Internal funding opportunities

Research-related internal funding opportunities

Administering department

Link and brief abstract

Closing date

RIIF comprises a number of funding schemes, all subject to funds being available.

Seed Fund: supports small projects likely to lead to large grant proposals.

Open Fund: supports novel and transformative projects.

Bridging Fund: provides up to three months’ support for bridging research staff between grants.

Matching Fund: for successful fellowship applications which need to be match-funded by the School.

PDR RIIF Underwriting Fund: provides up to two years’ underwriting of research staff contracts. 

RIIF is currently under review and new calls are not expected to be announced before the end of the Michaelmas Term. For more information contact rescon@lse.ac.uk.

LSE-FAPESP Fund supports collaborations with researchers in the State of Sao Paulo (Brazil).   

Projects must be submitted in collaboration with a researcher based in a research institution in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil eligible for FAPESP’s funding according to FAPESP SPRINT PROGRAMME’s rules.

Projects must last between 12 and 24 months. 

To apply, contact the relevant grant application manager for your department or centre.

Download guidance notes for RIIF schemes and a LSE-FAPESP application form. 

The fund supports visits by LSE academic staff and PhD students to universities and other organisations in the Santander Universidades Network, which covers the countries comprising Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Spain, Portugal and the UK. 

There are a minimum of 12 awards of up to £2,000 each available for the 2016/17 academic year.

For further information and an application form contact Jane Ellison, outlining the purpose of travel, destination country and approximate funding required.

REF Targeted Assistance Fund

The REF Strategy Committee (REFSC) has a budget to support various aspects of the School’s preparations for the next REF, expected to take place in 2020 or 2021. Part of this budget has been set aside to assist named individuals to enable them to produce 3* and 4* research outputs who would otherwise struggle to achieve this. Targeted assistance may take the form of:

•  support for fieldwork, travel and subsistence in order to undertake research

•  provision of research assistants including occasional research assistants

•  teaching buy-out for one or two terms (two terms being the maximum)

•  sabbatical/research leave – one term maximum

•  costs of proof-reading and copy-editing manuscripts.

Applicants must be permanent members of LSE faculty or research staff on the New Research Staff Career.

Download the full guidance and an application form.  

Applications should be emailed in a Word document to Jo Hemmings J.Hemmings@lse.ac.uk.

Institute of Global Affairs (IGA)

Resilience Research: IGA Rockefeller Funding Call

To be advised

Up to £1.5m is available under the broad theme of ‘Resilience’. Submissions are encouraged within one or more of the four subthemes agreed with the Rockefeller Foundation: financial resilience, climate resilience, resilient cities and resilience in post-conflict transitional processes.

The second round of the call has now closed for applications. Details of further rounds will be posted when available. 

International Growth Centre (IGC)

Research Funding Programme

To be advised

The IGC invites researchers to submit proposals for research projects relevant to economic growth policies in developing countries, across their four research themes:

1. State Effectiveness.
2  Firm Capabilities.
3. Energy.
4. Cities.

The IGC commissions research through the Research Programme and the Country Programme. The Research Programme focuses on cutting-edge, policy-relevant academic research shaping effective economic growth policies in the global south. The Country Programme focuses on high-quality economic growth research addressing the policy needs of IGC’s partner countries.
View the IGC website

International Inequalities Institute

 Research Innovation Fund

To be advised

Grants are available up to a maximum of 
£10,000 to support the research activities of members of LSE staff based in any 
department or research centre related to inequality. 

Please address any queries to the Institute manager Liza Ryan.

Law Department

Funding for events and research projects (Law staff only)

Open call

Funding is available from the Law Department Research Committee for activities for which it is not appropriate to use individual research allowances, such as hospitality for speakers or visitors (other than for the LLM Specialist Seminars, for which separate funding is available), conferences, seminars or workshops. Grants of up to £5,000 are available, and applications are assessed in competition with others in the Department. You do not need to have exhausted your individual research allowance before applying.

It is assumed that applicants will investigate the possibility of external funding (for example via the Higher Education Innovation Fund, the British Academy or Research Councils) and you are accordingly asked on the form to provide information about the status of any such applications. Note that awards for the funding of events and research projects usually take the form of underwriting.

