Introduction 

The purpose of the English Language Learning and Assessment Research Grants is to contribute to innovation in language teaching, learning and assessment theory and practice. We invite proposals for original research investigating our area of interest for 2026 as detailed below.  

We will fund one project, which will be up to 36 months in duration. 

Who can apply?

  • The Principal Investigator (PI) must be associated with an educational institution or recognised research organisation, similar in standing to the institutions recognised by UKRI. 
  • Collaborative proposals involving interdisciplinary teams are encouraged, and PIs representing diverse contexts and backgrounds are welcome. We particularly welcome proposals from research teams that include researchers from the Global South. 
  • Please note that regardless of the geographical location of applicants and regardless of where the actual research will take place, all contracts for research projects issued by the British Council are subject to the laws of England and Wales; this is non-negotiable. 
  • Contracts will be with the Administering Institution, which will be the institution at which the PI is based. 
  • Priority will be given to research teams who do not currently have a grant and/or those who have an excellent track record of meeting grant deadlines. 

Financial support 

Financial support for individual projects will be limited to a maximum of £70,000. Please note that projects will be evaluated based on value-for-money in the given context. 

  • Applications for extensive travel or large items of equipment will not be supported. 
  • Applications should not at this stage include requests for funding for conference presentations. If completion of the research project results in acceptance of a paper at an international conference, the British Council will consider supporting the attendance of one of the authors through a separate application. 

Key stages and outputs 

Grant holders will be expected to: 

  1. Sign a grant agreement. An example of the standard terms of the agreement can be found at the bottom of this page.
  1. Provide an annual project update report and presentation for internal colleagues. 
  1. Participate in quarterly check-in meetings with the academic grant lead. 
  1. Produce at least three peer-reviewed academic articles during the grant period. Wherever possible, these articles should be published as open access. Any associated open-access publication costs should be included in the project budget. 
  1. Produce non-technical summaries of the research findings, such as toolkits, guides, frameworks, or other accessible outputs that support the practical application of the research. 
  1. Share records of project dissemination activities, including presentations, publications, and other outputs, with the British Council to support impact reporting and evaluation. 
  1. Contribute to additional dissemination activities, where appropriate, such as writing blog posts, participating in interviews, or presenting at conferences and online events. Participation in such activities will be agreed in advance on a case-by-case basis. 

Research focus

The following area is of particular interest to the British Council for this call for research proposals. We may be able to provide access to online platforms (e.g., English Online) or some data relating to the topic; however, we expect researchers to augment or annotate data.  

We strongly advise prospective researchers to attend the online open forum (date in key dates section) to find out more about the platforms and data available. 

We encourage proposals to consider the Comprehensive Learning System (CLS), described in O’Sullivan (2021). https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/the_comprehensive_lea... . Proposals that consider two or more elements (curriculum, delivery, assessment) of the CLS will be prioritised. 

Longitudinal studies into the impact of using AI in language assessment / language classrooms  

We encourage longitudinal studies (up to three years) that investigate the effect of AI tools on language proficiency. We are particularly interested in projects that propose using British Council’s AI-powered assessment products. The grant is not intended to fund the development of AI tools themselves. Areas of research interest include but are not limited to:  

  • the efficacy of AI tools versus traditional resources; 
  • the impact of AI tools on language development across different proficiency levels, age groups and linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds; 
  • the effectiveness of different types of feedback over time; 
  • the long-term effects of conversational agents on speaking proficiency;    
  • learners' and teachers' evolving attitudes towards AI-assisted learning. 

Our aim is to collect empirical evidence that can shed light on the relationship between AI use and learning goals to help us shape the future of learning and assessment.

Key dates 2026/27

September – October 2026 
 Call for proposals 
9am (GMT +1) 8 September 2026  Online open meeting for prospective research teams. If you wish to attend or receive the recording, please register here: Sign-up for English Language Learning and Assessment Research Grant open session – Fill in form 
2 October 2026  Applications close (midnight GMT+1) 
October 2026  Preliminary review of applications 
November 2026  Evaluation and selection 
30 November 2026  Notification of decisions to applicants 
December 2026 – March 2027 

 Drawing up and signing of contracts and due diligence checks 
From March 2027  Project start* 

*We are assuming and working towards a project start date of 29 March 2027, however this will be subject to the completion of administrative processes, including the signing of a Research Grant contract. 

Research grant criteria 

Proposals submitted for an English Language Learning and Assessment Grant will be longlisted by members of the grant administrative and project management team. Shortlisted applications will be anonymised and reviewed by members of the British Council English Language Research and Impact team. Shortlisted proposals will also be reviewed by an independent international expert in assessment and/or applied linguistics. The decision of the reviewers will be final. 

