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Ocean Country Partnership Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) supports countries to manage the marine environment more sustainably, including by strengthening marine science expertise, developing science-based policy and management tools and creating educational resources for coastal communities. The programme is funded through official development assistance (ODA) as part of the UK’s £500 million Blue Planet Fund. Through the OCPP, the UK government partners with ODA-eligible countries to deliver positive impacts for coastal communities that depend on healthy marine ecosystems. Bilateral partnerships under the OCPP are primarily delivered by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), agencies of the UK government that possess unique expertise in marine science and management. The OCPP also funds two international initiatives that align with its aims and help to develop global public goods, the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) and the Friends of Ocean Action (FOA). GOAP is a global, multi-stakeholder partnership established to enable countries and other stakeholders to effectively measure and manage progress towards sustainable ocean development. FOA is a platform hosted by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, which brings together ocean leaders from a wide range of sectors to encourage action and investment into sustainable ocean projects. GOAP and FOA are both strategic partners of the OCPP, and are funded by the Blue Planet Fund (BPF). They do however remain independent organisations from OCPP, BPF, and Defra. Their work, and its intended outcomes and impacts, are strategically aligned with the OCPP and complement its programming in bilateral partnerships. GOAP and FOA were originally developed as separate business cases under the BPF, then in 2022 introduced as integrated components under OCPP to provide a clearer overall BPF offer to recipient countries. The investment to GOAP supports ODA-eligible countries to develop 'ocean accounts' to more accurately and comprehensively capture data on the natural capital assets contained within their oceans. Using this data - and through further technical, advisory, and capacity building support - GOAP aims to ensure that biodiversity is valued and integrated into policy making, decision making, and infrastructure investments in these countries, resulting in the inclusive and sustainable use and management of the ocean. An initial investment of £1million was awarded to GOAP in FY 2021/2. Following good performance in year one, a further £6million of investment was awarded, split evenly over FY's 2022/3, 23/4, and 24/5; giving a total of £7million. From December 2023, following evidence of strong value for money, this investment has since been uplifted to a total of £14.2million, involving new and expanded scope for certain activities, as well as extending the strategic partnership into FY 2025/6. FOA is a multi-stakeholder platform hosted by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the World Resources Institute, which brings together ocean leaders from a wide range of sectors to encourage action and investment into sustainable ocean projects. FOA, working closely with the High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy, aims to mobilise ocean leaders to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water. Through OCPP the investment supports pillars of FOA's work that strategically align with OCPP's own outcomes. There was an initial investment of £1million to FOA in FY 2021/2. After FOA performed well against investment and performance criteria in year one, a further investment of £2million was awarded in both FY's 2022/3 and 2023/4; rounding total investment for FOA to £5million.
International Science Partnership Fund (ISPF) - Institutional Support Grants - The Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Institutional Support Grant to the Department for the Economy (DfE) to cover Official Development Assistance (ODA) activities under the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). This funding provides flexible institutional grants that can be used strategically to support ODA eligible activity. This may include underpinning ISPF activity funded through other delivery partners, or by directly supporting research that addresses the problems faced by developing countries that are not funded through the ISPF grants of other delivery partners. Institutional Support Grants have been awarded to Queens University Belfast and Ulster University.
Royal Academy of Engineering - Leaders in Innovation Fellowships -International Science Partnerships Fund
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Leaders in Innovation Fellowships (LIF) programme is a comprehensive initiative designed to support talented entrepreneurs from around the globe in transforming their engineering innovations into impactful, sustainable businesses. The programme nurtures bold, scalable innovations across various engineering and technology domains, addressing complex environmental, economic, and societal challenges. Through LIF Global, engineering and technology innovators gain access to experienced mentors, an international network of peers, and high-quality skills training focused on commercialization and maximizing their technology's societal impact. The flagship and introductory programme recruits up to 100 engineers, researchers, and early-stage tech entrepreneurs from supported countries, who aim to commercialize their research through a 7-month programme of specialized training, mentoring, and networking events in both their home country and the UK, ultimately developing a market strategy and growth plan. Participants work towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in areas such as cleantech, healthtech, agtech, and edtech, utilizing novel technologies like AI, Blockchain, sustainable materials, novel chemical processes, and new hardware to address socio-economic problems with global potential. Additionally, the LIF Community supports programme graduates through bimonthly newsletters and the LIF Advance initiative, which offers deep dives into scaling later-stage businesses. This ODA-eligible programme primarily aims to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries, aligning with the core objectives of Official Development Assistance (ODA) by empowering local innovators to create sustainable, market-ready solutions to pressing global challenges.
