Innovation Fellowships 2024-25 – Route B: Policy-led (Digital Society), in collaboration with Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID), supported by DSIT and AHRC

Scheme overview

The British Academy has been funded by the UK Government, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to continue its support of the Innovation Fellowships scheme. The Innovation Fellowships scheme is a dual-route scheme designed to enable 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. 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. The Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), will also be partnering with the Academy to co-fund this cohort of Innovation Fellowships. Our partners for this funding call (Route B: Policy-led; Digital Society) are the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) - AI Policy Directorate (AIPD); DSIT - the AI Safety Institute (AISI); the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); the Digital Regulation and Cooperation Forum (DRCF); Ofcom.

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 or independent regulators for 12 months. Successful applicants will work within specific policy areas set out by their chosen partner. These policy areas broadly correlate to the British Academy’s own Digital Society policy programme, which covers similar themes.

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

• AI, Intellectual Property (IP) and the Creative Industries (DCMS).
• Fostering economic growth across the UK through digital innovation in DCMS sectors (DCMS).
• The effect of regulating AI on business and consumer adoption (DSIT - AIPD).
• Government’s approach to AI safety (DSIT - AISI).
• AI Regulation and Auditing (DRCF).
• How AI impacts on public trust about information (Ofcom).

Applicants should note that the Fellow would finalise the outline of a work programme with the partner after being awarded the Fellowship, and therefore applicants are not required to submit a research proposal as part of the application.

Please see further information in the Scheme and Application Guidance Notes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Scheme opens date: 4 September 2024

Application deadline: 20 November 2024 17:00 UK time

Starting period of award: between 1-31 March 2025

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 Higher Education Institution or Independent Research Organisation; 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 DCMS, DSIT - AIPD, DSIT - AISI, DRCF and Ofcom’ section; in particular, the requirements about security clearance.

Route A Researcher-led

The researcher-led Innovation Fellowships (Route A), through which applicants must apply with a partner which they have identified, are not currently running. To learn more about previous calls, please view the Innovation Fellowships Route A Researcher-led page.