From 1 January 2020 ESRC will be revising the eligibility criteria for this call to remove the 4-year time bound criteria. This remains a scheme for early career researchers who have yet to make the transition to be an independent researcher Removing the time bound eligibility criteria reflects our ambition to be as inclusive of the increasing diversity of career paths and trajectories as possible.
https://esrc.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/new-investigator-grants/