International Engagement Fund Trinity Term 2026
The TORCH International Engagement Fund
TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) aims to stimulate and support interdisciplinary research activity. The TORCH International Engagement Fund supports such collaborations explicitly with partners outside the UK. TORCH thus invites applications from researchers in the Humanities seeking funding for international activity.
TORCH welcomes innovative applications for collaborative, cross-disciplinary projects that have clear research outcomes, consider impact and aim to cultivate a lasting research legacy. Applications must explicitly address their potential for ongoing and future partnerships, publications, knowledge exchange programmes, grant applications, and other potential collaborations with international partners.
Please click here to see examples of previously funded TORCH International Engagement
There are three pathways for funding through the TORCH International Scheme:
International Projects: Projects that involve collaboration with a partner at an international research institution, such as a university or archive. Applications could involve support for online or in-person events, the creation of joint workshops, seminars or third-party collaboration and joint research initiatives. Projects with ongoing activity over a period of time are more likely to receive funding than one-off conferences.
International Fellowships: An Oxford academic can nominate a researcher from an international research institution to take up a TORCH International Fellowship in Oxford for up to one academic term. The Oxford host must have a clear collaboration with the fellow (or have plans to develop one) and the fellow's stay should aim to contribute to the Oxford research environment. .
International Research Grants: These can be used to support visits to international institutions (e.g., libraries, archives, research centres) to advance current and/or new research projects. Applicants must show evidence that they will work with a specific institution and/or collaborator(s) in a non-UK setting. They must show how the proposed activity will enhance their own research and be beneficial for the wider Oxford research community.
Deadline
There are three deadlines per year (one each term). The Trinity Term deadline is Wednesday 29 April 2026 (Week 1).
Note this is one week earlier than the advertised John Fell Fund deadline to allow time for Divisional approval.
Please make sure you allow enough time for this approval process, because applications received after the TORCH deadline will not be considered.
We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their ideas with us while preparing their application. There is a high level of demand for this funding, therefore the earlier you can get in touch the better. Please contact Anbara Khalidi, the TORCH International Engagement Coordinator at least two weeks before the deadline, and preferably earlier, if you would like to receive feedback on your draft application. Applications submitted within one week of the deadline are unlikely to receive feedback due to time constraints.
Eligibility:
- Applications must be multi- / inter-disciplinary and should be around a Humanities related theme.
- Lead applicants should have contracts in place with Oxford University to cover the full funding period applied for. They should normally be current salaried employees of the university holding an academic post, or research fellowship awarded competitively and intended to enable the holder to establish an independent research career.
- The PI should be from a Humanities faculty/department, but co-applicants can be from other divisions.
- Students are not eligible to apply.
Assessment Criteria
Applications will be reviewed in line with the John Fell Fund criteria:
- Excellence and intrinsic merit of research
- Potential for long term sustainability and academic impact of the project
- Relevance to department and divisional research strategy
- Necessity for John Fell Fund versus other sources of funding
- Value for money, noting in particular the potential for shared use of equipment and other facilities
In addition, TORCH will be looking for projects that:
- Are clearly interdisciplinary and fill a gap in the Oxford research environment that cannot be covered elsewhere
- Are innovative or in new research areas
- Have a strong potential for mutual benefit with proposed partners
- Have clearly planned outcomes and the potential for a lasting legacy (eg continued relationships, future funding, publications etc)
- Could link to (or enhance) TORCH Research Hubs or other projects
- Have appropriate and clearly costed budget plans.
Amount available: up to £7,500
This TORCH scheme is funded through the John Fell Research Fund Small Award Scheme and therefore the conditions of the John Fell Fund also apply. It is an internal funding scheme that fosters creativity and a proactive approach to research opportunities in all subject areas, and particularly interdisciplinary fields.
Activity Funded:
The project start date should be at least 3 months after the application is submitted. Please ensure this is incorporated into your planning, as it is extremely challenging to support projects involving travel at short notice.
Funding can be used for purposes relating to the relevant project only. This can include travel and subsistence costs, event and publicity costs etc.
We would advise applicants to consider the environmental impact and cost effectiveness of their plans as well as how funding might best be spent to maximise engagement. To that end, International Engagement funding can also be used to cover costs associated with filming and digital event delivery (but not for online platform licenses - TORCH can provide access to an online platform and support with technical delivery as part of its in-kind offering).
Notes on conferences, workshops or symposia:
The Fell Fund recognises that in some disciplines these provide a major contribution to pump-priming research. It will therefore consider such applications provided that they make clear:
(a) to what future opportunities the event is expected to lead, including external funding bids and future research collaborations, highlighting the benefits that these will bring to Oxford, and
(b) why the full cost cannot be met from other sources, which would normally be expected to cover the cost.
- The application requires clear information about income and expenditure, showing which items the Fell Fund is being asked to support.
- The committee will expect to see evidence of attempts to raise external and internal funds, in particular external funding applications submitted through the relevant faculty, matching private funding or sponsorship (eg from individuals or publishers) and faculty or college support (which may be 'in kind' such as the free use of rooms and/or reduced accommodation rates).
- Conferences, workshops or symposia for which the Fell Fund is requested to provide support should normally charge a registration fee to non-university members that is sufficient to cover venue, publicity and support costs.
