LSE-NYU Research Seed Fund

• Call opens: January 2025
• Networking form submission deadline (optional): Wednesday 11 February 2026
• Letter of Intent to apply deadline (required): Wednesday 15 April 2026 (4pm BST, 12pm EST)
• Applications close: Wednesday 13 May 2026 (4pm BST, 12pm EST)
• Outcomes announced: by early/mid July 2026
• Projects commence: No later than September 2026
• Project duration: up to 18 months

• Discrete pilot research with at least one researcher from each institution.
• Collection of data, development of data resources, and/or data analysis.
• Evaluation of policies or proposed interventions for societal,economic, and/or environmental impacts.
• Studies that evaluate the societal, of existing policies or proposed interventions.
• Intensive research workshops or joint conferences intended to generate further collaborative research activities.
• Preparation of substantial joint external funding proposals.
• Expansion of existing LSE and NYU research activities to scale or otherwise increase their impact.

• To be eligible, a proposal must involve at least one researcher from each institution. Prior collaboration history is not essential.
• Previous awardees cannot submit a proposal for the current funding round until their previous report has been submitted and accepted.
• For LSE: All schemes are open to Faculty, Research and Policy Staff, Teaching Staff and Fellows as listed in LSE HR Role Profiles, including practice roles. Applicants must have a contract of employment in place until at least one year beyond the end of the project, and be able to demonstrate continued links with LSE into the future, in order to ensure that post-award assessment and regular communications can be carried out for all awarded projects. Changes to contracts must be communicated to LSE’s Global Research Partnerships & Alliances Manager to ensure compliance with this rule. Funding cannot be provided past contractual employment end dates. Teaching Staff must demonstrate the proposed project is in line with their teaching field. 
• For NYU: Individuals who already have or who obtain by the application deadline PI status are eligible, with exceptions noted below. PI status can be requested per NYU’s policy. NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Long Island School of Medicine faculty, research staff, and other employees are not eligible. 
• Not eligible: Current students at LSE and NYU, LSE and NYU Graduate Teaching Assistants, Emeritus Faculty, Guest Teachers,  Education Track Staff and Visiting Scholars are not eligible to apply; however, they may participate in the project. Applicants must confirm that they have the full support of their host academic unit as part of their application. An award letter co-signed by the hosting unit lead will be required at award stage.

The following costs are eligible for this scheme:

• Directly incurred non-staff costs such as travel, fieldwork, consumables, goods, equipment, services, and consultants (including associated fees and taxes).
• Hourly Paid Staff costs for occasional research assistance and clerical support.
• Research staff/Directly Incurred Salaried research and policy staff costs.

Specialist costs to make project activities more accessible that are not already covered by benefits or elsewhere institutionally are also eligible, such as:

• Costs for care of dependents where it is unavoidable.
• Costs to make adjustments within travel and accommodation bookings for staff who need them.
• Cost to make sure outputs are accessible (both for researchers and stakeholders, such as braille printed books or pamphlets). 
• Costs of specialist contractors that are working on EDI supporting activities, such as audio transcription for events, etc. 
• Costs to make events more accessible including specialist venues and supporting staff.

The following costs are not eligible under this scheme:

• Faculty salary/Directly allocated salaried staff costs.
• Collaborator and partner staff costs, and subawards. 
• Indirect (overheads) and estates (space) charges of LSE and NYU or any other Partner and Collaborator.
• Open Access fees and article processing charges covered by the Open Access Fund
• DI teaching contract or hourly paid teaching costs are not eligible. No funding can be requested for visiting scholars, as those are unpaid affiliations.

Examples of permissible costs

• Research assistance, both hourly paid and salaried, which is linked to roles in the project.
• Staff time, for Directly Incurred staff, to undertake research, write up outputs and engage with partners and collaborators.
• Data collection/fieldwork in the UK, US and overseas including associated travel, expenses and service provision if this is being outsourced.
• Purchasing datasets for use in the research.
• Reasonable travel, subsistence and accommodation costs that conform with the cognizant institutions policies.
• Participant payments and/or incentives as part of formal surveys or for community groups and beneficiaries involved in the research.
• Consultancy services in the UK, US and overseas which must include applicable taxes and fees.
• Goods and services required from suppliers including surveys or transcription and translation services which must include applicable taxes and fees.
• Attendance at conferences, symposia and other networking and dissemination events, if integral to the proposed project.
• Costs of hosting events and other dissemination activities.  
• Costs of software or licences required for development, research and collaboration.
• Small items of consumables.  
• Other project specific costs, such as equipment (where it is directly linked to delivering project objectives).
• Costs of proof-reading and copy-editing manuscripts or grant proposals.
• Costs for publishing monographs or experimental publishing outputs.

Non-permissible costs include: 

• Faculty salaries or faculty salary supplementation of any kind  
• Indirect and overhead costs
• Course fees, stipends or scholarships for students 
• Infrastructure and equipment purchases, such as computers, including laptops and basic computing facilities such as printers, word processing and other standard software 
• Conference registrations unrelated to the dissemination of results 
• Costs already incurred prior to submission of the proposal
• Subawards

All applications will be peer-reviewed and evaluated based on the following criteria. A joint selection panel comprised of academics from LSE and NYU will be responsible for reviewing and deciding on awarded projects.  

Successful applicants will be required to submit a brief post-award report summarising the activities, achieved outcomes, and future collaboration plans. The International Strategy and Academic Partnerships (ISAP) Office at LSE and/or the NYU Office of Research Development and Partnerships may request additional updates after the final progress report as well to determine the impact of the funding. 

Collaboration Interest Form (Optional): Complete this short form by 11 February to share your interests and connect with LSE and NYU researchers for potential collaborative projects under the LSE–NYU Research Seed Fund. Your profile will be shared with other participating researchers, who can reach out directly or request an introduction through our team. We may also organise a sandpit event to facilitate networking and collaboration development.

Letter of Intent to apply deadline (Required) 

The Co-PIs should contact the LSE Global Research Partnerships & Alliances Manager (global@lse.ac.uk) and the NYU Office of Research Development and Partnerships (niazif01@nyu.edu) as soon as possible and no later than Wednesday 15 April to indicate their intent to apply. Please include the names and titles of individuals from LSE and NYU who will participate and a proposal title and theme. In addition, please indicate if any staff costs will be included in the budget.

Application 

The Form will collect information on the Applicants and Team Members; Project Overview; Proposal Details; Descriptions of Originality, Significance, Implementation, and Potential; Project Budget, including separate budgets for NYU and LSE; and Budget Justification.    

One joint application form should be submitted to Global@lse.ac.uk and farooq.niazi@nyu.edu by   Wednesday 13 May 2026 (4pm BST, 12pm EST)

The following documents (as a PDF) must be submitted as part of the application:

• LSE-NYU Research Seed Fund application form
• CV of LSE Principal Investigator (max 2 page each) 
• CV of NYU Principal Investigator (max 2 page each) 

LSE staff should contact Global@lse.ac.uk, and NYU staff should contact Farooq Niazi at farooq.niazi@nyu.edu.