The Royal Society APEX Awards 2024-2025

The Royal Society APEX Awards has been opened for applicants to apply. Applicants are hereby encouraged to apply for the scholarship to enable them to continue their education. In order for this to be achieved by interested applicants, this article has been formulated to provide information on the steps and guidelines an applicant needs in applying for the award.

The APEX Award offers up to £100,000 to researchers wanting to pursue interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research that benefits wider society. The scheme also includes an opportunity to apply for an additional £10,000 to support researchers in delivering public engagement activities related to their funded research. In partnership with the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society (‘the Academies’) and with generous support from the Leverhulme Trust, the APEX award (Academies Partnership in Supporting Excellence in Cross-disciplinary research award) scheme offers established independent researchers, with a strong track record in their respective area, an exciting opportunity to pursue genuine interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research to benefit wider society.

Benefit of The Royal Society APEX Awards

The benefits of this scheme are to:

promote collaboration across disciplines, with a particular emphasis on the boundary between science, engineering and the social sciences and humanities.
support outstanding interdisciplinary research which is unlikely to be supported through conventional funding programmes
support researchers with an outstanding track record, in developing their research in a new direction through collaboration with partners from other disciplines.
enable outstanding researchers to focus on advancing their innovative research through seed funding.

Eligibility Requirement for The Royal Society APEX Awards

Your application must be within the remit of more than one of the Academies. Applications which span the remit of the British Academy, and the Royal Academy of Engineering are encouraged.

You can apply for this scheme if you are:

a researcher with a strong track record as an established independent researcher (this can include engineering researchers, humanities and social sciences scholars and scientists)
based at a UK university or not-for-profit research institution for at least the duration of the project.
Applicants will be expected to collaborate with a research partner from a different discipline from their own or a different university in the UK.

How to Apply for The Royal Society APEX Awards

Applications should be submitted through the Society’s grant management system Flexi-Grant.

Your application will go through the process detailed on the Making a grant application page overseen by the APEX Awards Panel.

The Royal Society recognises that diversity is essential for delivering excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The Society wants to encourage applications from the widest range of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences to maximise innovation and creativity in science for the benefit of humanity. We regularly review and revise processes to help ensure that all talented applicants have an equitable chance to succeed as per the assessment criteria. This includes ensuring all panel members are briefed on unconscious bias in decision making as part of the assessment process.