International Interdisciplinary Principal Investigator: British Academy6 Views

style="text-align: justify;">Eligibility in plain English

Principal Investigator (PI)

• • You must be postdoctoral or above, based at an eligible UK university or research institute, and in post for the entire award.

  • Plan to contribute ≥0.2 FTE to the award and provide evidence of capacity to lead an international, interdisciplinary team.

Team composition

• • Include at least one overseas co-applicant.

  • Demonstrate genuinely integrative interdisciplinarity across SHAPE/STEM.

  • Show equitable international partnerships: balanced roles, transparent governance, shared resources, and ethical data practices.

Actionable tip: Add a brief Partnership Equity Plan to your case for support—outline decision-making, budget distribution, authorship norms, data stewardship, and joint IP protocols.

---

What the grant covers (and the costing model)

Eligible costs

Funding can support PI and Co-Applicant time, postdoctoral (or equivalent) research assistance, travel and fieldwork, and networking/collaboration activities. Align items to tasks and milestones, and justify the link between costs and deliverables.

Understanding 80% FEC (and exceptions)

Awards are offered at 80%

FEC, up to £300,000 over two years. In practice, the total project value at 100% FEC can be higher, but the Academy’s contribution cannot exceed the cap. For non-FEC international or non-academic partners, you may cost directs at 100% plus a 25% flat rate for indirects, where appropriate; justify clearly and keep documentation tidy.

Budgeting insight: Use a compact cost-to-workpackage table in your case. Reviewers should be able to trace every pound to a task, person, or output.

---

The application process and timing

Where and how to apply

Submit your application through Flexi-Grant. Draft offline, then paste cleanly formatted text into the system to avoid layout issues. Because institutional sign-off is required, coordinate early with your Research Office.

When to apply

• • Opens: June 2025

  • Institutional approval & submission: September 2025

  • Start & duration: March/April 2026, for 24 months

 

What reviewers look for (selection criteria)

Quality, significance, originality

Explain what becomes possible only through your approach. Position your project in the literature, yet emphasise novel questions, not merely a new dataset or geography.

Interdisciplinarity led from HSS

Show how HSS frames the problem and integrates partner methods. Instead of parallel strands, design shared workpackages and co-authored outputs to demonstrate integration.

Feasibility & management

Offer a realistic plan: timeline, milestones, risk register, monitoring, and decision rules. Assign clear responsibilities and present a succinct Gantt with dependencies.

Value for money

Link resources to outputs and impact. When possible, leverage co-funding or in-kind contributions; however, avoid complexity that obscures accountability.

---

How to shape a competitive proposal

1) Start with the actors, not just the issue

Identify the non-state and transnational actors most capable of changing outcomes—industry groups, certifiers, city networks, philanthropies, and civil society coalitions. Design data collection to capture their incentives, coalition dynamics, and implementation bottlenecks.

2) Build equitable partnerships

Co-create research questions, distribute leadership roles, and budget for mutual capacity building. Set norms for data access, authorship, and benefit sharing at the outset. Consequently, oversight meetings should be scheduled and minuted.

3) Prove interdisciplinarity as method, not a label

Use mixed methods that genuinely require more than one discipline: e.g., doctrinal legal analysis + network science; ethnography + epidemiology; qualitative comparative analysis + engineering risk models. Integrate results iteratively, not just at the end.

4) Design for policy and public relevance

Articulate pathways to impact: decision memos for public bodies, practitioner toolkits, multilingual briefs, and open educational resources. Plan stakeholder workshops at key decision points, not as one-off dissemination events.

5) Budget smartly under 80% FEC

Right-size personnel time and PDRA roles; phase fieldwork to match risk windows; and cost collaboration strategically (workshops, translation, community liaison). Additionally, document procurement and safeguarding for higher-risk sites.

6) Address compliance early

Prepare your Gender Equality Statement, ethics approvals, research security considerations, data management plan, and safeguarding protocols. Where relevant, pre-register analysis plans to enhance credibility.

