Bristol International Research Collaboration Activities

This call has now closed and will not be reopening. We are launching new schemes in Autumn 2024.

BIRCA represents a merging of the previous Bristol International Research Workshops scheme and Bristol International Online Research Collaboration Awards, allowing for a range of online and/or in-person activities in collaboration with international academics.

Bristol International Research Collaboration Activities (BIRCA) awards are designed to stimulate and support collaboration between the University of Bristol and international academics. Activities can either be virtual, in-person, or a combination thereof. Applicants can bid for a single activity or a set of related activities, depending on what best serves their needs and delivers the greatest potential for enhancing the University of Bristol’s international collaborations and outputs. Some examples of suitable activities could include, for example:

• A consultation with international stakeholders to inform user-driven international collaborative research development activity.
• A forum designed to lead to influential policy briefing(s).
• A workshop to identify shared research questions and complementary expertise for specific future collaborative research bids.
• A writing workshop to coordinate contributions to an international  co-authored output for publication.

These are just illustrative examples and other activities may also be suitable; please contact the International Research Development (IRD) team (ird-office@bristol.ac.uk) to check eligibility if you are unsure. All activities must be co-produced with international academic collaborators and must involve these collaborators in their delivery. Activities should be interactive events which involve two-way knowledge exchange, rather than dissemination events. This funding scheme is therefore not suitable for applications to support conferences. Activities can, however, be live-streamed and/or recorded for sharing publicly, where appropriate.

This scheme is not intended to provide funding for international travel for general collaborative work; the BIRCA scheme is designed to provide funding to facilitate international collaborative activites such as workshops specifically. There are other schemes available which can support extended colalborative work such as the Bristol ‘Next Generation’ Visiting Researcher Programme and the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Distinguished Visiting Professorships.

A listing of previous BIRCA awards can be viewed here.