28th June, 10:30 to 15:00: London: The Tower Hotel,  http://gcrflondon.eventbrite.co.uk

19th July, 10:00 to 13:00 (followed by lunch): STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Walton Meeting rooms 1 and 2, http://gcrfdaresbury.eventbrite.co.uk

The new £1.5bn Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) was announced in The Allocation of Science and Research Funding 2016/17 to 2019/20 and will be awarded over the next 5 years. Funding will be allocated through two streams. This is specifically for the Science and Technology Facilities Council (and not related to the other 6 research councils).

The Fund forms part of the UK’s Official development Assistance (ODA), which is governed by the rules of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). ODA funded activity focuses on outcomes that promote the long-term sustainable growth of countries on the OECD Development Assistance Committee list and is administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main objective.

A proportion of the GCRF funding has already been allocated across the Research Councils, based upon their existing portfolio of ODA-research. STFC has been allocated £14m for the period 2017/18 to 2020/21. However, the majority of the funding is currently unallocated and is in a common pot (circa. £700m), to be used across the Research Councils for interdisciplinary research and capacity building, with discussions currently ongoing about how the funds will be used.

The GCRF sits alongside the Newton Fund, which is also ODA but focuses on country specific opportunities for excellent research and innovation, and will deliver £585m over the same period.

STFC Community Meetings

STFC is holding community meetings which will:

  • Provide more information about the current development of the GCRF and Newton Fund;
  • Give an overview of STFC’s strategy for use of the allocated funding and how it plans to support the community to access the unallocated funding;
  • Seek input from the STFC community on ideas for ODA research opportunities to access funding which can be fed into scoping activities for calls;
  • Include presentations from STFC-funded researchers who have already received ODA funding from the Newton Fund.

To sign up to one of these events, please register on links below. Tickets are limited and will be issued on a first come, first serve basis.

28th June – London

19th July STFC Daresbury Laboratory

 

For more information on GCRF please contact Dr Katharine Hollinshead

For more information on the events please contact Mr Andi Kidd