Funding

Understanding Communities Fund

In 2022, the Nuffield Foundation, in collaboration with the British Academy, awarded £1.1m to six research teams for projects aimed at exploring how local communities function and can improve people’s lives.

About this fund


Understanding Communities is a £1.1m grants programme aimed at exploring how local communities function and can improve people’s lives. It has a focus on producing tangible, evidence-based policy and practice recommendations.

The six funded projects were developed at workshops co-hosted by the Foundation and the British Academy for early to mid-career researchers, policymakers and practitioners.

Applicants were encouraged to create multidisciplinary teams, capture residents’ lived experience, and use innovative methodologies, such as art-based approaches and social network mapping, alongside traditional research methods.

The projects are now in progress and will complete in 2024.

Curious about the programme? Read about the discussions from the October 2023 mid-point seminar.

Funded projects


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