Innovation Fellowships Scheme – Route B: Policy-Led (2022-23)

Scheme overview

The British Academy has been funded by the UK's Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to support a pilot 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. 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.

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 A: Researcher-led

The first round of applications for Route A closed on 8 December 2021 (Innovation Fellowships Route A 2021-22). We will applications for a new Route A round in due course.

Route B: Policy-led

The British Academy is inviting applications for funding for a policy-led Innovation Fellowship (Route B), working with our partner, the FCDO.

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.

An earlier call took place in the context of the publication earlier this year of the UK Government’s "Integrated Review", known as Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (Innovation Fellowships Route B 2021-22).

These fellowships (Innovation Fellowships Route B 2022-23) will take place in the context of the FCDO’s response to the war in Ukraine, its impact on the post-Cold War international order and effects not just in Ukraine, but across the wider region. The Academy and the FCDO invite applications for Fellowships in any of the following three areas:

1. Russian Economy and Sanctions. A Fellowship in this area would focus on the profound economic consequences of the war for Russia, including but not limited to issues such as: economic developments inside Russia, including the impact of sanctions; the knock-on effects of sanctions overseas, including the geopolitical consequences of Russia’s search for non-Western markets; Russia’s use of economic levers abroad; illicit finance; arms sales; and potential war reparations.
2. Belarus. A Fellowship on Belarus would look at the full range of issues facing the country, including but not limited to: regime security, internal security and human rights; economic issues including the impact of sanctions on Belarus, and the knock-on impact of Russia sanctions; relations with Russia, its neighbours and the wider world, including migration issues.
3. Russian Foreign Policy. While the world remains focused on the war in Ukraine, Russia continues to exert influence beyond the Euro-Atlantic space. Its efforts to bolster its position internationally, promoting itself as a great power with global reach in a multipolar world, often put it in competition with Western countries. A Fellowship could explore Russia’s role in Africa, Asia and / or the Middle East. It would look at the range of tools and levers Russia has at its disposal (including in the political, economic and information space) and their effects - for Russia and the relevant regions, as well as in multilateral fora and specifically for the UK.

Please note this is a call for applications for Innovation Fellowships in partnership with the FCDO.

Scheme opens date: 1 June 2022

Application Deadline: 6 July 2022

Starting period of award: September 2022

Duration of award: awards are for a period of 12 months

Level of award: Route B (Policy-led) awards will have a maximum award value of £120,000 on an 80 per cent Full Economic Costing (FEC) basis. The Applicant must commit between 0.6 and 0.8 FTE time to the Fellowship

Scheme guidance notes

Innovation Fellowships Scheme 2022

For full information on the Innovation Fellowships Scheme – Route B: Policy-led, please view our scheme guidance notes.