Open Activities
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AHRC World Class Labs success reporting
As part of AHRC’s regular reporting requirements, we gather data quarterly on major programmes, including our portfolio of projects funded through World Class Labs (WCL). This feeds into our monitoring of Measuring AHRC’s Success (MAS). This survey will enable you to provide us...
Closes 8 January 2025
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sLoLa Grantholder Workshop Registration
This meeting aims to bring together representatives from current sLoLa projects to network and discuss topics relating to Team Science. Each sLoLa project will be represented by 1x leader (PI or Co-I) and 1x early career researcher. The meeting will be held on...
Closes 10 January 2025
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24RM2 Feedback - Applicants
This is a short survey following BBSRC’s Responsive Mode 24RM2 round to understand the experience of the applicant and seek feedback regarding the current assessment process.
Closes 15 January 2025
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Short-term Working Abroad for Personal Reasons
UKRI is currently running a trial to facilitate short-term remote working abroad for compassionate reasons, which is restricted to citizens of EU countries. Collecting views from staff who are both eligible and ineligible is incredibly important, as this will enable us to: learn from...
Closes 17 January 2025
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MRC BBRAG Community Groups Fund
The Black in Biomedical Research Advisory Group (BBRAG) was established as part of the Black in Biomedical Research (BBR) project through the approval of the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Executive Board, Strategy Board, and Council. The project’s aims revolve around helping to address the...
Closes 17 January 2025
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UKAN End of Network Member Survey 2024
Thank you for being a part of the UK Ageing Network (UKAN) which have been jointly funded by BBSRC and MRC. Now that the networks are nearing the end of their funding, we would like to capture the overall network membership and get an insight into the success of these networks. ...
Closes 17 January 2025
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UKRI Cross Research Council Responsive Mode scheme Round 2 Internal Support Availability
This survey is requesting support from internal staff for the Round 2 Outline Stage CRCRM panels taking place during the week of 10 to 14 March 2025. You may already have received a separate request for support from the FLF team, for the Round 9 FLF Sift Panels taking place during the week of...
Closes 24 January 2025
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STFC Doctoral Focal Awards Community Consultation
STFC has previously invested to support Centres of Doctoral Training (CDTs) to address research challenges within our Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Physics (PPAN) remit. Our latest round of doctoral funding placed a stronger emphasis on collaboration with industry, with the aim of...
Closes 29 January 2025
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EO4MCM M&E Feedback Survey
A survey of projects funded under the EO4MCM funding stream to provide information to complete the Logframe required for M&E feedback for UKSA
Closes 31 January 2025
Closed Activities
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Celebrating 30 years of CEDA - feedback
Thank you for attending the Celebrating 30 years of CEDA event. To continue improving our events and ensure they are impactful, we would appreciate your feedback.
Closed 2 January 2025
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Internal customer temperature check December 2024
Each year the Internal Customer Experience team asks colleagues from the Domains how they feel broadly about the service they receive.
Closed 23 December 2024
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Annual Monitoring Survey for ICASE 2023/24
Annual Monitoring of EPSRC Training Grants The annual monitoring allows EPSRC/UKRI to understand how the training grants are used across all organisations. Je-S Student Details and Researchfish® capture a broad range of studentship data, but they do not capture all of the information we...
Closed 20 December 2024
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Annual Monitoring Survey for Other Training Grants 2023/2024
Annual Monitoring of EPSRC Training Grants The annual monitoring allows EPSRC/UKRI to understand how the training grants are used across all organisations. Je-S Student Details and Researchfish® capture a broad range of studentship data, but they do not capture all of the information we...
Closed 20 December 2024
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Annual Monitoring Survey for 2018 CDTs - 2023/24
Annual Monitoring of EPSRC Training Grants The annual monitoring allows EPSRC/UKRI to understand how the training grants are used across all organisations. Je-S Student Details and Researchfish® capture a broad range of studentship data, but they do not capture all of the information we...
Closed 20 December 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