IHRR and Donor Seedcorn Funds for Research and Outreach

Introduction

The IHRR and Donor Seedcorn Funds provide small-scale, competitive awards to support early-stage research and outreach activities in the fields of hazard, risk, and resilience. The Fund is designed to help researchers develop new ideas, test feasibility, and build collaborations that can lead to external funding and impact-generating projects.

Awards of up to £2,000 are available, with a total call budget of £16,000.

Objectives

The IHRR and Donor Seedcorn Fund is an internal Durham University funding scheme that supports the development of innovative research proposals and outreach initiatives aligned with IHRR’s remit.

The scheme aims to:

• Bring developing research ideas to life
• Enable new collaborations and interdisciplinary networks
• Support pilot studies, feasibility testing, and early hypothesis development
• Facilitate exploratory activities that strengthen future funding applications

Applicants must clearly outline their plans for onward funding and/or impact, as the Fund is intended to support work with the potential to grow into externally funded research or impactful outreach.

This funding is not intended for projects that already hold substantial external funding (e.g. UKRI, EU). However, recognising current financial constraints across the University, projects with partial funding from departments or other internal sources may apply for IHRR Seedcorn funding to supplement their budgets. In such cases, the proposed seedcorn activity must clearly fall within the remit of IHRR.

For further information please see here https://tinyurl.com/IHRR-Seedcorn