From Harms to Harmonies - Connections Funding Application Guidelines

What is the funding for?

Brigstow’s Connections funding is to develop and solidify growing ideas, partnerships and plans for interdisciplinary and co-produced research with the aim of preparing teams to apply for external funding to support the next stage of the research.

We can accept funding proposals that relate to one of Brigstow’s themes that focus on different aspects of understanding human experiences and encounters with each other, technology, the environment and other beings.

Further information is available on the From Harms to Harmonies theme page.

There is current a separate call for Open Connections funding.

What funding is available?

You can apply for up to £1,500 per award. A total of £10,000 is available.

What are the key dates?

  • Application deadline is Thursday 12 March 2026 at 11:30am
  • Outcomes by Friday 20 March 2026

Who is eligible?

To be eligible, each Connections team will need one member of University of Bristol staff on their team to be the named budget holder. Other team members can include University staff and students, artists, community groups and charities as well as people with lived experience of any issue being researched. We particularly welcome applications from colleagues who have not yet been a Project Lead on a research grant.

We expect to see arts/humanities researchers and/or social scientists having a key role in interdisciplinary research teams but welcome applications from researchers from the sciences who want to expand their connections into the social sciences, arts and humanities disciplines. At the very minimum, we expect there to be at least two people on each application. Each team member can come from different disciplines or with different expertise.

What can the funds be used for?

The funds are to further ideas and collaborations and not for projects. As such, funding can be used to buy in expertise (for example, you may need to pay an artist or community partner; if so please factor in any VAT when working out the cost), pay for non-staff researchers for their time (both within and from beyond the university and including research associates and students), consumables (such as the costs for your meetings i.e. catering and materials) or travel needed to meet and work together.

What is the application process?

  1. Use the application questions on Brigstow’s website to aid you in framing your application.
  2. Complete a Worktribe costing if needed (see below)
  3. Complete the Brigstow Institute application form by the closing date

Decide whether you need a Worktribe costing:

A Worktribe costing will only be needed if your application includes costs for a member of University of Bristol staff or the costs of a partner from beyond the university who cannot be paid as a supplier. Most self-employed people, charities and community groups will be paid as a supplier. Please contact hello-brigstow@bristol.ac.uk if you are unsure whether a Worktribe costing is required.

Core funded staff can be included as a cost in the budget however they often are not due to budget restrictions. This would need to be approved by each school. Although school approval will be sought via Worktribe it is advisable for each University of Bristol researcher to discuss their involvement with their School to ascertain if the salary costs need to be included. Their expected FTE contribution to the project should be included in the Budget tab in Worktribe. If their salary costs are not to be included, please let the costing specialist know so they can ensure that their FTE is recorded with zero cost. 

If your application does include costs for a member of University of Bristol staff or the cost of a partner from beyond the university who cannot be paid as a supplier, the University of Bristol nominated budget holder will need to submit a full financial costing on Worktribe (the university’s finance system for projects) to be approved internally prior to completing the Brigstow Institute application form. The university partner’s costing specialist will be able to help, but please follow this Brigstow-specific guidance. Please allow sufficient time before submission for the relevant finance and Head of School approvals for your Worktribe costing.

Worktribe Timeframes

Below are suggested timeframes to ensure the university processes are completed in time for your submission. While there could be some flexibility, these are the usual timescales you should follow:

  • Three weeks before submission to Brigstow: the budget holder should have created the Worktribe project and started populating the budget. The budget holder can contact their university costing specialist for help
  • One week before submission to Brigstow: the budget holder should have submitted the costing for review. You can still continue to draft the proposal while the costing is in approval workflow
  • Two days before submission to Brigstow: finance and Head of School should have completed their approvals to allow you to finalise your connections funding application and submit via the Brigstow online application form.

To apply, please visit the Apply for Brigstow Funding webpage. The online application form for this competition will open on 21st January 2026.

Terms of Engagement

As part of the application process team members are asked to agree to Brigstow’s Terms of Engagement. These set out the principles and also the expectations from both Brigstow and the successful team.

Charter for Co-production Through an Anti-Racist Lens

Brigstow is committed to the principles set out in the Charter for Co-production Through an Anti-Racist Lens published in 2024. We encourage all project teams to make themselves aware of these principles and to apply them when considering how they will carry out their Connections project and plan for a larger project. In the application form you will be asked to confirm that your whole team agrees to the Charter.

Some helpful resources

You might want to explore some of our toolkits to aid your discussions when developing your Connections funding proposal – these are available on our Brigstow Institute Toolkits webpage. The toolkits could be useful as you:

  • Develop your ideas and frame your project;
  • Untangle some of the language and expectations across disciplines and partners;
  • Think about how to keep people engaged in the project; and

Understand the pressures and tensions each team member might experience.