The Flexible Bursaries Scheme provides financial support to ELIXIR-UK members to engage in activities that strengthen our community and advance ELIXIR-UK’s mission. Your proposed activity must relate to ELIXIR‑UK’s areas of work.
- Participation in national and international events: attendance at key meetings, conferences, hackathons, training sessions, or collaborative visits relevant to ELIXIR’s mission. Examples of eligible events include ISMB/ECCB, Biohackathons, thematic workshops, meetings with ELIXIR members, and visits to member institutions (lasting less than one week) for technical collaboration or knowledge exchange.
- Organisation of local or regional scientific and engagement events: to enhance ELIXIR-UK’s visibility, strengthen connections among members, and/or support the work of digital research infrastructure relevant to the UK bioscience community (e.g. share best practices, hosting training courses, running seminars, local showcases)
What’s out of scope
This bursary cannot be used to support attendance at the ELIXIR All Hands meetings (AHM). If you need support to attend the ELIXIR AHM, please contact us.
You are eligible to apply if you work at a university or research institute that is an ELIXIR-UK member. There is no individual registration for ELIXIR-UK: if your organisation appears on our list of members, you are considered a member and are therefore eligible to apply for this grant. Check if your organisation is a member of ELIXIR-UK.
Please note that, to ensure our records remain accurate, only organisations that have submitted the 2025 Census will be eligible to apply. Applicants should confirm with their institution’s Steering Committee representative whether the Census has been completed.
This opportunity is open to early-career, mid-career and established professionals. It is suitable for those pursuing both academic and non-academic technical careers.
Each proposal may request either:
- Up to £5,000 to organise an event or establish a local community or network, or
- Up to £1,500 to cover travel expenses for attending an event.
Eligible costs and limits:
- Direct staff costs: costs directly related to the delivery of the event or activity (e.g. staff time for planning, facilitation, or technical support).
- Travel. Whenever possible and safe, public transport should be used. Travel must be standard class or equivalent.
- Accommodation:
- UK hotel accommodation claims must not exceed the rates set out in the UKRI business travel and subsistence policy.
- International hotel accommodation claims must not exceed the rates set out in the HMRC Guidance for travel outside the UK, unless otherwise agreed in advance by ELIXIR-UK.
- Exceptional costs: claims for higher costs may be approved by exception by prior written agreement of ELIXIR-UK.
Non-eligible costs:
- Costs not directly related to the delivery of the event or activity (e.g. general overheads, unrelated staff time)
- Alcohol
- 3 February: Call opens
- 3 March: Call closes
- Mid March: announcement of results
There will be two open application periods each year: one in January/February and the other in August/September.
We encourage you to apply during these times. However, we understand that urgent or exceptional cases may arise. For those situations, if you have a strong case that cannot wait for the next open call, please contact us at contact@elixiruknode.org.
We are committed to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of our funding process. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and career stages. We support flexible working arrangements, including:
- Alternative working patterns to accommodate diverse needs
- Support for individuals with caring responsibilities
How to apply
Fill out our form requesting the following information:
- Purpose of application: What activity are you applying for? Please describe the activity, including the title, dates, location, and organiser if relevant. Explain the purpose of your application and how it aligns with ELIXIR-UK’s objectives.
- Benefits: How will this bursary support your professional or personal development? How will the proposed activity benefit the ELIXIR-UK community as a whole?
- Impact: What specific outcomes or outputs do you expect from the activity? Please explain how these results will contribute to your work and to the wider goals of ELIXIR-UK.
- Budget: Provide a detailed budget breakdown and justification for the requested funds.
- Impact assessment: You must agree that, as a condition of the award, you will provide a short impact assessment within one month of the activity’s completion. This information may be used to support case studies or other communications highlighting the outcomes of ELIXIR-UK-supported work.
In this application process, we collect information about your career stage, gender, disability, and ethnic origin as part of our equality monitoring procedures. Special category data collected as part of our equality monitoring procedures is used to provide anonymised data and reports to ensure we maintain and promote equality of opportunity across our funding application and award processes.
Read our full privacy statement.
Funding process
Funding will be awarded on a reimbursement basis.
- Application: Fill out the form
- Approval: If approved, the applicant will receive confirmation of the maximum amount that can be claimed.
- Activity completion: The applicant completes the proposed activity or travel
- Report submission: Applicants are requested to submit an impact assessment report on the activities carried out and the impact observed or anticipated. This information helps the ELIXIR-UK Node continue providing funding support to our members.
- Reimbursement: For travel bursaries and small awards, reimbursement will be made to the individual after submission of a valid claim, which clearly shows who made the payment and the nature of each expense. For larger awards (typically over £1,000), ELIXIR-UK will expect the recipient organisation to cover costs upfront and submit an invoice to ELIXIR-UK after the activity, unless otherwise agreed in writing.
Review process
The ELIXIR-UK Node Coordination Office will review applications. Priority will be given to individuals in career stages corresponding to phases one and two. We will aim to fund as many relevant, in-scope requests as possible, although we may need to prioritise them depending on demand.
Past successful bids
To help applicants understand the typical scope and types of activities supported through the Flexible Bursaries Scheme, examples of activities funded in previous calls include:
- Participation in BioHackathon Europe
- Attendance at major genomics and bioinformatics conferences, e.g. Festival of Genomics and Biodata, to present ELIXIR’s work.
- Support for community-led European meetings, e.g. European Galaxy Days
- Organisation of a UK-wide bioinformatics networking and coordination event
- Growing a university-wide collaborative network
These examples are provided for illustrative purposes only and do not limit the types of activities that may be supported in this call.
