The New Things Fund 2023/24

Applications for the New Things Fund 2023/24 are currently closed

What is the New Things Fund?

The Centre for the South (CftS) New Things Fund (NTF) is a new award in support of the launch of the CftS earlier this year. The fund is an internally awarded programme designed to stimulate local and place-based policy engagement in Southampton and the surrounding region.

  
We aim to distribute ten awards of up to £7,500 each – for collaborative, policy-related projects – to be delivered across seven months, between 13th November 2023 and 14th June 2024. Extensions beyond this date will not be possible. The NTF is funded via the University of Southampton’s allocation of the UKRI’s Policy Support Fund. 

Policy Themes and Key Challenges

The CftS was founded to develop accessible and evidence-based policy insights; to build bridges between the University and non-academic partners; and to tackle local challenges and find pragmatic solutions for the central South. These efforts are in alignment with the new Civic University Agreement. 

Based on previous engagement with local authorities and the third sector, we have identified four (interrelated) themes which provide the context for our work: 

1. Health 
2. Environment 
3. Community 
4. Economy 

Further, the CftS commissioned New Local to conduct a series of interviews across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the region. These stakeholder engagements have borne six place-based challenges that the CftS and its partners are particularly interested in addressing. These strategic priorities bridge several of the aforementioned themes and offer a wide range of possibilities:

• Local skills, lifelong learning, and the future of work
• Identity and pride in place for the region
• The role, use, and access to green/blue spaces
• Infrastructures and net zero in the central South
• Addressing mental health and health inequalities
• Power structures and devolution for the central South 

We encourage applications which align with these key challenges.

Possible Policy Activities 

Your project should support the overall aim of policy impact but could be shaped in numerous ways, for example:

• Academics and external organisations working together to co-produce research evidence that addresses a key challenge (e.g., policy briefs, executive summaries); 
• Evaluation of past and current interventions around a key challenge; 
• Carry out a survey or conduct interviews to gain qualitative insights;  
• Training of a non-academic member and/or placement within the University to carry out policy research; 
• Hiring research assistants to produce stakeholder analyses*; 
• Policy, roundtables, or evidence seminars (to facilitate knowledge exchange and co-develop ideas); 
• Policy practitioner meetings and/or workshops; 
• Activities to cultivate and enhance relationships between academic and non-academic users/stakeholders (e.g. network building/consolidating); 
• Co-design of research-led tools, resources, or toolkits across a range of multimedia (e.g., building websites or data repositories, creating and disseminating videos). 

If you have any other ideas which aren’t included in this list, please feel free to reach out and discuss them with us (cfts@soton.ac.uk). 

A CtfS NTF award does not have to bring about immediate policy impact, but your project should be actionable. It should be treated as a building block for wider initiatives that develop relationships with evidence users, create pathways to impact, or lay the foundations for future engagement by raising awareness.

*Note: it typically costs £23.87 per hour to hire a research assistant (Level 4). 

Support & Evaluation

If awarded, your project will be supported by the Centre for the South, with monthly meetings and guidance on achieving policy impact. This could include support with creating and editing policy briefs or executive summaries, providing guidance on stakeholder outreach, or offering connections and networks. We will also organise two open sessions (one online, one in-person) giving awardees the opportunity to network and gain insights from each other’s work. 

Six months (December 2024) and twelve months (June 2025) after your award has ended, we will contact you to learn about the impact which your project has had, and to find out how the award has supported your policy engagement journey. We are also keen to explore further ways in which the CftS can support your policy work beyond the completion of your project. 

Application and Funding Requirements

Application deadline: Thursday 19th October 2023 (11.59 pm) 

Your application can include several people and/or organisations but must include at least one academic and one non-academic partner. If you need help finding a project partner (either internal or external), please get in touch and we will help (cfts@soton.ac.uk)! 

You may wish to include letters of support and any offers of in-kind contributions as part of your application. 
Please also consider how you will evaluate and monitor the progress your project, as well as your approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.  

If successful, we require you to complete a short end of project report in July 2024, followed by short impact reports in December 2024 and June 2025, after your project has ended. We will give you guidance as to how to complete these.

If you are looking for further guidance, we recommend this guide on Co-production in Regional Academic-Policy Engagement developed by CAPE and the Co-Production Collective to help you with your application. 

The academic lead will be the budget holder for the project, or someone in the University needs to act as the budget holder on their behalf. Please ensure they have support from any required authority (e.g. Head of School) before applying. 

If you wish to see all the application questions in advance, you can find a pdf version here (but please use the form below to complete your final application)

New Things Fund Blogs

Previous Projects

2022/2023 Projects

2021/2022 Projects

2020/2021 Projects