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Eligibility for research and innovation grants

Applicant eligibility

The Foundation is a charity and makes grants only to other charitable or non-profit organisations. We normally make grants only to UK organisations, and support work that will be mainly based in the UK, although the Trustees welcome proposals for collaborative projects involving partners in European or Commonwealth countries.

Project eligibility

Not all projects meet all these criteria, but the great majority meet most of them:

• Your project must be innovative. We will not fund the ongoing costs of existing work or services.
• The project should aim to have an impact beyond its immediate beneficiaries. It should be of more than local or regional interest.
• We will give preference to projects with outcomes which will be of interest and use to practitioners and policy makers. We do not fund research that simply advances knowledge.
• We will look for evidence that you have identified those to whom the outcomes of the project will be most relevant, and have engaged them where possible from the early stages of the project.
• Your project should include follow-up plans to assess the success or otherwise of the project/research, how effectively results were disseminated, and whether the desired impact was achieved.

Types of Project

Most of the projects supported by the Foundation involve research and/or development of some kind.

• Research projects must have implications for practice or policy in the short or medium term. The Trustees will not normally support research that simply advances knowledge, which is properly the domain of the Research Councils.
• Development projects are of broadly two kinds. Some involve trying something new and evaluating the outcome. Such projects must be of more than local interest. They must have the potential to be widely applied, either directly or as a model which others can follow. Evaluation must be carefully considered, as must the dissemination of the findings. Other development projects involve some facility that will be of practical value. The range of possible projects is wide and could include, for example, written materials, a new way of providing advice or some other service, or a physical device. Again such developments should be of general rather than local interest and the Trustees look for evidence that applicants have carefully considered how the information can be disseminated. Some element of evaluation is also desirable.

The Foundation is willing to fund research reviews in any of the areas of special interest, in the form of critical syntheses that bring together a body of research evidence, particularly where these draw out the implications for practice and are aimed at a defined practitioner audience.

The Foundation is particularly interested in the dissemination of project findings to practitioners and sees this as important activity in its own right. It encourages grant applicants to include provision for this in the planning of projects, and is willing to consider applications for supplementary grants for this purpose.

Exclusions

Applicants must be able to convince the Trustees that proposals are especially suited to the Foundation, and could not be considered by a government department, a Research Council, or a more appropriate charity. The Trustees do not give projects grants for routine academic research, nor do they support projects that simply involve the doing of good works or the continuing provision of a service, however worthwhile. Proposals to study health care or health services will be considered only if they are demonstrably unsuitable for consideration by the King's Fund, the Department of Health, the Medical Research Council or the Nuffield Trust for Research and Policy Studies in Health Services. Projects to study housing will be considered only if they are unsuitable for funding by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation or one of the statutory agencies concerned with housing.

We do not fund any projects in these areas:

• Animal rights or welfare
• The Arts
• Conservation, heritage or environmental projects
• Housing
• Medical research
• Museums
• Religion
• Sports and recreation

General Eligibility FAQs
Click here to see the most common questions about what the Foundation can fund.

Last Updated Fri, 28 March 2008