Innovation Fellowships 2026-27 – Route B: Policy-led

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 Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), is also partnering with the Academy to co-fund the Digital Society cohort of this call.

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 non-academic organisations to address challenges that require innovative approaches and solutions that are relevant to the UK.

This scheme requires 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. This page is for Route B: Policy-led Fellowships. The researcher-led Innovation Fellowships (Route A) are not currently running.

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. Our partners for this funding call are:

Resilient Communities

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); Ministry of Justice (MoJ); Local Policy Innovation Partnerships (LPIP) Hub, City-REDI, University of Birmingham; Government Office for Science (GO Science)

Digital Society

Digital Regulatory Cooperation Forum (DRCF); Department of Work and Pensions (DWP)

Through the Innovation Fellowships, our researchers in the humanities and social sciences 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 work with a policy partner for 12 months. Successful applicants will work on areas that correspond with the British Academy’s Resilient Communities or Digital Society policy programme.

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

Resilient Communities

• Valuing and mapping cultural infrastructure (DCMS)
• Understanding access to justice for individuals and families (MoJ)
• Applying frameworks to value community infrastructure (LPIP)
• Social and cultural infrastructure for community resilience and emergency preparedness (GO Science)

Digital Society

• Consumer protection, innovation and regulation in a data-driven, AI-enabled economy (DRCF)
• Place and People Focused AI Upskilling for Growth and Opportunity (DWP)

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, Scope Summaries and Frequently Asked Questions.

Scheme opens date: 10 June 2026

Application deadline: 6 August 2026,17:00 BST

Starting period of award: between 1-31 March 2027

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 per cent. The British Academy will award up to £120,000. The Applicant must commit between 0.4 and 0.8 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) time to the Fellowship. It is important to note that Innovation Fellowship funds can only be used for existing contracted time, and academics are not able to use fellowship funds to extend their contracts. The FTE time requested for the Fellowship in the application must not exceed their contracted FTE.

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 (HEI) or Independent Research Organisation (IRO); and be at early- or mid-career stage. Independent researchers who do not hold a post at a HEI or IRO are not eligible to apply for this scheme. Applicants must also meet the requirements set out in the Scope Summaries; in particular those pertaining to any security clearance and nationality requirements, which are listed under the scopes of the individual fellowships.

Scheme guidance

Please see the scheme notes for detailed guidance on how to apply.

Frequently asked questions

Please refer to our FAQs page for answers to the most frequently asked questions about the scheme.