Guidance
Disciplines covered by the endorsing bodies for science, engineering, humanities, social science and medicine
Updated 26 February 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/global-talent-endorsing-bodies/disciplines-covered-by-the-endorsing-bodies-for-science-engineering-humanities-and-medicine
The endorsing bodies for science, engineering, humanities, social science and medicine cover a range of disciplines for active researchers in academic, industry or government research institutions.
For the endorsed funder fast-track route, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) can endorse applicants from any research field or discipline within the scope and remit of the endorsed funder. For all other applications within this field, you should use the list below to decide which endorsing body, if any, covers your particular area of discipline.
The British Academy
African, Asian and the Middle East Studies
- African language and literature
- Ancient Middle Eastern/Central Asian languages and literature
- Ancient oriental languages
- Chinese language and literature
- Japanese language and literature
- Modern Middle Eastern languages and literature
- Other Asian languages and literature
Anthropology and Geography
- Anthropology
- Cultural studies - anthropology
- Economic geography
- Historical geography
- Human geography
Archaeology
- Classical archaeology
- Medieval and post-medieval archaeology
- Prehistory
Classical Antiquity
- Ancient Greek language and literature
- Ancient History
- Classical studies
- Latin language and literature
Culture, Media and Performance Studies
- Areas of the digital humanities
- Cultural geography
- Cultural sociology
- Cultural studies
- Film studies
- Media studies
- New media and digital culture studies
- Performance studies
- Photographic studies
- Sound studies
- Visual culture studies
Early Modern History to c1850
- Early modern history
- History of science and ideas - to c1850
- Social history - to c1850
Early Modern Languages and Literature: From 1500 - 1830
- Celtic languages and literature from 1500 - 1830
- English language and literature from 1500 - 1830
- European languages and literature from 1500-1830
- Other languages and literature from 1500-1830
- Slavonic and East European languages and literature from 1500-1830
Economics and Economic History
- Agricultural economics
- Business and management studies
- Economic history
- Econometrics
- Economics
Education
- Children and childhood
- Curriculum, teachers and teaching
- Economics, employment, poverty, wealth, social mobility and education
- Education and international development
- Educational systems, demography, statistics, policy and governance
- Gender, ethnicity, class and identity
- Human development, cognition and learning
- Language, linguistics, language processing, literacy and bilingualism
- Learning difficulties and developmental disorders
- Media and communication
- Parenting, families and youth culture
- School organisation and effectiveness
- The growth of mass education
History of Art and Music
- Architecture
- Ethnomusicology
- History of art
- History of music
Law
- European law
- Jurisprudence
- Law
- Socio-legal studies
- Theory of law
Linguistics and Philology
- Cognitive science
- Linguistics
- Philology
- Psycholinguistics
- Sociolinguistics
Management and Business Studies
- Business studies
- Management studies
Medieval Studies: History and Literature: From 400-1500
- Celtic languages and literature from 400-1500
- English language and literature from 400 - 1500
- European languages and literature from 400-1500
- Medieval history
- Other languages and literature from 400 – 1500
- Slavonic and East European languages and literature from 400 - 1500
Modern History from c1850
- History of science and ideas - from 1850
- Modern history
- Social history - from 1850
Modern Languages, Literatures and other Media: From 1830 to present day
- Celtic languages and literature from 1830 to present day
- Communications and media studies
- Comparative literature from 1830 to present day
- Cultural studies
- Drama, theatre and film studies
- English language and literature from 1830 to present day
