Grants for research and innovation projects

We have seven grant programmes that support research and innovation.

Children and Families: funds projects to help ensure that social policy and the institutions governing family life in the UK are best adapted to meet the needs of children and families.

Early Years Education and Childcare: funds projects in our priority areas of educational attainment and child development outcomes, tackling social disadvantage, parental and family contexts, wider societal impacts, and public policy mechanisms.

Economic Advantage and Disadvantage: funds projects on the distribution of all aspects of individual and household economic well-being, their causes and consequences. 

Education: funds projects in our priority areas of primary education, secondary education transitions, science and mathematics.  

Finances of Ageing: funds projects related to all aspects of finance, economics, and transfers related to individual and population ageing. 

Law in Society: funds projects designed to promote access to, and improve understanding of, the civil and family justice systems. 

Open Door: for projects that improve social well-being, and meet Trustees’ wider interests, but that lie outside the programme areas above. 

Grants are mainly for research (usually carried out in universities or independent research institutes) but are also made for practical developments or innovation (often in voluntary sector organisations).

As an independent Foundation, we are well placed to deal with sensitive issues, to challenge fashions and tacit assumptions. We support people with creative ideas to identify change or interventions which will have a practical impact for researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

We do not fund the ongoing costs of existing work or services, or research that simply advances knowledge. See a full list of what we do not fund.