Give your feedback on our ideas

Welcome to the UKRI Engagement Hub.

Open Activities

  • Apply to join the Mathematical Sciences Early Career Forum

    Apply to join the Early Career Forum in Mathematical Sciences. This opportunity is open to full-time and part-time academic staff and fellowship holders (excluding postdoctoral level fellowships), according to the normal eligibility rules for EPSRC funding . In addition, this call is...

    Closes today

  • International away day - Career development world cafe session

    As part of the afternoon programme there will be a Career Development World Cafe – you will be able to visit 2 of the 4 options. Please could you complete this short survey so we can gather your preferred session choices. We will do our best to accommodate everyone's preferences as far as possible.

    Closes 21 November 2024

  • EPSRC Large Scale Facilities - User survey

    If you have used, or have wanted to use, one of the EPSRC Large Scale Facilities, which include the National Research Facilities and High-Performance Computing services, then we would like to know your experiences of how accessible you consider these facilities are by your response to this survey.

    Closes 21 November 2024

  • The Quantum Computing Access Programme: Call for Expressions of Interest

    The NQCC is pleased to announce the launch of the Quantum Computing Access Programme. The programme provides access to quantum computing resources for the UK’s quantum computing user community for research, skill development and application development. Dedicated streams will be open for specific...

    Closes 25 November 2024

  • Systemic AI Safety Grants Programme - Reviewer request

    Please complete this survey if you are interested in being a Reviewer for the Systemic AI Safety Grants Programme . Reviewers will need to be available to assess applications between the 28th November and 5th of December. Thank you for your time and expertise. Addressing AI's risks to people...

    Closes 25 November 2024

  • BBSRC EDI EAG Member Application

    BBSRC EDI EAG Member Application Thank you for your interest in applying to join BBSRC's Equality Diversity and Inclusion Expert Advisory Group (EDI EAG). Please refer to the opportunity page for information about the EDI EAG, the group’s strategic remit and current expertise...

    Closes 26 November 2024

  • Infrastructure Community of Practice

    The Infrastructure Community of Practice (InfraCoP) is an initiative from UKRI's research infrastructure programme that seeks to provide a space for UKRI professionals to share experiences and access learning and development opportunities regarding infrastructure. InfraCoP is community led...

    Closes 27 November 2024

  • 2034 Mindset Extended reality (XR) for Digital Mental Health

    The purpose of the expression of interest (EOI) is for you to state if you are available and wish to assess in this competition. If you answer 'yes' to this EOI survey, the next step for you will be to accept your invitation to the competition in the IFS portal by 20/12/2024. The assessment period...

    Closes 28 November 2024

  • Community Groups Funding Approval

    One of the objectives of the Black in Biomedical Advisory Group (BBRAG) is to fund Black-led community/grassroots organisations to help sustain their objectives in the biomedical sector. We have decided as a group we would gain majority approval for each of our objectives once we were ready to...

    Closes 29 November 2024

Closed Activities

  • MRC Environmental Sustainability Seminar Series (hybrid)

    Join the MRC Environmental Sustainability Seminar Series! Seminar 5: Optimising Sample Storage: Best Practice, Strategies, and Low Temperature Storage Solutions Focus: Explore how biobanks and Ultra-Low Temperature (ULT) freezers can be optimised for efficiency and...

    Closed 18 November 2024

  • Gov & Ops Christmas Party

    Dear all, Please can you have a look I’ve attached a quick poll, time is cracking on and I need to get something organised!

    Closed 15 November 2024

  • Celebrating 30 years of CEDA: help us imagine our future

    On Monday 25th November 2024, we are hosting our 'Celebrating 30 years of the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis: help us imagine our future' event at our home institution in Oxfordshire. The event will showcase the breadth of work we do to enable environmental science research. It will...

    Closed 15 November 2024

  • 24BBR post meeting panel member survey

    This is the first year we have used the new Funding Service (TFS) for the BBR peer review assessment. We are therefore keen to better understand the suitability of the current functionality for the assessment of resource applications, and where there might be space for improvement. You can...

    Closed 15 November 2024

  • Funding Policy Team Survey

    We are conducting this survey to gather your valuable feedback on the performance of the funding policy team. Your responses will help us improve our services and better support you.

    Closed 15 November 2024

We Asked, You Said, We Did

See what we've consulted on. See all outcomes

We asked

In January 2024, we asked for feedback on the Medical Research Council’s (MRC's) draft public partnerships strategy. The strategy was drafted following a process of co-development and sets out MRC’s ambition and priorities for effective collaboration and genuine partnerships between the research community and wider society.