Royal Academy of Engineering - Frontiers -International Science Partnerships Fund
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Frontiers connects and empowers enthusiastic researchers, innovators, and practitioners from the UK and around the world to collaboratively address complex global development challenges. By promoting collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking, Frontiers aims to foster creative solutions that deliver meaningful impact and cultivate a lasting global community geared towards achieving a sustainable and inclusive society. Each symposium's challenge focus is selected in collaboration with co-chairs from the UK and partner countries, ensuring relevance to local contexts. The resulting research projects are designed as equitable partnerships that specifically tackle local challenges. These thematic international and interdisciplinary symposia for early career researchers cover topics such as biodiversity and the circular economy, followed by reports that contribute to the evidence base and seed funding to pilot newly formed collaborations. This program aligns with ODA's primary objective of promoting the economic development and welfare of developing countries, addressing ISPF objectives such as increasing the impact of research excellence, strengthening research capacity in developing countries, and tackling global challenges through impactful research outputs. By framing symposia around the most pressing global challenges and building international communities of change-makers, the program enhances the impact of the UK's best early career researchers and strengthens the research and innovation capacity in partner countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), thereby fulfilling ODA eligibility and supporting global development.
British Academy Coherence & Impact - Challenge-led grants: Early Childhood Education
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The projects funded under this programme aim to provide critical knowledge to inform policy-making in the education and broader learning domain, while recognising the necessary interplay of education with health, nutrition, gender equality and other disciplines and sectors.
British Academy Coherence & Impact - Challenge-led grants: Urban Infrastructures of Well-being
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
This programme supports interdisciplinary research across the social and engineering sciences and the humanities looking to explore how formal and informal infrastructures interact to affect the well-being of people in cities across the Global South.
Academy of Medical Sciences - Networking Awards
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The awards would provide up to £25,000 over one year to support collaborations between priority ODA countries and/or LDCs and the UK and to hold networking events aimed at addressing the priority themes identified for ISPF. The scheme would be a vehicle for researchers from across the disciplines to forge new links and generate innovative transdisciplinary research ideas. It's envisaged that these new networks will then be better positioned to compete for more substantive grants offered by future funding initiatives.
Academy of Medical Sciences - International Career Development Programme -International Science Partnerships Fund
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
This programme builds on the Academy's extensive experience of developing programmes to support UK researchers through mentoring, tailored training in leadership, entrepreneurship and research soft skills and cohort-building Drawing on our experience of the ODA capacity building workshops piloted in 2022 and on recommendations that will emerge from the clinical research capacity building project, the career development programme will focus on identifying and fostering global best practice in supporting and connecting emerging research leaders across the health sciences sector (clinical, non-clinical, industry). Topics discussed and resources will be developed around wider leadership and entrepreneurship training, building supportive cohorts and in the second year connecting our UK cohorts with international emerging leaders for to exchange knowledge, foster collaborations and extend networks within life sciences. This activity potentially stimulate additional research impact by supporting researchers to thrive in their careers through opportunities for training, mentorship and cohort building, and also influence practice in terms of developing ways to support research careers and sharing best practice between UK and other countries. In addition, strengthen research capacity in developing countries by raising awareness and helping with the implementation of career support programmes that are important for researchers to thrive and be supported in carrying out their research, and working in partnership with organisations in partner countries, sharing best practice and forming connections between researchers in the UK and partner countries will strengthen the perceptions of UK research leadership and as a leader in the area of career development support. As with the global policy workshops, the ODA regional workshops will be developed and hosted in the ODA-eligible partner country and all outputs will be targeted towards the ODA-eligible partner country or region.
Royal Academy of Engineering - Transforming Systems Through Partnership -International Science Partnerships Fund
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Transforming Systems through Partnership (TSP) programme is designed to foster partnerships between universities in emerging countries and local industries, aiming to amplify the impact of research on economic growth and social development. This initiative is closely aligned with the primary objective of Official Development Assistance (ODA), which is to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries. By facilitating collaboration between academic institutions and local industries, the programme seeks to stimulate additional research impact and strengthen research capacity in these regions, directly contributing to economic advancement and social progress. The thematic focus on the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) challenges of Net Zero and Healthy Populations ensures that the research addresses pressing global issues, enhancing the sustainability and resilience of partner countries.
Royal Academy of Engineering - Higher Education Partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa -International Science Partnerships Fund
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Higher Education Partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa (HEP SSA) addresses the urgent engineering skills gap in sub-Saharan Africa by aligning higher education with industry requirements. Through grants to universities for projects spanning six months to two years, the program enhances academia-industry relationships, producing engineers with the skills and knowledge to meet local challenges and industry demands. Utilizing a hub and spoke model, HEP SSA maximizes impact through bilateral secondments with local industry partners and spreads knowledge to regional universities via workshops, reports, and other collaborative activities. Partnering with UK universities, HEP SSA not only strengthens engineering education but also highlights engineering's role in economic development. This initiative supports the International Science Partnerships Fund's (ISPF) mission to empower institutions in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) to address global challenges with a well-trained workforce focused on locally relevant research and innovation. By building the capacity of universities in ODA-eligible countries to produce employable engineering graduates, the program ensures these graduates contribute to sustainable community and national development. This positions the UK as a preferred partner in achieving the primary goal of Official Development Assistance (ODA) purposes: fostering sustainable development and improving the quality of life in developing countries.