Example angles by theme (to spark ideas)

• • Earth system governance: Compare how city-level net-zero coalitions, corporate disclosure regimes, and trade-related standards alter emissions across specific value chains (e.g., cement, steel, shipping). Combine political economy, industrial engineering, and geospatial analysis to locate enforcement gaps.

  • Transformative technologies: Examine AI safety governance across regions and standards bodies; track interactions among audits, benchmarks, and incident reporting. Blend science & technology studies, law, and computer science to link assurance with accountability.

  • Global health / One Health: Test cross-border zoonoses surveillance with community health networks and veterinary services. Merge anthropology, epidemiology, and environmental analytics to understand uptake and trust in interventions.

  • Outer space governance: Evaluate debris mitigation via operator incentives, insurer requirements, and bilateral traffic coordination. Combine law, orbital dynamics, and risk pricing to surface pragmatic policy levers.

---

Common pitfalls to avoid

• • “Token” interdisciplinarity: Parallel workstreams without integration. Remedy this with co-authored workpackages and joint interpretation checkpoints.

  • One-sided partnerships: Unbalanced roles or opaque budgets can derail proposals. Set equitable governance and resource flows.

  • Late internal approvals: Flexi-Grant requires institutional sign-off. Therefore, finish drafts well before the deadline and allow Research Office review.

Backlink-worthy element: Include a short Methods Annex (pre-registration, robustness checks, open data plan). Editors, practitioners, and other PIs often cite and share such practical resources.

---

Final checklist before you submit

• • A UK-based HSS PI commits ≥0.2 FTE and remains in post throughout the award.

  • You have at least one overseas co-applicant and a plan for equitable partnership.

  • The project clearly aligns to one or more of the four domains and centres non-state/transnational actors in its design.

  • The budget follows 80% FEC, with any non-FEC partner costs justified transparently.

  • You address selection criteria, gender equality, research security/ethics, and risk management.

  • The submission is loaded into Flexi-Grant, with institutional approvals queued well in advance.

Review & update schedule (for your website):

• • Quarterly light review (Dec/Mar/Jun/Sep) to refresh dates, FAQs, and related links.

  • Comprehensive update each June to capture any new guidance for the next cycle.

 

Official resources

• • Call page & application portal: See Reference.

  • Scheme guidance notes (including eligibility and costing): See Reference.

  • Application Guidance: Available on the official site.

---

Summary Table

Item	Details
Program Name	Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Projects (IIRP) 2026
Host Country	United Kingdom
Funded By	The British Academy
Duration	24 months
Study Mode	Full-time collaborative research with international partners
Eligibility	UK-based HSS PI (postdoctoral or above); genuinely interdisciplinary across SHAPE/STEM; ≥1 overseas co-applicant; HSS-led throughout
Financial Support	Up to £300,000 at 80% FEC (PI/Co-I time, PDRA, travel/fieldwork, networking & collaboration costs)
Domains	Earth system governance · Digital & transformative technologies · Global health (One Health) · Outer space governance
Deadline	September 2025, 17:00 BST
Project Start Window	March/April 2026
Application System	British Academy Flexi-Grant
Official Website	thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/knowledge-frontiers-international-interdisciplinary-research/
Next Cycle	Expected June 2026 open → September 2026 deadline → March/April 2027 start — we will update soon

References

British Academy – International Interdisciplinary Research Projects 2026.

---

Conclusion

The IIRP 2026 scheme rewards rigorous, HSS-led interdisciplinarity that speaks directly to transnational challenges and the actors who shape them. If your project integrates methods, shares leadership equitably, and plans for credible policy and public engagement, you are already on the right path. For authoritative details and any updates, consult the British Academy’s official materials.

Call to action: Assemble your core team, draft a one-page concept aligned to one domain, and book a Research Office meeting this week. Early coordination is the simplest way to convert a strong idea into a fundable, high-impact proposal.

Frequently Asked Questions