- Normally only essential travel and subsistence cost for speakers are permitted, where this would unreasonably raise the conference fee or where they can’t be met by the speaker’s own institution.
- A good practice is to offer ‘capped’ speaker travel expenses paying an agreed contribution towards travel costs rather than the full amount (subject to normal University accounting practices). Normally, a contribution to accommodation for invited speakers should be limited to £75 per night.
- Any conference catering (excluding conference dinners and receptions) eg sandwich lunch/tea and coffee during breaks, needs to be fully justified and should not exceed £12 per person. The normal expectation is that these costs would be covered by a registration fee. Catering costs for closed events can be included, provided they do not exceed approximately £12 per person.
What we will not fund:
Please note that funding cannot be used for:
- Travel to conferences run by other organisations that are not integral to the project or collaboration (this includes conference fees) nor personal research expenses
- Holding conferences or events outside of Oxford that are not integral to the project or collaboration. In cases where a location outside Oxford is appropriate to the research, a strong Oxford involvement will be expected, and needs to be justified in the application. Other external funding should be routed through Oxford where possible.
- Salaries or teaching buy-out costs for applicants or other academic posts.
- Membership of societies or subscriptions.
- The costs of an evening dinner or reception as part of a conference are not permitted. The John Fell Fund will not fund receptions or similar costs.
- Zoom licences or other online platforms – TORCH has a zoom licence, which can be used free of charge and available rooms are Teams enabled.
- External websites – as a web page is given through the TORCH website.
- Speaker fees or honoraria (although reasonable reimbursement for self-employed performers, artists or similar is a valid cost).
For further guidance on costs when planning your budget, please refer to the Humanities Division John Fell Fund Guidance or contact Anbara Khalidi, TORCH International Engagement Coordinator.
How to apply:
Application is via the John Fell Fund applications on the internal IRAMS system (Single Sign On required). Please click here to apply to IRAMS. You will need to fill in a detailed budget on ITRAMS and upload the JFF Case for Support Form (2 sides of A4)
It is essential that you include TORCH INTERNATIONAL in the title of the project, so that your application can be assessed correctly. Within your IRAMS application please select 'Humanities Divisional Office' as your Approving Unit and select 'Networks, collaborations and partnerships' for project category.
When you have submitted your application, please also email torch@humanities.ox.ac.uk to alert us and confirm the name of your project. You are at risk of not being considered for funding if you do not do this.
Applications will be initially assessed by TORCH's management committee. Recommended proposals will go on to be reviewed by the Humanities John Fell Fund committee (small awards) and central University John Fell Fund committee. We will aim to respond to all applications within 8-9 weeks.
Further guidance:
Please also refer to the Humanities Division John Fell Fund Guidance and the University John Fell Fund Guidelines.
FAQs
Students are not eligible to apply for this funding stream.
Yes, provided the research applying for funding has a University of Oxford contract that covers the full project period.
Non-members of the University of Oxford cannot submit an independent application. Researchers at the University of Oxford must submit the application, and the non-member could be listed as a co-applicant.
We do not have the capacity to help external researchers find collaborators within the University of Oxford. As a first step, we suggest you use the relevant faculty websites to find people with similar research interests to your own, and reach out to them. If at a later stage you and collaborator decide to apply for funding, we would look for clear evidence of the research benefits for Oxford of the collaboration
Activities directly related to your project. Please see the details above for more information. As the John Fell Fund is primarily for supporting research, activities more related to public engagement or only benefitting students, generally would not be covered unless there is clear reasoning on why they should be, and demonstrable research benefits.
Please refer to further notes above and the John Fell guidelines which also provide detailed guidance about eligible costs.
Researchers should itemise costs as much as possible for clarity. Applications with inaccurate or insufficiently detailed budgets are likely to be returned for revision. Applicants will have to enter the budget through drop-down boxes in IRAMS, and sometimes this can make it difficult to see. A good idea is to create the budget in excel then copy it across, then to download the IRAMS application as a pdf so that you can see the details in the same format that will be given to the review committee.
As John Fell funding seeks to support research, typically research institutions such as universities or archives are more representative of longer-term collaborations. However, depending on your project, a creative institution such as an art gallery may be eligible. Please discuss further with the TORCH International Engagement Coordinator.
Applications are submitted via IRAMS to the Humanities Division directly, rather than your faculty, as funds will be administered by TORCH. Humanities approval will take place internally through IRAMS. We do ask all applicants to inform their faculty Research Director of their intention to apply to the TORCH International Engagement Scheme.
The TORCH Management Committee meets in week 3 and if you application is not recommended to the John Fell Fund, applicants will be notified as soon as possible, usually within 2 weeks. If an application is passed to the relevant John Fell Fund committees for ratification, this notification will be released in week 9 or 10.
Unsuccessful applicants can request feedback from the International Engagement Coordinator. Unsuccessful applications may be offered the opportunity to revise and resubmit to a later deadline, but this is does not guarantee funding.
In some cases it also might be appropriate for the applicant to talk to their faculty about the possibility of reworking their application and submitting it directly to the John Fell small grants fund through the faculty.
Contact name for queries:
Colleagues are welcome to contact Anbara Khalidi, TORCH International Engagement Coordinator or Sarah Clay, TORCH Centre Manager, to discuss prospective applications.
