The Leverhulme Trust

Quick Stats

• Annual Giving: £100+ million
• Success Rate: Not publicly disclosed
• Decision Time: 3 months (outline applications) / 4-6 weeks (detailed applications)
• Grant Range: £10,000 - £10 million (depending on scheme)
• Geographic Focus: UK universities and research institutions

Contact Details

• Website: www.leverhulme.ac.uk
• Email: edymond@leverhulme.ac.uk
• Phone: 020 7042 9881
• Grants Management System: grants.leverhulme.ac.uk

Overview

Founded in 1925 under the will of William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, the Trust is one of the largest providers of research funding in the UK, dispensing over £100 million annually. With total net assets of £3.2 billion (as of 2017), the Trust operates independently of Unilever, its original funding source. The Trust's mission is to support “blue skies” research across all academic disciplines, with a particular appetite for proposals willing to take appropriate risks. Unlike many funders, the Trust prioritizes the intellectual contribution of research over its immediate impact, supporting innovative work that might be considered too risky for other funding bodies.

Funding Priorities

Grant Programs

• Research Project Grants: £10,000 - £500,000 over up to 5 years (most commonly 3 years, rolling applications)
• Research Fellowships: Up to £70,000 (approximately 100 annually, fixed deadlines)
• Early Career Fellowships: 36-month awards (approximately 145 in 2025, annual deadline February 20)
• Research Leadership Awards: Up to £1 million over 5 years
• Research Centres: Up to £10 million over 10 years
• Philip Leverhulme Prizes: £100,000 over 2-3 years (30 annually across rotating subject areas)
• Visiting Professorships: £10,000-£150,000 for 3-12 months (deadlines May 1 and October 2)

Priority Areas

• All academic disciplines welcomed with no preferred topics
• Transdisciplinary or multidisciplinary research with significance beyond single fields
• Development of new theories and methodologies
• Research bringing together ideas from different disciplines
• Projects with little or no preliminary data where researchers seek to change direction

What They Don't Fund

• Medical research into disease, illness and disabilities in humans and animals
• Research into clinical practice
• Policy-driven research where the principal objective is assembling evidence for immediate policy initiatives
• Capacity building, networking, or skills development as main focus
• Research with immediate commercial application

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Governance and Leadership

Chair: Alan Jope CBE (Former CEO of Unilever PLC, 2019-2023)

Director: Professor Anna Vignoles

Anna Vignoles states: "It is a privilege to lead the Leverhulme Trust, one of the largest research funders in the UK. Our particular focus is to support outstanding 'blue skies' research and we invest about £100m a year, largely into UK university research." She emphasizes the Trust's unique approach: "One reason for this is the Trust's approach to funding, which encourages academics to research what they think are the important frontiers of their field."

Application Process and Timeline

How to Apply

• Research Project Grants: Online outline applications (no deadlines), successful applicants invited to submit detailed applications
• Fellowships: Online applications through grants management system at grants.leverhulme.ac.uk
• Registration required: Principal investigators must register on the grant tracker system
• Institutional approval: Applications should be submitted 5 working days before deadline for institutional approval

Decision Timeline

• Outline applications: Normally completed within 3 months
• Detailed applications: Decisions within 4-6 weeks after closing date
• Query response time: 2 working days

Success Rates

Success rates are not publicly disclosed by the Trust. In 2023, the Trust awarded 590 grants across 86 institutions with £128.5 million in funding.

Reapplication Policy

Previously unsuccessful applicants may reapply immediately without mandatory waiting periods. However, candidates may submit only one application per year for each scheme and cannot apply to certain scheme combinations in the same year.

Application Success Factors

The Trust uses established criteria to prioritize outstanding scholarship:

• Originality: Research achieving more than incremental development of a single discipline
• Importance: Work that will enable further research or enquiry
• Significance: Research with relevance outside a single field, exciting to those in other disciplines
• Merit: Quality of research design and methodology

Direct advice from leadership: The Trust has “a distinct appetite for proposals that are willing to take appropriate risks” but expects “explicit discussion of the risks and for the applicant to offer suitable mitigation where that is possible.” Less suitable proposals include "bids to support the 'continuing activity' of established research groups" and proposals well-suited to Research Council priorities without convincing reasons for seeking Trust support.

Recent successful examples: Dr Paulo Ceppi (Imperial College London) - climate physics research on cloudiness and Earth's energy imbalance; Dr Ariel Camp (University of Liverpool) - vertebrate neck evolution in salamanders.

Key Takeaways for Grant Writers

• Embrace intellectual risk: The Trust actively welcomes proposals other funders might consider too risky
• Focus on originality over impact: Intellectual contribution matters more than immediate practical applications
• Cross-disciplinary significance valued: Research exciting to multiple fields is highly regarded
• Avoid “business as usual”: Continuing established research lines are less competitive
• No preliminary data required: New directions and methodologies welcomed even without supporting evidence
• Budget realistically: Most Research Project Grants are under £100,000; view as “small grant” scheme
• Consider alternative schemes: Multiple pathways available depending on career stage and research type

Similar Funders

These funders frequently fund the same charities:

• The Arts Council of England
• The Wolfson Foundation
• Wellcome Trust
• Garfield Weston Foundation
• Welsh Government
• Council for At-Risk Academics
• The Royal Academy of Engineering
• Academy of Medical Sciences
• JOHN LYON'S CHARITY
• The Nuffield Foundation
• Paul Hamlyn Foundation
• The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
• FRONTIERS
• THE FOYLE FOUNDATION
• University of East Anglia
• Google
• King's College London
• Office for Students
• Research England
• Financial Times

References

• The Leverhulme Trust official website (www.leverhulme.ac.uk) -
• “Our approach to grant-making” - Leverhulme Trust funding guidelines
• Research Outreach article: “The Leverhulme Trust: Funding for the future” - 2024
• Anna Vignoles quotes from Trust communications and Research Outreach interview
• 2024 Philip Leverhulme Prize Winners announcement
• Trust financial data from Charity Commission filings and Civil Society reporting (2017 figures: £3.2bn assets)
• Grant scheme details from individual program pages on Trust website
• Application guidelines from grants.leverhulme.ac.uk system documentation