- European languages and literature from 1830 to present day Slavonic and East European languages and literature from 1830 to present day
- Library and information sciences
- Other languages and literature from 1830 to present day
Philosophy
- Economic philosophy
- Ethics
- Logics
- Metaphysics
- Political philosophy
Political Studies: Political Theory, Government and International Relations
- Comparative politics
- Development studies
- Government
- International relations
- Parliamentary studies
- Political economy
- Political theory
Psychology
- Behavioural science - social science
- Cognitive science - social science
- Educational psychology
- Psychology - social science
- Social psychology
Sociology, Demography and Social Statistics
- Cultural studies - social science
- Demography
- Education
- Social policy and administration
- Sociology
Theology and Religious Studies
- Biblical Studies
- Comparative religion
- Religious studies
- Theology
The Royal Academy of Engineering
Aerospace
- Aerospace manufacturing
- Airlines
- Antennae
- Autonomous systems
- Avionics
- Materials for aerospace
- Radar Systems
- Satellite Systems
- Turbomachinery and aerothermal engineering
Biomedical and Medical
- Biomaterials
- Bionanotechnology
- Drug delivery
- Forensics
- Medical devices
- Medical imaging
- Medical physics
- Medical robotics
- Neuroscience
- Optoelectronics
- Orthotics
- Rehabilitation
- Systems/synthetic biology
Chemical and Process
- Carbon
- Catalysis
- Chemical
- Clean technology
- Coal and gas technologies
- Combustion
- Earth Science – Petroleum engineering
- Food processing
- Hydrogen
- Nanotechnology
- Petroleum geoscience
- Pharmaceuticals
Civil, Construction & built environment
- Building engineering physics
- Climate change and sustainability
- Contamination
- Engineering design
- Environmental engineering
- Fire
- Geotechnical engineering
- Infrastructure
- Numerical modelling
- Offshore and coastal engineering
- Waste Management
Computing and Communications
- Algorithms
- Artificial intelligence
- Computer vision
- Data science
- H-CI/C-HI
- Image processing
- Imaging
- Informatics
- Signal processing
- Software engineering
- Telecommunications
- Web and data science
Electrical and Electronic
- Acoustics
- Control
- Electrical materials
- Electromagnetic
- Electronic devices
- Lasers
- Microsystems
- Nanotechnology
- Networks
- Optoelectronics
- Power
- Semiconductor
- Sensors
- Signal Processing
- Wireless
Energy and Power
- Energy conservation
- Energy conversion technologies
- Energy Infrastructure
- Fuel cells
- Hydrogen Power
- Renewable Energy
- Nuclear energy
- Transmission and Distribution
Innovation & Policy
- Business
- Design
- Education
- Entrepreneurship
- Ethics
- Innovation
- IP
- Knowledge transfer
- Law
- Policy
- Public engagement
- Regulations
- Risk
- Sustainability
Materials and Mining
- Materials performance
- Materials science
- Metallurgy
- Plastics and composites
- Structural integrity
- Structural materials
- Welding and joining technologies
Special (including emerging or multi-disciplinary areas of engineering)
- Quantum computing
- Agricultural engineering
- Engineering project management
- Leadership or management of engineering business
- Engineering biology
- Machine learning
- Neurotechnology
- Quantum technologies
- Regenerative medicine/engineering
- Robotics
Transport and Mechanical
- Acoustics and vibrations
- Automotive
- Fluid Dynamics
- Heat and Thermodynamics
- Mechatronics
- Rail and Marine engineering
- Transportation infrastructure
- Turbomachinery
- Ultrasonics
The Royal Society
Anatomy, Physiology, Neurosciences, Health and Human Sciences
- Animal and Human Physiology and Anatomy
- Behavioural Neuroscience
- Cellular Neuroscience
- Development and Control of Behaviour
- Endocrinology and Reproduction (non-clinical)
- Experimental Psychology
- Pharmacology (non-clinical)
- Physiology (non-clinical) (including biophysics of cells)
- Physiology and Medicine (non-clinical)
Astronomy and Physics, Theoretical Physics, and Applied Physics
- Astronomy
- Astrophysics
- Biophysics
- Computational Physics
- Condensed Matter (including softmatter, liquids and nano-materials)
- Cosmic Radiation
- Cosmology
- Crystallography
- Elementary Particle Physics
- Gravitation
- Interstellar Medium
- Lasers and Optoelectronics