Royal Academy of Engineering - ODA Delivery Costs -International Science Partnerships Fund
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Royal Academy of Engineering International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) ODA Delivery costs to support the delivery of International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) ODA allocation activities.
Core and Resilient Futures - UK ODA Fellowships
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Fellowships for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK. (From the Resilient Futures Collective Fund).
Royal Academy of Engineering Core - Engineering for Development Research Fellowships
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Royal Academy of Engineering offers Research Fellowships each year to outstanding early-career researchers to support them to become future research leaders in engineering.
Royal Academy of Engineering - GCRF Transition Activity & Delivery
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Funding to enable Royal Academy of Engineering to engage in the development of the new International Science Partnerships fund, including scoping and networking, and for interim activities to maintain partnerships and capacity in the transition from Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund to the new fund.
Royal Academy of Engineering Core - Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation aims to stimulate and reward engineering entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. The Africa Prize encourages ambitious and talented sub-Saharan African engineering innovators from all disciplines to apply their skills to develop scalable solutions to local challenges, highlighting the importance of engineering as an enabler of improved quality of life and economic development. Crucial commercialisation support is awarded to a shortlist of innovative applicants, through an eight-month period of training and mentoring.
NEW AFRICA PRIZE FOR ENGINEERING INNOVATION 2023 -2025
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Africa Prize awards commercialisation support to African innovators developing scalable engineering solutions to local challenges. These innovators show the importance of engineering in improving quality of life and economic development. This funding strand is specifically for the design and delivery of the 2024 and 2025 Africa Prizes for Engineering Innovation, and the support of the 2024 cohort of shortlisted innovators. It also supports other activities and awareness raising around the 10th anniversary of the Africa Prize- including alumni support grants. It is distinguished from other GCRF Africa Prize funding strands that are focused on legacy activities around the prize and its awardees from 2023 and earlier. The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation aims to stimulate and reward engineering entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. The Africa Prize encourages ambitious and talented sub-Saharan African engineering innovators from all disciplines to apply their skills to develop scalable solutions to local challenges, highlighting the importance of engineering as an enabler of improved quality of life and economic development. Crucial commercialisation support is awarded to a shortlist of innovative applicants, through an eight-month period of training and mentoring.
Academy of Medical Sciences - Transition Activity & Delivery
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Funding to enable Academy of Medical Sciences to engage in the development of the new International Science Partnerships fund, including scoping and networking, and for interim activities to maintain partnerships and capacity in the transition from Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund to the new fund.
British Academy - ODA International Interdisciplinary Research Projects -International Science Partnerships Fund
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
This funding initiative aims to foster international collaborations between early career researchers in the UK and their counterparts in Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, and Least Developed Countries. By focusing on interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences that is ODA-eligible, the program seeks to address global challenges through problem-focused, creatively innovative, and exploratory research. Projects should leverage diverse disciplinary perspectives for maximum impact, aligning with the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) thematic priorities. This activity, led by the British Academy with significant financial contributions from the Israel Science Foundation and the University of Virginia, and potential support from the Volkswagen Foundation, aims to support award-level partnerships across multiple countries. The Academy's goal is to enable equitable research partnerships that deliver excellence in understanding key global challenges. The flexible and scalable nature of the funding ensures it can support a wide range of partnerships, emphasizing the inclusion of at least one ISPF priority country in each project. This approach ensures that the research not only advances academic knowledge but also addresses the broader goals of international development and cooperation, fulfilling the primary objective of ODA to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries.
International Science Partnership Fund (ISPF) - Institutional Support Grants - MEDR, the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research Wales
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Institutional Support Grants to MEDR, the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research Wales to cover Official Development Assistance (ODA) activities under the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). This funding provides flexible institutional grants that can be used strategically to support ODA eligible activity. This may include underpinning ISPF activity funded through other delivery partners, or by directly supporting research that addresses the problems faced by developing countries that are not funded through the ISPF grants of other delivery partners. Institutional Support Grants have been awarded to Cardiff University, Swansea University, Aberystwyth University and Bangor University.
British Academy - International Writing Workshops - International Science Partnerships Fund
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
This activity brings together researchers from the priority countries, LDCs and the UK, journal editors and early career researchers in LDCs and priority countries in order to: support the development of early career academics with promise; promote uptake of Global South research in journals; and increase scholarly interaction between UK and researchers in LDCs and the priority countries. In advancing their careers, early career researchers from LDCs and priority countries are encouraged, supported and mentored in: developing competitive research publications in the humanities and social sciences; drafting grant applications; and building networks and connections with and beyond the UK. This also helps to develop mentoring and support networks that live long after the awards themselves. The call will require applicants to focus their awards on and with partners in LDCs and/or ODA ISPF priority countries.
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