Research, Development & Analysis Fund

Funder's core interests focus on three broad public policy domains: Education, Welfare and Justice. However, the Foundation welcomes cross-disciplinary approaches and also proposals that cut across the domains of interest.

Priority projects will:

• Identify and explain the social and economic determinants of opportunity and risk across the life span, focusing in particular on early childhood adversity, transitions from adolescence to young adulthood, and social and economic well-being in adulthood and later life.
• Improve well-being for society as a whole, while ameliorating negative outcomes and informing the foundations of and pathways towards a just and inclusive society.
• Support the development of workable evidence-based solutions for policy and practice over the medium term.

The Foundation supports the following types of projects:

• Research reviews, synthesis, and translation. The aim should be to draw out implications for policy and practice reform.
• Primary data collection and analysis, both quantitative and qualitative.
• Pre-trial development work.
• Comparison or controlled trials or evaluations where there is a particularly important and innovative intervention that has already been subjected to formal pre-trial development work.
• Developmental projects: Initial development or feasibility studies for practical project interventions, with relevance to wider populations; Small-scale inquiries, working parties to engage with a range of stakeholders; Exploratory analysis of new data; studies to understand the operation of a policy or practice area to inform a larger scale project or initiative.

The funder has two-stage process: outline and full application. Outline applications for research, development and analysis grants are between £10,000 and £750,000. Projects can last between six months and three years.