Our commissioning funds allow UPEN members to participate in our Research England funded activities from 2025-2028.
Participation fund
Enabling UPEN members to engage with UPEN Programmes.
The Participation Fund is open to any individual based at a UPEN member institution who would like to participate in UPEN Programmes activities. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
£5,000
Awards up to
Open now
Until 2028
Rolling
Applications
More about the Participation Fund
The Participation Fund is open to anyone who works at a UPEN university member institution. This includes both academics and professional services staff.
Individuals who are unable to access funding from their own institution (for example but not limited to; HEIF/IAA/PSF) to support participation in UPEN programme activities.
Early or mid career researchers.
Individuals who are based at institutions which are not partners in UPEN Programmes. UPEN Programmes partners are: UCL and the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, Huddersfield, Leeds, Nottingham Trent, Southampton, and Teesside, the Wales Centre for Public Policy at Cardiff University and Insights North East. Other key collaborators include the Institute for Community Studies, the Institute for Government, and Yorkshire Universities.
Applications can be submitted via our Participation Fund application form. There are no calls for the Participation Fund, applications can be submitted at any time.
Applications will be assessed within 15 working days by the UPEN team.
Applications are assessed on the following criteria;
Reasonable cost and value for money
Clear evidence of links to UPEN Programmes
Benefits to either you or your institution
Your institutional lead must be made aware that you are making this application. If you are unsure who the institutional lead is, you can look them up here.
You can apply for up to £5,000 per application to cover any activities which have a clear link to UPEN Programmes work. For example;
Travel for in person events
Accommodation
Staff time
Event registration costs
Training course
Costs associated with hosting an in person event
Costs associated with outputs such as (non academic) publications or communications materials
Non eligible costs;
Overheads
Alcohol
Costs associated with the UPEN annual conference
We provide below some examples to show how the Participation Fund might be used. These are for illustrative purposes only and are not exhaustive.
UPEN is running a series of workshops workshops over the next year with a regional partner on plans to support the strategic authority model set out in the Devolution White Paper. A UPEN member institution has colleagues who would like to attend, and it is agreed that they could contribute significantly to the meetings. However, they cannot access funding from their institution to cover travel and accommodation for six interested colleagues.
UPEN has been liaising with three mayoral strategic authorities, and they are keen to know what they should be considering in relation to the challenges of AI. An academic in a UPEN member institution is an expert in this area and applies to the fund for an honorarium to cover their time to write a briefing note/rapid evidence review.
As part of UPEN work to develop a national brokerage function, the Policy Engagement Coordinator (Practice) is in discussion with COBR who have requested an academic expert to brief them on the latest in Ukraine. These funds could be used to request to pay the identified academic(s) from a UPEN member institution an honorarium.
A programme partner has been made aware that a policy team at a UPEN member university has won a prestigious award for a community workshop on lived experience of a particular policy intervention. This work could usefully contribute to the community policymaking programme. The UPEN member institution is invited to convene a national workshop to share key insights from their work.
The Arts and Humanities sub-committee have been in touch with a programme co-lead around developing a piece of work together which aligns with the pillars’ programme activities. The work would advance the programme aims, and that of the sub-committee.
Please note that the Participation Fund cannot be used to fund attendance at the annual UPEN Conference.
The terms of this scheme will remain under regular review by UPEN’s Programmes Strategy Group to monitor demand, use and impact. We will assess uptake to ensure that a diverse range of applicants, proposals and approaches are supported.
The Participation Fund offers a total of £250,000 and is time limited from 2025-2028.
Successful applications will have clear links to UPEN Programmes work.
You can find out more about UPEN Programmes in the following ways;
UPEN Programmes team staff also welcome you getting in touch with them directly to find out what you can be involved in. You can find out about our team on the meet the team page.
