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Policy exchange

Scheme at a glance

  • Opportunity status: Open
  • Funders: Population Research UK
  • Funding type: Grant
  • Total fund: £906,250
  • Funding duration: 24 months
  • Opening date: 28 January 2026 10:00am UK time
  • Closing date: 1 April 2026 4:00pm UK time

Last updated: 28 January 2026

Apply for funding to enhance the policy impact of Longitudinal Population Studies (LPS). Funding is available to develop UK LPS policy impact services focusing on two or more areas of policy need, which will map relevant policy stakeholders, engage with those stakeholders and LPS study teams and analysts, and provide a brokerage service connecting policy questions to evidence, e.g. through analysis or rapid review.  

This is a UKRI flexible funding award administered by Population Research UK (PRUK). This funding opportunity is to support Activity 2 detailed in the PRUK delivery plan. We anticipate making a single award. 

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £906,250. PRUK will fund 80% (up to a maximum of £725,000) of the FEC. 

Your project must be completed by 31 December 2028. 

To apply, please submit your funding application form (Word, 82 kB) to info@pruk.ac.uk by 4:00pm UK time on 1 April 2026. 

Who can apply

Standard UKRI eligibility criteria apply. Proposals are invited from eligible UK-based organisations, in accordance with standard UKRI practice. Before applying for funding, check eligibility of your organisation and eligibility as an individual. 

Who is eligible to apply

To be eligible to apply for this funding opportunity you must:

  • be a researcher or specialist employed by an eligible research organisation
  • show that you will lead the project and be actively engaged in the work
  • have the relevant expertise and experience to lead or contribute to the proposed activities

For applicants who do not have a contract of employment for the duration of the proposed project, by submitting an application the research organisation is confirming, if it is successful:

  • contracts will be extended beyond the end date of the project
  • all necessary support for you and the project will be provided, including mentorship and career development for early career researchers

Individuals may be project lead on only one application. However, individuals can act as project co-leads on any number of applications. 

Host research organisations

Applications can be from a single eligible organisation or a partnership of organisations. When there are two or more eligible organisations involved, for administrative purposes it is necessary to identify a single lead researcher or specialist as activity lead who must be affiliated with the lead research organisation. 

However, the balance of activity and leadership across the participants and partner organisations can be equally shared if desirable. What is critical is for the approach to leadership and decision making across multiple organisations to be clearly specified where applicable.  

A research organisation may lead or partner on more than one application. 

International applicants

PRUK will consider the inclusion of international applicants as activity co-leads if they provide expertise not available in the UK and make a major intellectual contribution to the design or conduct of the activity. 

You must justify in your application why their expertise is required (within the applicant and team capability to deliver section of the application form) and provide clear indicators of commitment to delivering innovative policy engagement mechanisms within the UK. If you wish to include funding for international applicants, you should seek guidance from the PRUK hub team in advance of submitting the application. 

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

  • career breaks
  • support for people with caring responsibilities
  • flexible working
  • alternative working patterns

Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI.

You are encouraged to leverage the full strengths of the UK’s diverse research and innovation community from the earliest stages of assembling your teams through to the delivery of awarded activities.

Consideration of equality, diversity and inclusion is important for all applications to PRUK for funding, but particular care should be taken for activities taking a team science approach involving multiple co-applicants.

What we’re looking for

Challenge

While LPS data and results from them have great value for public policy and there are successful initiatives at both a study and collective level that aim to realise policy impact, there remains considerable untapped potential.

In order for the return on investment in LPS to be fully realised, it is important the value of LPS in policy making and practice is optimised. 

In particular, there is a strong need for evidence from LPS to create demonstrable impact into key government priorities and policy initiatives, at UK, national (devolved) and/or local levels.  

PRUK consultation has highlighted opportunities for investment into the steps beyond primary data collection and research, flagging a need for a system-wide approach to engagement between policy stakeholders and LPS researchers, and a greater degree of coordination and connection between policymakers with evidence needs and questions, and researchers analysing LPS data. 

Aim and scope

PRUK is an initiative that aims to maximise the use and impact of UK LPS across biomedical and social sciences.  

PRUK’s overall vision is to simplify the end-to-end process of researchers finding resources, accessing them, conducting their research and achieving impact.  

