Innovation Fellowships 2025-26 – Route B: Policy-led, Sustainable Futures (Up to £120,000 Award)

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 their partners. Their partners for this funding call are the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra); the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ); and the Government Office for Science (GO Science).

Through the Innovation Fellowships, their researchers in the humanities and social sciences are supported to create new and deeper links beyond academia, enabling knowledge mobilization and translation, as well as individual skills development.

This call will enable researchers to partner with a central government department for 12 months. Successful applicants will work within specific policy areas set out by their chosen partner. These policy areas broadly correlate to the British Academy’s own Sustainable Futures policy programme.

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

1. Landscape Recovery (Defra).
2. Public Participation Strategy (DESNZ).
3. Climate, Society and International (GO Science).

Applicants should note that the Fellow would finalize 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.

Summary

1. Application Deadline: 6 August 2025
2. Value: Up to £120,000
3. Study Level: Fellowship
4. Sponsor: The British Academy
5. City to Study: United Kingdom
6. Eligible Country: United Kingdom

Eligibility Criteria for Innovation Fellowships 2025-26 – Route B: Policy-led, Sustainable Futures (Up to £120,000 Award)

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 Higher Education Institution or Independent Research Organisation; and be at an early- or mid-career stage. Applicants must also meet the requirements set out in the Scheme Guidance Notes, in particular, those noted in the ‘Security Clearance and Nationality Requirements’ section.

All academics must now register with ORCID and give their ID number in the application form (regardless of being the PI or Co-I). This is a free-to-use service which connects researchers to their outputs and can be used regardless of connection to institutions. If you do not already have an ORCID ID, you can register for the service on their website.

Benefits of Innovation Fellowships 2025-26 – Route B: Policy-led, Sustainable Futures (Up to £120,000 Award)

Route B: Policy-led awards are on the basis of Full Economic Costing (FEC) at 80%. The British Academy will award up to £120,000. The applicant must commit between 0.4 and 0.8 FTE time to the Fellowship.

How to Apply

1. When completing your application on Flexi-Grant, it is recommended that you take particular note of the following points:
2. Personal details – When registered in the British Academy Flexi-Grant system, a user has the option to add or update personal information. This is not essential to the progress of this application but represents a personal record of your account in the system. It is useful if this information is kept up to date.
3. Automatic log-out – You are strongly advised to save your work regularly to prevent accidental loss of information. If the system does not detect any activity for two hours, it will log out and save the application at that time. Please note that moving between pages within an application form will save the page that you are exiting but completing a field on a page is not considered an activity.
4. It is recommended that you write the text for longer fields in a word processor such as Word and then copy and paste into the relevant text box to avoid being timed out in this way.
5. Multiple sessions – You should not have multiple browser windows/tabs of your application open at the same time. Only one user should edit an application at a time.
6. Word limits – When completing text boxes that have a word limit, you should note that if you exceed the specified amount, you will not be able to save when you press the save button. As an alternative, you should type the text for the longer-length boxes in a word processor. You will then be able to check the word count and paste it into the British Academy Flexi-Grant system.
7. Plain text – If entering plain text, please avoid using symbols as some may not be accepted by the British Academy Flexi-Grant system. You can generate and view a PDF of your application to check that the application appears as you want it to by clicking on ‘print form’
8. Email addresses – It is essential that you enter an accurate email address where requested as it may cause delay in the submission/processing of your application if any of these are incorrect. You cannot make changes to email addresses after your application has been submitted for approval.
9. Submission – You will not be able to submit your application until you have completed each section in full. It is your responsibility to ensure that your application is submitted in sufficient time for it to be approved by your employing institution.
10. You should submit your application for approval by a designated approver at your host organisation at least five working days before the closing date to allow for your host organization’s administrative procedures.
11. Application deletion—You can delete your application at any time, although it is often easier to re-edit your existing application. We will be able to recover a deleted application for a period of seven days after deletion. After this, it will be permanently removed from the system.

Download their scheme guidance notes and read them carefully. Any application incorrectly submitted will not be eligible for the award.

Download their application guidance notes and read them carefully. Please note that some changes have been made to the application form.

Applications should be submitted well in advance of the deadline. We recommend at least five days prior to allow for institutional approval.

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Application Deadline

06 August, 2025

Application Link(s)

• Apply for Innovation Fellowships 2025-26 – Route B: Policy-led, Sustainable Futures (Up to £120,000 Award)