Social Sciences Engagement Fellowships

The Social Sciences Division has received funding from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) to support a number of individual engagement fellowships, with the intention of enabling social scientists to: engage with non-academic stakeholders to build lasting partnerships; develop new engagement skills and experiences; enhance their profile with stakeholders; and grow their research impact.

The call seeks proposals for Engagement Fellowships which can work in one of two ways:

a) Outgoing – this involves an academic / researcher from Oxford spending time working  closely with or embedded in an external non-academic organisation over a period of 3-6 months

OR

b) Incoming – this involves a non-academic practitioner spending time working with you in the  University, visiting or embedded in your research team/group/department over a period of  3-6 months

We welcome all types of engagement activities and partners. 

Fellowships might involve, but are not limited to: learning about a particular organisation or sector’s challenges; developing a project around a particular need; deepening and strengthening relationships to co-develop future collaborative projects involving the application of your research.

Outgoing Engagement Fellows will work closely with their external partner(s) to share their  expertise. This could benefit the partner by, for example: improving policies, processes, or service delivery; changing attitudes or behaviour; capacity building or product/service development; etc. In return, the Fellow will gain deeper understanding and practical knowledge of the organisation/sector, which can feed into their future research, engagement and impact activity. 

Incoming Engagement Fellows will benefit from working closely with researchers at Oxford, for example by: learning/using research skills; utilising data, literature and equipment not normally accessible to them; or developing critical analysis skills. The aim is that this involvement with research will feed into their future practice and forge closer relations between the University and their organisations and networks.

We welcome proposals for innovative collaborations working with:

• Public-facing or community organisations, such as charities or social enterprises, including where members of the public can be directly involved in design, delivery or dissemination
• Business or industry partners, such as private sector organisations, small and medium 
• enterprises (SMEs) or industry bodies
• Government or policy-making organisation, at a local, national or international level.

The panel are looking for creative, practical and innovative proposals that engage non-academic partners in two-way sharing of learning, ideas and experiences, with the aim of accelerating the economic and societal impacts of excellent social science research.

The funding may support either new or developing engagement activity. Applications building on previous activity must clearly demonstrate the need for further funding and the potential for future collaboration that this will unlock. 

Applications need to focus on clearly defined knowledge exchange/ engagement activities and outcomes rather than on research outcomes (although, depending on the context, these may still be acceptable alongside knowledge exchange/engagement outcomes). 

Proposed partnerships should clearly extend beyond the University of Oxford and beyond the academy. 

We encourage projects that include substantive user engagement or demonstrate genuine collaboration, co-design and co-delivery. Research which only analyses material from user groups or disseminates findings to user groups without substantive collaboration is unlikely to be prioritised.

Examples of the types of activities that may be supported include (but are not limited to):

• High-level stakeholder meetings
• Practitioner meetings/workshops
• Policy or evidence seminars
• Activities to facilitate the development and management of relationships with non
• The co-development of tools and resources that emerge from research that can maximise the use of research outputs in practitioner communities
• Development and delivery of research-based training, CPD and work-place learning
• Engaging directly with users in jointly shaping the research agenda and in applying social science to current issues relating to policy, strategy or practice
• Market research
• Public/community engagement activities, where researchers are engaging directly with the public to inform and inspire, consult and listen or collaborate with them (social media, briefing papers, exhibitions, public events, participative research, citizen science, etc.)
• Co-development of potential research questions
• Spending time with a business to identify social science research questions that may be relevant for the organisation, or future Industrial Strategy Challenge Funding. 

Examples of activities that are not eligible for these schemes include:

• Research consultancy
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), as these are funded via a separate route
• Studentships or internships for Research Council-funded DPhil students, where these are funded through Research Council Doctoral Training Grants 
• Academic conferences with no clear engagement component.

Applications must include one of each of the following:

• A research partner: an academic / researcher employed at a department or faculty at the University of Oxford who either acts as the outgoing Engagement Fellow or hosts the incoming Engagement Fellow. 
• A non-academic partner: a partner from the third sector, community, business, public or policy, who either hosts an outgoing Engagement Fellow or acts as the incoming Engagement Fellow.

If the research partner does not meet the eligibility criteria for Lead Researcher (described below), it will be necessary to invite a senior academic colleague to hold this role. 

We will prioritize funding high quality projects from applicants based in the Social Sciences Division. However, we will consider applications from researchers working in social science disciplines who are based in the other divisions.

