Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grants

The Leverhulme Trust offers Research Project Grants of up to £500,000 to undertake an innovative and original research project. Research Project Grants may be held for up to five years.

Research Project Grants provide research staff costs for those working directly on the research project and associated research costs. The funds requested should be appropriate for the grant duration and the resources required to realise the project’s objectives.

At least 75% of the resources requested must be used to provide funding for research staff (research assistants, doctoral students) who will each work specifically on the project with the applicant. At least one research assistant, local researcher or PhD student must spend at least 50% of their time on the project. A maximum of one year’s (33%) teaching replacement per grant over the course of a three-year grant may be awarded, pro rata for grants of different lengths, or for those with less than full-time contracts. 

Applications will be accepted in all subject areas, but the following types of research are ineligible: 

• Research of which advocacy forms an explicit component
• Policy-driven research where the principal objective is to assemble an evidence base for immediate policy initiatives
• Research which is aimed principally at an immediate commercial application
• Projects in which the balance between assembling a data bank or database and the related subsequent research is heavily inclined to the former
• Projects in which the main focus is on capacity building, networking, or the development of the skills of those involved

The Leverhulme Trust favours applications that surmount traditional disciplinary academic boundaries and involve a willingness to take appropriate degrees of risk in setting research objectives.

Outline applications are accepted all year; successful applicants are invited to submit a Detailed Application. Closing dates for Detailed Applications are the same each year:

21 March, 4pm
Decision: mid July

1 September, 4pm
Decision: early December

1 December, 4pm
Decision: end March

Please check the PI eligibility policy.

For more information, please contact the Research Facilitation Team at research@politics.ox.ac.uk at least five weeks prior to the intended submission deadline.