We are delighted to announce that £80,000 in funding is being made available through The Ideas Fund, to improve and strengthen the support available to individuals and organisations who are delivering community-led research.
We are today inviting expressions of interest from people who are embedded in this work across the UK, to join an in-depth period of collaboration and co-design that will develop and test ideas as to how this funding can be used.
This initiative builds on learning from The Ideas Fund and other community research projects within the British Science Association, and responds to what we’ve heard from people leading this work: that community-led approaches to research can bring huge benefits to individuals, communities, and local systems, but that those leading the work often struggle with limited resources and recognition, isolation, and barriers that make their impact harder to achieve and sustain.
To help shape how the £80,000 will be used, we expect to bring together between 6-8 individuals over the coming months who will be awarded a grant of £3,000 (plus travel expenses) to take part in an in-depth co-design process. We hope this will provide the opportunity and space to connect with others leading this work and build new relationships, alongside the chance to shape ideas that respond directly to the needs of people doing community-led research. This will be an exploratory process which we hope will benefit both the people taking part and the wider field of community-led research.
Why this, and why now?
Our learning from our own programmes, and from others, has led us to create this new opportunity. Find out more about why we're taking this approach, and what we're hoping to achieve with the Community-Led Research Collaboration.
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How to apply
We want to hear from people who are actively involved in, or have recent experience of, community-led research. If you’re connected to an issue that matters to you, bringing insight from your experience, and want to work with others to make this kind of work stronger and better supported, we’d love to hear from you.
Find out more about the application processIf you'd like to get in touch to discuss this more, you can contact The Ideas Fund team at hello@theideasfund.org