ESRC responsive mode: new investigator grants round two
ESRC responsive mode: new investigator grants round two supports early career social scientists with research projects, team leadership and skills development to build independent research careers.
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Funder: UK Research and Innovation
Due Dates: November 4, 2026, 4:00pm UK time (Closing date)
Funding Amounts: £100,000–£350,000 full economic cost; ESRC funds 80%; up to five years
Summary: Supports early career social science researchers to develop independence through leading research projects, teams and skills development.
Key Information: Project leads cannot hold a professorship or have previously led UKRI research grants, except ESRC postdoctoral fellowships.
Description
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, supports new researchers and academics transitioning to independent research careers. Awards provide experience in managing and leading projects and teams, alongside tailored development for the investigator and research staff. Supported activities include standard research projects, methodological development, large-scale surveys and infrastructure such as linguistic corpora, cataloguing and information compilation.
The scheme welcomes work across ESRC’s remit, including innovative and interdisciplinary research and collaboration with private, public and civil society organisations. An AI for social science highlight particularly welcomes AI-powered research tools addressing real-world social or economic issues, including digital trace or smart data, complex systems modelling and evidence synthesis. Mentoring and host-organisation career support are central to the award.
