Call for Major Project Applications - 2026/27

The IAS supports, promotes and grows new and creative interdisciplinary ideas that transform our perspectives in challenging and provocative ways. We provide time, space, and resources to exchange and integrate ideas, knowledge and skills. We are a home to an inclusive, diverse and supportive community of scholars from Durham University and across the world.   

The IAS is now launching its call for 2026/27 Major Projects. We are inviting applications for Major Projects which should be genuinely interdisciplinary, innovative and ambitious. We encourage projects that have the potential to build towards research of the scale and ambition suited to large programme or centre type funding. All projects must be led by two academics in two different faculties with a wider team ideally involving collaboration across a broad range of disciplines.  

MAJOR PROJECTS (to run in academic year 2026/27) 

These will be ambitious projects working across at least two disciplines and across faculty boundaries. Successful projects will be supported with: 

• Two Durham Academic PIs awarded Christopherson-Knott Fellowships to buy out their time for one term to work on the project 
  
  
• Up to two high quality external IAS Fellows to visit Durham for a period of one term to work on the project 
  
  
• Financial support of up to £3500 for research activities during the project 
  
  
• Financial support to build activities in the year running up to the project term 
  
  
• Further financial support to continue the momentum of the work from the project term in the following year 
  
  
• Access to the facilities and resources of the IAS 

APPLICATIONS 

An initial brief project outline/expression of interest should be submitted to the IAS by midday GMT Thursday 16 January 2025 using this online form.   

All applicants (PIs) will be invited to the IAS on either Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 or Thursday 23 January (see schedule in the above online form for date preferences) to briefly discuss their project and ideas with the IAS Directorate. This affords the opportunity for guidance and support to each project proposal as they go forward to a full application. 

Please be aware that Previous Major Project Investigators are ineligible to apply within five years (of their award), though they remain able to be part of the wider research team on a project. 

If the application goes forward, the date for full project application is midday GMT Thursday 20 March 2025.  The full application process is likely to use an online application form which may be similar to this (though subject to potential change).  The full application (open from 27 January) will require more detailed information than the earlier January Expression of Interest submission and applicants will, in addition to providing more detailed information about themselves such as a CV, they will also be asked to outline how the project benefits from an interdisciplinary approach, provide a detailed project description (2 pages), outline the wider research team, and include budgetary details. 

All applications will be selected based on the following criteria (these are equally weighted): 

• Novelty and ambition: to what extent does the project open new perspectives and create new inter-disciplinary synergies? 
  
  
  
• Rigour: to what extent does the project employ appropriate and state-of-the-art concepts and methods, and/or develop promising new ones?  
  
  
• Clarity and quality of objectives: how clear and realistic are the intended outcomes; what impact will there be on Durham University’s research capacity and international competitiveness; how well does it fit with University and Department research strategies?
  
  
• Quality of the proposed research team: track record relative to career stage, including notable publications, awards, prizes and other esteem indicators, complementarity and suitability to the project objectives of team members’ expertise, evidence of interest in interdisciplinary perspectives; in the case of the PIs, evidence of intellectual leadership/leadership potential. 

Decisions will be relayed to all applicants by 09 April 2025, after which successful applications will be invited to nominate and submit Fellowship nominations. Further details about the nomination process and online form will be made available by the end of 2024.  The Nomination deadline is midday 23 May 2025.

ONLINE FORMS, GUIDANCE AND APPLICATION DEADLINES   

 ADDITIONAL

Colleagues interested in developing project applications are welcome to contact members of the IAS including:

• Professor Alex Easton (alexander.easton@durham.ac.uk) IAS Director
  
  
• Professor Gretchen Larsen, Co-Director, Business (gretchen.larsen@durham.ac.uk)
  
  
• Professor Nayanika Mookherjee, Co-Director, Social Sciences and Health (nayanika.mookherjee@durham.ac.uk)
  
  
• Dr Margarita Staykova, Co-Director, Science (margarita.staykova@durham.ac.uk)
  
  
• Professor Patrick Zuk, Co-Director, Arts & Humanities (patrick.zuk@durham.ac.uk)
  

A drop-in session will be held at the IAS on Monday 03 February between 10am and 12pm in Cosin’s Hall for any colleague who wishes to come along and discuss the call in-person.

Enquiries can also be made to the IAS Manager, Linda Crowe (ias.manager@durham.ac.uk).