Election Research Funding in Northern Ireland 2026 to 2036: Your Guide to the ESRC Northern Ireland Election Study Opportunity

If you care about elections, democracy, and data that actually get used by real people, the Northern Ireland Election Study (NIES) is a big deal.

This pre-announced funding opportunity from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is not just “another grant call.” It’s a chance for a UK-based research team to design and run the core infrastructure for understanding political attitudes and behaviour in Northern Ireland from 2026 to 2036, including coverage of:

• The 2027 Northern Ireland Assembly election, and
• The next UK general election in Northern Ireland (expected 2029).

In other words, this is about owning the research backbone that journalists, policymakers, academics, and campaigners will cite for the next decade when they say, “According to the Northern Ireland Election Study…”

Right now, this is a pre-announcement. The full call is not yet open, which is actually good news for you. It means you have time to get organised, build partnerships, and position your team as the obvious choice once the scheme formally launches.

If you’re sitting in a UK institution eligible for ESRC funding and you work anywhere near electoral behaviour, political sociology, peace and conflict studies, survey research, or data infrastructure, this deserves a spot at the top of your planning list.

At a Glance: Northern Ireland Election Study 2026 to 2036

Because this is early notice, details like budget amounts, team composition requirements, and evaluation criteria have not yet been published. Expect those to appear when the call goes live on the same page.

What This Opportunity Actually Offers

Think of this as a decade-long research platform, not a one-off project grant.

If you win, you’re likely to be responsible for designing, running, and curating a core survey and data infrastructure covering politics and elections in Northern Ireland. That means:

• Designing questionnaires for multiple election waves and possibly inter-election surveys.
• Building a sampling and fieldwork strategy capable of capturing the nuances of Northern Ireland’s party system, identity politics, and constitutional questions.
• Producing high-quality, well-documented datasets that can be shared through services like the UK Data Service (hence the [email protected] contact).
• Potentially coordinating with other UK or international election studies to align measures and enable comparison.

The immediate headline pieces are funding linked to:

• The 2027 Northern Ireland Assembly election, and
• The 2029 UK general election in Northern Ireland.

These are not just random dates. Those elections will likely be flashpoints for questions about power-sharing, constitutional preferences, party realignment, and the long tail of Brexit and the Protocol arrangements.

For a research team, that translates into:

• Visibility: Your data and findings will be referenced in academic papers, policy briefings, parliamentary research, and media coverage.
• Influence: You’ll have the empirical backing to say what’s actually happening with turnout, vote switching, trust in institutions, and identity.
• Continuity: A ten-year timeframe lets you track political change, not just capture a single snapshot.

It’s reasonable to expect that the funding will:

• Cover personnel such as PIs, co-investigators, research fellows, survey methodologists, and data managers.
• Pay for fieldwork costs (e.g. online, phone, face-to-face surveys depending on design).
• Support data management, documentation, and dissemination activities.
• Possibly include impact and engagement work (briefings, workshops, public dashboards).

The exact figures and categories will appear later, but every previous major ESRC election study has been substantial enough to support a serious team, not just a single PI with a part-time RA.

Who Should Seriously Consider Applying

This call is not for lone wolves writing theory papers in isolation. It’s clearly aimed at coordinated teams able to run large-scale survey and data infrastructure projects.

You’re in the right ballpark if:

• You’re based at a UK university or research institute eligible for ESRC funding. This is non-negotiable. If your organisation has hosted ESRC grants before, you’re probably fine. If you’re unsure, talk to your research office now.
• Your team includes expertise in at least three areas:
  1. Northern Ireland politics and society – people who understand parties, institutions, communities, and constitutional issues.
  2. Survey or quantitative methodology – sampling, questionnaire design, weighting, dealing with non-response, panel retention if relevant.
  3. Data infrastructure and management – documentation, secure handling, sharing with the UK Data Service or equivalent repositories.

