You are here

  1. Home
  2. Funding

Funding

The team is here to support and guide Open University academics applying for funding for projects that relate to international development. Find out how they can help you.

Strategic Research Area Seed Funding for OU academics (internal funding)

Our research development programme has two funding categories submission categories:

  1. Small grants, up to £2,000 (up to three awards), can be used to support bidding activity. Support will only be provided for activities leading to the submission of grant proposals, such as bid development and bid writing workshops, travel to and for project co-investigators and/or hiring consultants for basic research and data gathering for a selected bid (not for subcontracting bid-writing). The funds need to be spent by 30 June 2020.
  2. Bigger grants of £5,000 (up to three awards) can be used to host visiting academics at the OU for a period of up to 4-6 weeks to work on the development of a grant application. We welcome proposals to create or strengthen collaborations that would lead to substantial bids of more than £500,000, but require more background knowledge and/or network building to achieve success.

To apply, please contact: international-development-research@open.ac.uk

Funding Programmes

Looking for suitable funding calls? Here are some of the current opportunities in global development research:

The UK Government's Department for International Development 
Global Challenges Research Fund
National Institute for Health Research
Wellcome Trust
Newton Fund

Funding Resources

These are resources to support your funding applications and to help explore and build partnerships for global development research projects:

  1. Building Partnerships of Equals
  2. Partners and stakeholders’ resources to help you build high impact research collaborations
  3. Promoting Fair and Equitable Research Partnerships to Respond to Global Challenges
  4. Perspectives on Partnership: Highlights of a Literature Review
  5. Striking the Balance: Between Competition, Collaboration and Impact in International Development Research Calls & Programmes
  6. Tips for writing a good Case for Support

Contact us

To find out more about our work, or to discuss a potential project, please contact:

International Development Research Office
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)1908 858502
E: international-development-research@open.ac.uk