Overview of the sLoLa application process
The sLoLa funding opportunity is comprised of three mandatory stages. The principal investigator (project lead) will be responsible for assembling all of the information required for each stage from the wider team and this will be submitted using the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service by their research organisation.
As each stage of the sLoLa funding opportunity opens, you will be able to access the corresponding UKRI Funding Service page to submit your application using the ‘start application’ button on this page.
Stage one: registration stage
Principal investigators must register their interest in the funding opportunity by completing a short registration on the UKRI Funding Service.
Stage two: outline stage
The outline stage is only open to applicants who have completed a registration in stage one.
Principal investigators will provide a more detailed summary application describing their proposed sLoLa project idea and team using the UKRI Funding Service. No letters of support, management plans, or costings are required.
Stage three: full stage
The full stage is only open to applicants who have been invited to submit following the outline application stage.
Principal investigators will provide a full description of their sLoLa project idea, team, and other information including letters of support, management plans, and full justification of resources using the UKRI Funding Service.
UKRI Funding Service
We are running the funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply for this opportunity on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
If you do not already have an account with the UKRI Funding Service, you will be able to create one by selecting the ‘start application’ button at the start of this page. Creating an account is a two-minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
If you are a member of an organisation with a research office that we do not have contact details for, we will contact them to enable administrator access. This provides:
- oversight of every UKRI Funding Service application opened on behalf of your organisation
- the ability to review and submit applications
Research offices that have not already received an invitation to open an account should email support@funding-service.ukri.org
To find out more about the role of research office professionals in the application process, watch a recording of a recent research office webinar on YouTube.
Submitting your application
Your application should be prepared and submitted by the lead research organisation but should be co-created with input from all investigators, and project partners, and should represent the proposed work of the entire consortia.
To apply:
- Select the ‘Start application’ button at the start of this page.
- This will open the ‘Sign in’ page of UKRI’s Funding Service. If you do not already have an account, you’ll be able to create one. This is a two-minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
- Start answering the questions detailed in this section of ‘How to apply’. You can save your work and come back to it later. You can also work ‘offline’, copying and pasting into the text boxes provided for your answers.
- Once complete, use the service to send your application to your research office for review. They’ll check it and return it to you if it needs editing.
- Once happy, your research office will submit it to UKRI for assessment. Only they can do this.
As citations can be integral to a case for support, you should balance their inclusion and the benefit they provide against the inclusion of other parts of your answer to each question. Bear in mind that citations, associated reference lists or bibliographies, or both, contribute to, and are included in, the word count of the relevant section.
Deadlines
You should ensure you are aware of and follow any deadlines that may be in place within your research organisation.
Registration (stage one)
The registration stage is open now.
BBSRC must receive your registration by 24 May 2023 at 4:00pm UK time. You will not be able to register your interest in the sLoLa funding opportunity after this time.
Outline stage (stage two)
The outline stage will open to submissions one week following the close of the registration period, on 31 May 2023 at 9:00am UK time.
BBSRC must receive your outline by 26 July 2023 at 4:00pm UK time. You will not be able to submit an outline stage application to the sLoLa funding opportunity after this time.
Full stage (stage three)
Only applicants who are invited by BBSRC may submit a full stage submission.
The full stage is expected to open in autumn 2023. Further details will be available here in due course.
Personal data
Processing personal data
BBSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your funding service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.
Outcomes publication
BBSRC funding outcomes are published on the BBSRC Portfolio Analyser. You can also search all competitive funding decisions made by UKRI’s councils.
If your application is successful, details of your awarded project will also be published via the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Registration (stage one): open now
UKRI Funding Service: section guidance
Summary
There is no need to provide a summary at the registration stage. Complete this field with ‘N/A’.
Word count: 2
Applicants
List the key members of your team and assign them roles, for example:
- project lead (principal investigator)
- project co-lead (co-investigator)
- researcher co-lead (researcher co-investigator)
You should only list one individual as principal investigator. You may list as many co-investigators as required. There is no need to list project partners, collaborators, subcontractors or any other named contributors at this stage (such as research technical professionals, postdoctoral research associates, or project management professionals).