Concrete examples of well-positioned teams could include:

• A politics department with a strong track record in Northern Ireland studies teaming up with a social statistics unit that has run national surveys.
• A consortium spanning several UK institutions, where one leads on fieldwork, another on methodology, another on impact and engagement.
• A current or former member of the British Election Study or similar project partnering with NI specialists to extend and tailor tried-and-tested approaches.

Early-career researchers can absolutely play major roles here, but the PI or lead institution will need serious credibility in both subject and method.

If you’re a PhD student or postdoc fascinated by elections in Northern Ireland, you’re unlikely to lead this grant, but you could:

• Position yourself as a named researcher in a team proposal.
• Approach senior academics to suggest collaboration or to help them bring in younger scholars with new methods (e.g. social media data, geospatial analysis, mixed methods).

Insider Tips for a Winning Application (Once the Call Opens)

You have a rare advantage right now: advance warning. Use it.

Here’s how to make yourself competitive when ESRC publishes the full call.

1. Build the Right Team Before the Call Drops

Winning proposals for this kind of study don’t come from whoever writes the fastest; they come from whoever assembles the smartest team.

Start now by:

• Identifying partners in Northern Ireland politics, survey methodology, and data infrastructure.
• Clarifying who would be PI, co-Is, and key staff.
• Mapping institutional strengths: who has the best survey lab, who has the highest-profile NI politics group, who has experience with the UK Data Service?

If you wait for the official launch to start this, you’ll be scrambling.

2. Do Your Homework on Previous Election Studies

Expect reviewers to ask, implicitly or explicitly: “Why you, and what are you doing that’s better or more appropriate for Northern Ireland?”

Dig into:

• Previous Northern Ireland Election Study waves, if available.
• The British Election Study, Irish National Election Study, and other comparable projects.
• How those studies handle panel versus cross-section designs, question wording, and weight construction.

Your proposal will be stronger if you can say: “We will retain questions X, Y, Z to ensure continuity, but we’ll improve A and B to address known weaknesses.”

3. Treat This as Both a Research Project and a Data Infrastructure Project

ESRC has made the data infrastructure angle obvious by the contact emails and the decade-long period.

So don’t just pitch interesting research questions. Show:

• A plan for data storage, documentation, anonymisation, and sharing.
• How you’ll make the data easy to use for non-specialists (clear codebooks, recodes, harmonised variables, teaching datasets).
• How you’ll align with ESRC and UKRI data policies, including timely deposit.

Projects that treat data management as an afterthought tend to lose to those that take it seriously.

4. Build Impact and Engagement Into the DNA of Your Design

This study will feed into debates about governance, identity, and constitutional futures. That means:

• Think about briefings for the Northern Ireland Executive (when functioning), the UK Government, and relevant committees.
• Plan for media engagement, including infographics, election-night quick analysis, and follow-up reports.
• Consider public-facing tools, such as interactive charts or dashboards, that allow journalists and citizens to explore key findings.

Make it clear you’re not going to sit on the data for three years writing a single monograph.

5. Be Realistic About Methods and Fieldwork

Election studies can get wildly ambitious: multi-mode, huge samples, long questionnaires.

Reviewers will look hard at feasibility. So:

• Justify your sample size with real numbers and power considerations, not wishful thinking.
• Explain your mode choice (online, phone, face-to-face, mixed) in light of Northern Ireland’s demographics, digital access, and political sensitivities.
• Show that you understand the costs and risks of fieldwork in a politically charged environment.

A slightly smaller, rock-solid design beats a sprawling plan that cannot realistically be delivered.

Application Timeline: Planning Backwards from an Unknown Deadline

Because this is a pre-announcement, we don’t yet know the exact launch or deadline date. But we can still sketch a sensible preparation timeline you can adjust once dates appear.

Assume, for example, the call opens in early 2025 with a deadline 8–10 weeks later. Here’s how to work backwards.

Now – Pre-launch period

• Talk to your research office about ESRC eligibility and internal timelines.
• Reach out to potential co-investigators and partners and gauge interest.
• Review previous NI and UK election studies and note design questions you’ll need to answer.