In this call, we focus on addressing the challenge of maximising impact from LPS research, by connecting policy stakeholders with evidence needs to LPS resources and researchers.  

This timely opportunity aims to support the development of innovative policy engagement mechanisms focused on multiple – defined here as two or more – areas of policy need. Proposals should emphasise creation of meaningful impact in specific policy areas but must serve more than one; for example, combining one primarily social or economic area of policy and one relating to health. 

The primary aim of the call is to facilitate the generation of impact from LPS research, with a secondary aim of identifying how the delivery mechanism can be scaled to other policy areas, other policy audiences, and/or to draw on an evidence base using more of the UK’s LPS. The successful team should be based in the UK, engage primarily with UK policy stakeholders and should focus on translation of research into policy from multiple disciplines.  

The proposed work, wherever possible, should draw on expertise and data resources from across the biomedical and social sciences. We welcome proposals which complement existing infrastructure and work should draw on the assets of as broad a range of LPS as possible (rather than drawing on a single LPS or a narrow set of studies). Note, we are unable to support duplicated effort. 

It is vital that the proposed work creates meaningful, measurable impact within the duration of the award and proposals must set out how this will be tracked and evaluated.  

A key property of the activity is that it functions to enable and enhance the capability of the LPS community – including teams designing and delivering studies and researchers using LPS data – to generate greater policy impact from their work.  

This call has been set up to provide more than a pilot platform or single use solution. Rather, work should look to address call specifications with solutions which are useful for multiple stakeholders, and which have a well thought out approach to sustainability. 

Funding is available for initiatives able to: 

  • map the relevant UK policy stakeholders across central and local government, NHS and other public sector bodies, funders, think tanks, lobbying organisations and charities for the LPS community
  • engage with key relevant UK policy stakeholders – through meetings, workshops and other activities – to monitor, better understand and document emerging policy evidence needs and share new developments and findings from LPS
  • engage with UK LPS study teams and expert analysts working with LPS data – to share emerging policy evidence needs and scope the utility of LPS data to provide the necessary evidence
  • host activities which bring together key policy stakeholders and LPS research analysts to address these emerging policy needs
  • develop and operate a brokerage service linking LPS aligned researchers to policymakers in search of answers to questions
  • provide answers where there are evidence gaps e.g. through evidence syntheses or novel analyses that draw on the rich array of UK LPS data resources
  • implement methods and metrics for the assessment of the policy impact achieved from this specific investment
  • through all of the above, to generate impact by promoting the use of evidence from a broad range of UK LPS in important areas of policy or practice

Applicants should consider the following requirements as part of their approach and its justification. 

Policy areas

PRUK’s mission spans across social and health sciences and proposals that generate impact in relation to both social and economic policies and health policies, or address the interrelationship between health, economy and society are especially welcomed. 

Proposals should clearly demonstrate their central relevance and potential for impact in reference to UK Government Missions, and/or other clearly articulated devolved nation government, or local priorities and strategies (for example including government department Areas of Research Interest), or UKRI and major funder impact strategy.  

Proposals must be specific in the areas of policy in which they will engage and must show how they will demonstrably improve policy engagement and impact in those areas. 

Applicants must provide a clear rationale for the policy areas chosen and explain why LPS data are particularly well positioned to address the identified need, and how they will be used to do so. 

Applications should provide evidence and examples of relevant experience of using LPS data to address policy questions. 

Connecting stakeholders

Applicants should describe how they will work with relevant stakeholders in the policy community to meet their specific needs including the analytical community within government and policymakers within local or national government departments, and devolved nations governments, building on existing networks and relationships.  

Equally, applicants should describe how they will engage with relevant academic experts and LPS teams to connect evidence needs to questions and to generate answers to those questions.  

Applicants should also describe how they will engage with existing data infrastructure services to maximise learning from existing policy engagement initiatives. Applicants should be able to explain how their application is distinctive to relevant existing policy engagement initiatives and how it adds value without being duplicative or increasing complexity for stakeholders. 

Applications must not duplicate existing work e.g. from devolved nations infrastructure such as the Scottish Policy Research Exchange, CLOSER’s Policy Hub, or the Universities Policy Engagement Network. 