Applications for events and research projects should be made no less than one term, and no more than one year, in advance. For example, if you wish to hold an event in Lent Term 2016, you should apply no later than Michaelmas Term 2015/2016 and no earlier than Lent Term 2015.

Funding is available for APCs from the following sources:

RCUK provides LSE with an annual block grant to support their open access policy. This grant is managed centrally by the Library on a first come first served basis. Contact the Library team to apply.  

The European Commission are running a pilot open access for new publications from completed  FP7 projects with an end date of 1 January 2013 or later. The OpenAIRE central service collects requests for funding from eligible FP7 projects. They also run a helpdesk to answer your questions about the FP7 OA pilot and the ERC OA Guidelines. Alternatively, contact the Library team when you have a paper accepted for publication and they will advise on a case-by-case basis. 

LSE provides an internal fund to support the publication of outputs which haven't received any funding and are going to be accepted in born open access journals. A born open access journal does not charge any subscription fees and makes all their content freely available to readers. Most of them charge an Article Processing Charge (APC) to the author/institution. The budget is managed centrally by the Library on a first come first served basis. Contact the Library team to apply.  

Full details for each of the above options are available on the Library's webpages.

Each year, the AXA Research Fund offers funding for 25 Postdoctoral Fellowships to outstanding researchers.

Institutions are awarded up to €130,000 for the appointment of a Postdoctoral Fellow for 18 - 24 months. The funding will allow for a low Band 6 appointment; departments or centres wishing to appoint at a higher level will be asked to use their own funds to make up the deficit.

Eligibility:

• Candidates must have studied internationally for their master’s degree and / or doctoral studies.
• Only candidates without a permanent academic position are eligible.
• Candidates must have been awarded their PhD before the beginning of the grant and within the 3 years preceding the submission of their proposal.
• The research topic must fall in the scope of the eligible thematic focus.

The School will be permitted to submit one or two proposals to AXA. All proposals will first be considered by the Research Development Panel, who will select who will be submitted to the AXA campaign.

The application process for 2016 is now closed. Please get in touch with Kathryn Darling, Business Partnerships Manager, k.darling@lse.ac.uk or 020 7107 5221, if you wish to discuss for 2017.

Middle East Centre

LSE Academic Collaboration with Arab Universities. Funded by the Emirates Foundation.

To be advised

The Middle East Centre invites applications from LSE colleagues for academic collaborative projects in social, political, and economic sciences between academics at LSE and Arab universities. These projects may involve collaborative research or capacity building.

Aims:

• Promote high calibre research by scholars at LSE and Arab universities.

• Support academic excellence at Arab universities.

• Strengthen academic collaboration and knowledge transfer between LSE and Arab universities.

To apply:

For more details on submissions and all enquiries, visit the Middle East Centre's webpage.

STICERD

STICERD Grants for LSE Staff

To be advised

STICERD provides grants to fund research and research-related activities from LSE staff whose continuous employment demonstrates a substantial long-term commitment to the School.

Support is offered in two main categories: Small Grants and Conferences. Visit the STICERD website for more information.

Knowledge exchange and impact (KEI) funding

Link and brief abstract

Research Division

Knowledge Exchange and Impact (KEI) Fund

Share your research and make a difference.

The LSE KEI Fund is designed to support opportunities for knowledge exchange at any point throughout the research life-cycle – not just exploitation and dissemination at the end of a project. Success in KEI can be achieved in a number of ways, including: 

• Engaging and communicating with non-academics about your research
• Going beyond existing networks and relationships to create new opportunities to share your research
• Building on opportunities to use novel and innovative approaches in sharing your research
• Thinking broadly and creatively about who you want to engage (beneficiaries), how you want to engage them      (methods and activities), and how you will know about and measure the effects of your engagement activities (metrics and indicators).

The total fund is approximately £500,000 and £100,000 has been ring-fenced for programmes and activities relating to Brexit.

If you are interested in applying, please contact Marie Copperwaite, Research Division, m.copperwaite@lse.ac.uk as early as possible for application forms and guidance.

Other internal funding opportunities (non-research)