Applications must be submitted via the department or faculty of the Lead Researcher. Approval from the Head of Department is required. 

Many departments have internal eligibility criteria, approval processes and other guidelines to which all applicants should adhere. Please consult your departmental administrator as soon as possible for internal deadlines and further information.

The Lead Researcher must hold an academic post or be a Principal Investigator (PI) on a research contract awarded competitively and intended to enable the holder to establish an  independent research career. If you are unsure, please contact impact@socsci.ox.ac.uk for clarification.

• A Lead Researcher on a fixed term contract must ensure their current contract extends significantly (at least 6 months) beyond the proposed project end date. 
• A Lead Researcher can themselves be the outgoing Engagement Fellow. Alternatively, they can act as sponsor/mentor for an early career outgoing Engagement Fellow, or support an incoming Engagement Fellow from the non-academic partner organisation.
• Early Career Researchers (ECRs) may not serve as Lead Researcher but may apply as outgoing Engagement Fellows, with an established academic / researcher as the Lead Researcher sponsor/mentor. ECRs are defined as being within four years of the submission of their doctoral thesis. This limit can be extended in exceptional circumstances e.g., extended periods of illness, maternity or paternity leave, etc. Please contact us if you’d like to discuss your circumstances.

An Outgoing Engagement Fellow should be an academic or fixed term researcher employed at the University of Oxford who will spend time working closely with, or be embedded within, an external non-academic organisation or organisations. 

• Early Career Researchers may apply as outgoing Engagement Fellows with an established researcher as the Lead Researcher sponsor/mentor. 
• Current postgraduate students are not eligible to apply; however, postgraduate students who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting examination are eligible to apply as ECRs.

An Incoming Engagement Fellow should be employed by a non-academic organisation and will spend time working closely with, or embedded in, the University of Oxford. Their contract of employment must last for the duration of the award. 

• College-based academics at Oxford wishing to serve as Lead Researcher or Engagement Fellow must apply via a department or faculty. Awards can only be held in departments or faculties, not in colleges. 
• Retired and Emeritus Fellows, as well as Masters students, are ineligible. 
• Project staff not already employed by the University must be able to demonstrate their eligibility to work in the United Kingdom.

NB: If the Lead Researcher or Fellow move to another university during the course of the project, this funding will not transfer with them.

Eligible costs can include:

• Salary costs/teaching buyout for Outgoing Engagement Fellows 
• Salary costs of project staff e.g. Research Assistants
• Travel and subsistence (for researchers, external partners, etc)
• Project costs (venue hire, transcription, AV/IT, etc)
• Consultancy/professional fees in some cases
• Equipment

Funding for these schemes is not provided on a full economic cost (FEC) basis. Directly allocated salary costs for Lead Researchers, estates and indirect costs are not eligible. Directly incurred costs will be paid at 100% of costs.

Funding will be provided flexibly to cover project costs as required within the £20K limit. This can include costs to cover salary or time buy-out of the outgoing (or, in some circumstances, the incoming) Engagement Fellow as well as well-justified direct project costs. Engagement Fellows (whether outgoing or incoming) will be expected to spend the majority of the project time (no less than 50%) working within their partner organisation. 

In terms of salary costs, the award can be used as follows:

For established researchers, the award is intended to provide the following options:

a) A period of buy-out from a current contract with a college, department or faculty (subject to agreement of all parties); or

b) Hourly-paid research assistance roughly equivalent to the value of a term’s buyout (this must  be supported through your faculty/department).

For early career researchers undertaking the Engagement Fellowship, supported by a senior researcher as Lead Researcher, the award can provide salary costs for the duration of the award, either full-time or part-time. 

Applicants are expected to demonstrate in their proposal that there is a genuine commitment  from their project partner organisations. Clear details of any combination of cash or in-kind contributions to project costs is desirable, although not essential.

For incoming Engagement Fellows from external organisations – salary costs may be eligible. In certain circumstances it may be appropriate to cover some costs at the partner organisation if the participation of the partner organisation is essential to the success of the project but would otherwise be prohibited by cost. Please also note that VAT cannot be recovered so must be included in the costs where necessary. If the Engagement Fellow is incoming from an external organisation, or a partner is delivering services for the project, any additional costs including VAT need to be checked and factored into the budget at application stage.

