Health Spotlight ECR Small Grant Scheme Round 2

Health Spotlight - ECR Small Grant Scheme 24/25 - Round 2

The Health Spotlight is launching the second round of its funding scheme to support early career researchers (broadly understood as including PhDs students, assistant professors, and those new to working at Warwick or returning following a period of leave e.g. parental/sick leave) to develop interdisciplinary approaches to health.

The award in brief

The Health Spotlight small grant scheme is intended to support pump-priming and dissemination or skills development projects.

We particularly welcome applications that sit within the Health Spotlights’ strategic research priority areas:

Technologies in Health
Prevention, Public Health and Healthcare Implementation
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Interdisciplinary Methodologies in Health

We will also consider submissions spanning any aspect of interdisciplinary health research.

Awards up to a maximum of £2000 to be spent by the end of July 2025

Key dates

Deadline: Monday 24 February 2025 6PM (GMT)

Decision announced to applicants: by 14 March 2025

Funds must be spent by: 31 July 2025

Find the application form here.

To help early career researchers make connections outside of their departments and prepare an application to the small grant scheme, we are launching a parallel scheme called Café Collaborate. We recognise that early career researchers (and those new or newly returned to Warwick) can struggle to identify potential collaborators in other Departments and Schools at the University. It also can be intimidating to approach them, especially if they are senior. We have therefore introduced Café Collaborate to facilitate this process. Café collaborate will ‘match’ early career researchers with appropriate academics/researchers/external stakeholders in different disciplines. The Café Collaborate team will approach a potential partner on behalf of the ECR and support an initial meeting. This meeting will allow the early career researcher to explore and develop their small grant idea collaboratively with the other researcher.

To register for Café Collaborate, please fill in this online form, and let us know what type of researcher (discipline/department/methodology/topic area) you would be interested to meet, and we will try to match you. If you would like to be matched with an external collaborator or stakeholder, please let us know, and we will investigate any existing relationships at the University that could support an introduction. Early career researchers who want to initiate contact with the researcher themselves can do so.

Guidance

Eligibility

Projects funded by this scheme might include:

exploratory data collection or secondary/pilot analysis of existing data
data contextualisation, interpretation, or visualisation work
workshops, co-development activities or networking events to develop diverse pathways to impact
data dashboard creation
app building to reach a broader audience
writing/testing software packages involving student (UG or PG) research assistants
skills training/Master classes for interdisciplinary research

Projects should be designed to develop an interdisciplinary collaboration either internally or externally, with the expectation that it will lead on to further research focused activity (e.g. external grant applications, ongoing collaborations or partnerships). Applicants are therefore required to include a co-applicant, ideally from another department, faculty or discipline, or an external collaborator where interdisciplinarity can be demonstrated.

Unsuccessful applicants from round one are invited to re-submit to this round, demonstrating how they have responded to feedback from the Spotlight.

What we do not fund:

Projects where the ECR is not the principal applicant, or where there are limited opportunities for leadership and capacity development for the ECR.
Projects without a co-applicant from another discipline/department/faculty or with an external collaborator where the interdisciplinarity of the collaboration can be demonstrated.
Conference attendance, unless this is part of a wider project focused on pump-priming, dissemination or skills development.
Research projects that sit within studies that are already funded, unless it can be demonstrated that the work to be undertaken on the small grant is a discrete project in an area not covered by the existing funding.
Longstanding or already well-established collaborations. The emphasis of this small grant scheme is on new or nascent interdisciplinary collaborations.
Salary costs for staff/‘buy out.

How to apply Application Review Process

Applications to the small grants scheme will be assessed by 1-2 members of the Spotlight Leadership Team along with 1-2 members of the Health Spotlight Advisory Group, by the following criteria:

Essential:

The interdisciplinary nature of the collaboration. The ECR should involve a researcher from another discipline.
The potential of the project to lead on to further research or collaborative activities (e.g. new relationships or networks established, external funding bids, dissemination or public engagement activities, new techniques or technologies developed that can be taken up by other researchers).
The role of the ECR. The ECR needs to lead the project and assume the role of a PI or joint PI. Development opportunities for the ECR (e.g. leadership experience, skills development) should be demonstrated.
Value for money.

Desirable:

The novelty of the collaboration or activity. We are keen to fund new or fledgling collaborations rather than those that are already well established (e.g. through existing external funding).
Cross-departmental/cross-faculty working, or working with external collaborators. Whilst it is recognised that interdisciplinary work can occur within departments and faculties at Warwick, we encourage applicants to be bold in their pursuit of interdisciplinarity.
Having participated in Café Collaborate. Whilst not compulsory, applicants to the small grants scheme will be asked whether they participated in a Café Collaborate meeting prior to applying for a small grant as we believe these early conversations can strengthen collaborative thinking and produce truly interdisciplinary applications.

Terms & Conditions

Finance

I confirm that this activity’s end-date does not exceed the end-date of my employment contract (if applicable).

I understand that this funding must be defrayed by the 31st of July 2025. A member of the Spotlights team will be in touch closer to the time to review the use of any remaining budget. If there is any risk of delay to my planned spend activity I will inform idresearch@warwick.ac.uk.

I will use the code and/or reference provided by RIS for making any purchases/orders.

Governance

I confirm that I have completed the full version of the Epigeum research integrity training, and that I have checked and obtained any relevant ethical approval.

I have checked whether this activity requires a risk assessment and obtained this if necessary.

I confirm that I have completed any other due diligence checks if my activity involves collaborators.

I have checked whether this activity requires any contract(s) or agreement(s) and obtained these where necessary. Examples of possible contracts or agreements include for collaboration with external institutions (including other Universities), activities involving a transfer of funds/other resources, sharing of data, or creation of intellectual property (especially if involving external partners) Further information can be found here and here.

Reporting

I agree to provide updates during and after the activity for future reporting purposes. A short reporting template will be made available to those who receive funding from the small grant scheme. It will include detail about the use of the funds; achievement of outputs and outcomes from the award; how the activities have contributed to the strategy; future plans to build on the work done and further funding applications made or planned. Another 12 months after its completion to report on any further outputs or impact initiated by the grant.

If you are successful with your application, we would like to post about your project on the Health Spotlight website. For events, this could also include publicising about organised activities via calendars on our website, or via email, as well as a follow-up event capture page.

I agree to images from a research project/event/training session being used on Spotlight/research culture webpages.

Apply now