How to apply to the Flex Fund – NOW CLOSED

Summary

We are looking to make awards to projects that contribute to the ACCESS project’s main goal to enhance the visibility, use and impact of climate and environment social science. Projects will be expected to deliver at least TWO of the following outcomes: 

• New ideas or frameworks 
• New methods of translating evidence or insights (e.g. communication tools) 
• New networks 
• Development of new skills or capacities 
• Increased use of social science amongst specific target groups, for example people in diverse sectors (business/industry, civil society, public sector, journalists and media actors) or non-social scientist disciplinary experts (e.g. natural scientists, engineering and physical scientists). 

All applications must be clearly guided by the ACCESS Guiding Principles (Knowledge co-production; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and Environmental Sustainability) approach. 

Applications to Round 2 must have an early career researcher (ECR) in the project team, either playing a Principal Investigator (Project Lead) or Co-Investigator role. 

The total cost of your project must be between £200,000 and £240,000. 

ACCESS will fund 100% of the full economic costing (fEC)*

Projects must be completed by the end of September 2026. 

We strongly encourage submissions that have been co-produced between academic leads and non-academic partners. To help develop new relationships we have set up an online noticeboard where both groups can post ideas and trigger new conversations and partnerships. 

Applications to Round 2 are not limited to applicants or teams who were successful in Round 1. That said, Round 2 can allow Round 1 winners to scale up or develop their project ideas further. 

Aim of the ACCESS Flex Fund

The aim of the ACCESS Flex Fund is to test and develop new ways of thinking, new approaches and new networks that will advance the impact of the social sciences to address the transition to a sustainable and biodiverse environment and a net zero society.

About ACCESS

ACCESS is a five-year project (2022-2027) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). ACCESS aims to provide leadership on the social science contributions to tackling and solving a range of environmental challenges. ACCESS is based on the idea that social science insights and data are vital to understand and solve environmental challenges (Devine-Wright et al., 2022). Yet the social sciences are not always effectively drawn upon by stakeholders, including policy makers and the media, when understanding those problems, or when designing and implementing solutions. ACCESS aims to tackle this issue by enhancing the visibility, use and impact of interdisciplinary social science in order to solve environmental challenges. All applications to the Flex Fund must contribute to this overall ACCESS objective.

Guiding Principles

All applications must be clearly guided by the ACCESS Guiding Principles (Knowledge co-production; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and Environmental Sustainability) approach. Awarded projects will be expected to follow the guidance in relation to these as a condition of the award, monitor their implementation, and contribute to the refinement of these Guiding Principles in collaboration with the ACCESS team.

Note that this is about taking an integrated approach to all three principles, rather than tackling each one separately, recognising the tensions that sometimes arise between them and attempting to resolve those tensions and trade-offs in a collaborative, inclusive and environmentally sustainable manner. Please also refer to information on the Guiding Principles in the Flex Fund FAQs. 

Submission and Assessment 

Submission of applications will be a one stage process. No outline stage will be involved.
Following eligibility checks, applications will be blind peer reviewed and scored on the award criteria. Following this, a review panel will make decisions on which applications to award. We expect to make about 3 awards. 

The application form will oblige applicants to state clearly which outcomes are expected from each application. A portfolio approach will be applied in final decision making to ensure funds are allocated across all desired outcomes identified for the ACCESS Flex Fund programme. 

Eligibility

ESRC eligibility rules are obligatory in all ACCESS Flex Fund applications. Proposals must be led by a researcher based in an institution eligible to receive UKRI funding.  

Applications to Round 2 must involve an early career researcher (ECR) in the project team, either playing a Principal Investigator (Project Lead) or Co-Investigator role. 

We welcome diverse proposals involving genuine collaboration between academic and non-academic partners. We would like to receive applications that include diverse sectors (business/industry, civil society, public sector), forms of expertise (e.g. natural scientists, engineering and physical scientists) and scales of activity (e.g. international, national, regional and local). For details regarding funding rules for non-academic partners, see the ACCESS Flex Fund FAQs. 

While applications can have an international dimension, the primary focus of activity should be within the UK (e.g. involving an international partner with relevant expertise; taking an international example and piloting its application in a UK context). For details regarding funding rules for international partners, see the Flex Fund FAQs. 

For other details regarding eligibility rules, please refer to the Flex Fund FAQs.