BU Research Blog

Today marks the launch of an internal competition to allocate BU’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) grant. This grant has been given to BU from HEFCE as part of their GCRF budget which forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment. The aim is to support a diverse portfolio of research activities with the common feature that they all in some way address the challenges defined for developing countries in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (the SDGs).

The UK’s ODA commitment is monitored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) and GCRF allocations must be spent according to ODA principles. These state that only research directly and primarily of benefit to the problems of developing countries may be counted as ODA. Activity funded through GCRF must promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main objective, any benefit to the UK or other developed countries must be the secondary consideration.

Activities must also comply with ODA guidelines by working with, and supporting development within, countries and territories on the Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) list of ODA recipients. Universities should endeavour to create equitable partnerships between researchers, practitioners and policy-makers in both developed and developing countries through GCRF-funded activities.

Examples of how funds can be used include:

• Capacity and capability building
• Mono-disciplinary, interdisciplinary and collaborative research activity
• Generating impact from research both within and beyond the sector
• Rapid response to emergencies where there is an urgent research need
• Pump-priming activities to underpin GCRF and Newton Fund bids to other funders, including relationship building

Full details about the GCRF are available here: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/funding/gcrf/

Colleagues interested in applying should read the BU HEFCE GCRF call specification and guidelines and complete the application form (annex 1 to the guidelines).

Applications must be sent to Julie Northam by Wednesday 28 February.