LSE–Tecnológico de Monterrey Research Seed Fund
The LSE–Tec de Monterrey Democracy Research Seed Fund aims to strengthen academic ties between LSE's research community and the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Tec de Monterrey) by funding collaborative projects addressing the pressures facing democratic systems worldwide. This joint funding scheme supports both emerging partnerships and the expansion of existing collaborations across all departments and research centres at both universities.
Goals
- Advance research excellence at both LSE and Tec de Monterrey, promoting high-impact contributions to the study of democracy, aligned with the strategic priorities of both institutions.
- Enable academic staff at LSE and Tec de Monterrey to identify complementary strengths, explore synergies, and develop outstanding joint research projects.
- Foster long-term academic collaboration by engaging researchers from all schools and research centres at both universities, supporting both new collaborations and the development of existing partnerships.
Research Themes
Proposals are welcomed broadly related to democracy, with particular emphasis on the following priority areas:
- Democratic crises: polarisation, hostility, populism, and institutional stability
- Elections, democratic organisation, and democratic participation
- Misinformation and democratic quality
- Legitimacy, inequality, and the quality of democratic governance
- Democracy in a transforming global and regional order
Funding
Funding will be awarded on a tiered basis:
- Tier 1 – Standard Award: Up to £5,000 from each institution (up to £10,000 in total per project)
- Tier 2 – Elevated Award: up to £10,000 from each institution (up to £20,000 in total per project)
Tier 1 is the standard route for this call. Tier 2 is an exceptional, more competitive route for a limited number of mature collaborations. Tier 2 applications must provide a clear justification for the elevated award, evidencing a mature collaboration, a developed research design, a clear need for the larger budget, and a strong onward pathway.
Principal Investigators (PIs) at LSE and Tec de Monterrey are advised to aim for an equal division of the budget when preparing proposals, to ensure the grant can be divided and managed independently by both institutions, irrespective of which tier is awarded.
Tier 1 project timelines should not exceed 12 months from the project start date, while Tier 2 project timelines should not exceed 18 months.
Application documents
Application information and all application documents (including eligibility and allowable costs for LSE and Tec faculty) are available below:
Key Dates
| Milestone | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Call opens | Wednesday 29 July 2026 |
| Applications deadline | Thursday 15 October 2026 |
| Outcomes announced | December 2026 |
| Projects commencement | No later than mid-January 2027 |
| Project completion | Tier 1 projects: no later than 16 January 2028 Tier 2 projects: no later than 16 July 2028 |
Examples of activities
- Discrete pilot research project with at least one researcher from each institution.
- Collection of data, development of data resources, and/or data analysis.
- Evaluation of policies or proposed interventions for societal, economic, and/or environmental impacts.
- Intensive research workshops or joint conferences intended to generate further collaborative research activities.
- Preparation of substantial joint external funding proposals.
- Expansion of existing LSE and Tec research activities to scale or otherwise increase their impact.
Eligibility
- To be eligible, a proposal must involve at least one researcher from each institution. Prior collaboration history is not essential.
- For LSE: All schemes are open to Faculty, Research and Policy Staff and Fellows with a contract whose funding extends at least one year beyond the duration of the project. Changes to contracts must be communicated to LSE’s Senior Global Research Partnerships & Alliances Manager, Dr Mengxi Pang (Global@lse.ac.uk), to ensure compliance with this rule.
- For Tec: All schemes are open to Research Faculty as listed by the VPI and incubator roles as defined by the Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development of the School of Social Sciences and Government. Applicants must have a contract of employment in place until at least one year beyond the end of the project and be able to demonstrate continued links with Tec into the future, in order to ensure that post-award assessment and regular communications can be carried out for all awarded projects.
- Not Eligible as PIs: Current students at LSE and Tec, LSE and Tec Graduate Teaching Assistants, Emeritus Faculty, Guest Teachers, Education Track Staff and Visiting Scholars are not eligible to apply; however, they may participate in the project as a Co-Investigator, provided they have secured a tenured staff member as a Principle Invesitgator at the time of submission.
- Applicants must confirm that they have the full support of their host academic unit as part of their application. An award letter co-signed by the hosting unit lead will be required at award stage.
- You may only apply once per round.
Further eligibility details are available in the Application Guidance document.
Cost eligibility
The following costs are eligible for this scheme:
- Directly incurred non-staff costs such as travel, fieldwork, consumables, goods, equipment, services, and consultants (including associated fees and taxes).
- Hourly Paid Staff costs for occasional research assistance and clerical support.
Specialist costs to make project activities more accessible that are not already covered by benefits or elsewhere institutionally are also eligible, such as:
- Costs for care of dependents where it is unavoidable.
- Costs to make adjustments within travel and accommodation bookings for staff who need them.
- Cost to make sure outputs are accessible (both for researchers and stakeholders, such as braille printed books or pamphlets).
