Talent Development Awards in the United Kingdom

These awards are provided to promote the building of skills and capacities for current and future generations, including in core areas like quantitative skills, interdisciplinarity, data science, digital humanities and languages.

Aim of Award

• The British Academy has been funded by the UK government, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT, formerly known as BEIS) to continue its support for the Talent Development Awards scheme.
• The aim of the scheme is to promote the building of skills and capacities for current and future generations, including in core areas like quantitative skills, interdisciplinarity, data science, digital humanities and languages. This scheme promotes the acquisition and advancement of skills in relevant areas by UK-based researchers, supporting innovative research methods, be that through skills development, collaboration or dissemination. The overarching aims of the scheme are to invest in UK talent and skills, and as a result, to contribute to the development and delivery of high quality regional, national and international research by:
  • raising the quality of advanced quantitative skills and/or data science skills used in research, including digital methods;
  • creating new opportunities for knowledge and skills to exchange across disciplines and sectors; and
  • Promoting language learning and the transferable skills that language learning provides.
• The scheme is intended for established researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences with a current long-term appointment at a UK-based Higher Education Institution (HEI) or Independent Research Organisation (IRO) who wish to experiment with new methods that speak to the aims of the scheme. Equally, it is intended for researchers who wish to explore new opportunities for skills development and knowledge translation. The awards will, in particular, be valuable to researchers wishing to pilot new methods and approaches in order to apply for larger grants in the longer term or develop new partnerships, be it locally, nationally or internationally.

Funding Information

• The maximum grant is £10,000. Awards are to enable engagement activities to take place and are not intended as time buy-out for the award-holder. This scheme is not offered on a Full Economic Costing (FEC) basis, and all of the grants awarded are expected to be used 100% for the purposes specified in the application.
• The awards are for a minimum period of 6 months and up to a maximum period of 12 months, starting from no earlier than 1 March 2024 and no later than 31 March 2024.

Use of Funding

• Funding can be used for a variety of purposes in support of the activities, such as:
  • meeting the costs of travel and maintenance away from home for the Lead Applicant and Co-applicant(s);
  • employing teaching and research assistants;
  • covering the costs involved in hosting workshops or conferences;
  • meeting the costs of developing digital teaching tools and courses;
  • meeting travel and accommodation costs of visiting teachers and speakers;
  • covering short-term consultancy or salary costs of expert staff;
  • covering the costs of interpreters in the field;
  • covering incidental translation expenses;
  • covering tuition fees for accredited short courses that enable applicants to acquire specialised skills;
  • costs associated with specialist software (excluding commonly available office packages) and consumables (i.e. purchase of datasets, photocopies, microfilms, etc., and any other minor items that will be used up during the course of the project);
  • costs associated with online dissemination of information, including the development of podcasts, audio and/or visual recording of events, costs associated with the analysis of feedback from participants and preparation of suitable reports on activities.

Types of Activities Eligible for Support

• The British Academy welcomes applications requesting support for a wide range of activities that demonstrate innovation either in the use, acquisition and teaching of: languages, digital humanities, interdisciplinarity, data science skills, and quantitative skills. The following list gives examples of potential kinds of activities, but is not exhaustive:
  • Funding for the Lead Applicant and Co-applicant(s) to acquire new skills or training from specialists, such as, in advanced quantitative methods, data science or skills relating to language learning, with a view to applying them in research or teaching those skills to others.
  • Funding to allow visiting specialists to deliver bespoke teaching in advanced quantitative methods, data science or skills relating to language learning.
  • Support for conferences, workshops and other activities that promote collaboration or cross-disciplinary learning in the use of advanced quantitative methods, data science or digital humanities.
  • Support for the development of innovative teaching courses and/or online resources and hubs in advanced quantitative skills, data science, and in languages.
  • Support for developing individual expertise and teaching the skills associated with the use of languages in research – for example in working with interpreters and translators.
  • Funding for piloting the novel use of advanced quantitative methods or data science in research projects.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Lead Applicants must be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom 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). Applicants for the Talent Development Awards should be intending to pursue original, independent research in any field of study within the Humanities or Social Sciences. There are no quotas for individual subject areas and no thematic priorities.
• Lead Applicants who do not have a doctorate may have equivalent experience, which they should define in the personal statement section.
• Co-applicants may be based in the UK or overseas. They may have a doctorate or equivalent experience, or other specialist knowledge as appropriate to the aims of the scheme.
• N.B. Postgraduate students are not eligible to apply for grant support from the Academy, and Lead Applicants and Co-applicants are asked to confirm in the personal details section(s) that they are not currently working towards a PhD, nor awaiting the outcome of a viva voce examination, nor awaiting the acceptance of any corrections required by the examiners. Please note that applications from independent researchers cannot be accepted in this scheme.

Participants

• Lead Applicant: All applications must have one Lead Applicant, although applications on behalf of more than one person are welcome. The Lead Applicant is responsible for notifying any other parties. Other parties can include two Co-applicants and Other Participants.
• Co-applicant(s): Up to a maximum of two Co-applicants are permissible. The Co-applicant(s) will be directly involved in the delivery of the activity that is proposed by the Lead Applicant.
• Other Participants: Lead Applicants may specify other participants who do not equate to being a Co-applicant. Other participants will be engaged in the activity proposed by the Lead Applicant, but will not be directly involved with the organisation of activity.

For more information, visit Talent Development Awards.