive funding following a 'Money Follows Cooperation' agreement reducing barriers to cross-border collaboration.

Calls/existing schmes will define conditions and budgets.