Research Funding Calls

The UBBI’s annual Brazil Visiting Fellows Funding Scheme supports Brazilian early career university lecturers or post-doctoral researchers wishing to spend up to three months at the University of Birmingham carrying out identified research projects. The call is now OPEN for applications and will close on the 10 June 2025. Outcomes will be announced by the end of June in order to allow fellows to visit Birmingham from September onwards. Visit here for further information.

Our joint seed fund with UNICAMP is now OPEN. The UBBI-UNICAMP Seed Fund supports collaborative engagement between UoB and UNICAMP to support and strengthen existing faculty-faculty relationships leading to clearly defined outputs. Applications will close on the 19th May 2025. Find out more about the scheme on our website here.

Our new joint seed fund with the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) is now OPEN. The UBBI-USP Seed Fund supports collaborative engagement between UoB and USP to support and strengthen existing faculty-faculty relationships leading to clearly defined outputs.

Applications will close on the 26 May 2025.

Find out more about the scheme on our website here.

The UBBI-CAPES/Chico Mendes Chair Programme in Environmental Sciences, Climate Change, Ecosystems, Sustainability, Societies and Environment

Over a five-year term, the Brazilian federal funding agency for graduate education CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) will support an annual visiting Chair appointment, associated one-year postdoctoral and sandwich PhD fellowships at the UBBI. Fellowships are for six months to one year. The first call closed on 26 January 2024, with successful applicants taking up fellowships in September 2024. The second call opened for applications between August and December 2024, with successful applicants able to take up fellowships from September 2025.

The third call will open for applications between August and December 2025, with successful candidates undertaking their fellowships from September 2026.

Dates

Call opens: 12 May 2025

Deadline for submission: 5 September 2025

Results: December 2025

Start of projects: January 2026

Overview

The University of Birmingham (UoB) and São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) are pleased to announce a joint seed funding call to support a joint scientific collaboration in projects from any subject area.

Our long-standing pump-priming fund with São Paulo’s state funding agency, FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) has been running since 2011 to support joint research projects and the exchange of researchers and postgraduate students. Read more about successful projects from the latest funding round.

 UoB will fund the UoB research team with up to £20,000.00 per project for two (2) years. The funds granted by the University of Birmingham must be used for expenses directly related to the execution of the research (personnel, consumables, etc.), as well as travel (air tickets), travel insurance and per diem for researchers from this university visiting the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Travel expenses to be reimbursed by the University of Birmingham must comply with the internal travel policy.

Application

Each proposal must have a Principal Investigator (PI) in the state of São Paulo and one from UoB and will be composed of:

1. The research project, of up to 15 pages, must be conceived and written jointly by the proponents from the state of São Paulo and UoB in English. The research project should include:

a) Summary of the project;

b) Project goals and objectives;

c) History and justification of the project;

d) Details of the project activities to be developed;

e) What are the scientific/academic gains of the project for the University of Birmingham and for the university/institution in São Paulo?;

f) What activities, including additional external funding, will be sought during and after the project to sustain the collaboration?;

g) What are the expected results? What are the performance indicators to be used to measure the success of the project?;

h) Description of the infrastructure and financial resources available for the development of the research project in São Paulo, Brazil, and at the University of Birmingham, excluding the funding requested in this proposal;

i) Schedule of exchange missions, if applicable;

j) What is the history of joint work between the teams from São Paulo and the University of Birmingham? Cite the results of previous work - jointly published papers, applications for jointly submitted Calls for Proposals, joint meetings, seminar programs, etc.

2. Resumes of the PIs and other team members (for FAPESP, only the Associate Researchers of the Brazilian team);

3. A detailed budget accompanied by justification;

4. For FAPESP, in addition to the documents mentioned above, all other documents requested in SAGe must be included.

Submissions to the University of Birmingham must be submitted electronically in a single complete PDF document for m.e.elliston@bham.ac.uk.

