Funding from the Policy Support Fund (PSF) supports universities to deliver research with local, regional, national and international regulatory organisations, including parliament, central government, devolved administrations, local government, health and education bodies, and the justice system.

The 200K PSF from Research England follows a similar allocation to last year, and the two years prior when it was known as the Strategic Priorities Fund.

Following an Open Call towards the end of 2022, we can announce the following researchers as successful in securing support from the PSF:

Architecture and Civil Engineering

  • Dr Thomas Kjeldsen, with Dr Cormac Reale will work with the Welsh Government to investigate a new dynamic risk assessment of coal tip safety.

  • Dr Will Hawkins with Dr Andy Shea, Dr Stephen Allen, Dr Ellie Marsh and Peter Phelps will work with B&NES to monitor, analyse and investigate the implementation and industry response of the B&NES policy for carbon neutrality by 2030.

Institute for Policy Research (IPR)

  • Amy Thompson with Professor Andrew Heath, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and Professor Marcelle McManus, Department of Mechanical Engineering, will work with regional and national government to develop the Policy Fellowship Programme (PFP) on sustainable and automated transport. Specifically, the IPR Fellowship is focused on transport, buildings, and infrastructure in the context of Net Zero.

Department for Social and Policy Sciences and the IPR

  • Dr Tina Skinner and Dr Matt Dickson will jointly lead a project, working with the Office for National Statistics and the Cabinet Office’s Equality Hub, to inform policies relating to the dynamic effects of becoming disabled on work, wages and welling in the UK, and how these differ by gender and ethnicity.

Department for Social and Policy Sciences

  • Professor Emma Carmel, Associate Dean (Research) for Humanities and Social Sciences, with Catriona Gray, Department of Computer Science will work with the Office for Artificial Intelligence to identify key issues for AI regulation in the context of devolution.

Department of Education

  • Dr Ceri Brown with Alison Douthwaite will work with local authorities in the South West of England to develop a policy toolkit for tackling NEEThood (those not in education, employment or training) in the South West region.

  • Dr Michael Donnelly, with Dr Aline Courtois, Dr Predrag Lazetic, and Joanne Davies, Department of Education, with Dr Matt Dickson, IPR, will work with national government and the Sutton Trust to open dialogues with policy makers and develop policy recommendations on Further Education colleges and the ‘Levelling up’ agenda.

All projects are to start in December 2022 and be completed by 31 July 2023.

Julie Morton, Business Partnerships and Knowledge Manager in Research and Innovation Services, who led the University’s administration for the PSF says:

As expected, the quality of applications to this call was exceptionally high, all of which had a strong Knowledge Exchange focus through involvement with external partners and policy makers. This year we particularly encouraged applicants to consider the integration of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) into their planning, as reflected in the projects. We look forward to these projects now progressing and thank you all those who applied to this very competitive Policy Support Fund, which we hope to receive as a similar funding allocation from Research England next year.