Keywords
What three keywords or phrases best describe the science area, or areas, covered in your proposed research project?
Word count: 10
Vision: frontier bioscience
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work and how does this address the frontier bioscience scope of the funding opportunity.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Including:
- are the high level aims of the proposed work clear?
- is the application within BBSRC remit?
- does the application clearly address the frontier bioscience scope of the funding opportunity, demonstrating potential to produce a step change in fundamental understanding of biology?
Word count: 250
Objectives
What are the specific objectives of your research project?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Are the objectives clearly articulated?
Word count: 100
Longer and large team science
Why is the longer and larger scale of funding of an sLoLa award necessary to deliver this project?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Is it clear that the proposed programme of work could not be delivered through a series of smaller research grants?
Word count: 150
Outline stage application (stage two): opening 31 May 2023
UKRI Funding Service: section guidance
Summary
There is no need to provide a summary at the outline stage. Complete this field with ‘N/A’.
Word count: 10
Applicants
List the key members of your team and assign them roles, for example:
- principal investigator
- co-investigator
You should only list one individual as principal investigator. You may list as many co-investigators as required. There is no need to list project partners, collaborators, subcontractors or any other named contributors at this stage (such as research technical professionals, postdoctoral research associates, or project management professionals).
Vision
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work:
- is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field or fields
- has the potential to advance current understanding, generates new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
- is timely given current trends, context and needs
Your project must be within the frontier bioscience scope of the funding opportunity. If a full stage proposal is invited, it is expected that the high-level objectives will appear unchanged unless feedback from the outline stage assessment process indicates otherwise.
Within your vision you should:
- provide the overall aims and objectives of your research, typically as a small number of bullet points
- describe your aims in the context of relevant prior work by your team and by the wider bioscience research landscape
- highlight features that are particularly original or unique
- describe how your application addresses the frontier bioscience scope of the funding opportunity, in particular its potential to lead to a major advancement in the fundamental understanding of living systems
Word count: 650
Approach
How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your approach:
- is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
- meets the highest international standards of research excellence in the scientific area , or areas, covered
- deploys or develops the most appropriate tools, methods and technologies according to the highest international standards and cutting-edge advances in the area, or areas, of research
- leverages the team’s collective capabilities, noting the specific contributions of your team members to achieving each of your objectives
- leverages the research environment, or environments, available facilities and other resources available to your team and how this will contribute to the success of the work
Outlines will not be subject to a detailed technical assessment by subject-area experts, but broad feasibility will be considered. The approach should be written with this in mind, so that the information is accessible to a broad panel of experts from a range of different fields.
Your approach should include an overview of how you will tackle the individual objectives, including reference to the experimental and analytical methods, tools, and technologies which will be employed or developed, and what model system, or systems, might be used. Key synergies or interdependencies between objectives which contribute to the delivery of outcomes greater than the sum of individual objectives should be highlighted.
Within the approach we also expect you to:
- clearly outline the role and contribution of principal investigators and co-investigators to each objective
- estimate the overall research effort needed to fulfil the programme of work and explain how this will be organised in relation to your objectives and the principal investigators and co-investigators leading them. You should note the expected full time equivalent of all research, technical, and analytical staff needed to deliver the project (for instance, postdoctoral research associates, research technical professionals, research software engineers and so on), highlighting the key skills or competencies they will need to have
- attach a single PDF comprising a project summary diagram (up to one page A4) and an optional figure (up to one page A4)
Attachment guidance
You should attach a single PDF. This will comprise two elements: a mandatory project summary diagram (up to one page A4) and an optional figure (up to one page A4).