Within 2 weeks of call opening

• Read the call documents line by line. Twice.
• Confirm roles in your team, including a lead institution and any formal collaborations.
• Draft a high-level concept note: aims, design, outcomes, and contributions.

Weeks 3–5 after call opening

• Write the full research and infrastructure plan, including design, methodology, management, ethics, data management, and impact.
• Develop a detailed budget with your research office, including fieldwork costs.
• Circulate drafts to internal reviewers who understand ESRC expectations.

Weeks 6–8 after call opening

• Refine the narrative, sharpen your research questions and methods.
• Finalise impact and engagement plans with named partners (media, government, civil society if relevant).
• Lock in all documents, CVs, and institutional approvals.

Aim to submit at least 48 hours before the final deadline to avoid technical issues with the UKRI Funding Service.

Required Materials: What You Will Almost Certainly Need

ESRC calls follow a familiar pattern, even if the exact headings change slightly in the Funding Service. Expect to prepare:

• Case for Support / Project Description
  This is the heart of your bid. You’ll need to describe the study design, theoretical framing, key research questions, methods, management, and timetable. For NIES, you’ll also need to show how your design fits the specific political context of Northern Ireland.

• Justification of Resources / Budget Narrative
  Beyond listing costs, you must explain why each cost is necessary. Fieldwork, staff time, data archiving, dissemination – everything must have a clear logic.

• CVs or Track Record Statements
  Short profiles for the PI and co-Is that highlight relevant previous work in surveys, election studies, data infrastructure, and NI politics.

• Data Management Plan
  ESRC takes this very seriously. You’ll have to explain how you will store, secure, and share data, including timelines for deposit with the UK Data Service.

• Pathways to Impact / Impact Plan
  The label may vary under UKRI’s current rules, but the substance won’t: you’ll need a concrete plan for engagement, audiences, outputs, and routes to influence.

• Institutional Letters or Support Statements (if required)
  Some calls request confirmation that your host institution supports the bid and will provide the necessary infrastructure.

Start collecting the building blocks now: track records, previous relevant outputs, sample questions from past studies, and early thinking on sampling and modes.

What Makes an Application Stand Out for ESRC

When ESRC panels review proposals like this, they’re not just asking “Is this good?” The real questions look more like:

• Is this the team we trust to run the authoritative election study for Northern Ireland for a decade?
• Will the data they produce be usable, well curated, and widely accessed?
• Does their design respect and reflect the specific political and social context of Northern Ireland?

Expect assessment along these broad lines:

1. Scientific quality and originality

They’ll want to see a clear set of research questions about political behaviour and attitudes and a design that can actually answer them. Novelty might come from:

• New measures (e.g., identity, constitutional preferences, social media use).
• Improved designs (panels, experiments, embedded qualitative elements).
• Strong cross-time comparability with past NIES or other election studies.

2. Feasibility and management

This is a complex project. Reviewers will look for:

• A credible management structure (e.g., PI, co-Is, work packages).
• A realistic timeline that fits around election dates.
• Evidence that you understand what it takes to deliver large-scale surveys on time.

3. Data infrastructure quality

Your approach to data management and sharing will be a core part of the assessment, not an appendix no one reads.

Clarity around documentation, versioning, anonymisation, and long-term usability will help you stand out.

4. Impact and wider use

Proposals will score highly if they show:

• Clear audiences: policy, media, civil society, education.
• Practical outlets: briefings, reports, teaching resources, public-facing tools.
• A plan for quickly sharing topline results around elections while preserving quality and nuance.

5. Team expertise and balance

A dream team here is methodologically strong, context-savvy, and infrastructure-minded. You want reviewers to say: “Of course this group should run NIES.”

Common Mistakes to Avoid

When the call finally opens, don’t torpedo your chances with avoidable errors.

Underestimating complexity

Treating this like a standard 2–3 year project will show. A decade-long election study has moving parts: elections on fixed and variable timetables, changing political contexts, staff turnover. A casual timeline or vague management plan will raise red flags.