The PI of the state of São Paulo must submit the collaborative proposal to FAPESP and the Principal Investigator of the UoB must submit the collaborative proposal to the UoB. Each PI can submit only one proposal in this Call. For more information please see here.

Additional Information

This Call is open to the submission of proposals in all areas of knowledge. Any researchers linked to Higher Education and Research Institutions in the state of São Paulo and researchers from the University of Birmingham are eligible to apply.

The projects, all starting in January 2026, must last 24 months (2 years) and be the same on both sides.

Please find more information about this call here.

Please find information about the previous call here: FAPESP and University of Birmingham launch new call for proposals. 

The University of Birmingham Brazil Institute (UBBI) and FAPESPA are pleased to announce Connect Amazonia 2025, a joint seed funding call to support collaborative research addressing critical challenges in the Amazon region.

The joint seed fund, Connect Amazonia 2025, aims to foster research collaborations between academics from the University of Birmingham (UoB) and the State of Pará to build capacity and advance research on key Amazonian challenges and related disciplines from a broad spectrum of science and humanities. This includes the themes of global change, energy transition, green economy, public health, bioeconomy, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture, gender equality, traditional knowledge, indigenous rights, biodiversity and forest restoration.

The deadline for submissions is 13 June 2025.

Find out more on our webpage Connect Amazonia: UBBI-FAPESPA Collaboration Fund.

FAPESP run three SPRINT calls per year, with closing dates at the end of February, June and October. FAPESP provide up to US$10,000 funding to support mobility opportunities, providing the partner is able to offer some level of match. Awarded grants support research activity over a two-year project term.

Birmingham colleagues are invited to apply to their College or the Birmingham International Engagement Fund (BIEF) to secure the matched-funding needed to submit a SPRINT application. Colleagues who submitted bids to the joint UoB-FAPESP call are encouraged to consider SPRINT as an alternative to proceed with their projects on a smaller scale.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and FAPESP have signed a memorandum of understanding to support collaborative applications between researchers from the UK and the state of São Paulo. This provides for a lead agency agreement whereby participant UKRI research councils (AHRC, BBSRC, ESPRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC and STFC) receive and assess joint applications from eligible UK and Brazil-based researchers from the state of São Paulo on behalf of both organisations. The funding available ranges from £300,000-£1,500,000, depending on the subject area. There is no closing date and applications can be submitted at any time. Visit Collaborate with researchers in Brazil – UKRI for further details.

Amazon +10 initiative: research expeditions to the Amazon – UKRI

This is a funding collaboration between the AHRC and NERC with Brazilian funders (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and National Council of State Funding Agencies (CONFAP)). The call funds collaborations with Brazilian partners on research expeditions to increase knowledge of biodiversity and socio-cultural diversity of the Amazon. Brazilian leadership of the projects is a requirement. Full economic cost of the UKRI component can be up to £1,000,000, funded at 80% FEC. Projects can be up to three years. The submission deadline is 29 April 2024, with results announced 23 August 2024. Read more about this funding collaboration.

Round 11 of BactiVac Network catalyst funding for pump priming projects is now OPEN. Funding is available to support collaborations between Network members in bacterial vaccinology to explore new approaches and strategies to advance their vaccines in partnership with LMICs and industry, and acquire the data to support substantive funding applications. BactiVac aims to fund a diversified portfolio of projects to catalyse research in bacterial vaccinology.

The catalyst funds are flexible, typically up to £70,000 GBP and aim to provide deliverables within six months post-award. Projects are required to align to one of the following:

• Focus on pathogens with outbreak potential 
• Tackle the global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) challenge

Submission deadline for applications is 15 June 2025 (23:59 hours UK time)

Full details about the call are available on the website: BactiVac Catalyst Pump Priming Projects. 

For more details and regular updates, please follow BactiVac on X (Twitter) @BactiVac using the hashtag #BactiVacFunding. You can also download the BactiVac Catalyst Funding flyer.

For all queries, please email: bactivac@contacts.bham.ac.uk