Research Funding

Research Funding

Approximately £14 billion is spent annually on research in the UK by the UK public sector, by UK and overseas charities, by the European Community, by international organisations and by the private sector in the UK and overseas.

About £4.5 billion comes from the UK Public Sector through the so-called dual support system.  One half of this system, is a block grant allocated to HEIs through the Funding Councils (HEFCE, HEFCW, etc), referred to as QR funding.  Its value is determined by the HEI's performance in the Funding Councils' periodic research assessment, the most recent of which was RAE 2008, with REF 2014 identified as the next round.  The other half of this system, are grants allocated to individuals or teams of researchers through a competitive, peer review process, primarily through the government funded Research Councils.

These pages will provide information about the major UK funding bodies and overseas funding bodies.  They will also direct you to various research funding databases (both licensed and open access) which can be used to search for upcoming opportunities, most notably Research Professional, for which UW has a site license.  In addition, they will direct you to advice on how to identify funding opportunties in the private sector.

These pages will also provide information on the types of funding available:  project grants, grant for early career researchers, grants for travel, conference expenses and equipment, grants to set up research networks and seminar series and fellowship grants.

These pages will also provide information on the University's application and approval process; how to write a good research proposal; on how to go about identifying and costing the resources you will need; and on the various electronic submission systems used by funders.