Internal Funding

If carrying out research first check that your research bid has costed activity to support impact, which is likely to include engagement activities.

However, often engagement activities evolve and can be responsive to the external environment at the time, this can be particularly the case with policy and media engagement. When the cost is not accounted for within your research bid there are a number of approaches that you can take.

Impact Acceleration Accounts

Lancaster’s Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) programme is designed to support projects that generate impact by applying research into real world settings with an external partner. IAAs are awarded to institutions so that they can be deployed flexibly and creatively to take advantage of new or unforeseen opportunities. Lancaster’s current IAA comprises of ~£1.5m between 2022-2025 and covers the arts & humanities and engineering & physical sciences remits, with funding deployed via time-limited calls. Occasionally, projects are funded outside of calls (responsive mode) but must be time-critical, highly strategic in nature, and with a major partner (such as a large, international business). For more information, and to see which calls are live or planned (pre-announcement), see the Impact Acceleration Account webpages

Email: Mark Bowen, Business Gateway Manager: m.bowen1@lancaster.ac.uk or Jamie Hodge, IAA Partnership Development Manager: j.p.hodge@lancaster.ac.uk

Departmental Budget

If your cost is low e.g. less than £500 then contact your Head of Department/Departmental Officer and explore if there is any departmental budget available.

Faculty Budget

There may be some money available to support engagement in your faculty.

For example, the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) Engagement Fund is designed to support small and medium-sized engagement activities. Applications for amounts up to £1,500 can be submitted by the call deadlines – there are two calls per year. There is also a small amount held back for ‘responsive activity.’

There is an FST Impact Fund that supports academics in the generation, tracking and evidencing of impact, linked to excellent research.

There is a Faculty of Social Science (FASS) Research Fund that supports engagement activities with the demonstrable capacity to contribute to an impact case study for a future REF. This fund also supports the development of strategically important networks or relationships with the potential to make a significant and tangible contribution to FASS research (these might be international, national or internal networks).

FASS Decolonisation Budget- for decolonisation-themed events, activities, training and conferences. For more information please contact Sunita Abraham: s.abraham1@lancaster.ac.uk

There may be specific funding schemes running to support activity such as policy engagement. These may be funded through Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) or quality-related (QR) funding and would usually be time limited. Watch out for any 'call outs.'

Personal Research Allowance

If you are an academic, you will get this allowance for furthering your research. Engagement activity could be funded out of this allowance as it will often be contributing to furthering your research.

External Funding

Research Connect

This is a research funding database specifically designed for the research community. It has details of funding opportunities and funding streams, some of which are focused on engagement activities. It also supports collaboration and dissemination. Go to the Research Connect webpage for more information and to sign up.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)

This is a partnership between a company, the university and a graduate or postgraduate known as the KTP associate. The programme is administered and part-funded by UKRI Innovate UK. KTPs provide academics with a unique opportunity to engage in practical, real-world challenges faced by businesses. It is expected that academics will spend half a day per week supervising the graduate and this time allocation is costed and paid into your department.

Visit the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships webpages for more information.

Funding Opportunities to Support Public Engagement Activities

The National Centre for Co-ordinating Public Engagement (NCCPE) has put together a comprehensive list of funding opportunities to support public engagement.