ESRC funding call to tackle the challenges of ageing in UK and China

The ESRC has announced an interdisciplinary joint call, ‘Understanding and Addressing Health and Social Challenges for Ageing in the UK and China’, which invites high quality proposals between researchers in the UK and China which aim to enhance the evidence base on understanding and addressing health and social challenges facing ageing societies through interdisciplinary collaborations. The Funders will aim to recommend a balanced portfolio of projects. It is not expected that projects cover all health and social challenges.

The call is now open and the deadline for applications is 17 October 2019. Projects must be no more than 36 months in duration and successful awards will be jointly announced in March 2020. The UK funded component will need to start by 15 May at the very latest.

This call is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), specifically the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), in collaboration with the National Natural Sciences Foundation China (NSFC).

Up to £5 million is available from UKRI for UK applicants, with a minimum of £625,000 and maximum of £1 million at 100% full economic cost (fEC) available per proposal, of which UKRI will contribute 80% fEC. The UKRI component of this call will be funded through the Fund for International Collaboration (FIC).

Up to 2.5M RMB is available per proposal from NSFC for Chinese applicants. The NSFC component of this call will receive financial support from within the framework of its Internet-based Science Information System.

Each grant requires a Principal Investigator (PI) based in the UK and a PI based in China who will jointly develop one application and equally share leadership and project management.

Key dates

  • Call for proposals opens – 23 July 2019
  • Compulsory Intention to Submit closes – 18 September 2019
  • Deadline for submitting proposals – 17 October 2019
  • Peer review of proposals – November/December 2019
  • Commissioning panel meeting – February 2019
  • Decisions to applicants – March 2020
  • UK grants start – 15 May 2020

Foe a full description of the scope of the call and how to apply, please visit the ESRC website.