Supporting Research Community Training Grants support staff at ACU member universities to organise and deliver training for their early and mid-career researchers, including doctoral candidates. Formerly known as the Early Career Research Training Grants, the programme funds training that equips researchers with essential skills to succeed in their careers, whether remaining in academia or pursuing other professional fields.

Overview

Hosted by the ACU Supporting Research Community, these grants enable universities to provide researcher development training that builds transferable skills. Universities may use their internal criteria to define early career researcher (ECR) status, but the definition must include doctoral candidates, and training must be made available to ECRs from multiple disciplines. The grant scheme does not fund existing training courses.

Funding and Benefits

Five grants of up to GBP 2,000 are available.

Eligibility

Eligible candidates include:

• Staff members of a research office at an ACU member university.
• Any staff member who leads on providing training for early and mid-career researchers at an ACU member university.

Priority will be given to those member universities that have not previously been awarded a Supporting Research Community Training Grant.

Research Areas and Activities

Training may focus on the following skills:

• Presentation skills
• Networking
• Time management
• Public engagement and communicating with non-academic audiences
• Media training
• Social media
• Relationship and stakeholder management
• Grant writing
• Research data management
• Career training, including doctoral careers outside higher education

Application Process

Applicants must:

• Review the application guidance and FAQs.
• Submit an application through the online application form.
• If a MyACU account already exists, the grant application form can be accessed through the platform when applications open.
• If no MyACU account exists, register for an account, follow the instructions in the registration email to log in, and then access the application form.

Deadline and Timeline

• Applications open: 27 January 2027
• Applications close: 31 March 2027, 15:00 UTC