Policy-Led Innovation Fellowships: Route B (Digital Society) in the UK

Aims and Purpose of the Scheme

• The British Academy has been funded by the UK Government, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) to continue its support for the Innovation Fellowships scheme.
• This scheme provides funding and support for established early-career and mid-career researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences 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, their 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 central government department, the Department for Education (DfE), for 12 months. Successful applicants will work within specific policy areas set out by the department. These policy areas broadly correlate to the British Academy’s own Digital Society policy programme, which cover similar themes.

Features of the Scheme 

• The Innovation Fellowships is a dual route scheme, consisting of Route A: Researcher-led and Route B: Policy-led. This call is for the Innovation Fellowships – Route B: Policy-Led (Digital Society).
• Route B: Policy-led Innovation Fellows will work with policy partners specified by the British Academy. There are expected to be further calls in relation to Digital Society in 2024-25. For this first round of the call, the partner is:
  • The Department for Education (DfE), specifically within the Unit for Future Skills, an analytical and research unit in the department.

Route B: Policy-led (Digital Society) Innovation Fellowships

• These Fellowships are designed to ensure close interaction with policymakers, right at the heart of partner departments’ work. Government departments operate in a context where timely access to high-quality evidence-based analysis might be the difference between success and failure. Exerting influence, negotiating, and leveraging others’ power at the right moment is crucial. This can make it difficult for researchers operating outside government departments to influence policymakers – the Innovation Fellowship Route B: Policy-led Fellowships are designed to help change this.
• The British Academy and its partner department (DfE) for this call aim to support up to two Innovation Fellowships in this round. The opportunities and areas of policy interest for this call are discussed below.
• Fellows will remain in communication with the British Academy’s Digital Society programme team throughout the duration of the award and may be asked to sit upon the relevant expert Working Group in the Academy (e.g. the Digital Society Working Group). This will enable the Academy’s policy team to support the work of the Fellows by, for example, supporting pathways to impact and engagement across their wider policy activities. This will also enable emerging insights from the Fellowship to be fed back to the policy team.

Scope of the Fellowships with the Department for Education (DfE): Artificial Intelligence (AI) Skills

• The Fellows will work with the Unit for Future Skills, an analytical and research unit within the Department for Education working to improve the quality of jobs and skills data, and which operates across government to make this available and more accessible to policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public. For instance, in November 2023, the Unit for Future Skills published a report which examined the impact of AI on areas within the UK labour market and education. This Fellowship will be working with and alongside teams within the Skills Strategy and Engagement Division but will also be conducting independent research and analysis.
• The central topic that Fellows will be working on is on understanding AI Skills across the UK.
• This will involve work on a policy area focused around understanding the AI skills needs and challenges in the UK, both in the immediate term and in the future. Within their Fellowship proposal, prospective Innovation Fellows should detail an outline of how their research, expertise, and experience equip them to work on projects related to one or more of the topics listed below, including the kinds of methods that they would use to approach potential other topics. Fellows working with DfE will conduct research on topics such as:
  • the nature of the emerging AI skills in the UK, across sectors, regions, and career stages, and its future trajectories;
  • the social, economic, and cultural impacts of the current distribution of AI skills in the UK, and the impacts of different strategies to improve this;
  • the development and maintenance of effective AI skills partnerships;
  • studies of alternative AI skills strategies, both from within the UK and abroad.

Working at and with DfE 

• Fellows will conduct research and analysis in one or more areas of work to address a specified set of policy-driven research question(s), which are agreed at the outset of the Fellowship.
• This Fellowship will be working with and alongside teams within the Skills Strategy and Engagement Division but will also be conducting independent research and analysis.
• Work-planning will centre on the programme of work and analysis agreed at the outset. However, those Fellows who are more embedded and integrated within teams will be expected to reserve some time for responsive and demand-led analysis.
• An indicative list of these tasks might include: providing evaluation or policy research design advice to departments, writing papers and shorter evidence and policy briefing notes, oral briefings for senior officials and ministers, meeting external and cross-government partners, as well as organising and running masterclasses on evidence and/or evaluation methodologies.
• The Fellows would finalise the outline of a work programme with DfE after being awarded the Fellowship and applicants are asked to bear this in mind when putting their applications together.

Department for Education (DfE)

• Fellows will be required to receive security clearance at the Baseline Personnel Security Standard.
• For all DfE Fellows, there are no nationality requirements.
• Award-holders are expected to provide information requested by the partner department in a timely manner.

Subjects Covered

• The British Academy welcomes proposals for high-quality research in all its subject areas, i.e. disciplines within the Humanities and Social Sciences. While all proposals should be situated in an appropriate field of study, they may vary considerably in their approach to conceptualisation, methodology and/or outputs, depending on the discipline.
• In some cases, creative and professional practice may play a significant role in shaping the methods and/or outcomes of research.
• In all proposals, whether practice-led or not, a clear scholarly rationale is required for the choice of research methods, processes and outputs.

