Coronavirus (COVID-19): Information for applicants and award holders of Royal Society funding

This page was last updated Monday 27 February 2023.

We recognise that the events of the coronavirus pandemic continue to have an impact on research. This page sets out how the Royal Society will continue to support both award holders and applicants to minimise the impact of the global health situation.

If you have further questions, you can contact the Grants team via grants@royalsociety.org or +44(0)202 7451 2666. 

For queries relating to specific grants programmes, see our contacts page.

If you hold a Royal Society fellowship or grant

The Society's Grants team have been operating a normal service for the last year and will continue to do so. We recognise that coronavirus will continue to have an impact on Royal Society awards. Any issues or questions you have regarding the impact of COVID-19 on your grant should be raised with your case officer by contacting your grant scheme inbox.

If you are applying for a Royal Society fellowship or grant

We recognise that the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the career development of researchers and we are aware of the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on research. When applying for Royal Society grants where track record and career development to date is part of the assessment process you will be asked to complete an optional question in the application form relating to the impact of the pandemic on your research. The answer to this question is not assessed, rather it simply provides context to our assessment committee regarding any disruption caused by the pandemic.

We strongly encourage those who have been adversely affected by disruptions caused by the pandemic to continue to apply to our schemes. We want applicants to provide contextual information about the impacts of COVID-19 on their research. This will enable us to consider the historic impact of the pandemic when assessing new applications.

Our concern is not the details of what happened, but the impact it has had on the applicant. We therefore welcome information outlining how the pandemic has impacted both individual’s and their team’s research activity as part of applications where this detail is relevant.

Some examples of how applicants might have been affected include but are not limited to: 

• Change in personal circumstances, eg illness, additional caring responsibilities. 
• Clinical responsibilities (working on the front line, required to back-fill posts, etc) and any ongoing impacts during the transition back to research. 
• Impact on access to facilities and normal work environment or furlough.
• Impact on research (including the hiatus of research within the NHS) and the production of preliminary data, development of collaborations or methodological/technique training and experience.
• Impact on publications or other outputs, including markers of esteem, eg panel membership, presentation invitations, conference participation.
• Any other way in which the pandemic and/or its impact has affected the applicant, their career, or their ability to deliver their research.

Applicants are asked to only disclose information that they are comfortable with being shared with our committees, panels and reviewers. Providing any information about how COVID-19 has impacted their research is optional and at the applicant’s discretion. All information that applicants share will be treated in line with the Royal Society’s privacy policy.