Ignoring data sharing until the last minute

Given the direct link to the UK Data Service, any hint that you see data sharing as a box-ticking exercise will hurt you. Build data sharing into the core design: file structures, documentation standards, release schedules.

Overloading the questionnaire

Election studies are notorious for bloated question sets. If you try to squeeze everything in, you risk poor data quality and respondent fatigue. Show that you can prioritise and use pilot testing or modular designs intelligently.

Weak engagement with Northern Ireland’s realities

If your proposal could be copy-pasted into a study on a different region with only the names changed, that’s a problem. You need to show sensitivity to Northern Ireland’s history, communities, institutional setup, and ongoing debates.

Rushing institutional approvals

ESRC proposals often require sign-off from your institution’s research office, costing time. If you hand them a near-final draft two days before deadline, you’re asking for disaster. Get internal timelines early and respect them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a call I can apply to right now?

Not yet. This is a pre-announcement. The page is giving early warning so that potential applicants can start organising teams and thinking about design. The actual call, with full details and application forms, will appear later on the same URL.

Who is actually eligible to lead the project?

You must be based at a UK research organisation that is eligible for ESRC funding. Typically, this means most UK universities and some approved independent research institutes. If you’re not sure, check with your research office or consult ESRC’s eligibility guidance via UKRI.

Can non-UK academics be involved?

They often can be as project partners or co-investigators, but the host institution and contracting body must be in the UK. If you’re outside the UK, your best move is to partner with UK colleagues who can lead the bid.

Do I need to be a Northern Ireland specialist to be part of the team?

Not necessarily, but your team as a whole must clearly demonstrate strong expertise in Northern Ireland politics and society. A pure methods team with no local or contextual depth will struggle. If you’re a survey methodologist or data scientist, pair with NI-focused scholars.

Is this one big grant, or could there be multiple awards?

The wording suggests a single major award to run the Northern Ireland Election Study, rather than multiple small projects. This is not a scheme for scattered case studies; it’s about building and running a central infrastructure and study.

Will there be prescribed methods or can we choose our own design?

Details are not yet public, but ESRC typically sets broad expectations (e.g., high-quality, representative data suitable for secondary analysis) and leaves room for methodological innovation. Expect to justify your design rigorously: sample, mode, timing, and questionnaire.

Where can I ask specific questions once I have a draft idea?

The pre-announcement lists several useful contacts:

• Data sharing / data service aspects: [email protected]
• Data infrastructure / ESRC questions: [email protected]
• Technical issues with the UKRI Funding Service: [email protected]

Once the call opens, it will usually list a named ESRC contact or generic mailbox for scientific and eligibility queries. Use it.

How to Apply and Next Steps

You can’t press “submit” yet, but you can absolutely get yourself ready so that, when the gate opens, you’re already halfway down the track.

Here’s what to do now:

1. Read the pre-announcement carefully
   Go to the official page and bookmark it:
   Official opportunity page: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/northern-ireland-election-study-2026-to-2031/

2. Talk to your research office
   Confirm ESRC eligibility for your institution, ask about typical ESRC internal deadlines, and flag that you’re interested in leading or joining a major bid.

3. Start building your team
   Identify who you’d want as PI, co-Is, and external partners. Think about balance: NI politics, methods, data infrastructure, and engagement.

4. Review previous election studies
   Gather materials on past NIES waves (if accessible), British Election Study designs, and other relevant projects. Note what you’d keep, what you’d change, and what you’d add.

5. Draft a short concept note
   A 1–2 page document outlining your provisional aims, design ideas, and team. Share it with potential partners to shape a shared vision early.

Once the full call opens on the UKRI site, you’ll then:

• Register or log in to the UKRI Funding Service.
• Complete the online application following ESRC’s specific headings.
• Upload your case for support, CVs, data management plan, and any other requested documents.
• Coordinate sign-off with your institution before hitting submit.

Ready to stay ahead of the curve? Keep checking the official UKRI opportunity page for updates and formal opening of the call:
https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/northern-ireland-election-study-2026-to-2031/