The first round of the DisCouRSE Network’s Flexible Funding scheme is accepting applications until 16:00 GMT on 14^th November 2025. This page records answers to common questions we have received about the fund.

Scope

The call emphasises community building and joint applications but also mentions local context. What if the plan is trialling an approach with staff within the same team - would that be an undesirable approach?

Requesting funds to trial an approach within a local team is welcome provided the application includes a concrete plan for the project to have an impact beyond that context, e.g. via open documentation and guidance for others to adapt and adopt. You might still want to consider including partners, to help you evaluate the work for example.

Is an event that is aimed at introducing the dRTP profession to undergraduates via a series of events and talks within the scope?

Potentially, but you would have to consider how it relates particularly to the leadership aspect of career pathways. Outreach tends to be more done at the entry level of the profession particularly if you are targeting undergraduates. However if your focus is more on developing the leaders who can effectively run those kinds of outreach events and build pathways that could be within scope. It might however fit better with some of the other Network+ projects and we are happy to encourage you to apply to them instead.

Can staff time be used to develop software that facilitates the project outputs?

Yes, staff time is allowed to develop software as long as it is justified in terms of the project objectives.

Would resources targeted at people moving into academic research from industrial research careers be in scope? For example – people who have spent significant time in industry, but haven’t necessarily done a PhD nor published many (any) papers nor led any funding calls, but have proposed, run, delivered useful R&D programmes, white papers?

Yes, that’s definitely within scope. The community is quite varied and we don’t want to exclude any particular group or type of people, e.g. those that don’t have a PhD.

For an institution without central RSE facilities, is it within scope to work with a School within the university that has some people doing RSE-type work (but under fixed-term research assistant/fellow jobs) to enable them to ‘rebrand’ the role and career path for future funding applications, through training/business case development etc?

Yes. The project needs to be led by a dRTP but that doesn’t necessarily mean your job title needs to be an RSE, data scientist etc. You might be a research fellow or an academic but if the bulk of your work falls within the research technical professional umbrella, then you would be eligible to be a project lead.

Can this funding be used to pay for external consulting to help progress an idea/programme?

Yes but with some constraints. We’ve referred to this in the costing principles section. The amount of money going outside of the research sector (i.e. academia, research labs) must not exceed 50% of the total budget for the project.

For projects that involve training, must the training be about leadership and careers for RTPs? Or could an RTP network apply for a project that coordinates the development of training material that the RTPs are responsible for providing?

From our background “Note that we do not directly address researchers who might need or possess dRTP skills, except in so far as they join the community. However, our training of dRTPs will enhance their ability to support and train researchers, so they benefit indirectly. Training the trainers in this way will achieve much greater impact from a limited budget. Thereby the UK in general will acquire a greater data-intensive research capability.” So the focus has to be on training dRTPs rather than researchers who are not dRTPs. Of course, training aimed at dRTPs may also be relevant for researchers!

Many of us work closely with non-dRTPs. How might projects involving non-dRTP colleagues or benefiting non-dRTPs fall within the scope of the call? For example, a dRTP might be responsible for capacity building in non-dRTPs. The dRTP would benefit from leadership skills to become a senior partner leading large capacity building projects, but the capacity building itself would still be aimed at non-dRTPs.

As long as dRTPs will benefit in terms of leadership, skills, development, career pathways, and things related to that profession, even if it involves collaborators who are not in those roles, then it’s in scope. Emphasising the benefits for dRTPs is the most important thing.

How to apply for / cost grants etc. is often useful for leadership roles. Would workshops to support this sort of knowledge be in scope?

Yes. It’s something that universities often provide but it’s unclear how much it’s available outside of universities.

Are existing projects or services eligible to apply for funding under this first call? If so, are there any particular expectations around how ongoing initiatives should frame their proposals in relation to the aims of DisCouRSE (e.g., leadership training, community building, or career pathways)?

Yes, we’re keen to hear from existing initiatives with ideas to build on their work in ways that are relevant to our aims. We would not be surprised if most proposals are along these lines.

Is there scope for a project to adapt our previous work on team culture/team equity in a laboratory context to helping digital and/or remote collaborations?

Potentially yes but more details on the focus would be required, e.g. is it particularly focused on digital research technical professionals and how is that link made?

How do the panel feel about software focussed projects that target a specific skill?

Maybe! Technical skills are also clearly very important so projects that focus on those are still equally as important. One thing to be careful of is that if you are focusing on particular technical skills, there are several other projects either running or starting around about now that are looking at this, eg DRIFT. We would advise you to check the list on the CAKE website first in case they would be a better fit than DisCouRSE.

