Joint-URI seedcorn fund: Infectious diseases, climate change and decision making. Application guidelines

Key details

Seedcorn funding call opens	Friday 7 August 2026
Application deadline	Wednesday 14 October 2026, 5pm
Information event	Tuesday 15 September 2026, 2.30pm - 4pm
External award announcement	Week commencing 26 October 2026
Showcase event	During Bristol Data Week 7-11 July 2027
Deadline for spending funds	Friday 16 July 2027
Application Form Link

 Funding guidelines

Climate change is substantially increasing the threat of infectious diseases and leading changes in disease patterns, with diseases moving into new areas where populations have little natural immunity and new diseases emerging. The mechanisms are increasingly clear. Warming, shifting rainfall and extreme weather are changing where and when pathogens, vectors and hosts can survive. Mosquitoes and ticks carrying dengue, chikungunya and Lyme disease are extending their range, warming waters and increasingly severe flooding events favour waterborne pathogens, while changing land use and closer contact between people, livestock and wildlife raise the risk of zoonotic spillover. Transmission seasons are also shifting and lengthening, so that outbreaks begin earlier, last longer and arrive at times of year for which health systems are poorly prepared.

What remains uncertain is how these changes will manifest: which diseases will matter most, how fast they will spread, and how they will interact with local health systems and human behaviour. Despite these uncertainties, action is essential. Policy and decision-makers need new tools and evidence to support decisions to be taken while accounting for uncertainty. This Seedcorn Funding call is designed to support University of Bristol researchers to develop innovative, early-stage research to support decision-making around infectious disease control in light of climate change and to create the conditions for larger grant capture.

The primary aim of this scheme is to:

• Add significant value: Proposals should either greatly enhance your own research, such as by positioning you for external funding or fellowships, or contribute substantially to a broader community, whether at the University of Bristol or within your research field. Proposals that include co-authoring of papers with international collaborators will be particularly welcome.

Proposals should be: 

• Interdisciplinary: Your work should integrate tools, methods, practices, or knowledge from one discipline into another, or explore the intersections between different disciplines.
• Collaborative: We encourage proposals that transcend traditional community boundaries, including those involving external partnerships, civic engagement, and the bridging of research communities.

Applicants are encouraged to describe how the proposed work fulfils the above criteria in alignment with the University research strategy.

The funds could be used:  

• To pilot or refine methods/algorithms so they can be implemented in real-world applications. 
• To test methods/techniques (including the use of algorithms) with decision-makers as proof of concept.
• To re-analyse data from a previous research project(s) to underpin a proposal for a new study.  
• To visualise existing project outputs in novel and innovative ways to increase the impact of the research.
• To develop links with external organisations (for example local government, SMEs, industry, not-for-profit organisations, health and social care sector) who are interested in developing collaborations, exploring external datasets, developing novel and/or robust methods for data visualisation, analysis, synthesis, management or storage.

These examples are indicative and plans for other activities directed towards forming the basis of an interdisciplinary and collaborative research proposal will also be considered.

Information event

Researchers interested in applying are encouraged to attend the Seedcorn Fund Information Event on Tuesday 15 September, 2.30pm - 4pm. The session will include an introduction to the funding scheme, followed by an opportunity for participants to briefly present their research interests (1 min) and explore potential collaborations with others seeking partnership opportunities.

The event will be in Arts Complex LT3 or online.

Please register your attendance by completing the form below and we will send you more information near the time.

Information event registration form

Eligibility

Any research active University of Bristol staff member can apply for Seedcorn Funding; early career researchers (Post Doctoral Research Associates (PDRAs), Research Fellows, Lecturers) are encouraged to apply. Please note that students, including PhD students, are not eligible for this Seedcorn Funding competition, but their time can be costed in the application.

Applicants need to have a contract of employment beyond the end-date of the award period.

Award amount

Projects may seek funding of up to £10,000. There is a total of £60,000 available for this call.

• Funding does not cover conference attendance or training, but small amounts (up to £2,000) can be requested to organise workshops, networking meetings, data dives etc.
• Please use the Full Economic Costing system Worktribe (see below for details).
• The grant will pay 100% of direct costs. Indirect costs and estates costs and DA staff costs are ineligible for this fund. 
• The funding can be spent on consumables, PDRA time, or PhD time, data access, Research IT
• If PhDs are paid by the funding, the school will need to process the TSS contracts.
• The funding can be used to purchase cloud computing, but you will need to justify why the University resources are not appropriate for the intended work. This will help IT services to plan for future investments.
• The funding will not cover IT equipment, including laptops.
• Open access publication costs (e.g. ‘gold’ open access fees) cannot be supported.

Assessment criteria and process

Applications will be assessed by a panel representing the University Research Institutes. The panel will evaluate proposals against the criteria below and may also consider the overall balance of funded projects across themes, disciplines and career stages.

