Horizons Platform exploratory funding awards

• To submit an application for an exploratory funding award, please request an application for by emailing the Horizons team via horizons@leeds.ac.uk. You will need to fill in the form and return to the Horizons team, as an email attachment, before the deadline of Thursday 30 April 2026 at 5pm (GMT+1) 6pm (SAST).
• All proposals received by the deadline will be assessed for eligibility against the essential criteria by a Horizons Institute Research Manager. This will include checking that character count and page limits have been met; any information provided that is not within the set limits will not be reviewed by the assessment panel. 
• All eligible proposals will be assessed against the assessment criteria by the Horizons Institute Interdisciplinary Assessment College (IAC), which is modelled on the UKRI Interdisciplinary assessment college. 
• Proposals will be reviewed by three IAC panel members. These members have been trained in interdisciplinary assessment.
• All applications will be and scored against the assessment criteria outlined in the ‘Essential criteria’ section. Scores and feedback will be submitted to the Panel Chair and Panel Convenor (Horizons Team member) ahead of the panel meeting. 
• The IAC panel meeting will review scores and feedback. Panel members will be asked to agree a single score for each proposal which will be used, along with the feedback provided, to band each proposal to provide panel recommendations for funding. 
• Funding recommendations will be made by the IAC Panel Chair to the Horizons Institute, who will agree project funding. If there are more applications recommended within a band for funding than there are funds available, the Horizons Institute will use randomisation to allocate funding. 
• The selection panel will also be observed by an impartial observer to ensure consistency and transparency. 

All essential criteria must be met for the application to be eligible for assessment: 

• The proposal must develop interdisciplinary research and collaboration within an area of climate, sustainability or inequality. 
• The lead applicant must be a colleague on the Horizons Platform programme. 
• The project team must include investigators from both Leeds and Wits. 
• Full costings must have been provided. 

Please note that for this round of exploratory funding collaborators do not need to be recruited to the Platform programme. They can also be current or former participants on our Global Crucible Programme, or new collaborators that have not previously worked with Horizons. 

Proposals will be assessed against four assessment criteria: interdisciplinarity, innovation, collaboration and feasibility.

Interdisciplinarity:

• The project is interdisciplinary with a clear indication of how disciplines will be integrated, through the methods and approaches, to achieve the aims and objectives of the proposed work. 
• The proposal articulates why these specific disciplines are needed for the project, as well as the reciprocal benefits to be achieved from working together. 

Innovation:

• The project addresses a clear challenge or research gap in an area linked to climate, sustainability or inequality. 
• There is potential for the project to be transformative for participating disciplines, or lead to the creation of new disciplines. 

Collaboration:

• There is evidence the project has been co-designed and a clear explanation has been provided detailing what expertise each member of the team is contributing.
• The project has the potential to develop a new collaboration between Leeds and Wits.

Feasibility:

• Costings are provided and there is adequate justification of resources provided in the application.