Resourcing

Applicants should consider what roles and expertise are required to deliver their aims. Academic domain expertise relevant to the specific policy need is considered essential to ensure credibility with policy stakeholders and deliver policy impact from this investment. The team should have: 

  • strong networks and relationships across relevant policy stakeholders (including the government analytical community)
  • the experience and capability to deliver policy impact from LPS research through designing and scaling effective policy engagement mechanisms
  • the ability to generate or commission novel research analysis or evidence synthesis to fill evidence gaps in a timely manner
  • the ability to develop and implement methods and metrics for the assessment of the policy impact generated from this investment

Governance

Applicants should set out their proposed project governance, including approaches to decision making during the course of the project. Applicants should also clearly describe how the PRUK Hub Leadership Group will be involved in these decisions. 

PRUK activity integration

Applicants should clearly describe how they plan to integrate planned activity into the wider PRUK work programme. Specifically, applicants must align their work with PRUK’s community engagement and advocacy programme (Activity 1) and to look for opportunities to add value to and engage with the other funded activities set out in its delivery plan.  

Sustainability

Applicants should make reference to the sustainability and future development of the proposed activities beyond the period of funding proposed here. This could include how approaches could be scaled to address different policy issues, engage with a wider set of policy audiences, and/or draw on a wider set of scientific expertise or UK LPS data resources.

Development

Successful applicants will develop these solutions for PRUK and the benefit of the UK policy and LPS community. It is a requirement of the award that fully documented copies of the deliverables (under Aim and Scope above) are shared with PRUK as an outcome of the project, in order to support future developments in this area.  

Public, patient and practitioner involvement and engagement

Applicants may wish to consider how engagement with the public, and public acceptability of the use of LPS data in policy supports the realisation of impact. Applications should adhere to best practice in public, patient, and practitioner involvement and engagement. Applicants may wish to consider UKRI guidance on engaging the public. 

Duration

The duration of the award is up to 24 months. You should ensure that when completing the project details section of your application, you indicate a start date of no later than 1 October 2026 and duration of up to 24 months. The project must end by 31 December 2028. 

Funding available

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £906,250. PRUK will fund 80% (up to a maximum of £725,000) of the FEC. Find out more about full economic costing. 

What we will fund

You can request funding for costs such as: 

  • a contribution to the salary of the project lead and co-leads
  • support for other posts such as research, administrative and specialist staff
  • flexible funding to support the time of individuals outside of the project team, for example to undertake specific novel analysis or research synthesis
  • data preparation, provision, preservation and sharing
  • travel costs
  • knowledge transfer and dissemination costs, such as engagement mechanisms for a policy audience or pursuit and development of new user contacts
  • external stakeholder activities including public engagement and involvement
  • costs for innovative training and capacity building when not available elsewhere
  • we recognise that some project partners may be employed by a government-funded organisation. You must therefore avoid the double counting of public funds in costings
  • where justified, we will fund the time of project partners at 100% FEC. The combined costs for project partners must not exceed 30% of the overall cost of the grant at 100% of FEC, and would normally be lower than this
  • directly incurred costs for international partners as co-leads (an exception funded at 100%) may be requested, although we expect most costs to be incurred by UK organisations

The leadership team will have flexibility over use of the directly incurred funding within the total awarded, as long as these are proportionate to associated directly allocated funding and still permit delivery of the activity. There are constraints on the use of directly allocated funding. 

The total costs requested for international applicants from developed countries (those not on the OECD DAC List of ODA Recipients), India and China must not exceed 30% of the total resources requested. There is no cap on costs requested for international applicants from DAC list countries. 

What we will not fund

We will not fund:

  • work that is duplicative of existing funded activities
  • any kind of studentships including stipends
  • publication costs
  • funding to use as a ‘bridge’ between grants

Team project partner

Where appropriate, one or more project partners can be included in your application, including from academia, industry, charities or the wider third sector. In particular, we encourage multi-institution collaborations to share expertise. 

You may include team project partners that will support your application through cash or in-kind contributions, such as:

  • staff time
  • access to equipment
  • sites or facilities
  • the provision of data
  • software or materials

Each project partner must provide a statement of support. This should be included as an annex as part of your application. If your application involves industry partners, they must provide additional information if the team activity partner falls within the industry collaboration framework. This should be included as an annex as part of your application. 

Find out more about subcontractors and dual roles. 

Who cannot be included as a team project partner

Any individual included in your application within a core team cannot also be a project partner. 

Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation, this includes other departments within the same organisation. 

If you are collaborating with someone in your organisation, consider including them in the core team as activity co-lead or specialist. They cannot be a project partner. 

Supporting skills and talent

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment. 

International collaboration

PRUK is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. PRUK is therefore aligned with UKRI principles relating to Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I), a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. UKRI’s TR&I Principles set out expectations of organisations in receipt of UKRI-derived funding in relation to due diligence for international collaboration. 

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity via submission of an application form to the PRUK Hub team (University of Bristol as lead institution for PRUK operations). 

The activity lead is responsible for completing the application process and submitting the application form, but we expect all team members and activity partners to contribute to the application. 

Only the lead research organisation can submit the application to PRUK. 

Application form

Please complete the funding application form (Word 82kB). 

Completed application forms should be submitted to PRUK via email as a single PDF attachment, to: info@pruk.ac.uk. Please use the subject line ‘PRUK Activity 2 application’. You will receive confirmation of your submitted application within 2 working days. 

References

Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. Applicants should use their discretion when including reference and prioritise those most pertinent to the application. 

Reference should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors for example, (Smith, Research Paper, 2019). 

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. 

Deadline

PRUK must receive your application by 1 April 2026 4:00pm UK time. 

You will not be able to apply after this time. 

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines. 

Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected. 

Personal data

Processing personal data

PRUK will need to collect some personal information to manage your application and the registration of your funding application. This will entail personnel from the University of Bristol, University College London, Swansea University, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and University of Edinburgh (each part of the PRUK Coordination Hub) having access to your application to facilitate the formal panel assessment. 

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice. 

PRUK will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with the nominated members of the assessment panel, who will include external personnel to the PRUK Coordination Hub, so that they can participate in the assessment process and post-award management. 

Publication of outcomes

PRUK will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity on its website.

Application form guidance

Applicants will be asked to address the following questions in the application form – drawing from the description of the planned and PRUK Board approved focus of work outlined above. The application form must not exceed 8 pages, plus permitted annexes (see details below). 

Vision

What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?

Explain how your proposed work:

  • will advance current practice
  • presents advantages over current practice
  • is novel

Rationale

What is the evidence that the proposed work is likely to be successful?

Explain how your proposed work:

  • builds on evidence that the approach is feasible
  • builds on relevant experience of using LPS data to address policy questions
  • builds on evidence of user demand

Approach

How are you going to deliver your proposed work?

  • detail the methods, objectives, tasks and milestones for the activity and make the case that they are realistic and achievable
  • provide details of how the work will be managed including how decisions will be made and progress monitored
  • provide a project plan including milestones and timelines, in the form of a Gantt chart or similar. This should be included as a 1-page annex at the end of your application.
  • demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:
    • are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
    • represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes maximise potential outcomes and impacts
  • Provide a data management plan which should clearly detail how you comply with UKRI published data management and sharing policies. Include your Data Management Plan as an annex (up to 5 pages) at the end of your application.

Applicant and team capability to deliver

Why are you the right individual and team to successfully deliver the proposed work? 

Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format (attached as an annex (up to 4 pages) to provide evidence of how the PI and team have: 

  • the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
  • the right balance of skills and expertise
  • the appropriate leadership and management skills
  • contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community

Use space in the application form to demonstrate how the team resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work: 

  • are comprehensive, appropriate and justified (providing full time equivalent (FTE) of all staff roles)
  • represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
  • maximise potential outcomes and impacts

Please include details of any project partners here. Project partner statements of support should be included as an annex (up to 2 pages). If your application involves industry partners, provide details here and include the industry collaboration framework letter of support as an annex (up to 2 pages). 

Scalability, sustainability, and data sharing

How will your proposed work be sustained beyond the life of the funding to meet its ultimate goals? 

Explain how your proposed work and its outputs:

  • will deliver sustained policy impact, engagement mechanisms and partnerships which continue to use LPS research to address policy needs
  • will be sustained beyond the life of the funding to meet its ultimate aims
  • will be scaled to meet the needs of other policy issues, policy audiences, and the LPS community – including how outputs, learning and policy engagement mechanisms will be managed and shared with PRUK so that they can be accessed across the LPS community

Costing

Using the costing template, provide the full economic cost (FEC) and PRUK contribution requested (80% or justified exception). Expand the costing template as much as needed across each field and provide justifications for any exceptional costs in the approach section. 

