Strategic Research Project

The INT strives to be as flexible as possible to ensure the success of your research project. If you are unsure about eligible costs, please ask. 

Trustees prefer to fund staff costs for people involved in research activities, rather than managerial costs. They are sympathetic to the need to fund some non-staff costs, for example, for items such as workshops and events, but expect the emphasis in applications to be on staff costs rather than non-staff costs.  

Eligible Costs: 

Staff costs:

• National Insurance, Pension, and Inflation (as set at time of application).
• Postdoctoral Research Associate salary costs up to spine point 044.
• Research Assistant salary costs.
• Technician or other support costs, only if specifically required by the subject of the project.
• Other key staff salary costs.
• Trustees would not normally expect project staff members to be paid at a higher spine point than 044. It is expected that any difference in salary is met using alternative funding. If this is not possible, a convincing case would need to be made to Trustees.
• Staff may work on a part-time or full-time basis. If project staff members are working part-time, this cannot be used as justification to pay salary costs higher than spine point 044 or extend the project further than 5 years.

Non-staff costs:

• Equipment or consumables essential to project success. It is expected that a quote, or other evidence, is provided as part of your application. Other sources of funding should be approached and contribute to the overall cost. If this is not possible, full justification must be provided.
• Facility access costs. Usage should be charged at the 'internal' rate wherever possible and the applicant's Head of Department should specify why the usage cannot be paid for by the Department.
• Public engagement event costs, including material printing
• Travel expenses, in line with the University travel expenditure policy
• Seminar, workshop or conference hosting
• Visitors, network development and convening costs
   

Ineligible Costs:

• Apprenticeship levy
• Overheads and indirect costs
• ‘Buying out’ PI time or contributions to PI salary
• Publication and open access costs
• Relocation or Visa costs
• Studentships

This funding call will open in due course

Please contact the INT team to arrange a meeting with the Director in the Michaelmas Term to discuss your proposal.

The named applicant should be the lead Principal Investigator.

Applications must be completed with the assistance of your departmental Research Grants Administrator. Calculating staff costs in a Worktribe standalone budget is recommended.

Information you will be asked to provide:

• Applicant details – Please provide contact information for the named PI, the Head of the Institution, and the institution grant administrator. Shared mailbox email addresses are encouraged where appropriate.
• Your project title
• A project summary - This summary should be approximately 5 lines and intelligible to a non-expert.
• Your requested funding amount. This value must match your finance summary table you will be asked to upload. Please see details of this below.
• A brief funding purpose – This should briefly explain the costs involved in a few sentences. You will be asked to upload a more detailed financial table and justification of resources in a later section. Examples include Postdoctoral Research Associate salary costs, travel costs, public engagement event costs.
• Your planned project dates. It is expected that projects start on the first day on the month and end on the last. Please note the maximum duration of 5 years.

You will be asked to upload: 

1. The project academic case. This should be no longer than 4 sides of A4, including references. All text within your academic case should be no smaller than font size 11, Calibri, Aptos, or Arial. All A4 margins should be set at a minimum of 1 inch. This should outline the academic aspects of the project and explain how the requested funding meets the remit of the funding call. Please include any graphics you feel contribute to this case. In relation to your proposed project, please cover:  
   • The aim/vision
   • The strategic fit
   • An outline project plan
   • The expected impact and outcomes
   • The plan for long term sustainability of the project
2. A completed Financial Summary Table. Please download the Financial Summary Table template here
3. Equipment or access quotes as necessary
4. A letter of support from your Head of Institution
5. A letter of support from your Chair of School
6. A copy of the applicant CV and the CV of any named staff the application requests costs for. CVs should be no longer than 4 pages each. All CV documents should be merged into a single PDF document.

Successful applicants will be invited to submit a full stage application. Instructions regarding the submission process of a full stage application will be sent with this invitation.

All decisions are made at Trustee meetings, which happen on the dates given below. Please note that the INT will not consider applications made between the advertised funding rounds or by those from outside of the University of Cambridge.

Outline Applications, Lent 2027

Outline Application Deadline = 21 January 2027, 12pm
Trustees' Meeting = 18 March 2027
Outcome Typically Announced = late March / early April 2027

Full Stage Applications, Easter 2027

Full Stage Application Deadline = 13 May 2027, 12pm
Trustees' Meeting = 15 July 2027
Outcome Typically Announced = late July / early August 2027
Earliest funding start date = 01 August 2027