- Costs of specialist contractors that are working on EDI supporting activities, such as audio transcription for events, etc.
- Costs to make events more accessible including specialist venues and supporting staff.
The following costs are not eligible under this scheme:
- Faculty salary/Directly allocated salaried staff costs.
- Research staff/Directly incurred salaried research and policy staff costs.
- Collaborator and partner staff costs, and subawards.
- Indirect (overheads) and estates (space) charges of LSE and Tec de Monterrey or any other Partner and Collaborator.
- Open Access fees and article processing charges covered by the Open Access Fund
- DI teaching contract or hourly paid teaching costs are not eligible. No funding can be requested for visiting scholars, as those are unpaid affiliations.
- Research assistance, both hourly paid and salaried, which is linked to roles in the project.
- Staff time, for Directly Incurred staff, to undertake research, write up outputs and engage with partners and collaborators.
- Data collection/fieldwork in the UK, Mexico and overseas including associated travel, expenses and service provision if this is being outsourced.
- Purchasing datasets for use in the research.
- Reasonable travel, subsistence and accommodation costs that conform with the cognizant institutions policies.
- Participant payments and/or incentives as part of formal surveys or for community groups and beneficiaries involved in the research.
- Consultancy services in the UK, Mexico and overseas which must include applicable taxes and fees.
- Goods and services required from suppliers including surveys or transcription and translation services which must include applicable taxes and fees.
- Attendance at conferences, symposia and other networking and dissemination events, if integral to the proposed project.
- Costs of hosting events and other dissemination activities.
- Costs of software or licences required for development, research and collaboration.
- Small items of consumables.
- Other project specific costs, such as equipment (where it is directly linked to delivering project objectives).
- Costs of proof-reading and copy-editing manuscripts or grant proposals.
- Costs for publishing monographs or experimental publishing outputs.
- Faculty salaries or faculty salary supplementation of any kind
- Indirect and overhead costs
- Course fees, stipends or scholarships for students
- Infrastructure and equipment purchases, such as computers, including laptops and basic computing facilities such as printers, word processing and other standard software
- Conference registrations unrelated to the dissemination of results
- Costs already incurred prior to submission of the proposal
- Subawards
Assessment criteria
All applications will be peer-reviewed and evaluated based on the following criteria. A joint selection panel of academics from LSE and Tec will review and decide on awarded projects.
| Criteria | |
| 1 | Originality The Panel will consider the originality of the seed research idea/research question, and its potential to contribute to the state of the art and break new ground. |
| 2 | Significance The Panel will consider the ambition and significance of the research idea. Why is this research important and timely? Why do we need it and how critical is the question it will answer? |
| 3 | Implementation Quality of the methodology and research design. The Panel will consider the scientific merit, rigour, and feasibility of the research method and implementation plan, the strength of the research design, feasibility and timeline of the project. |
| 4 | Potential The Panel will consider how the project, if funded, may: 1) result in external joint funding proposals, identifying potential funders or schemes; and/or 2) contribute high quality, peer-reviewed co-authored research papers for publication in top journals in the relevant field of research and/or high-quality policy-related papers; and/or 3) strengthen long-term academic collaboration between LSE and Tecnológico de Monterrey. |
Applicants should note that Tier 2 awards are more limited in number and subject to a higher evidential threshold. The panel reserves the right to offer a Tier 1 award to applicants who apply for Tier 2 but whose proposal does not meet the Tier 2 threshold.
A Tier 2 application should additionally evidence:
- A mature collaboration: prior or ongoing LSE–Tec engagement (e.g. earlier joint work, pilot results, co-authorship, or sustained contact), rather than a brand-new connection.
- A developed research design that is ready to deliver, not still at the exploratory stage.
- A clear need for the larger budget: why the proposed activities (e.g. surveys, experiments, fieldwork, or substantial data collection) cannot reasonably be achieved with Tier 1 support.
- A strong onward pathway: a credible route to external funding, high-quality co-authored publications, or significant policy or societal impact.
Reporting
Successful applicants will be required to submit a post-award report summarising the activities, achieved outcomes, and future collaboration plans. The Office of Global Research Partnerships & Alliances and/or the Tec Office for Funding R&D may request additional updates after the final progress report as well to determine the impact of the funding.
How to apply
Application
Download the application form here.
One joint application form should be submitted to Global@lse.ac.uk and luisalberto.serra@tec.mx by Thursday 15 October 2026 (11pm GMT, 4pm CST).
The following documents must also be submitted as part of the application:
- CV of LSE Principal Investigator (max 2 page each)
- CV of Tec Principal Investigator (max 2 page each)
Contact
For general scheme inquiries, LSE staff should contact global@lse.ac.uk, and Tec staff should reach out to luisalberto.serra@tec.mx