Eligibility

EPSRC IAA Eligibility

Eligible Applicants

The Committee welcomes applications from Early Career Researchers (ECRs). PIs must be University employees holding a contract of employment and may be hosted by any department of the University. ECRs and Doctoral Graduates should note that researchers requesting costs for their own salary cannot be a Principal Investigator on the application, however they can be a Researcher co-investigator on a project, where they will provide significant intellectual input to grant writing and design, and intend to spend up to 100% of their time working on the proposed IAA project. Current DPhil students cannot be PIs or employed (as students); see guidance below. Researchers holding honorary or visiting positions are not eligible to apply. Applicants should clarify their eligibility with their departments, and departmental approvers are required to check eligibility of their applicants before advancing any applications. If you have a potentially impactful project that falls within EPSRC research areas but does not fit with the schemes detailed in this guidance, please speak to your department’s Research Facilitator in the first instance.

Eligible costs

Grants will cover directly incurred / directly allocated costs, but no indirect/estates/capital equipment/PI salary costs.

** For staff employed on Oxford payroll (will not fund salaries of user/partner staff)

IAA grants cannot be used for:

• New fundamental research or to develop tools exclusively for use in further academic research.
• Conference costs (attendance, registration). For engagement with non-academics consider IAA Workshop scheme. 
• Impact activities that should already have been anticipated and supported through standard routes, e.g. impact activities costed as part of basic research proposals, CDTs.
• Duplication of other sources of funding that can be used more appropriately for the impact activity within remit of Research Council, e.g. CLASP/IPS.
• Direct subsidising of commercial R&D;
• Projects not aligned with EPSRC’s research areas;
• PI salary;
• Undergraduate or postgraduate activities or training, or core PhD training including tuition, bench fees, or bursary;
• Employment of PhD students. However, students may benefit by engaging with the IAA, and can be paid for limited work on a project, provided the department confirms student status has been suspended for duration (regardless of source of studentship support);
• Equipment with a value of £10,000 or more;
• Estate costs or indirect costs;
• Any costs relating to Intellectual Property protection including but not limited to registering, maintaining, or supporting patents or property rights;
• Contributions to KTPs.