Successful applications will demonstrate a clear alignment with the aims of the Joint-URI Seedcorn Fund: Infectious Diseases, Climate Change and Decision Making and show how the proposed activity will generate new interdisciplinary collaborations, pilot data, methods, partnerships or other outputs that position the team for future research opportunities.

The assessment panel will consider:

1. Strategic value and research quality

• The extent to which the proposal addresses challenges related to infectious diseases, climate change and decision making.
• The originality, significance and quality of the proposed research or development activity.
• The likelihood that the project will generate meaningful scientific, societal, policy or methodological impact.

2. Interdisciplinarity and collaboration

• The extent to which the project brings together expertise, methods, data, approaches or perspectives from different disciplines.
• Evidence of genuine integration between disciplines rather than parallel contributions from separate fields.
• The strength of existing or proposed collaborations, including partnerships with external organisations where appropriate.
• The potential to establish new interdisciplinary research networks and communities.

3. Justification of resources and value for money

• Whether the requested resources are appropriate and proportionate to the proposed activities.
• The extent to which the budget represents good value for money.
• Clear and well-justified use of the requested funds.

4. Potential for follow-on funding and sustainability

• The extent to which the proposed work will strengthen future applications to external funders.
• Clear plans for seeking follow-on funding, including identification of potential funding opportunities where appropriate.
• The likelihood that the project will generate pilot data, proof-of-concept findings, partnerships, methods or other outputs that can underpin future research proposals.
• The potential for longer-term research, impact or collaboration beyond the seed funding period.

5. Feasibility and deliverability

• The clarity and achievability of the project objectives, activities and timeline.
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities of all project partners and team members, including how the proposed work will be delivered and who will be accountable for each aspect of delivery.
• Evidence that the proposed work can be completed within the available budget and award period.
• Appropriate consideration of risks, ethics and data governance where relevant.

Funding decisions

Funding decisions will be based on the overall quality of applications against the criteria above.

Jean Golding Institute Research Engineering costings

The Jean Golding Institute (JGI)’s Research Engineering group (REG) is a pool of data scientists, AI Engineers and research software engineers (RSEs) that can be costed into research projects. When including JGI REG member in your costings, please make sure that you first discuss your requirements with the team, please email ask-jgi@bristol.ac.uk to set up a meeting.

As guidance, the JGI REG has availability for up to 0.4FTE for up to three months, but please seek advice.

Once you have discussed your project with the JGI REG, please follow these guidelines to add the costings in Worktribe.

Worktribe costings

The application must be fully costed in Worktribe and approved by your Head of School before your application is submitted. Please contact your local Finance Costing Specialist as they will be able to help you with your costing queries.

The following timings for completing Worktribe costings are recommended:

• Three weeks before the deadline: the PI needs to contact their Costing Specialist within the University to start the process of getting the budget completed and approved.
• One week before the deadline: the budget will need to be finalised and submitted into workflow, so that the relevant approvals within the University can be completed.
• At least two working days before the deadline: the approvals should have been completed to allow you to finalise your application.

Please ensure that a Worktribe costing is set up using the following template:

• Project type – Research - Higher Education Funding Bodies Specific - Other Research England Specific.
• Project activity type – Research - Internally Funded.
• Funder – University of Bristol (Internal Funding Calls).
• Scheme - UoB (internal) 100% DI costs.
• Themes – select Cabot Institute (URI) and Jean Golding Institute (URI).

Conditions of funding

• All expenditure should be completed by Friday 16 July 2027.
• Awardees will need to create a PURE entry describing the project, funds will be made available once the entry has been created. Further information on how to create the entry will be sent to the successful applicants.
• To promote your work, we will invite Seedcorn awardees to participate in a showcasing event that will take place during Bristol Data Week (7-11 June). Further information will be sent near the time.
• We will contact you from time to time to check any follow-on outputs of your project.
• To help promote research funded by the Institutes, Seedcorn Funding holders will be invited to contribute promotional materials, such as blog posts, posters, or case studies, when suitable opportunities arise. We will provide further details as needed. This enables us to highlight your research through Institute communications, including newsletters and social media channels.
• We strongly encourage all participants to consider the ethical and societal implications of their work. Successful projects will have the opportunity to participate in a short, guided Data Hazards for ethics in data science workshop. You can read more about the Data Hazards project on this page and how you can get involved.

 Further information and queries

We encourage you to discuss your ideas with us before applying. We can also help you to connect with colleagues in other disciplines to develop an interdisciplinary project. Please email to arrange a meeting (email Jim: jim.evans@bristol.ac.uk or Patty: P.holley@bristol.ac.uk).

If you have any questions about the process of applying for this funding, please contact Julia Cassell at hello-uri@bristol.ac.uk.