Applications open for Innovation Fellowships Scheme Route B (Policy-Led) – UK

The British Academy has been funded by the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) to support the Innovation Fellowships. The Academy is also working on this scheme in partnership with other partners, including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), as per this call.

The Innovation Fellowships scheme will provide funding and support for established early-career and mid-career researchers in 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, their 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.

The FCDO has specialised research requirements, operating in a context where timely access to high-quality evidence-based analysis can mean the difference between success and failure. Exerting influence, negotiating and leveraging others’ power at precisely the right moment is at a premium. This can make it difficult for researchers operating outside the FCDO to have a significant impact. These Fellowships will provide an opportunity to change that by enabling close interaction with FCDO policymakers directly in the heart of this government department’s work. The Academy and the FCDO invite applications for Fellowships in any of the following areas.

• India: This would be an opportunity to be attached to the Research Analysts Cadre within the Research & Evidence Directorate and work closely alongside relevant policy Directorates on Indian policy related to: security and defence, foreign policy, climate policy, and/or economic growth.
• The politics of energy transition and climate change in Africa: This would be an opportunity to work on a high priority issue for the FCDO with the UK Government committed to supporting energy transitions. This Fellowship would help develop the FCDO’s capability in relation to the politics and power dynamics of energy transitions and climate change at different levels in African countries.
• The role of technology in shaping citizen-state relations in Africa: This would be an opportunity to engage on the issues that the role of technology is posing for citizen-state relations in Africa. This is playing out in multiple different ways, including with young Africans playing an important role. The process is inherently political and is likely to have a significant impact on social contracts and gender relations.

Funding Information 

• Level of award: The Academy is able to offer awards of up to £120,000 for 12 months in duration (with Full Economic Costing at 80%).
• Duration of award: awards are for a period of 12 months.

Eligible Cost 

• Innovation Fellowship awards are offered on a Full Economic Costing (FEC) basis. Applicants must enter the costs in the application form, Financial Details section, at 100% FEC. The maximum that can be claimed is £150,000 at 100%, of which the Academy will pay 80% (i.e., up to £120,000 if the full sum is requested). This includes all direct and indirect costs incurred by the employing institution, including space, central support services, and other necessary costs incurred by the employing institution on behalf of the Fellow.
• Funding will be provided on the Full Economic Costing (FEC) basis primarily to cover the salary of the Applicant. The Innovation Fellow will be expected to spend their allocated time of between 0.6 and 0.8 FTE working with the FCDO in their office and/or other mutually agreed sites.
• Eligible costs will be funded under the following headings:
  • Directly incurred salary costs. This is a Fellowship award paying for the time of the person appointed as the Innovation Fellow. Therefore, the cost for the time of the Lead Applicant should be submitted as Directly Incurred Salary Costs. The award can be used to support the employing institution’s salary costs of the Lead Applicant for the duration of the award at between 0.6 and 0.8 FTE. It is expected that the majority of funding requested will cover the Lead Applicant’s salary costs.
  • Estates and indirect costs. The award can include the employing institution’s estate and indirect costs incurred as a result of direct staff costs.

Eligibility Criteria 

• Eligible 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 (e.g., a Higher Education Institution [HEI] or Independent Research Organisation [IRO]).
• Applications are welcome from early-career researchers and mid-career researchers. Please note that applications from independent researchers cannot be accepted in this round of the scheme.
• Applicants may not hold more than one British Academy award of a comparable nature at any one time.
• Applicants for the Innovation Fellowships Scheme should be intending to pursue challenges that can benefit from the contribution of Humanities or Social Sciences expertise.
• Postgraduate students are not eligible to apply for grant support from the Academy, and 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.

For more information, visit The British Academy.