Campus Relations Innovation Fund: 2024 - 2025

 We are looking for projects that aim to:

• foster good relations between different individuals / groups at our School  
• build a greater sense of belonging and trust across the community  
• enable connection and dialogue between different groups at LSE, including where there may be disagreements
• enhance engagement of staff and student groups.  

This fund is suitable for:

• Events (either single or a series)
• Collaborative workshops (either single or a series)  
• New collaborative dialogue groups   
• Training for facilitators or groups of staff/students
• Intervention programmes (e.g. mentoring, training, workshop series) 
• Development of new guidance, toolkits or handbooks.

Projects which bring different areas of the LSE Community together  

Applications are encouraged which request funding for events, interventions or other types of projects which bring different groups or sections of the community together, rather than appealing to or supporting one particular group. For example, across cultural, interest, religious, political or national boundaries.     

Collaborative projects  

Applications are expected to demonstrate how collaboration and connection – including between people who might not be natural allies – has been embedded in the project design, and to list collaborative partners involved in the project.   

Action-oriented projects

While applications for the fund are welcome in relation to research, we will prioritise projects which are action-oriented or action-research based. We want to fund projects which are trying something new and are instigating change. The project should have tangible outputs and outcomes.  

Evaluation

As well as learning from things that work, we want to learn from things which do not work, or things which could work better if they were changed. As part of your application, we would like a light-touch overview of how you will measure impact and success.  

The fund is being run in Winter Term 2025 with the option to run either until Spring Term 2025 for short-term projects or Autumn 2025 for longer-term projects.

Key Timings

The deadline for applications is 12noon on Friday 21 February 2025. Depending on demand, we may run another funding call for projects in the Spring Term. 

Short-term projects

Short-term projects can involve one off events or shorter initiatives such as workshop series, or small research projects. These projects are expected to finish with final outcomes reported by the end of Summer Term 2025.  

Long-term projects

Long-term projects can involve more complex initiatives such as coaching schemes, bigger action-research projects or larger-scale events that require more planning. These projects are expected to finish with final outcomes reported by the end of Autumn Term 2025.   

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team will check-in with project leads throughout the project to check on progress, with a meeting being held at the end of the project to discuss its outcomes and findings.

We hope to be able to share the projects progress through official LSE communication channels and within related steering groups.   

Please fill out this application form by 12noon on Friday 21 February 2025; which includes questions along the following lines:

• How your project meets the project aims and application criteria 
  (400 word limit) 
• What you hope to achieve and how you will measure it  (300 word limit)
• For how much funding are you applying? Please provide a budget breakdown (200 word limit)

Whilst the Campus Relations Innovation Fund is a new initiative, the EDI Team has previously sponsored the Race Equity Innovation Fund. Examples of past funded projects under this scheme can be found online.