Why we’re funding community-led research and innovation
We started with a simple question: what if we flipped the usual approach to funding public engagement with research and innovation?
Could giving funding directly to community groups help us achieve our goal of breaking down the barriers between research, innovation and society?
It feels like a long time since our first round table with community leaders, researchers and public engagement professionals to scope out our approach. Yet we’re still at the start of our journey. With a lot of help, we designed and launched the Community Knowledge Fund and Community Research Networks programmes. In the first phase of both of these programmes, we funded a fascinating set of projects from places that don’t feature heavily in research funding call announcements: from Scarborough to St Ives, rural Durham to North Wales.
Recently, we were happy to announce 12 projects that are receiving funding for phase two of our Community Knowledge Fund. Projects include using citizen science as a tool to improve local water quality in Cornwall and co-creating health impact assessments. The fund, while more of a traditional project focused approach, has radical intent, asking the question, who should be eligible for research and innovation (R&I) funding? We hope to demonstrate the value of empowering under-represented communities, from the potential to unlock new ideas and knowledge to creating stronger relationships between communities and R&I.
The whole programme is supported by our learning and implementation partner, The Young Foundation. We have found that communities see huge value in having support to develop their applications, build skills and make links with other projects. This also creates the opportunity to share learning across the R&I system and we will be hosting events and sharing blogs and reports about the programme over the coming year.
Project funding helps us demonstrate the value of working in new ways. Through the community programmes we fund such as the Citizen Science Collaboration Grants, Community-led Research Pilot and Community Leaders programme we have funded over 200 community-based projects over the last five years.
Our colleagues in research councils have also pioneered new approaches to community engagement, from AHRC’s Being Human Festival to NERC’s Engaging Environments programme. Alongside demonstrating impact, project funding gives thousands of people the opportunity to engage with R&I and helps to create a network of researchers, innovators and community groups committed to working in this way.
Alongside project funding, our scoping review and engagement with community groups has shown us that community based networks, organisations and brokers are an important intermediary between the R&I system and grassroots communities. They can help communities engage in ways that will benefit them and help to ensure that issues that matter to them are part of the R&I agenda. This thinking led to the development of our Community Research Networks programme.
Over the next six years we will invest a further £8 million to create Community Research Networks around the UK. All the networks in the first phase of funding have started with a topic, from eco anxiety to the STEM opportunity gap. However, the longer-term goal of the networks is to build the capabilities of communities to engage with, use and influence R&I.
This might mean more equitable partnerships between universities and communities or it might look like local communities having more influence over the research agendas of universities. It could also help influence the thinking and funding of organisations like UKRI, for example the next time we need to respond to a national emergency.
Next steps
These programmes are all designed to deliver the vision outlined in UKRI’s public engagement strategy. They sit alongside our public dialogue programme, Sciencewise and youth engagement work such as the STEM Ambassadors programme. We look forward to sharing the lessons that emerge from these programmes as we continue to implement our strategy.
We are also excited to announce that we are looking for a partner to support the delivery of phase two of our Community Research Networks programme. The tender for the programme is open until 13 November.
Written by: Tom Saunders, David Chapman and Steve Scott, UKRI Public Engagement Team
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