FAQ

• Travel expenses for project visits between Jordan, South Africa and Thailand and the UK.
• Salary support for participating individuals to conduct the activities proposed.
• Stipends for participating students and early career researchers.
• Workshops and other training or dissemination activities organised by the project partners.
• Consumables and other directly project-related costs.
  • New partnerships - no more than 10% of the funds requested.
  • Existing partnerships – no more than 50% of the funds requested.
• Conference fees and cost of travel to attend or present research at project-related conferences. 
• Publishing, publicity, and advertisement costs to increase awareness of research projects and disseminate results.

• Applications open: 24 August
• Applications close: 9 October 2023, 4pm BST
• Q&A webinar for potential applicants: 4 September/ 15 September/ 29 September. Please register for the webinar using this form.
• Eligibility checking: 10 October– 13 October (please be ready to answer questions on your gender equality statement as this is a key part of the eligibility process). 
• Successful applicants are notified of outcomes: by end November 2023.
• Awards start: December 2023

In addition to grant funding, awardees will join the TSP community and gain access to capacity building and networking events, and opportunities to collaborate with awardees in other countries tackling similar issues.

• The proposed project should clearly align with the overall aims and objectives of the scheme. Original ideas using local solutions are actively encouraged.​
• The lead applicant will be employed by a university in Jordan, South Africa, or Thailand.
• The lead applicant must collaborate with at least one industry partner in their country (Jordan / South Africa / Thailand) and one UK university.
• PI’s are expected to be employed consistently at the university where they are applying from i.e. not planning to move institutes or take sabbatical leave
• Applications must include a detailed budget delivered over a maximum of 12 months (December 2023 – 2 December 2024).
• Project activities must run between December 2023 – 2 December 2024.
• The application must be designed to meet the TSP and ISPF objectives.
• Projects must fall into one of two categories: new partnerships working on clean energy or affordable healthcare; or existing partnerships building on their IAPP/TSP projects to create sustainable change. Some examples of potential new partnership project topics are listed below, but this list is not exhaustive.
  • Clean energy - solar, wind, biofuels, electric vehicles, hydroelectricity, carbon capture, batteries and energy storage, and green hydrogen.
  • Affordable healthcare - digital and remote health; health supply chain innovations; diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine manufacture; data for health monitoring; health systems strengthening, and one health.
• Matched contribution- Project partners must demonstrate a matched contribution of at least 50% of the grant requested from the Academy.

Each partnership must consist of a Jordanian, South African or Thai university partner (lead partner), a UK university partner and a Jordanian, South African or Thai industry partner, at minimum - other partners in civil society, government, industry, community organisations, research labs and more are strongly encouraged and will be viewed favourably.

The Academy is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes applications from all under-represented groups across engineering. We require you to ensure that your project design and monitoring and evaluation is informed by diverse voices and enables participation by an appropriately diverse group of stakeholders. 

If you need help finding partners, please fill out the form.

If a UK commercial partner participates in the project, then that partner is not expected to receive specific benefit from the financial assistance given to the research organisation, in line with section 15.33 of the Statutory Guidance for the UK Subsidy Control Regime. If your project may involve a specific benefit to a participating UK commercial organisation, then please get in touch before submitting your application.

All applicants must adhere to the following reporting throughout the course of the grant. 

• Initiation report   
• On track report   
• Mid-term report   
• On track report   
• Final report   
• Follow-on report 

Please note that project extensions will not be possible, so please ensure the activities, resource allocation and timelines are realistic. 

Applications go through a multi-stage selection process, this consists of:  

Submission - Applications are submitted on the Academy’s online Grant Management System (GMS). Only applicants that have filled out all mandatory answers and submitted all necessary documentation will be able to submit.  

Eligibility check - this includes checking the application fits the scheme themes and objectives, that all questions have been answered in full, all necessary supporting documents are correct, that all costs and activities are eligible, and that the gender equality statement is sufficient. 

Peer review – Each application is reviewed by minimum two reviewers. Reviews are conducted on the Academy’s GMS. 

Review criteria  

Reviewers will provide comments and score projects against the following assessment criteria, as well as the overall quality of the application and a recommendation on whether they meet the criteria and should proceed to the selection panel. 

• Partnership quality and capacity  
• Inclusion and participation  
• Goals and objectives  
• Outcomes and impact  
• Finances and resourcing 

Selection panel - TSP programme board members and other peer reviewers selected by the Academy and our international partners for Jordan, South Africa and Thailand countries will meet virtually to sift through the highest scoring applications from the peer review and make the final selection of applications.

You cannot submit more than one application as a lead applicant; however you may be listed as a partner on more than on application. 

Please visit the TSP programme page for further information on the grant and the application process, and please ensure you have read the guidance notes and other supporting documentation available on the ‘How to apply’ page.

If you have any further questions or require more information, please get in contact with James Johnson at [email protected]. 

Existing partnerships

An existing partnership means a consortium of collaborators who have been successful in securing an Industry Academia Partnership Programme (IAPP) or Transforming Systems through Partnership (TSP) grant through the Royal Academy of Engineering at any time in the past. 

New partnerships

New partnerships are defined as applications with a new Principal Investigator (PI) who has never led a project funded through the Industry Academia Partnership Programme (IAPP) or Transforming Systems through Partnership (TSP) programme through the Royal Academy of Engineering before.

Please read the supporting documents on the how to apply page for more information on existing and new partnerships. 

1. Taking responsibility for content: Applicants are fully responsible for all the content presented in their grant applications. The grant process does not penalise the use of generative AI tools, but it is imperative to ensure that the application reflects the applicant's own voice and ideas. 
2. Rigorous approach: Applicants should exercise caution when using generative AI tools to avoid the inclusion of ‘hallucinated’ references or factual errors. These become more common when up to date content on a very specific topic is required. These inaccuracies will be viewed as indications of a lack of rigor and will negatively impact the assessment of the application. 
3. Partial use of AI tools: It is not acceptable to solely rely on generative AI tools to write the entire grant application. While these tools may be used to assist in various aspects, the application must primarily represent the applicant's own work. 
4. Plagiarism: Applicants should be aware that the output generated by some AI tools may use ideas from other human authors without proper referencing. As this is considered a form of plagiarism, it is essential to ensure that all sources are appropriately attributed. 
5. Proper acknowledgement of AI usage: Applicants must provide clear acknowledgement if they have used generative AI tools in the process of writing their grant applications. This includes the name of the tool and how it was used. The following style should be followed:
   I acknowledge the use of [insert AI system(s), version number and link] to generate materials for background research, styling, proofreading, etc. 
   I acknowledge the use of [insert AI system(s), version number and link] to generate materials that were included within my final assessment in modified form. 
6. Applicant declaration within GMS: To submit your application you must tick a declaration confirming that ‘all contributions have been appropriately referenced or credited including the use of any online tools such as AI generative tools used in developing my application. I understand that failure to cite and declare references or sources will result in my application being removed from the process.’