Up to £10 million of funding is available for up to 10 years for ambitious, large-scale Research Centres which conduct research of outstanding originality, and aspire to achieve a significant step-change in scholarship, through new approaches that may establish or reshape a field of study and so transform our understanding of a significant contemporary topic. Applications should be bold, and centres should have the capacity to become recognised internationally for excellence in their chosen area.
The Trust has a reputation for encouraging higher-risk research (so-called ‘blue-skies’), and the expectation is that centres will draw upon a range of disciplinary perspectives and expertise, perhaps bringing new disciplinary mixes to bear on a particular topic. The choice of research topic is open; however, the following areas of research are ineligible:
The chosen topic should be sufficiently large-scale to support an ambitious but realistic research agenda for up to ten years. Please note that Leverhulme Research Centres should not duplicate existing activity at a comparable scale, whether in UKRI-funded or university research centres. The Trust wishes to support research activity where it can be confident that the work will have substantial added value compared to smaller initiatives in the same area of research.
Further Information
University Internal Selection:
Institutions can only lead on 1 application. Therefore, this call will be managed according to the University’s restricted calls procedure. Your Department’s Research Grants Team and/or Departmental Administrator (or equivalent) must be made aware of your internal application, and a support letter signed by the Head of Department is required.
Although the funder is anticipated to open the call in early 2027 and the outline stage will have a deadline in June 2027, we are aware there is growing interest in the scheme, and the complexity and breadth of application development will require significant lead-up time. We are therefore issuing this call now, with aims to conclude the internal selection process before the Christmas holidays, and for the selected bid to have 6 months+ to prepare a high-quality outline application.
If you would like to lead a Leverhulme Research Centre application, to take part in the internal selection, please complete our online form by 15th October 2026 (NB: if asked to log-in, please use your University account and note that a Form cannot be saved and returned to).
You will need the following documents and information to complete the Form:
Internal Assessment Criteria:
Please note that the assessment of internal applications will focus on the following core funder criteria:
Funder deadline: June 2027
If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Posted on 23/07/2026