A project summary diagram (up to one page A4) is a visual representation of the approach. Show the key areas of work, their interrelationships the contributions of team members, and the expected outcomes. This is not a management plan and you do not need to provide detailed information such as key milestones. While this will not contribute to your word count, text should be kept to a minimum noting only key information necessary to refer to the appropriate sections within the approach (for example, names of investigators or objective numbers or titles. Ensure any text is legible and corresponds to Arial size 11 on an A4 page.
A figure corresponding to up to one A4 page can be included to support your application. More than one panel (such as figure 1A, 1B) can be included but you are advised to keep these to a minimum and only to illustrate essential points. You are responsible for ensuring it is clearly legible and interpretable by the assessors without magnification. Figure annotations and figure legends will not count towards the word count of the approach section but should be clear and concise, capturing only key information relevant to interpreting the figure and should not be used to expand on other elements of the approach. Ensure any text is legible and corresponds to Arial size 11 on an A4 page.
Word count: 1,350
Longer and larger scale team science
Why does your project require longer and larger scale funding through the sLoLa scheme?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You should outline:
- why your proposed programme of work requires longer and larger scale funding to achieve its aims
- how your work will be fully integrated in order to deliver synergistic outcomes which could not be achieved through a series of smaller awards
Within this section, we also expect you to:
- highlight key synergies and interdependencies between objectives or methods
- describe the added value that the team science approach brings to your collective capability to deliver the aims and objectives
Word count: 350
Strategic case
What is the significance and added value of the proposed work in the context of the wider UK and international bioscience?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You should outline how your proposed programme of work will:
- create or enhance unique research capabilities or resources that will raise the international profile of UK bioscience
- complement and not overlap existing longer and larger scale research endeavours in a national and international context
- realise long-term transformational outcomes outside of the scientific area, or areas, under immediate investigation
Within the strategic case, where applicable we also expect you to:
- highlight unique, in-demand, or emerging skills and competencies that will be developed or disseminated by your team
- outline plans for ensuring long-term legacy and wider uptake of project outputs beyond the team (such as FAIR data, software, technologies or other resources generated through the project)
- if applicable, identify potential routes towards socio-economic or other impact of interest to the general public, where these may already be evident
Word count: 350
Team capability to deliver
Why are you the right team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how your team, have:
- the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
- the appropriate leadership skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills your leadership team have, and how this will help to deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings. Read UKRI guidance on R4RI. You do not need to include a response for each team member under each heading, but the rationale for the inclusion of each team member in the project should be evident from this section. You can enter N/A for any you think irrelevant, and will not be penalised for doing so, but it is recommended that you carefully consider the breadth of your experience.
The R4RI module headings are:
- contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge:
- sLoLa awards are expected to use a variety of experimental techniques and generate a large amount of data so care should be taken to highlight both experimental and analytical experience directly relevant to the proposed research
- the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships:
- where individuals are stepping into positions with greater degrees of scientific, leadership or management responsibilities than they have previously held it should be clear how they will be mentored or otherwise supported by the team, and previous experience should be highlighted
- contributions to the wider research and innovation community
- contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit
- additions (you can use this heading to provide any further information which evidences the team’s collective capability to deliver the proposed work, or which provides context to the wider application, such as detail of career breaks. It is not a requirement):
- in this section you can reference anticipated contributions of any collaborators, project partners or sub-contractors
You should complete this as a narrative and you should avoid CV type format. You should maintain focus on only the most relevant exemplars within your team, and smaller teams may not require the full word count.
Word count: 1,500
References
List the references you’ve use to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Ensure your application is a self-contained description. You can provide links to relevant publications or online resources. However, assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application. You must not include links to web resources in order to extend your application. If linking to web resources, to ensure the information’s integrity is maintained include, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers.
Word count: 250
Full stage applications (stage three): opening autumn 2023 (to be announced)
Detailed guidance for the full stage will be made available in summer 2023 prior to the opening of the full stage to invited applicants. We anticipate that full stage applications will require:
- a significantly expanded approach section
- all letters of support
- a detailed project and data management plan
- ethical information
- full costings information
- a full justification of resources
