The Babraham Institute and Newcastle University have been successful in their application to the UKRI-BBSRC’s 2023 Flexible Talent Mobility Account (FTMA) call, the grant (April 2024 - 2027) has enabled the creation of a fund to financially support short collaborative placements and training opportunities that will benefit staff at the two organizations.
Return to the main CONNECT Fund webpage.
The aim of this Fund is to enable cross-sector and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange in biosciences by facilitating mobility between academic, business, public sector and third sector organisations to enhance skills development, prime collaborations, enable sector porosity, as well as providing professional development opportunities for bioscience research staff and supporting staff at all career stages.
All CONNECT FTMA applications must be led by either a Newcastle University or Babraham Institute staff member.
Eligible applicants include any research staff or supporting staff that are working within the biosciences or supporting bioscience in some capacity, or who are supporting mobility and development of individuals, including:
Funds can also be used to support non-UK nationals to undertake short-term placements and research collaborations that are hosted within a UK research organisation, subject to UK visa requirements.
Staff exchanges will be subject to checking of current contractual obligations.
N.B. Although the UKRI-BBSRC CONNECT FTMA grant has previously been unable to support costs that enable student participation in exchanges or collabrations, funds raised through the Frontiers in Stem Cell Innovation 2026 Conference will be used to create a small fund for the Spring 2026 CONNECT call that will be specifically cover the direct costs of PhD students incurred through participating in collaborations or placements.
While the CONNECT Fund is designed to support a wide range of training activities for staff that are undertaking or supporting bioscience in some capacity, terms of the UKRI-BBSRC grant require this initiative to strongly prioritize:
Proposals will be aligned with this priority if they:
Within both of these priority areas, the Fund is additionally keen to support cross-sector engagements (i.e. collaborative interactions between Babraham Institute and/or Newcastle University staff with partners in industry/commercial, healthcare, governmental, or non-profit organisations).
Specific guidance setting out the ways the CONNECT FTMA fund can support industry engagement is provided here.
The CONNECT Fund’s Joint Steering Committee will be looking to support proposals from a range of teams and departments, to ensure the training benefits are spread across staff at the two organisations.
The CONNECT FTMA Fund will be promoted through regular calls at Newcastle University and Babraham Institute between May 2024 and January 2027.
All applications should be made through the web-based application form.
CONNECT Fund proposals will be assessed by the CONNECT Joint Steering Committee immediately after a call closes.
The CONNECT Fund can support 100% directly incurred project costs for short-term placements:
* Projects can request up to £25,000.
This fund cannot be used to support:
All projects awarded funding will be expected to commence promptly once the funding decision has been communicated, supporting any contractual requirements. All project expenditure must be completed within 8 months of the award being confirmed.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to consider incorporate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion aspects in their applications. The CONNECT Fund partners are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants and encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers. This grant will support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:
Further information in relation to the UKRI EDI strategy, and considerations regarding the sex and gender dimension of research can be found in the links below:
https://www.ukri.org/publications/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy-draft-for- consultation/ukri-equality-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy-draft-for-consultation/
https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gear/integration-gender-dimension-research-and-teaching-content
Receipt of a CONNECT Fund award may need to be subject to execution of a research collaboration agreement, dependent on the parties and activities involved, to be negotiated with in good faith between project partners. Project leads will be required to fully support the CONNECT Project team in fulfilling their reporting obligations to UKRI- BBSRC by capturing short, medium and long outcomes from their project, and support Babraham Institute and Newcastle University to develop a non-confidential case study to highlight a project’s impact.
All CONNECT Fund awardees shall respond promptly to project monitoring requests (mid-project and end-project requests) originating from either the Babraham Institute or Newcastle University, to enable the grant holders to fully appreciate progress of the funded project and comply with UKRI-BBSRC reporting requirements.