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

Examination of applications

Following the close of the funding opportunity, all submitted applications will be examined by the PRUK Hub team to ensure the proposed application meets standard UKRI eligibility criteria and is within scope of the funding opportunity. 

Following our completion of the application examination process, all those with an application outside of the scope of the funding opportunity, will be advised their application has been rejected by the end April 2026. 

Applications within scope of this funding opportunity will be taken forward to the expert review panel meeting planned for May/June 2026. 

Expert review panel

The review panel will be comprised of individuals with expertise in realising policy impact from LPS research and data and non-conflicted members of the PRUK Hub. The panel of experts will collectively review your application against the criteria of this funding opportunity. Applications will rank alongside other applications after which the panel will make a funding recommendation. The expert review panel will use the following criteria to assess your application: 

Vision

What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work? 

  • to what extent does the proposal demonstrate it will serve major areas of policy need that LPS are well-suited to provide evidence for?
  • to what extent does the proposal describe an LPS-serving vision which can meaningfully advance current practice?
  • to what extent does the proposal describe a novel approach/solution?
  • to what extent does the proposal describe the advantage over current practice/solutions?

Rationale

What is the evidence that the proposed work is likely to be successful?

  • to what extent does the application provide evidence that the proposed services are feasible?  
  • how successfully does the application provide evidence of relevant experience of using LPS data to address policy questions? 
  • to what extent does the application provide sufficient evidence of user demand for the proposed solution? 
  •  

Approach

How are you going to deliver the proposed work? 

  • to what extent are the methods, objectives, tasks, and milestones for the project realistic and achievable?
  • to what extent are the plans to achieve policy impact from the proposed activities realistic and achievable?
  • to what extent does the application demonstrate that the processes for making decisions and monitoring progress are robust and effective?
  • to what extent does the data management plan demonstrate that appropriate and realistic consideration has been given to data management requirements to maximise data sharing?
  • to what extent does the application demonstrate the solution is fit for purpose for users across disciplines and the breadth of longitudinal research?

Deliverability

How are you going to deliver your proposed work?

  • to what extent do the team and any partners included in the application have the experience, capabilities and resources to conduct the planned work?
  • to what extent are the resource required to deliver the proposed work justified?

Scalability and sustainability

How will your proposed work be sustained beyond the life of the funding to meet its ultimate goals? 

  • to what extent does the proposal demonstrate that the project will deliver sustained policy impact, engagement mechanisms and partnerships?
  • to what extent does the proposal demonstrate that the team have considered next steps beyond this funding?
  • to what extent does the proposal provide sufficient evidence that the project is sustainable beyond the life of the funding to meet its ultimate aims?
  • to what extent is the proposed solution scalable to other policy issues, policy audiences, and/or to a broader set of UK LPS data resources?

Principles of assessment

PRUK supports the San Francisco declaration on research assessment (DORA) and recognises the relationship between research assessment and research integrity. 

PRUK is aligned to the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making. 

Using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in peer review

Reviewers and panellists are not permitted to use generative AI tools to develop their assessment. Using these tools can potentially compromise the confidentiality of the ideas that applicants have entrusted to UKRI to safeguard. 

PRUK is aligned to the UKRI policy on the use of generative AI.

Timescale

The expert review panel meeting will take place approximately 10 weeks after the closing date. 

Contact details

Get help with developing your proposal

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process. You can ask questions about this funding opportunity to the Population Research UK Hub team via email: info@pruk.ac.uk. We aim to respond within five working days.

Additional info

PRUK Hub team hosted a webinar on 28 January 2026 to provide more details on this funding opportunity and to take questions from the community. View the webinar slides on Zenodo and recording on YouTube.

Why we are funding a policy exchange

Our delivery plan sets out in detail the work we will do to support and strengthen the UK’s longitudinal research ecosystem. Developed in close collaboration with the LPS community, our plan sets out the practical steps that we will take over the next years. It reflects extensive engagement across the sector, with insight and input from researchers, data managers, funders and infrastructure partners. This funding opportunity is Activity 2 in our delivery plan. 

Conditions of award

Start date

Awards must start by 1 October 2026 (they can start earlier) and must end by 31 December 2028.  Please note: No extensions will be considered.