Funding Call – Innovation Fellowships Scheme

Route B: Policy-led (Central Government)

2023-24 Competition

The British Academy is now inviting applications to the Innovation Fellowships Scheme – Route B: Policy-led (Central Government), 2023-24 competition. The application form is available online on Flexi-Grant®, the Academy’s grant management system.

Aims and purpose of the scheme

The British Academy has been funded by the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT, formerly known as BEIS) to continue its support for the Innovation Fellowships scheme. The Academy is working on this scheme with other partners, including for this funding call: the Cabinet Office (CO), His Majesty’s Treasury/the Department for Business and Trade (HMT/DBT); joint hosts for this scheme, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

This scheme provides funding and support for established early career and mid career researchers in the humanities and social sciences (the SHAPE disciplines) to partner with organisations and businesses in the creative and cultural, public, private, commercial, or policy sectors that have a base in the UK, to address challenges that require innovative approaches and solutions that are relevant to the UK. Through the Innovation Fellowships, our researchers in the SHAPE community are supported to create new and deeper links beyond academia, enabling knowledge mobilisation and translation, as well as individual skills development.

This call will enable researchers to partner with a range of central government departments for 12 months. Successful applicants will work within specific policy areas set out by the departments. These policy areas broadly correlate to the British Academy’s own policy programmes of work, which cover similar themes.

The Academy and the government departments invite applications for Fellowships in any of the following areas:

• Evaluation of Local Growth Policies (Cabinet Office).
• Evaluation of Net Zero Policies (Cabinet Office).
• Business Investment in the UK (His Majesty’s Treasury/Department for Business and Trade).
• Productivity in the UK (His Majesty’s Treasury/Department for Business and Trade).
• The UK Operating in the New World Economic System (His Majesty’s Treasury/Department for Business and Trade).
• Loneliness (Department for Culture, Media and Sport).
• Assessing the quality and value of services provided by the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector (Department for Culture, Media and Sport).

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 must also meet the requirements set out in the scheme guidance notes in the ‘Working at and with the CO, HMT/DBT and DCMS’ section; in particular, the requirements about security clearance and nationality.

Level of award

Route B (Policy-led) awards are on the basis of Full Economic Costing (FEC) at 80 per cent. 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. The awards are for 12 months in duration.

Applying for this scheme

Applications are available online on the Flexi-Grant® application system.

Deadline for submission and organisation approval: 22 November 2023, 17:00 (GMT).

Results expected: by February 2024.

Awards available to start on: 31 March 2024.

For further information on our Innovation Fellowships Scheme – Route B: Policy-led (Central Government), please view our scheme guidance notes and frequently asked questions

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