Funding Call - International Science Partnerships Fund for Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) Activity Call 2024
Closing Date: Wednesday 28 February 2024
The University has received funding from Research England to fund activities that support collaborations between University of Manchester researchers and international partners to address global challenges. The aim of this call is to fund activities which are official development assistance compliant and which have the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries on the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) list as its main objective.
Applications for both small (up to £10,000) and large (£10,000 to £50,000) projects are invited for (but not limited to) the following types of activities:
- Research activities.
- Engagement with stakeholders, policy makers, practitioners, third sector and community organisations and groups, and other research users.
- Activities to disseminate research findings, such as workshops, development of briefings, public engagement, showcasing events, creative outputs, or publicity materials and associated activities.
- Ongoing engagement with existing partners or networks, for example through inward or outward mobility, in order to enable knowledge exchange and impact, including capacity development.
Applicants should consider the principles set out in the University's new Africa strategy when developing their proposals, in particular our commitment to equitable relationships and the co-creation and co-production of shared research with partners in the Global South. Proposals involving returning UoM postgraduate or postdoctoral researchers which support the development of research programmes in African universities are encouraged. While Africa is an institutional priority, proposals for working with other low and middle income countries are also welcome.
Projects are to commence from April 2024 and activity must be completed and funds must be spent by 31 March 2025. Funds cannot be carried over beyond 31 March 2025. Research England audit processes may require the return of any funds remaining after 31 March 2025 and any expenditure that does not satisfy the ODA guidelines.
Please note that the call is expected to be competitive with more applications received than can be funded. We hope to make between ten and fifteen awards.
Further information on eligibility, eligible costs, the application and approval process, and assessment criteria are provided in the sections below.
Eligibility
Applications:
- Must meet the ODA compliant criteria which are activity must:
- directly benefit a country or countries on the OECD DAC list.
- be directly relevant to the development challnges of this country/these countries.
- promote the economic development and/or welfare of a country or countries from the OECD DAC list.
- not be activities delivered within, in parternship with or that otherwise benefit China.
- Are sought from researchers across all discipline areas.
- Must be led by an applicant who is eligible to apply for external research funding. Research associates and research fellows may be included as a Co-PI subject to the approval of their line manager.
- Are encouraged to include early career researchers. For the purpose of this call early career researchers are defined as those employed in a non-permanent research position or holding a research fellowship or an academic post and who has less than eight years (full time equivalent and excluding periods of maternity, paternity and sick leave) of post-doctoral research experience.
Applicants are encouraged to check the guidance for projects which involve external collaborators and where necessary ensure due dilligence checks are completed.
Eligible Costs
Applications are invited for funding of both small (up to £10,000) and large projects (£10,000 to £50,000) to start from April 2024. Activity must be completed and funds must be spent before 31 March 2025 with no possibility of extensions or carry over beyond 31 March 2025.
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Eligible Costs (funded at 100%) |
Please note costs are only eligible if they are incurred solely in support of the ODA compliant activity |
| Ineligible Costs |
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Funding may be disbursed to research partners, including overseas institutions, to carry out activities.
Although fEC costings are not required for these proposals applications must be costed by Research Services. The contact details for Research Services teams are:
Application and Approval Process
Download the ISPF Application Form 2024
All application forms must:
- Be completed and submitted to rst@manchester.ac.uk by Wednesday 28 February. Late applications will not be accepted.
- Include approval from the Head of School of the lead investigator (PI) and from the line manager of the Co-PI where the Co-PI is a research associate or research fellow. Approval can be in the form of an electronic signature or via an attached email.
All applications received by the call deadline will be:
- Checked for eligibility and ODA compliance by the International Relations and Research Strategy team.
- Reviewed, assessed and ranked by the Faculty Associate Deans International and a panel of colleagues using the assessment criteria outlined above. Each Faculty team will review the applications from applicants within their Faculty.
- Reviewed and assessed by a subgroup of the International Strategy Group to collate a final ranking of all applications.
Assessment Criteria
Proposals will be assessed based on the following criteria:
- Strength of ODA compliance and in particular:
- how the project directly benefits a country or countries on the OECD DAC list.
- how directly relevant the activity is to the development challenges of this country/these countries and how appropriate the proposed activity is to addressing that need.
- whether the outcomes of the project promote the economic development and/or welfare of a country or countries from the OECD DAC list
- Project rationale and how clearly presented and justified the activity is.
- Robustness of the feasibility of the proposed project in the available timeframe.
- Strength, feasibility and coherence of the proposed research team including international collaborators.
- Potential for continued development of the international collaboration.
- Clear and realistic costed plan of activities that represent value for money.
Reporting
- Successful applicants will be required to submit a short final report documenting ODA compliance and the activities, outputs and outcomes that the award supported. This will be required within three months of the completion of the project.
- Award holders will be sent a reporting template in March 2025 and the deadline for completing and returning the report will be 30 June 2025.