Funding

Cambridge Awards for Research Impact and Engagement

Deadline for applications: 14th November 2025

The Cambridge Awards for Research Impact and Engagement were established in 2016 as the Vice Chancellor's Awards for Public Engagement. These focus on the processes and partnerships required to create significant economic, social and cultural impact from, and engagement with, research.

Timeline

Winners and runners-up will be announced live at our award ceremony. This will be held on Wednesday 4 February 2026 from 3pm in the Combination Room in Old Schools in the centre of Cambridge. All award applicants and their guests will be invited, please hold this date in your diary. 

Scope of the awards

It is recognised that excellence in research impact and engagement spans a wide range of activity and involves many relevant parties. Applicants are encouraged to include the full breadth of their impact and engagement activity in their submission.

Applications which demonstrate impactful long-term collaborations and/or original and inventive approaches that have secured the participation of new communities and partners are encouraged. 

For the purpose of the Cambridge Awards, ‘impact’ is understood as:

‘An effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy  or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia.’

For the purpose of the award, the National Coordinating Centre’s definition of public engagement with a focus on public engagement with research.

‘Public Engagement with Research describes the myriad of ways in which the activity and benefits of research can be shared with the public. Engagement is a two-way process, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit.’

The key principles of impact and public engagement with research are that it:

• must be underpinned by contemporary research
• must involve elements of genuine interaction, e.g. through dialogue, participation, collaboration, co-production
• must engage people and/or organisations from beyond academia

We welcome applications which involve external relevant parties, organisations, and/or individuals anywhere across the world

This is includes, but is not limited to, partnerships, consultation, collaboration, co-production and involvement with:

• communities, charities and NGO’s
• policy makers and government
• business and industry
• arts, heritage and cultural and community organisations
• public services including the wider education sector and schools, NHS, social care, local government, government agencies, and other public bodies

Applications could involve:

• commercialisation through spin outs and licensing
• participatory research with communities and relevant parties and citizen science activity
• patient and public involvement and engagement
• development and delivery of festivals, exhibitions and performances
• policy change
• communication of research to external audiences through a variety of media
• major impacts on curricula and teaching pedagogy which extend significantly beyond the University of Cambridge

Impact on research or the advancement of academic knowledge within the higher education sector (whether in the UK or internationally) is excluded.

Award categories and eligibility

Early Career Researcher 

Open to PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, or research fellows. Applicants must show significant achievements in research impact and engagement with the potential to become future champions in these areas. Candidates must be based at the University of Cambridge University at the point of submission and must evidence a strong link to research conducted at the University.

We use the UKRI definition of ECR:

• within eight years of their PhD award or equivalent professional training
• within six years of their first academic appointment (the first full or part time paid employment contract that lists research or teaching as the primary function)

These periods exclude any career break, for example due to:

• family care
• health reasons

Established Academic Award

Open to academic staff who have demonstrated excellence in impact and engagement as an integral part of their research career. A strong link to research conducted at the University of Cambridge must be evidenced.

This category includes awards for both individual academics and for research teams including professional and technical staff.

Collaboration Award

This team award recognises collaborative partnerships between University researchers, professional services staff and external relevant parties engaged in impact and engagement activity. Applications must be submitted jointly with collaborators and teams can include members at all career stages and can be led by academic, professional or technical staff. A strong link to research conducted at the University of Cambridge must be evidenced. 

College researchers and College professional staff are eligible to apply for all of these awards.

Application and award process

• Applications must be submitted on the appropriate online form
• Applications can be made in multiple categories
• Applicants from previous years are welcome to apply again with further developed projects. Previous award winners may apply again but with new projects. They will not be judged again on the same project.
• Applications will be judged by an interdisciplinary panel including internal and external professional staff, collaborators and researchers.
• Please submit images of yourself, your team and of the project. These will be used for the ceremony and any linked case studies so please ensure you have permission to use the images and for the University to share them.
• There may be opportunities to present your project at a future Cambridge Festival
• If specific details about your project cannot be shared or should be kept confidential, please let us know on the application form and through email to PublicEngagement@admin.cam.ac.uk 

For any questions please contact the public engagement team: PublicEngagement@admin.cam.ac.uk

BBSRC Pioneer Awards 2025/26: Bioscience Discovery Research

Internal Deadline: 5th December 2025

The BBSRC has announced the Pioneer Awards 2025/26: bioscience discovery research.