The following criteria will be used to review: 

  • The researcher[s] has an outstanding track record (appropriate to career stage) in the field (assessed at Longlisting). 
  • The research team preferably includes at least one researcher from the global south (assessed at Longlisting).
  • The research topic aligns with the British Council English Language Research and Impact areas of interest. 
  • The rationale for conducting the research is clearly stated. 
  • The literature review is adequate and sufficient. 
  • The research questions are clearly stated. 
  • The methods are described in detail (including participants, context, instruments, and data collection and analysis) and are appropriate for answering the research questions. 
  • The research meets the definition/requirements of a longitudinal study. The proposal demonstrates a clear and methodologically appropriate longitudinal research design. 
  • Ethical issues have been considered. 
  • The proposal demonstrates a commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in the composition of the research design.  
  • Preference will be given to proposals that incorporate British Council products, such as AiBC, the Primary English Test, or other relevant British Council assessments and resources.  
  • The assistance required from the British Council, e.g., sharing test data, is likely to be reasonable and deliverable. 
  • The budgeted items are appropriate to the proposed research and offer value for money. 
  • The research is likely to make a noteworthy contribution to scholarship in the field. 
  • The research is likely to produce publishable papers. 
  • The proposal includes a clear plan for monitoring and evaluating the impact of the research. 
  • Proposals include a clear plan with deliverable yearly milestones. 

How to apply

Proposals will be made on the form below. You can view the questions included in this form at the bottom of this page. Applications will only be accepted via the form. We recommend that you complete your responses on a locally-saved file before entering them into the form as you will not be able to save these and return to the form. 

We strongly recommend you attend the online open meeting (date included in timeline) before submitting a proposal. If you have any questions about submitting a proposal, please email ELLARG@britishcouncil.org. 

Please find the submission form here: English Language Learning and Assessment Research Grant Submission Form – Fill in form 

Previous recipients of an Assessment Research Grant

 

  • Okim Kang (Northern Arizona University) - The Impacts of Background and Socio-Economic Factors on Young Learners’ Test Performance

  • Gladys Plens de Quevedo Pereira de Camargo and Juliana Reichert Assunção Tonelli (Foundation for Development Support at UEL) - Language assessment Accessibility Resource Centre - LaARC
  • David Allen (Ochanomizu University) - Investigating the washback potential of the BCT-S
  • Nicola Latimer and Sathena Chan (University of Bedfordshire) - Aptis writing in real-life conditions: the impact of allowing access to spelling and grammar checking
  • Janine Knight and Joana Puig (International University of Catalonia) - Creating a school-child-family evaluation rubric for evaluating children’s plurilingual and intercultural competence in a Catalan Primary school

  • Tineke Brunfaut and Judit Kormos (University of Lancaster) - Multimodal integrated skills assessment: Investigating the construct of viewing-to-write tasks
  • Okim Kang (Northern Arizona University) - Equality, diversity, and inclusion: different varieties of accents in Aptis English listening tests  

  • Andrew Bax, Manoranjan Sathyamurthy, Sathena Chan, Chihiro Inoue, John Oyekan (Weblingua LTD, University of Bedfordshire, University of Sheffield) - Towards building an automated scoring model for assessing appropriate use of metadiscourse markers in Aptis Writing across CEFR levels: A multidisciplinary study
  • Salomé Villa Larenas and Daniel Muñoz (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Universidad de Chile) - Exploring the impact of Aptis on Chilean EFL teacher education: views from programme decision makers
  • Sathena Chan and Nahal Khabbazbashi (University of Bedfordshire) - Towards new task types in the digital age: perspectives from different educational contexts
  • Prithvi N. Shrestha, Maria Leedham and Tanzeela Anbreen (The Open Univeristy) - Examining transitivity, mood, theme, lexical diversity, metadiscourse markers and keywords in Aptis test-takers’ spoken performance across CEFR levels

  • Shangchao Min and Hongwen Cai (Zhejiang University and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies), Exploring the cognitive demands of Aptis listening tasks using cognitive diagnostic assessment.
  • Vahid Aryadoust, Guoxing Yu, Nathaniel Owen, Mikako Nishikawa (National Institute of Education Singapore, University of Bristol,  Open University, Kyoto University), An Eye-Tracking Investigation of the Relationships between Test Takers’ Attention, Item Difficulty, and Item Type in the Aptis Grammar and Vocabulary Test.
  • Janina Iwaniec, Ana Halbach, Lyndsay Renee Buckingham Reynolds, Miguel Fernández Álvarez (University of Bath),  The effect of bilingual schooling in Madrid on SES: The student perspective.
  • Soo Jung Youn (Northern Arizona University), The role of pragmatic variables in predicting the Aptis speaking test difficulty.

  • Trisevgeni Liontou (University of Athens) for her study which will apply automated analyses techniques to investigate discourse features in the Aptis for Teens Writing test: Evidence from lower secondary EFL students.
  • Nathaniel Owen (Open University) for Exploring rater behaviour with test-taker responses in Aptis Writing.

Okim Kang (Northern Arizona University) for her study on linguistic features and automatic scoring of Aptis speaking performances.

Carol Spöttl, Eva Konrad, Franz Holzknecht & Matthias Zehentner (Language Testing Research Group, University of Innsbruck) for their project on assessing writing at lower levels: research findings, task development locally and internationally, and the opportunities presented by the extended CEFR descriptors.

Azlin Zaiti Zainal , Ng Lee Luan & Tony Green (Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya)for their study which looks into the impact of the ProELT 1 training programme and Aptis on Malaysian English teachers’ classroom practice.

 
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