We would encourage the employer of the incoming Engagement Fellow to maintain their employment status and invoice us via a collaboration agreement for costs incurred, so as to not disadvantage the fellow in terms of tax and pension. University of Oxford will not offer a contract of employment to incoming Engagement Fellows but they will get ‘visiting’ status. Costings should include any visitor fees applied by the host department. 

Efficiency, cost-effectiveness and value for money should be clearly demonstrated in the application. Payments will not be made for miscellaneous expenses or unspecified items. If you are unsure about the eligibility of a specific expense, please contact us for further guidance.

1. Download and complete the Case for Support template
2. Combine the Case for Support with the other supporting documents outlined below into a single PDF 
3. Complete the online section of the application on IRAMS
4. Upload the single PDF file to IRAMS 

Required items for combined PDF:

• Case for Support template (includes two-page project proposal, plus one- page CV for ECR Fellows)
• Letter(s) of support from external partner(s)
• Statement of support from Head of Department
• A breakdown of costs presented as an X5 admin output

Please check with your department for internal approval procedures and deadlines. Some departments require significant notice to check and submit proposals, so we advise that you seek guidance from your departmental administrator as soon as you are considering making an application.

Key information on Case for Support template

• Start date | The earliest start date under this call is 1 January 2026.
• Project length | Projects should be 3-6 months in length and must be completed no later than 30 June 2026. Due to the external funding cycle, no extensions beyond this date can be given.
• ECRs | Should confirm their eligibility by stating either the date of their Doctoral Award or the date of their thesis submission.
• List of publications | Applicants should provide a list of their publications relevant to the proposed project to demonstrate their experience and the quality of their research in this area (applicants’ career stage will be take into consideration when assessing relevant experience so as not to disadvantage ECRs).
• Resources | Please provide a detailed list of costs up to a maximum of £20,000. Please give enough detail in the description to enable assessment by the panel. The TOTAL of requested resources should match the PRICE on the costing output (see below).

• Additional budget information | Please provide headline budget information in this section. This should match the figures on the costing output(s) (see below). If your department or any of the partner organisations have stated a willingness to provide additional contributions (cash or in contributing to the project in-kind, where possible please estimate the monetary value of this contribution. 

• Declaration of Interest | According to the University’s policy, please use the space provided on the application form to disclose activities/relationships with any of the external organisations partnering in your project that might give rise to conflicts of interest or the perception of conflicts, and describe how, if necessary, they will be managed or avoided. Conflicts of interest may be financial or non-financial or both. For more information on declaring interests, please see the Research Services guidance page. 
• Research Integrity and Ethics | All awards must meet current University requirements and policy concerning research integrity and ethics. If your fellowship involves human participants or personal data, you should ensure that an ethical review is completed prior to commencing your project. Further information can be found on the research support website: https://researchsupport.admin.ox.ac.uk/governance/integrity. 

Project proposal

The project proposal should be 2 sides maximum (Arial 11pt or similar, 2cm margins, single spacing minimum). 

It should outline the nature of the work you plan to undertake in conjunction with the partner organisation and cover the following points: 

• Rationale and research background – outline the rationale for this work, the background to the proposed partnership and how your research relates to and supports this proposal. 
• Aims and objectives – include elements that respond to the aim and focus of this call and the selection criteria (below), outline what you hope to achieve from this collaboration, what impact you hope to have, and include some project specific objectives. 
• Description of planned activities – include details of what you plan to do, how the fellowship placement/visits will be managed in practice, how you will ensure collaborative working with partners, delivery of outputs and how progress will be monitored. Include a timeline of key project outputs and milestones. 
• Justification of the resources – Outline in brief how you intend to spend the budget allocated to your project. This justification will aid reviewers to make an informed judgement on whether the resources requested are appropriate for the activities posed. 
• Outcomes and benefits – Include details of the desired outcomes from the project, including an explanation of the anticipated benefits to both parties and the potential impacts. If possible, include details of what the next steps might be and how the collaboration might develop beyond this funding.

Letter of support from external partners 

• A letter of support (1 side maximum) should be provided by each partner organisation with whom the project is proposed. The organisation should demonstrate an understanding of the proposed activities, their role and contribution to the project. 
• The letter should describe how the project will benefit the partner organisation and outline the support that will be provided to the applicant. A named individual from this organisation will be required to be responsible for overseeing the project. 
• In instances where obtaining a support letter is particularly difficult/inappropriate at the proposal stage, we may accept applications without, and subsequently offer a conditional award pending presentation of a letter of support. 

