Innovation Fellowships Scheme 2022-23 – Route B: Policy-led (Governance, Trust and Voice)

Scheme overview

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 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.

The Innovation Fellowships scheme has two routes:

Route B: Policy-led

The British Academy is inviting applications for funding for policy-led Innovation Fellowships (Route B), through which applicants must apply to work with one of our partners. Our partners for this funding call are the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). To learn more about Route B and apply, stay on this webpage.

The British Academy has been funded by the UK Government, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to continue its support of a new scheme, the Innovation Fellowships. The Academy is also working on this scheme in partnership with other partners, including the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), as per this funding call.

The Innovation Fellowships Scheme will provide funding and support for established early-career and mid-career researchers the Humanities and Social Sciences to partner with organisations and business in the creative and cultural, public, private and policy sectors, to address challenges that require innovative approaches and solutions. 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.

This call will contribute to the Academy’s public policy theme of Governance, Trust and Voice, and specifically our efforts to support inclusive and evidence-based multi-level policy-making. Through this call we are supporting researchers to work side by side with policymakers to explore how the UK can develop effective multi-level governance structures which encourage participation, engagement and cooperation to strengthen our capacity to identify and respond to local, regional and national evidence needs and the major policy challenges ahead.

This funding call will enable award-holders to work directly with two central Whitehall Departments and supporting their multidisciplinary evidence needs in the broad areas of economic growth and innovation, levelling up and communities, areas which require effective evidence and decision-making at multiple levels of scale and place.

The Academy and the Government Departments invite applications for Fellowships in any of the following areas:

• Levelling Up Subnational Data Project (ONS)
• R&D and Innovation Landscape (ONS)
• Integration and Communities (DLUHC)
• Local Resilience and Economic Growth (DLUHC)
• Productivity (DLUHC)
• Devolution Across the UK (DLUHC)

Scheme opens date: 23 November 2022

Application deadline: 16 January 2023 – 12:00 GMT

Starting period of award: no earlier and no later than 31 March 2023

Duration of award: awards are for 12 months in duration.

Level of award: Route B (Policy-led) awards are on the basis of Full Economic Costing (FEC) at 80%. 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.

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 ONS and DLUHC’ section; in particular, the requirements about security clearance.

Route A: Researcher-led

In July-September 2022, the British Academy invited applications for funding for researcher-led Innovation Fellowships (Route A), through which applicants must apply with a partner which they have identified. This funding call was the second round of Route A applications, after a successful pilot round in 2021.

Scheme guidance notes and frequently asked questions

For full information on the Innovation Fellowships Scheme – Route B: Policy-led (Governance, Trust and Voice), please view our scheme guidance notes and frequently asked questions.