Funding Opportunities for KEI

A new fund, which aims to support world-class research and knowledge exchange by LSE academic faculty and researchers. LSE's Research Development Panel (RDP) will award up to £20,000 per project. This can include projects with a KEI focus or elements.

The funding round for 2021/22 has now closed. Details of future calls will be made available here.

External funding has now been confirmed to enable the allocation of departmental KEI funding for 2021/22. Based on a review of the scheme by the Knowledge Exchange Framework Steering Committee (KEFSC), the following changes to funding allocation have been made:

1. Departments will be offered up to £5,000 of funding towards strategic KEI activities, which advance either their own KEI goals (in line with their REF environment statements) or with the wider KEI Strategic Plan. Funding should therefore focus on activities that would benefit the department as a whole, rather than individual academics. (See suggested areas below).
2. Funding will be made available subject to approval of plans by the KEI Integrated Service (via Louise Jones, research.kei@lse.ac.uk). The KEI Integrated Service will work with departments to develop and support plans.
3. Funding will be awarded for a full year, with spending allowed until October 2022, to allow sufficient time for planning. At the end of this period a short report on spending will be required.

These changes are made in recognition that other sources of KEI funding now exist that fulfil some of the original purpose of these funds, particularly for individual academics (through the increased personal research funds and the new Research and KEI Support Fund) and for PhD students (through a soon to be announced KEI Fund for PhD students). Changes also reflect the priorities of the updated KEI Strategic Plan.

Suggested areas

• Use of funding to update departmental websites or content used to engage external audiences with LSE research including research films, animations, infographics.
• Activities to build partnerships or connections with relevant external groups, e.g. corporates, policy makers, heritage sector, local communities, schools.
• Activities and initiatives that engage students with KEI, connecting research impact, teaching and the student experience.
• Training in skills required for effective KEI in your discipline, if not covered by the central training programme.
• Funding to support monitoring and evaluation of KEI across the department.