Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)

Please see our new Research Councils: major changes and budget announcements page for the latest updates about changes to grant programmes, grant administration, financial management of awards, and the impact of moves to the Shared Services Centre.

Background information on the BBSRC

Areas supported Plants, microbes, animals (including humans) and tools and technology underpinning biological research
Types of funding Postgraduate, Research, Fellowships, International, Knowledge Transfer.
See BBSRC's Funding Research. Please also see BBSRC ARMA Study Tour (Oct 2011) (5,564kb) and Strategic Priorities
Funding Guide See Research Grants Guide.
BBSRC funding opportunities On the BBSRC website
On ResearchProfessional.com. You will need to log in or click on Campus Access to view these
BBSRC Research Income at Oxford Income at Oxford 2010/11: Oxford received £10.6M (eighth largest research funder of the University)
Applications and Award Activity at Oxford 2010/11: 99 applications submitted to the value of £44.3M. 21 new BBSRC awards accepted worth £3.7M, including financial amendments to existing awards (University financial year Aug-Jul)
Success Rates 2010/11  - by volume of applications
National average: 28%. Oxford: 28% (BBSRC financial year Apr-Mar)
See the BBSRC's Research Statistics webpage
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Preparing your application

  • It is essential that you refer to the Funding Guide and any specific guidance issued with the funding call or opportunity. Contact the Council directly for further guidance.
  • If you are thinking of putting together a grant application, please get in touch with your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator as soon as possible (and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline), so that they can provide advice and assistance with the preparation of your proposal. The sooner you get in touch, the more they will be able to help.

Further information

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Using the Je-S system for grant applications

Je-S is the Research Councils' web-based Joint Electronic Submission system for grant applications and award administration. All applications must be prepared and submitted via Je-S.

If you are new to Je-S, you will need to create a user account - please refer to Step 1 in our Application Process section. Your co-investigators will also need an account. Please note that you can also grant access to co-investigators or other colleagues so that they can view and edit the application directly in the system.

Please refer to the links below for more information about using Je-S at the application stage.

Further information:

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Preparing a Case for Support

  • This is the part of the application where you will describe your proposed project and why you should be funded to carry it out.
  • Ensure that your case is well-structured and addresses the issues or questions raised in the call.
  • Familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria that will be used - and the weighting given to each.
  • When writing your proposal be aware of who will ultimately be reading and assessing it. This will not just be subject experts but also generalists sitting on review panels, as well as (in some cases) research users.
  • Use the advice and expertise of colleagues, especially those who have had successful proposals - it can be helpful to ask colleagues who are both expert and non-expert in your field to read and comment on your application.
  • As with all aspects of your application, don't overlook 'minor details'. The wrong font size or exceeding page limits will result in your application being returned by the funder - and sometimes not considered at all.
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Ethics

  • The Je-S forms include questions about any ethical considerations connected to the proposed research, including research involving human participants or animals. Details of any ethics approvals or licences are also requested.

Further information

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Pathways to Impact

  • Applicants to the majority of BBSRC funding calls and schemes are required to submit a Pathways to Impact section which will take the form of an up to 2-page (2 sides of an A4) document attachment.

  • The Impact Summary and Pathways to Impact section allows researchers to identify the potential scientific, societal, economic or cultural impacts of their research.

  • Researchers must ensure that any confidential information is described in the Impact Statement or Plan rather than in the Impact Summary.

Further Information

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Costing and Budgeting

  • Your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator will assist you to identify the costs of your project and also prepare a Resolve costing. Please contact them as soon as you are thinking about applying and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline. The Resolve costing will provide the financial information that you must include in the Je-S forms and, since this is the form that indicates Departmental approval of the costs of a project, it has to be provided to Research Services before the application can be approved and submitted by the University to the funder.

  • Applications should be costed on a full economic cost (FEC) basis. The Council will contribute 80% of these costs with the exception of equipment costs where different funding rules apply depending on the value of each individual item of equipment. For further information please see Research Councils and Equipment Funding. Please note that the BBSRC do not fund students on research projects.

Further information for researchers:

Further information for Departmental administrators:

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Equipment

The Research Councils have changed the rules on funding equipment. For further information and on costing guidance please see Research Councils and Equipment Funding.

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Justification of Resources

  • All applications must include an attachment which sets out the justification for the resources requested. This is an opportunity to explain in words why you require the resources detailed in your budget.
  • Note that this is not justifying the costs (money) sought, rather the resources required to undertake the project, such as equipment or number of staff but also the level (seniority) of proposed staff and the proportion of their time they will dedicate to the project.
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I'm ready to submit my application - what should I do now?

  • Firstly check that your application is complete and includes all the information and attachments required by the Council (this includes letters of support, CVs, lists of publications etc). You can use the 'Validate' function in Je-S to detect any errors in data fields that need to be corrected before the system will allow you to submit it to the next stage.
  • Hitting 'Submit' on Je-S doesn't submit the application. It sends it to the next stage of the process which is to your Departmental Approver Pool. You should therefore check that they are expecting this and have received it.
  • Once your Departmental Approver has approved the application on behalf of your Department it is routed via the Je-S system to Research Services.
  • Research Services reviews applications on behalf of the University and will liaise with you and/or your Departmental Administrator over any queries or changes that might be needed to the application.
  • Research Services submits the approved application to the Council.

Further Information

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The application has been submitted - what next?

  • All proposals are first assessed on general eligibility and assessment requirements, and where they meet these requirements, are submitted to the appropriate BBSRC Committee for peer review
  • Any proposals containing errors or omissions are rejected at this stage
  • Depending on the nature of the error or omission, researchers have the opportunity to make corrections and resubmit the proposal within the specified deadline
  • Proposals are sent to referees
  • Proposals plus peer reviewers' and referees' responses then go forward to Committees which rank proposals in order of priority of funding
  • BBSRC notifies applicants of the outcome by Je-S. For details please see our Offer Acceptances and Start Certificates page. For unfunded proposals you will be notified of the grade awarded and you can check whether a resubmission is possible
  • Do let your Departmental Administrator know the outcome of your proposal. Where it is to be funded they will liaise with you and Research Services regarding the acceptance of the award

Further Information

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Managing your award

Further information

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Documents

Related links

Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S)

Find out more