Funding Information

• Value of Funding and Support Provided
  • 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).
  • Note that there is a minimum spend expected on this research expense element of at least £12,500 at 100% FEC (£10,000 at 80% British Academy contribution). The other elements are Directly Allocated (Estates) Costs and Indirect Costs which cover costing for space, central support services and other necessary costs incurred by the employing institution in supporting the Fellow.
  • The Academy recognises that the upper limit on the contribution that the Academy’s funding can make to this award – £120,000 – might not be sufficient to cover all of the costs up to 80% of the Full Economic Cost value required. In those cases, an employing institution may need to be willing to make additional contributions to the overhead costs involved.
• Duration and Start of Award
  • Awards can be held for 12 months. Awards are expected to commence between 1-31 October 2024.
• Number of Awards and Strength of Competition
  • It is expected that up to 2 awards will be made for this first round of the Route B: Policy-led (Digital Society) strand. This is a fairly new scheme and the strength of competition remains difficult to estimate. They are unable to give guidance on the likely success rate.

Activities and Outputs

• Successful candidates will be selected on the basis of the quality and relevance of the activity and outputs proposed in the application. Award-holders will be expected to play a role in promoting the approaches and methods that are the focus of their award in their own academic environments and the partner department they are working in. Expected activities and outputs will be specific to the policy areas and departmental teams the Fellow will be working with. They may involve, but are not limited to:
  • Evidence notes/policy briefings – reports, notes and responses to key challenges/approaches for developing connections with policy leaders or innovators;
  • Data analysis – identifying and analysing datasets that may be relevant to enhancing understanding and framing new solutions;
  • Case studies – exploring practical or policy-orientated solutions, engagement between academic and non-academic environments and the wider benefits to individuals/communities/regions;
  • Briefings/blogs/presentations/podcasts/videos and other outputs to reach a variety of policy audiences and environments;
  • Conferences/workshops/webinars/toolkits and other training opportunities which enable knowledge exchange with a wider academic and policy audience.
  • Academic papers are encouraged, but will need to be discussed with the Department prior to writing up and publication.

Responsibilities of Award-Holders

• Award-holders will be expected to act as champions for academic-policy engagement within their institutions and partner organisations, and to liaise with and feed insights into relevant British Academy policy programmes, as well as through broader British Academy networks. This is expected to involve:
  • working within and across the partner department as required by the agreed programme of work and the role;
  • discussing their analyses and insights with the British Academy policy teams and engaging in regular catch-ups and discussions about their work;
  • sitting upon a relevant British Academy policy advisory group;
  • engaging with individuals both within and beyond academia as relevant to the programme of work;
  • proactively identifying opportunities to promote and advance the role of the SHAPE subjects.

Eligibility

• Lead Applicant Eligibility
  • All applications require one Lead Applicant. 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 e.g. (a Higher Education Institution or Independent Research Organisation).
  • Applications are welcome from early-career researchers and mid-career researchers. Applicants must self-define their career stage in the application, providing further details about career breaks or other circumstances, if relevant.
  • Applicants do not have to fit within a certain time-frame since their PhD in order to prove their career-stage. However, applicants must self-define their career stage and demonstrate this accordingly in their applications.
  • Applicants should be aware that if they are more advanced in their career, the assessors may determine that they are not within the bounds of the scheme. Therefore, applicants should explain their career stage clearly in response to the question on career stage in the application form.
  • Lead Applicants who do not have a doctorate may have equivalent experience, which they should define in the personal statement section.
  • Applicants for the Innovation Fellowships scheme should be intending to pursue challenges that can benefit from the contribution of Humanities or Social Sciences expertise.
  • N.B. Postgraduate students are not eligible to apply for grant support from the Academy, and Lead Applicants are asked to confirm in the personal details section 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.
• Employing Institution Eligibility 
  • Lead Applicants must be based in an institution which must be listed as an approving organisation in the British Academy’s grant management system, Flexi-Grant.
  • This institution (e.g. a Higher Education Institution (HEI) or Independent Research Organisation (IRO) must be based in the United Kingdom and will be issued the Terms and Conditions of Award, if successful.

Criteria

• Applying to the Scheme
  • For Route B: Policy-led Innovation Fellowships, applicants should apply to work with the British Academy’s partner department, as above, and will be working on the ‘AI skills’ topic as specified below.
  • The researcher’s employing institution must be a UK-based Higher Education Institution (HEI) or Independent Research Organisation (IRO). The partner department, must be separate to the researcher’s employing institution.
  • If successful, the relationship with the partner department will be managed by the researcher, i.e. the Lead Applicant, with responsibility for the success of the award residing with the Lead Applicant’s employing institution. The relationship must be conducted in line with the Terms and Conditions of Award.
  • Applications are welcome from researchers who consider themselves to be early-career or mid-career researchers.
• Person Specification
  • Applicants must be an early or mid-career researcher based at a UK institution (e.g. a Higher Education Institution or Independent Research Organisation) with expertise in a Humanities and/or Social Science discipline.
  • Through the Innovation Fellowships scheme, you will have the opportunity to work in a deeply embedded way with policy and analytical teams, which will enable you to develop outcomes that enhance their understanding of, and response to, societal challenges, and offer solutions to shape policy and practice. You will be able to draw on the expertise and insights of policymakers and practitioners, and benefit from their continued engagement with your project. This is an opportunity for all participants to form new collaborations and draw on the insights these bring to inform and influence future policy and research.
  • Applicants should be open-minded, and willing to explore new perspectives and innovative approaches. They will have an appetite for working across academia and policy. They will be challenge-driven and receptive to integrating the perspectives, needs and priorities of the partner department.

For more information, visit The British Academy.