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Summary

The Foundation keeps an "open door" to proposals of exceptional merit for research projects or practical innovations that lie outside our main programme areas, but that meet Trustees’ wider interests. These must have some bearing on our widest charitable object - 'the advancement of social well-being'. We are particularly interested in projects which identify change or interventions which will have a practical implications for policy or practice, or that will improve the quality of research evidence in areas of public debate. Through the Open Door, the Foundation may also identify emerging areas that justify more sustained attention.

If you are unsure about whether your topic qualifies, please just submit an outline in the normal way, and you will be advised whether your outline is sufficiently close to the Foundation’s interests to warrant a full application.

Some topics on which the Trustees are currently keen to receive proposals are:

• The financial circumstances of older people and economic planning for later life. Recent projects include: work on pensions; work on innovative models of financing care; a study of employers’ perspectives on the ageing workforce; and a study of public attitudes to providing for old age.

• Government, law making and the constitution. Recent projects include studies of: possible constitutional futures; the legislative process; and the audit, inspection and scrutiny functions of government.

• Poverty and disadvantage: including work on incomes and work, and intergenerational transmission of wealth, opportunity and life chances. Recent projects include a study of inheritance and a study of the compliance costs of benefits and tax credits.

• The UK and Europe, including cross-country comparative research. Recent projects include; education and migrant families; Chatham House commission on the UK’s future role in Europe; a study of the role of migrant health and social care workers in ageing societies.

Other projects recently funded include: A commission on the reform of the tax system for the 21st century; an assessment of the affirmative action programme in Northern Ireland; and a study of the tax burden on charities.

All information about eligibility, criteria, the application process and timetable, grant conditions etc are contained in the 2008/9 Guide to Research and Innovation Grants. You can:

* download the Guide as a pdf here

or

* click here for a section by section webpage version.

Last Updated Tue, 5 May 2009