Eligibility

Since most dRTPs work on fixed term contracts, is there any requirement as to the minimum time left in their contract in project lead’s contract?

The dRTP needs to be guaranteed to be employed for at least as long as your project, to minimise the risk of the project failing to complete. You can make your project timeline short, e.g. 3 months if you’re only running one or two events.

I’m in the same team as one of the DisCouRSE co-leads; can I apply for the fund?

Yes! Only the DisCouRSE co-leads themselves are unable to be named on any proposal.

If we want to involve the DIRECT framework team in our proposals, can they also lead or co-lead the bid?

The co-leads of DisCouRSE cannot be leads or co-leads of proposals. However other members of the DIRECT framework team can be named.

Would you be able to elaborate a bit more on what leaders/leadership mean in DisCouRSE?

It’s very broad and we are purposely not being restrictive. People can lead in many different contexts. For example, you don’t have to be running a group - you can be supporting or leading within the community, being active in the community in a purely voluntary role (e.g. in the open-source world), be a technical expert, etc. It’s not just the managerial side and can include the mentoring and supporting of people.

If my role name in the job description from the university is not in the exhaustive list, but my role aligns with the responsibilities of a dRTP, will I still be eligible to apply?

Yes. Our list is not exhaustive as we don’t know all the job titles that might classify as a dRTP. There may be professions out there that we’ve not come across yet. If your job title is not on our list please write it into the application form so we can add it.

Will bids from diverse work contexts be favoured, such as digital humanities?

We would very much like to be able to fund applications from multiple contexts.

Does applying to lead a project in this round exclude us from applying as project lead in future rounds?

No. We’re expecting people who lead projects in the first round to then reapply for more funds to continue to develop their projects.

How can international associations become involved in applications? Can only staff costs be covered for those?

The specific rules for this are detailed on our funding page. Collaborations, joint applications, etc. with international partners are welcome. The projects need to be led by a UK based organisation but international co-leads are welcome. Costs for international collaborators must be no more than 30% of the total project budget.

Can people based at a company, charity, or similar lead an application?

Unfortunately not in this round; projects must be led employed member of staff at a UK research organisation as stated in our guidance. We will look at whether we can relax this restriction in future rounds. You are encouraged to collaborate in an application led by an eligible institution.

Are PhD students eligible to be project leads?

While project leads do not need to be academic members of staff, they do need to be employed by their organisation, which typically would exclude PhD students. However students can identify a dRTP mentor to lead the application and involve them in the project team, subject to any visa and/or working hours restrictions.

Are proposals from people/projects that have also received funding from the UKRI DRI programme still eligible to apply?

Provided your proposal is not for activities that form a part of your existing project - implying double funding - we would encourage you to apply. Our sense is that UKRI are keen for all projects within the DRI programme to collaborate closely.

Application Completion

Can we reach out to DISCOURSE co-leads for feedback on our ideas?

Yes. You can contact the Management team through the generic project email address or if your project relates particularly to one of the work packages, you can contact that co-lead directly.

If the project is centred around software development conducted by a team but not all members have been decided, do they all need to be named, or is just the people who will leading that should be included in the application?

You can name other contributors other than lead and co-lead but this is not compulsory. A good sense of competences/roles needed to deliver the project even if unnamed would strengthen your proposal.

For researching our idea, is there anything we can read that outlines the common challenges faced by dRTPs in pursuing leadership roles and career progression?

The background page on the DisCouRSE website cites various articles. We can also recommend looking at https://step-up.ac.uk/support/ and https://step-up.ac.uk/blog/. It is also worth having a look at funders’ websites but it is acknowledged that there are a lack of resources in this area.

Could you explain what “funded at 80% of fEC” means?

Each UK institution calculates the full economic cost of research to them. This varies between each institution as costs differ between them. To run a research project there are lots of other costs beyond those directly related to the project such as paying salaries for the staff working on that project. For example, the cost of the building the people work in, support staff, estates management, etc. These comprise the “indirect” costs associated with the research project. UK public research funders don’t cover 100% of those costs - they will only cover 80% of the total budget including them. We have some tables and guidance on our funding call webpage.

Can the projects on the first round last less than a year?

Yes. They can last up to a year but less is fine.

Miscellaneous

Will the slides be uploaded to the funding call page?

Yes, here, along with a recording of the webinar.

My understanding is that there will be a second round of funding and applying again for a follow-on is within scope. Roughly when will the second round open and start funding from? (This can help with deciding the length of this first project.)

We’re going to have calls approximately every 6 months with 5 calls in total. The second call will be in the Spring 2026.

Should reviewers be based in the UK?

Reviewers can be based anywhere. Please apply to be a reviewer via this form if interested.