Statement of support from the Head of Department 

• A short statement of support from the Head of Department for the Lead Researcher (1 side maximum) should be provided. It should explain the benefit of the project to both the applicant and the department/faculty and detail any contributions the department/faculty plan to make to the project.
• It is important for the department/faculty to give support because they will be responsible for providing administrative and HR support to applicants throughout the project. This may include financial management, negotiating contracts, hiring new staff and providing desk space, as required. 
• This statement must come from the Head of Department/Faculty rather than the head of Institute or Centre (where relevant) and should include a signature. Where the head of department is the proposed Research Lead, the proposal should be approved by either a Deputy Head or Research Director/Coordinator. 
• Where proposals include staff time for researchers based in a different department to the Lead Researcher, a statement of support should be provided by all departments involved.

Costing

• A detailed breakdown of the project costs is required. In IRAMS, please give a clear breakdown of the resources requested up to a maximum of £20,000. 
• You are also asked to provide an FEC costing. This should be presented in the form of an admin output from the University’s costing and pricing software, X5. Please ask your research administrator or finance officer to produce the X5 costing for you. 
• The total requested in IRAMS should match the PRICE on your X5 costing output. 
• Include the X5 admin output as part of your combined PDF.

Funding will be awarded competitively by a process of peer review via a panel made up of established researchers and KE professionals, based on their assessment of the applications against the selection criteria outlined below. Note: While we will consider applications from researchers in MSD, MPLS and Humanities, we will prioritize funding high quality projects from applicants based in the Social Sciences Division.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application in December 2025. Results will be issued by email. Feedback from the panel review will be available on request.

The panel aim to support high quality engagement proposals which (a) show strong potential to accelerate and deliver impact arising from excellent social science research and (b) demonstrate commitment to developing productive partnerships with non-academic partners.

The panel will also consider the following criteria when reviewing the applications:

• Design and methods – Effectiveness of Fellowship design and methods, particularly involvement of non-academic partners at all stages of the fellowship. 
• Usefulness – Timeliness of the outcomes for non-academic partners/potential users and the ability of the project/activities to meet non-academic partners’/users’ needs. 
• Contribution – Contribution to knowledge for non-academic partners/users beyond the academy and likely importance of the research expertise to those partners/users. 
• Responsible Knowledge Exchange, Engagement and Impact – Projects should demonstrate a responsible and inclusive approach to working with partners. 
• Value for money – An appropriate and well-justified plan for expenditure, with careful consideration of costs, including demonstrable investment (cash or in-kind) by non-academic partners, if appropriate. 
• Sustainability – Potential for Fellowship to lead to further development of a sustained relationship with non-academic partners and scaling of impact in the longer term. This may include future joint funding bids or consideration of commercialisation routes, where appropriate.

We would like to use successful applications as an exemplar for future applicants. All sensitive data will be removed from applications before they are shared. You will be given an opportunity to opt out of sharing your proposal. 

We would also like to invite successful applicants to share their experiences of being an Engagement Fellow and participating in engagement activities. This may take the form of helping to deliver a briefing or training engagement activity in the social sciences. We will contact applicants on an individual basis with requests for support when appropriate.

In order to meet the conditions of their grant, award holders will need to submit reports. Reports will be the key mechanism to collect critical information for reporting to the funders and will assist the SSD Research & Impact Team in monitoring progress and managing any issues that arise. Reporting requirements are intended to be light-touch and reports should be brief. You will be contacted before the end of your project with information about reporting requirements and deadlines.

• End-of-project report – The end-of-project report should evaluate the project, demonstrate the impact and benefits for both the researcher and the partner organisation, and detail any future plans for ongoing engagement with the partner organisation. This report should be submitted within one month of the end of the project.

• Impact report – The impact report should briefly outline further impacts achieved in the six months following the project’s completion. The aim is to capture any impact that has developed since the project’s completion date.

• Email queries | Applicants with queries about their eligibility or any other aspect of their application are encouraged to email impact@socsci.ox.ac.uk for further advice and assistance. 
• Facilitator review | Email a draft version of your application to impact@socsci.ox.ac.uk if you would like feedback and ideas for improving the proposal. It is suggested that you email no later than 10 working days before the deadline to ensure adequate time is available for review and revisions. You can also arrange to talk in more depth about your plans and application drafts with one of the SSD Research Impact Facilitators or the ESRC IAA Manager. Please contact impact@socsci.ox.ac.uk.