About us
What becomes possible when communities and researchers work together?
The Ideas Fund
The Ideas Fund is a grants programme run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome which has brought communities and researchers together to build strong relationships and collaborate on mental wellbeing projects.
The British Science Association aims to put communities at the heart of research and innovation. You can read more about our three year goals and our ten year strategy to find out more about why we think it’s so important for communities to have a leading voice in the way research works and the issues it works on.
We run lots of different programmes which support community-researcher partnerships and help us share the voices of people shaping new approaches and perspectives like our Community Led Research Pilot in Reading and Slough, or the Highlands and Islands Climate Change grant programme.
The Ideas Fund sits alongside our other work on community-led collaboration with research to help us try out new ways to build long lasting, impactful partnerships. We made community grants in 2021 and 2022, and continue to support some of these partnerships to create the biggest possible impact for themselves, their organisations and their communities.
All the projects we support have a focus on mental wellbeing, in its broadest sense. When the Fund was being co-designed we heard clearly that this was a priority for communities, and a good way to make sure new partnerships with researchers would also create real change for the people our funded groups serve.
Science is more than a body of research, people working in a lab or even the wider industry that surrounds that. It’s a way of asking questions, making decisions, and understanding the world
Mental Wellbeing*
1 in 5
UK adults described their mental wellbeing as poor
1 in 4
say having a platform for local people and better awareness of latest research could improve mental wellbeing where they live
1 in 3
UK adults say more community action is needed
* These statistics are from a 2020 YouGov omnibus survey of 2,000 adults (aged 18+) on the subject of "Mental Wellbeing in the UK", which was commissioned by the British Science Association.
The Fund supports work in four regions of the UK. These are:
- The Highlands and Islands of Scotland - communities and activities based in the council areas of Highland Council, Moray Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council), Orkney Islands Council, Shetland Islands Council, Argyll and Bute Council along with the Isles of Arran and Cumbrae
- The City of Hull
- North West of Northern Ireland - specifically the area covered by Derry & Strabane District Council
- The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
Embedding our Approach
Since 2021 we have funded more than 70 community-researcher partnerships which have explored a wide range of issues and approaches in wellbeing. We are also now supporting work in each area that helps shape the systems that community-researcher partnerships operate within that involve key people from those regions.
Read more about these regional partnershipsWe’ve seen how much these partnerships can achieve together, and the change they’re creating in the world at every level. We now want to spend some time together really documenting the “what” and the “why”
Now we’ve made our grants, our focus has shifted to learning and reflection. We’re working closely with a small group of funded projects and our learning partner Collaborate CIC to understand more about what becomes possible when researchers and communities work together as equal partners, and the ingredients that contribute to this success. We’ll be spending some time tracking their impact and finding ways to share what we learn with others. We’d love to hear from people who would like us to keep them updated on what we’re learning or who would like to catch up to talk about it. You can get in touch with the team at hello@theideasfund.org
