Royal Society, GB and other funders: APEX awards

25/05/2023

10/10/2024

The Royal Society, in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Academy, and with support from the Leverhulme Trust, invites applications for its academies partnership in supporting excellence in cross-disciplinary research (APEX) awards. These enable established, independent researchers with a strong track record in their respective area to pursue genuine interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research to benefit wider society. Awards are worth up to £100,000 each over two years, up to 25 per cent of which may be used for associated research costs. Funding covers the costs of a teaching replacement to relieve the applicant or collaborator from some of their teaching and administrative duties. An additional £10,000 may be available to support public engagement activities.

The objectives of this scheme are to: •promote collaboration across disciplines, with a particular emphasis on the boundary between science and engineering and the social sciences and humanities; •support interdisciplinary research that is unlikely to be supported through conventional funding programmes; •support researchers in developing their research in a new direction through collaboration with partners from other disciplines; •enable researchers to focus on advancing their innovative research through seed funding.

Researchers with a strong track record as established independent researchers may apply, including engineering researchers, and humanities and social science scholars and scientists. Applicants must be based at a UK university or non-profit research institution for at least the duration of the project and are expected to collaborate with a research partner from a different discipline from their own or a different university in the UK. Applications should be within the remit of more than one of the academies.