Funding types
We invite applications from teams of researchers for proposals of two types:
Multi-investigator feasibility study awards: up to £80,000 (at 100% FEC)
These should aim to investigate potential new neuromodulation techniques or applications, or improve our understanding of the neuroscience underpinning existing techniques. 3 available per call | 1 year duration | Staff costs can be included
Smaller flexible awards: up to £20,000 (at 100% FEC)
These may cover research costs for a small pilot study, or fund another activity towards the network aims, such as a public engagement project, networking activity, or demonstration. 3-6 available per call (£60,000 total per call) | Up to 1 year duration | Staff costs can be included
Remit
Proposal must address the remit of Neuromod+: to address the challenge of minimally invasive treatments for brain disorders. Research to be carried out must also be within the EPSRC remit. In support of the network’s aim of co-creation, we encourage proposals that involve a mix of network members, eg clinicians, academics, industry, charity, public/patient groups, as well as researchers at different career stages.
How to apply
Applications are submitted using our online form by the relevant call deadline. To help plan your application, you can download a pdf version of the Neuromod+ funding application form questions here.
Eligibility
- Lead applicants must be based at a UK institution and be eligible to apply for UKRI grant funding under the standard EPSRC rules. Please read the UKRI funding eligibility criteria before applying.
- Co-applicants can be from any sector, but may only be named officially as investigators, or be eligible for funding , if they meet the UKRI funding criteria.
- Post-doctoral (or equivalent) research assistants, or other research technical professionals may be included as researcher co-investigators if they meet the relevant UKRI criteria (see also FAQs).
- We welcome involvement from early career researchers and encourage those who are not eligible to lead a proposal or be included as researcher co-investigators to discuss with their academic line manager about how they can be involved as collaborators.
- Applicants can be involved in a maximum of three proposals per funding round and can lead only one
- The call is open to Neuromod+ members only. Non-members can sign up for free
- There is no requirement that applicants must have attended the co-creation workshop to submit a proposal
Funding rules and guidelines
- Funding is awarded at 80% FEC (ie for a project costing £80,000, Neuromod+ will award £64,000)
- The lead investigator must gain preliminary financial approval from their Research Office (or equivalent) before submitting the proposal
- Funds are awarded to the lead investigator/institution and they are responsible for distributing funds to co-investigators (where relevant). Therefore we recommend that all investigators who expect to receive funding discuss with their RO/finance team before submission
- A collaboration agreement will usually need to be drawn up between Imperial College and the lead institution before funding can be transferred
Review process
- Proposals will be reviewed and ranked by a panel of Neuromod+ members comprising the PI team plus additional members chosen to ensure diversity of experience
- Applications will be evaluated on the problem being proposed, impact, feasibility, investigator team and EDI plans, with each assessed section being scored out of 5 points
FAQs
The cost of your project at 100% FEC should be max £80,000. Neuromod+ will award at 80% FEC, ie for a project costing £80,000, we will award £64,000. Your institution will be expected to cover the additional 20% of the cost.
No, the awards of up to £20K only require one investigator.
We welcome involvement from our non-academic members (eg those in industry, charity, patient representatives, etc) on proposals as collaborators. Unless you are eligible to apply for standard UKRI grant funding you cannot be a named investigator or directly receive funding.
Lead investigators must meet the UKRI funding eligibility criteria. If you are in receipt of a fellowship, there may be flexibility for you to lead on a proposal but please get in touch with EPSRC/us to check. If you do not meet the eligibility criteria, we would suggest that you discuss with your line manager who could be lead investigator.
You may be able to be included on the proposal as a Researcher Investigator. Please check the qualifying criteria for this on the UKRI funding page. Note in particular that if <50% of your time is costed on the proposal, you must include in your application justification as to how you will be significantly contributing towards the proposal and research.
Funding is awarded to the lead investigator’s institution and they are responsible for distributing any funding to co-investigators. If you are a co-I and are expecting to receive funding, we strongly encourage you to discuss your proposal with your own Research Office/finance team to ensure there is a mechanism in place for you to receive your share of the funding.
You can be involved in up to 3 proposals but only lead one per round.
Neuromod+ will fund at 80% of FEC (as per EPRSC standard funding rules), therefore your institution will need to cover the additional 20%.
If staff time (either Directly Allocated PI time, or [usually] Directly Incurred PDRA time) is included in your proposal, this will normally generate overheads to cover the remaining 20%.
If staff time is not included, you/your department will need to cover the additional costs from another source.
There is no official start date for awards in this round so you may start projects later in the year to allow time for grant set up, distribution of funds and any recruitment. However, we would encourage you to start projects by September/October, bearing in mind that there will be further calls in future years with more limited start/end dates. Projects must be completed within 12 months (maximum) of their start date.
When deciding your start date please factor in time for the award to be set up (including contract preparation where required and transfer of funds by the lead institution to other members of the team as required) and any recruitment of new staff.
We may be able to consider such a proposal, if it can successfully argue that investigating the periphery could lead to an understanding or modulation of the central nervous system, but otherwise it would be outside the remit of the network.
Yes this is allowed, as long as the process follows your standard institution rules and you can provide a breakdown of costs.
Yes, certainly! We encourage collaboration with colleagues from industry/companies. As mentioned though, non-EPSRC eligible members cannot be lead investigators or receive funding directly from the grant.
When you click “next” on a page, all your responses up to that page are saved automatically. If you close the form part-way through and re-open it in the same browser, then it will start from where you left off, enabling you to complete the form. PLEASE NOTE though, that this depends upon browser cookies, therefore a) you can only continue using the same browser and b) if you clear your cookies or have some ad/script blockers enabled, you may not be able to continue.
If you need to make changes to your submitted form, please contact Kate Hobson.
We will send a copy of your completed form to the lead investigator after submission. Please note that this is a manual process so may not be instant! Please contact Kate Hobson if you do not receive your copy.
No, costs related to students cannot be included (under EPRSC regulations for this funding).
Yes, we plan to hold 3 main funding calls through the duration of the grant. Details of calls 2 and 3 will follow in due course.
No, these costs would need to come from your institution’s block grant, as with standard EPSRC proposals.