Digital Economy Telling Tales of Engagement Competition Opens for 2021

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) runs the ‘Digital Economy Telling Tales of Engagement Competition’ to support public engagement activities that demonstrate the real-world impact of a digital economy (DE) research project.

Three prizes of £10,000 each will be awarded to enable researchers to communicate the demonstrable benefits of their research and engage the public in creative and interactive ways.

Applications must be associated with a previously funded DE theme research grant. They should focus on telling the tale of how this research grant’s impact arose, and capture elements of any engagement with partners in an interesting and engaging way

‘Impact’ covers the many ways that research-related skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations. This must extend beyond activities such as a previously staged conference or a published report, and represent real-world actions such as demonstrable improvements in society, or research outputs that have been taken up and used by policy makers.

Projects should involve a diverse audience, or include groups underrepresented in DE, and must share best practice in research and project partner engagement. They should last up to 18 months in duration, and can start from April 2022.

Eligible applicants must have previously received funding from the Digital Economy Theme or aligned funding from EPSRC, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) or Economic and Social research Council (ESRC) for research or research training that is relevant to Digital Economy.

Applicants may be from any sector or career stage, and may be based within academia (including PhD starters), industry, users or the third sector. Applications are not limited to individuals and may be submitted by a team of researchers..

Three awards of £10,000 each at 100% full Economic Cost (fEC) are available to be used towards the cost of activities that tell the applicant’s impact story to a wider audience. One of the three awards will be reserved for early career researchers.

Applications should be submitted by the 21 December 2021 deadline.