What is the KEI fund?

The Knowledge Exchange and Impact Steering Group (KEISG) has a budget to support various opportunities for knowledge exchange at any point throughout the research life-cycle – not just exploitation and dissemination at the end of a project. Success in KEI can be achieved in a number of ways, including: 

• Engaging and communicating with non-academics about your research
• Going beyond existing networks and relationships to create new opportunities to share your research
• Building on opportunities to use novel and innovative approaches in sharing your research
• Thinking broadly and creatively about who you want to engage (beneficiaries), how you want to engage them (methods and activities), and how you will know about and measure the effects of your engagement activities (metrics and indicators).

Funds available

KEISG welcomes applications of any size up to £100k to run up until 31 July 2021. As a guide:

• Small bids of up to £10,000 for short-term or immediate KEI activities
• Medium bids of £10,000 - £35,000 for longer term KEI activities including, but not limited to, inter-disciplinary and/or collaborative activities
• Large bids of £35,000 - £100,000 which are likely to be inter-disciplinary and/or collaborative in nature 

Selection criteria

Essential prerequisites

• The project or activity must focus on non-academic engagement or benefits
• You must explain why the project or activity cannot be funded from other sources
• Staff costs must be justified
• The project must have the support of your department or centre
• The lead applicant must be on the LSE payroll. 
  Seniority of lead applicant has no bearing on assessment of applications.
• The project or activity must clearly involve or include LSE research
  This does not discount inclusion of non-LSE work and there is no requirement for a link to specific research output(s)

Core assessment criteria

1. Clarity and feasibility of objectives
   Assessed through responses to sections  B, D, H & L of application form
2. Clarity of anticipated benefits to non-academic groups, organisations or individuals
   Assessed through responses to section D of application form
3. Evidence of buy-in from proposed partners (that is, any external groups/organisations/individuals with whom you intend to work)
   Assessed through responses to sections C & F of application form
4. Effectiveness of engagement plan
   Assessed through responses to sections B, D, F & L of application form
5. Clarity of link to LSE research
   Assessed through responses to section E  of application form
6. Clarity of roles and responsibilities of all project participants; extent to which this justifies staff costs
   Assessed through responses to section J  of application form
7. Significance to School
   Assessed through responses to section F  of application form, plus Committee’s consideration of School strategic priorities

Who can apply?

Applications can be considered from any member of academic or research staff but KEISG are particularly keen to receive applications from individuals or departments/centres which have not previously received School funding for KEI. All applications must be supported by the applicant’s Head of Department or Centre Director.  

PhD students may apply for up to £2k of funding for KEI activities. Download full details of the process and the application form. Please get in touch with research.kei@lse.ac.ukfor more information.

Application procedure and submission

Prospective applicants should discuss their proposal with the Senior Communications Manager (Research and Knowledge Exchange), Hayley Reed and liaise with the KEI Awards Manager, Marie Copperwaite on the budget (e.g. staff costs). Please email research.kei@lse.ac.uk. 

• Application Form
• Budget Template

A draft of your application and budget must be sent at least three weeks before the deadline, you must respond to feedback in a timely fashion and have sent a final version at least three working days before the deadline. 

Applications for small bids (<£35k)

Small bids are considered by KEISG in monthly rounds, except when the termly large bid round is taking place. The Fund is closed during August.

Applications for large bids (£35k and over)

These are considered by KEISG on a termly basis. We encourage you to get in touch to discuss your large bid application at the earliest possible opportunity. Applicants will be given the opportunity to answer questions on their bids at the termly meeting, please ensure you add this date also to your diary.

Deadlines 2019/20

Outcome

You will be informed of the outcome of your application within 3 weeks of submission to KEISG (for smaller bids) or of the KEISG meeting (for larger bids). Successful applicants will receive their funding shortly after this time.

In June 2019 £10,000 was awarded to each LSE academic Department, for use to support any form of knowledge exchange with non-academic audiences during 2019/20.

Potential uses include - but are not limited to - activities supporting public and community engagement or the development of new relationships or partnerships with (for example) schools, local agencies, or the private, cultural and heritage sectors. They could also be used to develop colleagues’ KEI-related skills and capabilities.

The funds are intended to provide flexible, responsive support for departmental KE activities. The sorts of things they were used for in 2018/19 included:

• Events held at LSE for non-academic audiences
• Social media campaigns
• Seed-funding for larger KE activities
• Travel to and/or from LSE to facilitate engagement with non-academics
• Any other activity directly engaging with stakeholders and/or end-users of research
• Matched funding for KE activities that have attracted external support
• KE training events and/or materials to develop skills and capabilities within Departments

Departments are able to allocate the funds at their discretion, but are encouraged to support activities led by colleagues without previous experience of Knowledge Exchange.

Criteria

Departments are free to allocate funds in whatever way they deem most conducive to supporting engagement with their research. The only stipulation is that the funds had to facilitate engagement with people or organisations beyond academia.

Each Department is required to nominate an academic contact to meet with the KEI Integrated Service to discuss effective KE and public engagement activities and what support for these can be provided centrally.  A Professional Services contact also has to be appointed to support the financial management of the funds. Funds can be used by anyone conducting research at the School, including PhD students.

Projects must be completed by 31 July 2020. A short report setting out how funds have been spent is required to be sent to research.kei@lse.ac.uk in August 2020.

The REF Strategy Committee (REFSC) has a budget to support various aspects of the School’s preparations for the next REF, to take place in 2021.  Part of this budget has been set aside to assist individuals to enable them to produce 4* impact case studies who would otherwise struggle to achieve this. 

Applications up to £25,000 will be considered but smaller applications are also encouraged.  REF impact support may take the form of:

• Support for travel and subsistence in order to collect and/or corroborate impact evidence from research users;
• Provision of research assistants including occasional research assistants to collect impact evidence;
• Costs of undertaking impact evaluation where this can help to demonstrate the reach and significance of the potential impact case study.
• Exceptionally, buy-out of academic time, using the School’s existing internal formula, with the agreement of the Head of Department.

All of the above must be genuinely expected to lead to the production of 4* impact case studies for REF 2021 which would otherwise be difficult for the individual(s) to produce and which are not already supported by other forms of funding.

Download the full guidance and application form.

Applications should be emailed as a Word document to Jo Hemmings.