AHRC Catalyst Award

Catalyst awards support researchers without prior experience of leading a significant research project to accelerate their trajectory as independent researchers, unlocking their potential, and building leadership and convenor experience through the delivery of ambitious or complex projects.

Scope and funding

Development is at the core of this scheme; projects must clearly articulate how the funding will contribute to the development of all those involved through the way that the project has been designed and will be managed, with appropriate support structures in place.

The duration of these awards is up to five years. The full economic cost of your project should be between £100,000 and £300,000 and AHRC will fund 80% of the full economic cost.

When to apply

We expect Round 5 to open in August, and to close on 30 October (TBC).

We highly recommend you get in touch with your School Research Director about your interest in the scheme to obtain support to proceed with an application around 4 months in advance of your targeted deadline to allow time for the process detailed below, and to work with the support available at UoB to strengthen your application.

*Please note, if you are aiming to apply to Round 5, you will need to have a full and near final draft ready for your School Research Director by early September 2024 at the latest. Please confirm this with your School Research Director in advance, as a review panel will need to be organised and this can take some time. Earlier drafts can be looked at by your mentor and Research Development. *

We expect there to be another Round which will open directly after the current Round closes and to be open for 3 months.

As AHRC transition from using the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system, to the Funding Service (TFS) they will launch consecutive rounds with defined opening and closing dates. Please check the AHRC Catalyst Award funding page for more details.

How to apply through Bristol

You may be required to submit an internal outline application form in order to help your School Research Director (SRD – see contacts at the bottom of this page) assess your suitability to apply for an AHRC Catalyst grant. In the first instance please contact your SRD to confirm that you will need to submit an outline application for consideration.

If you have been asked to following the internal outline form then please submit the following documents to your SRD:

Internal Outline Form AHRC Catalyst (Office document, 36kB)
Summary CV/Publication list (2 sides A4)

Please be aware that you will require the support of a UoB based mentor in order to apply for this scheme. Mentors: please consider whether you have the capacity, relevant experience and expertise to support an applicant to this scheme if approached. You will be expected to help set up a Worktribe costing and read draft applications for your applicant.

Once your outline application has been received, your School Research Director will make a decision whether to approve you to proceed with drafting and submitting a full application based on the following criteria:

Whether the application is of sufficient quality to potentially be successful in a competitive funding context
If the applicant has sufficient experience relative to their career stage to be considered competitive
The originality and value of the project to a non-specialist audience
The importance of the application to the host School/Faculty
Whether there is an appropriate level of capacity to fully support the applicant

Applicants will be notified of the decision within two weeks of submission.

Once an SRD has agreed to support an external application, the applicant is expected is to be in contact with the costings specialist [Les Finnemore] to develop their budget, and with their academic mentor and with DREI to develop their draft. The draft may need to go through several iterations before it is ready for the formal internal review. The GRP panel expects to see a well developed application which is close to submission; the GRP panel is not designed to provide feedback on rough drafts.

Eligibility

Find full eligibility guidelines and more information about the scheme on the AHRC Catalyst Award funding page.

School Research Directors

School of Humanities: Kate Skinner (hums-srd@bristol.ac.uk)
School of Modern Languages: Martin Hurcombe (sml-srd@bristol.ac.uk)
School of Arts: Pauline Fairclough (sart-srd@bristol.ac.uk)