These short-term exploratory grants are aimed at researchers working in the BBSRC’s remit who are looking to pursue high-risk-high-gain discovery research that is at an early stage of development, specifically focusing on BBSRC’s frontier bioscience: understanding the rules of life theme.  The call aims to support “original and visionary” projects that offer to deviate from current understanding and explore new lines of enquiry relating to fundamental bioscience questions. Projects must be early-stage, untested, and lacking preliminary data. Projects that cross disciplinary boundaries including non-bioscience fields are also encouraged.

The fEC value of the projects can be up to £350,000, and BBSRC will fund 80% of the fEC. BBSRC anticipate awarding 18-20 grants in this round. Project duration can be up to two years, or three in exceptional circumstances AND with prior BBSRC approval.

There are no standardised eligibility criteria for these grants, where the focus is instead on meeting funder’s frontier bioscience remit with a research challenge that offers a potential step change. With regards to the eligibility, you may refer to the BBSRC Eligibility page, and the “Scope” section of the call page.

For more information, please refer to the recording of the BBSRC webinar for this call.

University Internal selection:  

Institutions are asked to prioritise applications internally as the BBSRC is anticipating a lot of interest in this call. Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure. Your Department’s Research Grants Team and/or Departmental Administrator (or equivalent) must be made aware of your internal application. 

This funding call has a mandatory registration process to be completed on UKRI TFS portal as the first step to help BBSRC assess the remit/proposal eligibility, the level of demand, and the team composition. Mandatory registrations must be submitted on the funder portal by 4pm Wednesday, the 19^th November 2025. The internal prioritisation process will occur after this registration, so that the BBSRC’s feedback on each registration form can be taken into consideration.

To take part in the internal prioritisation process, please complete our online form (NB: if asked to log-in, please use your crsID/Raven details; note that a Form cannot be saved and returned to) by Friday, 5th December 2025.   

You will need the following documents and information to complete the Form:  

• A copy of the submitted registration form, accompanied by the BBSRC feedback received
• Applicant Narrative CV (max. 4 pages for four modules following the funder's format) 

Internal Prioritisation Criteria: 

Please note that the assessment of internal applications will be a light touch review of the registration form information, the feedback received from the BBSRC, and the applicant’s narrative CV, to ensure each application is competitive and suitable for the opportunity.

Timeline:

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us at researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk. 

BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Award Placement Call 2025

Deadline: 12th February 2026

The University’s BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Award (FTMA): Placement Call 2025 is OPEN. Support of up to £12,000 per project is available. The deadline for applications is the 12th of February 2026 at 16:00.

The FTMA supports spending time at a project partner’s location for skills development, relationship building or knowledge exchange. The FTMA can also be used to host a partner in a research group/facility at the University of Cambridge.

Applicants may propose their own placements with new or existing partners. They are also pleased to offer a limited number of pre-set placement opportunities proposed by industry who are keen to host researchers/technicians.

Please note this route has additional, interim deadlines to enable project planning and development.

Key Information

• Eligibility: Researchers (post PhD) and Research Technical Professionals employed by the University of Cambridge or Wellcome Sanger Institute. A minimum of 25% of funding will be allocated to ECRs and an additional 25% to Research Technical Professionals.
• Project partners: any type of organisation, in the UK or abroad.
• Project duration: From 1 day up to 6 months. Part time or full time.
• Remit: Proposals should incorporate data-intensive bioscience, including but not limited to bioinformatics, -omics and multimodal data, analytical approaches for large-scale bioscience data, applications of AI in bioscience/bioimaging etc. BBSRC remit/interdisciplinary applications are welcome. Previous BBSRC or UKRI funding is NOT a requirement.
• Support: We highly encourage attending our informal online 1:1 drop-in sessions for tailored application advice. Please email Dr Carmen Fernandez-Posada and Dr Emma Brock (iaa@admin.cam.ac.uk). If you are interested in placements with UK policy organisations, please reach out to us, and we will connect you with the Centre for Science in Policy (CsaP), who may be able to help identify a suitable host organisation.

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