- Low temperature physics
- Magnetism
- Mathematical and theoretical physics
- Mathematical Astronomy
- Mathematical Astrophysics
- Mathematical Cosmology
- Mathematical Gravitation
- Nuclear Atomic and Molecular Physics
- Physics (Applied)
- Physics (Experimental)
- Planetary Science
- Plasma Physics
- Quantum Theory
- Semi-conductors
- Solar Physics
- Statistical
Biochemistry, Molecular Cell Biology and Structural Biology
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Biophysics and Structural Biology
- Cell Biology (including molecular cell biology)
- Molecular Immunology
- Molecular Microbiology
Chemistry, Applied Chemistry and Theoretical Chemistry
- Applied Chemistry
- Biological Chemistry
- General Chemistry
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Materials Chemistry
- Organic Chemistry
- Physical Chemistry
- Theoretical Chemistry
Computer Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Databases
- Human-computing interaction
- Machine Learning
- New computational paradigms (quantum, biological)
- Numerical Computing
- Programming Languages and Verification
- Security and privacy
- Systems, including networking
- Vision
Developmental Biology, Genetics (excluding population genetics), Immunology and Microbiology (excluding medical microbiology)
- Cellular and Humoral Immunology
- Cellular Pathology
- Cytogenetics
- Developmental Biology
- Epidemiology (non-clinical)
- General Microbiology (including Bacteriology and Virology)
- Genetics (excluding population genetics)
- Immunology
Earth Sciences and Environmental Physical Sciences
- Archaeology
- Atmospheric Chemistry
- Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology
- Chemical Oceanography
- Climate Sciences
- Geochemistry
- Geodesy
- Geology
- Geophysics
- Hydrology
- Limnology
- Mineralogy
- Physical Geography
- Physical Oceanography
- Seismology
Engineering, Technology, Instrumentation, Material Science and Experimental Fluid Dynamics
- Aeronautical
- Chemical
- Civil
- Communications (including information theory)
- Computing Engineering (including software)
- Control (including robotics)
- Electrical
- Electronics
- Electric Power
- Environmental
- Fluid Dynamics
- General
- Instrumentation
- Materials Science (including materials engineering)
- Mechanical
- Medical
- Nuclear Technology
- Opto-Electronic (including fibre optics components, lasers, optical computing, optical imagining and optical microscopy)
- Semi-Conductors
- Space Technology
- Structural
Health and Human Sciences
- Medical Instrumentation
- Medical Microbiology
- Medical Statistics and Demography
- Molecular Medicine
- Nutrition
Organismal, Evolutionary and Ecological Science, including soils and agriculture
- Agricultural Science
- Biological Modelling
- Biological Statistics
- Ecology
- Entomology
- Environmental Biology
- Ethology
- Evolution
- Organismal Animal Biology (including invertebrate and vertebrate Zoology)
- Palaeozoology
- Parasitology
- Plant Sciences/Botany
- Population Genetics
- Soil Science
- Taxonomy and Systematics
Pure and Applied Mathematics, Computer Science
- Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
- Mechanics (Theoretical and Applied)
- Pure Mathematics
- Statistics and Operational Research
Those conducting Clinical research to include the following disciplines:
- Anaesthetics
- Emergency Medicine
- Cardiology
- Dental
- Dermatology
- Endocrinology
- Gastroenterology
- General Practice
- Genetics (related to Human Health)
- Haematology
- Hepatology
- Histopathology
- Immunology (related to Human Health)
- Infectious diseases and Tropical Medicine
- Infection/Microbiology
- Medical Education
- Medical Statistics
- Microbiology (related to Human Health)
- Nephrology
- Neurology
- Obstetrics and Gynaecology
- Occupational Medicine
- Oncology
- Paediatrics and Child Health
- Palliative Medicine
- Pathology
- Pharmacology
- Physicians/Medicine
- Psychiatry
- Public Health and Epidemiology
- Radiology
- Respiratory
- Rheumatology
- Surgery
- Urology
- Virology
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
The endorsed funder route managed by UKRI is for applicants in all disciplines in science, engineering, humanities and medicine who meet the requirements in Paragraph GTE 8.1.