• You can apply for between £5,000 and £8,000. The amount you apply for should be realistic and costed appropriately – you should seek advice from your departmental/school financial officer or equivalent to ensure the costings are accurate and realistic.
• £18,000 of funding has been made available for this round of pump priming. If during assessment there are more proposals scoring highly than the budget allows, the White Rose University Consortium reserves the right to randomise proposals for funding.
• Projects should start within 6 months of formal notification of success by White Rose.
• Projects should run for no longer than 12 months from the start date unless pre-authorised with White Rose. Please ensure that you have considered this when planning your project – ethics approvals and project set-up can take months depending upon the nature of the project.
• You must discuss your application and its costings with staff in your department/school to ensure the project’s feasibility and that it is costed appropriately.

Only participants on the White Rose 2025 Crucible are eligible to apply for funding. You are not able to bring in other parties to support your bid. 

In line with our values of equity, diversity and inclusion we are keen to support all applicants to play a full role in the project, therefore all applicants are co-applicants and there will not be a lead (principal) applicant. All communications about the application, assessment and award process will be with all named applicants.

The specific eligibility criteria are:

• An application must come from at least two applicants. Additional applicants can be added, to a maximum of four applicants in total per application, unless otherwise pre-agreed with White Rose
• At least two different disciplines must be involved in the project
• At least two different institutions must be involved in the project
• Each applicant who will have funds sit within their School/Department must discuss this with an appropriate Finance Manager before submitting an application.

We have provided some detailed guidance on relevant issues applicants may wish to consider when developing an application, these include ethics and intellectual property (IP). While this may appear onerous for a small application, it is best practice to consider these different steps, especially when working on an interdisciplinary project. Going through these steps at the planning stage will help reduce the overall administration burden of an awarded project.

Please refer to the guidance provided by the Horizons Institute for applicants to a similar scheme. This guidance represents best practice and should serve as the foundation for your application. All information available on the referenced webpage is directly relevant to this call and must be carefully reviewed and followed.

We recommend that you:

• Discuss your application with an appropriate member of staff in your institutional Research and Innovation Team to identify any issues related to the feasibility and costings of your project.
• Discuss your proposed project costing with a faculty/section Finance Manager (or institutional equivalent).
• Share your ideas with your Head of Department/School or equivalent.

Due to the small nature of these grants, we will only fund the directly incurred costs:  actual costs that are explicitly identifiable as arising from the conduct of the work you propose (e.g., equipment, materials, travel). Unless previously agreed, we will not cover directly allocated costs (e.g., principal and co-investigator costs, estates costs), indirect costs (non-specific costs charged across all projects that are based on estimates, e.g. HR and finance services, library costs).

Please also note the following:

• Where funding is requested for travel, applicants should include details of the intended purpose e.g. who they will travel to meet and why. Researchers are required to book their travel through their institution’s preferred provider. When costing your project, please refer to this provider for estimated costs.
• Where funding is requested for staff time all contractual issues and appropriate costings must have been discussed with your Faculty Research and Innovation Office (or institutional equivalent).
• Any funding that is successfully awarded will be governed by the three universities’ standard collaboration agreement terms.

Assessment process

• All applications received by the deadline will be assessed for eligibility by the White Rose University Consortium.
• All eligible applications will be assessed and scored using the three assessment criteria (interdisciplinarity, collaboration and sustainability of the partnership) using the scoring system outlined in the Assessment Guidance document.
• White Rose will convene an assessment panel, drawn from members from the three partner universities.
• The panel will be given 1 calendar month to assess the applications and will meet to discuss the applications, review scores and recommend applications to receive funding.
• Applicants will be notified of the funding decision within 1 week of the panel meeting.

Assessment criteria

Eligible proposals will be assessed using the following assessment criteria:

• Interdisciplinarity
  At this early stage of project development, we are looking for proposals that clearly demonstrate how a cross-disciplinary research team will be formed and how the integration of different disciplines will contribute to the development of an interdisciplinary pilot project. The application should provide evidence of how innovation emerges through this integration.
• Collaboration
  The proposal should outline how the project has been co-created by the applicants. It should clearly describe the unique contributions of each team member and demonstrate how they will develop equitable research collaborations that involve diverse and inclusive research teams.
• Sustainability of the Partnership
  Applicants should explain how the partnership will be sustained beyond the initial funding period. What future opportunities does the collaboration enable? For example (though not limited to):
  • Could the project be developed into a proposal for an external funding call? If so, which would be appropriate?
  • Are there opportunities to expand the partnership or engage additional stakeholders?
  • Could the collaboration lead to knowledge exchange activities or broader impact initiatives?

For more detailed information on the scoring that will be used to assess applications against the Assessment Criteria, applicants should read the Assessment Guidance.

The next Crucible Pump Priming Fund call will open in June 2026.

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