British Academy – Innovation Fellowships Scheme Route A
The British Academy is now inviting applications to the Innovation Fellowships Scheme – Route A: Researcher-led, 2022-23 competition. The application form is available online on Flexi-Grant®, the Academy’s grant management system. The deadline for applications is Wednesday 14 September 2022, 5:00pm BST.
Aims and purpose of the scheme
The British Academy has been funded by the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to continue its support of a new scheme, the Innovation Fellowships.
The Innovation Fellowships scheme is a dual-route scheme which is designed to enable researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences to partner with organisations and business in the creative and cultural, public, private and policy sectors in order to address challenges that require innovative approaches and solutions. Both routes require an established researcher to work with a UK-based partner organisation on a specified policy or societal challenge that contributes to the aims of the scheme for a period of up to one year.
We are currently inviting applications for funding for researcher-led Innovation Fellowships (Route A), through which applicants must apply with a partner which they have identified.
Through the Innovation Fellowships, our researchers in the SHAPE community will be supported to create new and deeper links beyond academia, so enabling knowledge mobilisation and translation, as well as individual skills development. These Fellowships will forge innovative place-based partnerships to create new intellectual, cultural, community and economic opportunities that will address key societal challenges. This includes, but is not limited to:
- developing new approaches for supporting innovation across the economy, regions, and society
- contributing to and leading on challenges targeted at increasing links with industry and business, broadly defined
- improving direct connection of researchers with policymakers, leaders and innovators at local and regional levels
In addition to the aims outlined above, the Academy encourages researchers to indicate interest in the British Academy’s public policy themes, where relevant. The British Academy’s public policy themes address major policy and societal challenges, and build on the Academy’s ‘COVID Decade’ evidence report and policy report (published in March 2020) which focus on understanding and addressing the long-term social impacts of COVID-19. The British Academy’s public policy themes are the following:
- Sustainability for people and planet
- Social and cultural infrastructures
- Digital societies
- Governance, trust and voice
The Academy is flexible in its approach to the Innovation Fellowships Scheme, and is open to researchers proposing ideas that either address challenges related to broader themes of the scheme or, more specifically, to the British Academy’s public policy themes, as outlined above.
Eligibility
Applicants must be ordinarily resident in the UK with a current long-term appointment that will continue for at least as long as the period of the award at a UK-based institution (HEI or IRO); and be at early or mid-career stage.
Applicants should apply with a named UK-based partner organisation outside the Lead Applicant’s employing institution. A partner organisation includes: business, charity and public sector organisations, community organisations, policy-relevant organisations, think tanks or voluntary organisations.
Level of award
Route A (researcher-led) awards are on a Full Economic Costing (FEC) basis. The British Academy will award up to £120,000. The Lead Applicant must commit between 0.4 and 0.8 FTE time to the Fellowship.
Applying for this scheme
Applications are available online on the Flexi-Grant® application system.
Deadline for submission and organisation approval: Wednesday 14 September 2022, 5:00pm BST
Results expected: January 2023
Awards available to start date between: 1 February 2023 – 31 March 2023
For further information on our Innovation Fellowships Scheme – Route A: Researcher-led, please view our scheme guidance notes and frequently asked questions.
Further information can be found on the British Academy website.