You said

We received 354 responses to the consultation. These responses came from a variety of individuals, groups, and organisations from the research community, the voluntary sector and wider society. The consultation responses were overwhelmingly positive. 87% agreed with the strategy overall, and 81% said that the strategy was written in clear language.

Respondents welcomed specific aspects of the strategy, including its inclusiveness, the focus on non-clinical research and the ambition to build long-term sustainable partnerships between the research community and wider society. Respondents highlighted specific initiatives which they considered vital to the success of the strategy such as, having a clear payment policy, appointing a new MRC programme director for public partnerships, and setting up a public advisory group at MRC.

Respondents recommended that MRC publish the new strategy in a variety of formats, alongside clear delivery (action) and evaluation plans.

We did

We used findings from the consultation to inform the final MRC public partnerships strategy. Key changes included:

  • Clearly stating that this strategy is an initial three-year commitment to our long-term ambition
  • Clarifying that the strategy has been co-developed
  • Specifically mentioning the involvement of international researchers, public partners, and public involvement and engagement professionals
  • Making clear that the consultation informed the final strategy
  • Emphasising that this strategy is intended to be inclusive, and will be aligned with MRC’s Embedding Diversity in Research Design policy
  • Acknowledging the importance of sharing power
  • Making clear that we will implement our new payment policy for public partners, and that other rewards and recognition are additional to payment
  • Emphasising that we will support public partners to take on leadership roles and responsibilities, such as chairing groups or co-leading projects
  • Committing to publish our action and evaluation plans

The consultation findings have been summarised in an infographic and are detailed in full in our consultation report. 

Next steps:

The final MRC public partnerships strategy will be published on the MRC website in summer 2024.

We asked

For opinions on the definition and scope of a categorisatino of UKRI funding as either 'Investigator-led' or 'Directed'.

You said

Only 8 responses were received, and there was no clear consensus on many questions. Most respondents were from universities.

We did

In the absence of opinion to the contrary we will continue to develop and apply the indicator to all UKRI funding. It will be applied as a binary indicator.

We asked

In April 2022, we asked for feedback on the new MRC expectations on the inclusion of sex in experimental design of studies involving animals, tissues, and cells. We also asked what MRC could do to aid researchers in implementing these requirements.

You said

We received 91 responses from researchers and research staff, with many constructive and detailed suggestions. We also received a written submission from the Academy of Medical Science, on behalf of their fellows.

We were pleased that many were already using both sexes in their experiments or were ready to begin doing so (32% and 5% of respondents, respectively). We recognise that many (57%), even though they were very often supportive in principle, felt barriers existed to implementing this in their research.

One of the most commonly mentioned concerns was a likely increase in grant costs. Respondents sought clarity from MRC as to how this would be handled. Ensuring animal welfare standards and the logistics of single housing male animals were also mentioned as barriers.

Roughly a third of respondents had questions about the changes, particularly around:

  • When the new expectation would begin to apply and how compliance would be ensured
  • How and when MRC would grant exceptions for single sex studies
  • How MRC would handle grants where costs were significantly increased due to using both sexes of animal

The support from MRC that was identified as being most helpful was:

  • Advice from MRC Head Office about applications
  • Training in statistical design and analysis
  • Written guidance
  • Case studies or worked examples

We did

As a result of this feedback, we have been working to make more information available about the upcoming change and to ensure the research community receives the necessary support. We have:

  • Updated our Guidance for Applicants with details about how to comply with these new expectations
  • Made it clear that there is no retrospective application of this requirement for grants that have already been awarded
  • Clarified that the requirement of including both sexes does not mean ‘balancing’ or using equal numbers of both sexes, as for many experiments this would result in unnecessary use of animals, but including both sexes as appropriate for the experimental design 
  • Made the cases where MRC will consider single sex studies clearer both on our website and in our Guidance for Applicants
  • Planned a webinar for applicants together with NC3Rs to be held on 21 July 2022, in which animal handling and statistical design will be discussed, and applicants can ask questions
  • Made it clearer on our website that there is no cap on MRC awards, and researchers should submit grant costings based on the cost of performing the work, and justified by the importance and potential of the work

In the coming months, we will:

  • Update our guidance to Peer Reviewers to ensure proposals submitted to the deadlines starting from September 2022 are reviewed in accordance with the new requirements
  • Develop case studies to show the level of information that would be required in applications, including examples of where single sex studies would be appropriate
  • Ensure that MRC Programme Managers are available to support applicants that have further questions
  • Look into what other support we can provide