Deadline for applications: 15 Jan 2020
The aim of the RIEA awards is to support ‘on the ground’ impact/knowledge exchange activities, which enable researchers to engage with the public, private and third sectors and to establish pathways to promote wider and more effective engagement with external stakeholders that will enhance impact. The call is designed to complement other AfOx research schemes and in particular, the mobility schemes (travel grants and AfOx visiting fellowships) for work focused on addressing one or more Sustainable Development Goals. The expectation therefore is that projects will draw on previous AfOx research collaborations to deepen those relationships while engaging with wider research impact and engagement stakeholders (the public, private and third sectors) to enhance impact.
The proposed activities could be at individual, research group or at institutional level and may include support to participate in high-level international meetings where key decisions in their fields are made. The awards could also go towards supporting engagement with industrial or third sector partners to facilitate translation of outputs from collaborative research into novel techniques and products.
The RIEA awards will support:
i. Activities to broaden the experience of engagement with relevant stakeholders, scaling-up ongoing public engagement activities, policy dialogues, or other related activities seeking to widen the reach of research. This can cover deepening and strengthening relationships with existing contacts as well as establishing new ones.
ii. Developing and promoting new engagement methods to help promote best practice across all research areas.
iii. Short projects to define routes to impact, liaising with partners and finding the resources to enhance impact activities will be eligible.
The RIEA awards are not the continuation of research. Applications should therefore focus on the development of impact activities and not on research. The awards are for projects that are focused on channelling research outputs (findings and ideas) towards achieving impact. Only projects that demonstrate strong potential for significantly increasing the probability of research outputs having an impact on the private, public and third sectors will be considered.
Up to ten projects of not more than £10,000 each will be funded.
Funding made available through the RIEA awards cannot be used for:
- Engagement activities that are essential to carrying out your research, e.g. consulting with community advisory panels or involving research participants in discussions
- Salaries of staff
- Projects whose target audience is the general public
- Writing up and publishing research and open access costs
- Promotional activities of an institution e.g. to increase student enrollment or otherwise
- Teaching or other student support related activities
How to apply
Applications should be submitted through the AfOx website at the latest by 4pm (GMT) on 15th January 2020. The lead applicant (or Principle Investigator - PI) must have previously held an AfOx mobility grant. The PI may submit only one proposal under this call. It is, however, acceptable for a PI on one proposal to be names as Co-Investigator on there where it can be demonstrated that sufficient time is available to dedicate to all projects. Progress updates from funded project holders will be required after 3 months, or half way through the project, whichever is sooner. Updates shall be brief (approximately 400-500 words) and will outline progress against the milestones proposed for the project. A final award report must be submitted by the end date of the project.
For more details, or to apply, visit the call webpage.
