2nd Round of Innovations Fund offering grants to Research Organisations across the UK

Deadline: 9-Jun-21

Applications are now open for 2nd Round of Innovations Fund to support innovative research projects that advance our understanding of how digital technologies are transforming work. The Innovation Fund provides pump-prime support of new projects that complement the core research programme.

The Digital Futures at Work Research Centre – aims to advance our understanding of how digital technologies are reshaping work, impacting on employers, employees, job seekers and governments. They are now inviting applications for the second round of Innovation Funding. Proposals should align with our research objectives and relate to how digital technologies are transforming work.

The Innovation Fund is designed to support:

Research projects that advance understanding of digital futures at work, and could include theoretical work, methodological innovation and emerging empirical developments. Comparative research is encouraged.
Research projects that develop and sustain strong partnerships with external partners in the private, third and public sectors.
Innovative co-production of knowledge between academics and non-academic partners. Co-production of knowledge means engaging with research users and incorporating their needs from the beginning and throughout the research and impact activity process, with the intention of producing targeted and practical solutions for real-world problems.

They aim to fund a broad range of projects. In this funding round they are particularly open to project ideas that complement, or add to, Research Theme 3: Employers’ and employees’ experiences of digital work across sectors.

The four sectors that are currently focused on are:

Creative Industries
Retail and Consumer Services
Business Services
Public Services.

Projects can be developed in partnership with Digit researchers, though Digit researchers cannot directly apply for funding.

For Round 2 (2021) they are also keen to encourage proposals related to the following sectors: Creative Industries and developments in Retail and Consumer Services, as well as Business Services and Public Services

Funding Information

In this round, funding is available for projects that cost between £10,000 to £50,000 fEC and are no longer than one year in length. However, they very strongly encourage smaller applications as they are limited in the number of large applications that can be awarded.
Projects must be costed at 100% full economic cost (fEC) and will be funded at 80% fEC, according to UKRI guidelines.
The fund is open to research organisations across the UK.

Eligibility Criteria

Funds can only be awarded to a recognised research organisation (RO), not a person.
Principal Investigator (PI):
- Only one person on the application can be named as Principal Investigator (PI).
- The PI must be employed by their UK research organisation, with a contract of employment that does not end before the proposed IF project ends.
- Applicants must have a letter of support from their Head of Department to confirm their institutional support for the IF application.
- They are keen to encourage a diverse range of applicants including Early Career Researchers as named PIs.
- A PI can only submit one application to the Innovation Fund, but can be Co-I on other applications
Organisations outside the UK are not eligible to apply to lead an IF application.
They would normally expect applications to include collaborations with external organisations, such as businesses, public service organisations, third sector organisations, etc. Non-academic applicants can also co-lead projects.
Digit Innovation Funds will be transferred from the University of Sussex to eligible ROs.
They are not able to fund PhD studentships or Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs).
Those directly involved in Digit (i.e. the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigators) are not eligible to be PI or Co-I of any Innovation Fund (IF) applications but they can be included as a part of an IF applicant’s Project Team. This also applies to Digit Advisory Board members.