Who and what we fund
Who and what we fund
We fund UK adult citizens from all areas of society to develop new solutions for UK issues, based on successful innovations and best practice from overseas.
Who we fund
We are looking for people with the passion and potential to make a real difference to their community or professional sector, and we assess on future possibilities not past achievements. Successful candidates will be able to demonstrate that they have the potential to achieve more with a Fellowship than they could without.
Fellows bring lived or learned experience of the issue they want to address, and we recognise the authority and insight this experience brings. We prioritise those who have had limited opportunities to develop their thinking and acquire new knowledge from overseas, and those who are less likely to receive funding from another source. We will work with you to enable additional support where it is needed.
What we fund
We offer Fellowships within our grants framework of universal themes which cover every aspect of society. Within each of these themes, we offer Fellowship programmes to apply under. These programmes address and respond to topical issues or challenges in the UK and are designed and refreshed by subject specialists on our Advisory Council every few years.
A successful application must show us:
- A clearly stated need or issue in UK society related to the programme objective
- Why learning from specific locations overseas would enable you to develop your idea
- That you have the potential to make change happen
- A clear sense of how you will translate your idea into practical action in the UK
Please note that we do not fund any of these:
- An idea that will only benefit the applicant, not wider UK society
- An application from more than one person or from a team
- A project that already has, or hopes to have, a large number of funders
- Academic studies, dissertations for undergraduate degrees, degree placements, medical electives, student grants, internships, or courses
- Postgraduate studies, unless they can show wider, practical benefits to others in the UK
- Gap year activities, unless the application is for a stand-alone project that satisfies the criteria above
- Art projects that will result only in an exhibition and have no public benefit beyond raising the profile and expertise of the applicant
- Artists’ residencies
- Research for fiction, unless it clearly has a wider public benefit
- Volunteering
Common reasons that applications might be unsuccessful include:
- There isn’t enough detail to understand what success for the applicant would look like and it’s not clear what the benefit to UK society could be
- The reason for learning from the countries chosen isn’t clear
- The scope of the project seems too ambitious to be achieved in the learning period
- It’s not clear that the applicant has the relevant experience, lived or learned, to carry out the project
Who we fund
We are looking for people with the passion and potential to make a real difference to their community or professional sector, and we assess on future possibilities not past achievements. Successful candidates will be able to demonstrate that they have the potential to achieve more with a Fellowship than they could without.
Fellows bring lived or learned experience of the issue they want to address, and we recognise the authority and insight this experience brings. We prioritise those who have had limited opportunities to develop their thinking and acquire new knowledge from overseas, and those who are less likely to receive funding from another source. We will work with you to enable additional support where it is needed.
What we fund
We offer Fellowships within our grants framework of universal themes which cover every aspect of society. Within each of these themes, we offer Fellowship programmes to apply under. These programmes address and respond to topical issues or challenges in the UK and are designed and refreshed by subject specialists on our Advisory Council every few years.
A successful application must show us:
- A clearly stated need or issue in UK society related to the programme objective
- Why learning from specific locations overseas would enable you to develop your idea
- That you have the potential to make change happen
- A clear sense of how you will translate your idea into practical action in the UK
Please note that we do not fund any of these:
- An idea that will only benefit the applicant, not wider UK society
- An application from more than one person or from a team
- A project that already has, or hopes to have, a large number of funders
- Academic studies, dissertations for undergraduate degrees, degree placements, medical electives, student grants, internships, or courses
- Postgraduate studies, unless they can show wider, practical benefits to others in the UK
- Gap year activities, unless the application is for a stand-alone project that satisfies the criteria above
- Art projects that will result only in an exhibition and have no public benefit beyond raising the profile and expertise of the applicant
- Artists’ residencies
- Research for fiction, unless it clearly has a wider public benefit
- Volunteering
Common reasons that applications might be unsuccessful include:
- There isn’t enough detail to understand what success for the applicant would look like and it’s not clear what the benefit to UK society could be
- The reason for learning from the countries chosen isn’t clear
- The scope of the project seems too ambitious to be achieved in the learning period
- It’s not clear that the applicant has the relevant experience, lived or learned, to carry out the project