All CONNECT Fund awardees will be expected to update their CONNECT Fund contact with news of any later benefit arising as a result of undertaking their funded project (e.g. publication, intellectual property, externally-funded grant funding success), even after the project has finished.
Any publications (papers, posters, presentations) resulting from the support provided by the CONNECT Fund must acknowledge this. The following funding acknowledgement statement should be used:
‘This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) through the Flexible Talent Mobility Account (FTMA) under grant BB/Z515164/1 (CONNECT: Catalysing Opportunities for New Collaborative Exchanges and Training).'
For any queries, please get in touch with either:
The Babraham Institute’s KEC team: kec@babraham.ac.uk
Newcastle University’s IMA Steering Committee: IMA-steering@ncl.ac.uk
The fifteen CONNECT FTMA application form's questions are listed below to assist applicants in preparing responses.
All applications to the fund should be made through the online Microsoft office form that can be accessed here.
1. Principal Applicant Name
2. Role
3. Department and Organisation Affiliation
Proposals must be led by a staff member (not student) from either the Babraham Institute or Newcastle University
4. Email Address
5. Project Title
6. List below the names, roles, email address and affiliations of all other individuals (if any) who will be directly benefiting from this funding application
7. Does your proposal include a request for costs that will support a student(s) (undergrad, graduate or PhD student) participation?
8. Expected project start date
9. Expected project term
e.g. two weeks
10. Please detail the project's proposed activities, aims and ambitions
(maximum 300 words)
11. How does this proposal meet the CONNECT Fund’s priority areas?
12. What are the benefits and opportunities expected to result from the funded activities for the funded individuals, and the participating organisations
Describe any new technical skills, access to tools or resources, new professional networks, collaboration or grant funding opportunities, career mobility, cross-sector, societal or commercial impacts that this award may provide.
13. What contributions will be provided by your team/department
Please include all cash or in-kind support you organisation will additionally be providing to support this activity, along with estimated value of this support where possible e.g. staff time, lab costs, equipment, consumables, data, results, intellectual property
14. What contributions which will be provided by your project partner(s)
Please detail all cash or in kind support the partnering organisation(s) will additionally be providing to support this activity, along with estimated value of this support where possible e.g. staff time, lab costs, equipment, consumables, data, results, intellectual property
15. How will this project incorporate EDI principles, both in design and outcomes?
Your answer could consider participant diversity (to ensure fair access to opportunities or diverse perspectives in planning and implementation), address accessibility needs (outline practical steps for accommodating different needs such as flexible scheduling, remote participation options, or accessible venues), cultural sensitivity: how the collaboration will respect and accommodate cultural differences, creating an environment where diverse participants feel valued and included, how it will bring together different disciplines that could enhance diversity of thought and methodological approaches, engage partners from diverse geographic locations, including those from less-resourced institutions or regions, or connect to broader impacts: how the knowledge or techniques gained will benefit groups that are typically underrepresented, and if appropriate, how you will track EDI progress throughout the project
16. How will this project contribute to fostering a positive research culture?
An answer could consider ethical practices, collaboration, mentoring, dissemination, integrity, or broader impacts: How might this proposal promote open communication, data sharing, and cross-disciplinary engagement? In what ways will this proposal support mentoring and training of early-career researchers, or other team members? What are your plans for disseminating any research findings and contributing to the broader scientific community? In what ways might this proposal contribute to advancing knowledge, addressing societal challenges, or shaping research culture within your field or organization?
17. Please provide a summary budget (maximum one A4 page equivalent) for all requested costs.
Please refer to this fund’s guidance on allowable costs. Group all requested costs together to provide a subtotal under the name of each organisation that that will need to be reimbursed by the CONNECT FTMA Fund.
18. Where a proposal includes a student, please describe all costs that are specifically required to support the student(s) participation in the proposal (travel, accommodation).
19. As the value of complimentary CONNECT student fund we have available is limited, please detail whether a project will be able to proceed should the Fund not be able to support a student's costs