Funding Snapshots
The Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser has developed snapshots of funders that run funding calls deemed of interest for policing research, innovation or evaluation projects.
The Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser has developed snapshots of funders that run funding calls deemed of interest for policing research, innovation or evaluation projects. We have endeavoured to make it clear where these opportunities are available to policing to apply to themselves (as a lead) vs. those only available to policing through partner organisations.
We have provided a summary for each funder, capturing the most important information, but further details will be available via the funders’ websites, and we recommend you check these details for yourself before applying. This is not a fully comprehensive list, the opportunities listed here are deemed of particular relevance for police research, innovaiton and evaluation projects. However, please do let us know via [email protected] of further opportunities you are aware of for us to include.
Academic institutions will be directly eligible to a number of funding calls that policing are not, such as the Leverhulme Trust’s research project grants, The British Academy’s Research Projects and the Royal Academy of Engineering's UK Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowships. We recommend engaging with your academic partners to identify any opportunities to support and shape their research, as well as their applications to these calls where relevant to policing. Policing is an attractive partner for academic research as we provide opportunities for research to have direct impact, which bolsters an academic institution’s evidence base of their research investment benefits; this in turn supports their returns under the Research Excellence Framework.
On completion of your project there is the opportunity for evaluation funding via the College of Policing. The Practice Bank helps to identify initiatives, innovation and promising practice that would benefit from further replication and evaluation. By sharing any practice examples to the Practice Bank, not only will this help develop the evidence base of what works in policing, but those that are most promising and could be widely replicated in other forces are reviewed for potential funded follow-on evaluation.
The OPCSA has also developed a set of guidance to take those unfamiliar with applying for grants through the process of finding a suitable grant, preparing, and then submitting an application.
Funder Snapshots
Can Policing apply (as a lead or partner)? | What is the size of funding available? | What are the typical timelines?* |
Yes - as the lead organisation | Up to £300k | Application window: 4-weeks for EOIs Delivery: EOIs open in Autumn and projects start in April |
*The funding call information will specify actual timelines. Typical timelines have been provided to give a sense of application turnaround times and length of time before project delivery would start.
The Police STAR (Science Technology Analysis and Research) Fund is an annual innovation call, run by the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser (OPCSA). The Police STAR Fund is the only innovation programme aimed at local policing. It seeks is to stimulate local innovation and encourage collaboration to solve Science and Technology (S&T) problems within policing.
It is open to all forces and their Police and Crime Commissioners, alongside national entities such as the National Crime Agency, College of Policing, Forensic Capability Network, National Police Chiefs’ Council and Home Office. Bidders are encouraged to collaborate with outside partners, including Higher Education Institutions, research organisations, charities, and commercial companies, where doing so adds value. However, bids must be led and submitted by eligible organisations.
The Police STAR Fund funds projects which are innovatively future focused, clearly defined, and have strong science and/or technology elements aligned with the NPCC S&T strategy. Projects should support the development of new solutions to meet a priority policing challenge, show reference to policing’s recently published Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) where appropriate, and anticipate benefits for wider policing.
The Police STAR Fund focuses on early-stage development of innovation and research, rather than implementation. Projects looking to understand whether something with an S&T focus works (e.g. fundamental research, feasibility studies, proof of concepts, testing and development etc.), are eligible. Projects looking to evaluate the implementation of something, procure existing kit, or implement something known to be effective, are not.
More information on the Police STAR Fund application process and case studies of previously funded projects can be found here.
For any queries, please contact [email protected]
Can policing apply (as a lead or partner)? | What is the size of the funding available? | What are the typical timelines?* |
Only as a partner | Currently paused | Currently paused |
*The funding call information will specify actual timelines. Typical timelines have been provided to give a sense of application turnaround times and length of time before project delivery would start.
DASA is a cross-Government organisation, hosted within the MOD, that finds and funds exploitable innovations to improve the defence and security of the UK. DASA offers multiple funding opportunities to support the development and scale-up of ideas from across industry and academia against known (themed) challenges and speculative ideas that could enhance capabilities which can be submitted into the Open Call.
The funding opportunity of most relevance to policing is the Security Rapid Impact Open Call.
Suppliers (academic or industry innovators) may submit proposals which address any security challenge and delivers a technology model or prototype demonstration up to TRL 6 or 7. Proposals will only be funded if there is a strong security user requirement and capability need for the idea.
Policing cannot bid into this call but can engage with industry/academia to support their applications where the outcome would be of benefit to policing. This should include detail of how your force will provide Government Furnished Assets to support the development of the idea aligned to a police use case. As a minimum this should include named staff available to review and discuss the development of the project aligned to police operational requirements.
Policing can also support the Security Open Call by becoming an assessor (details below) which helps shape the allocation of the funding. Of note, if your force is supporting a supplier's proposal you will not be asked to assess this idea.
Become a DASA Assessor: If you are interested in gaining sight of ideas submitted into DASA, please consider becoming an assessor. Assessors share their operational and/or technical understanding to shape funding decision. Please note, you don’t need have a technical background to be a DASA Assessor. The role of the assessor is critical to ensure projects funded align with end-user need. If you are interested in becoming an assessor, please do get in touch: [email protected]
Be the first to hear about new competitions, upcoming events and other DASA news: join the DASA Mailing List and follow DASA on LinkedIn Defence and Security Accelerator: Overview | LinkedIn
If you have any queries please email: [email protected]
Can Policing apply (as a lead or partner)? | What is the size of funding available? | What are the typical timelines?* |
Yes- as a lead or partner organisation | £X00k - Xmn | Application window: 6-weeks to 2-months Delivery: starts 6 months to over 1 year after applications close |
*The funding call information will specify actual timelines. Typical timelines have been provided to give a sense of application turnaround times and length of time before project delivery would start.
The YEF is a UK-based charitable trust established in 2019, through a £200m endowment and ten-year mandate from the Home Office, with a specific mission: to prevent children and young people from getting involved in violence, with a particular focus on those aged between 10 and 14-years old.
As part of the YEF’s funding approach, they will evaluate every programme and activity that they fund. Please read here to understand if YEF’s funding and evaluations is right for your project.
The main opportunities for funding are listed below:
1. Open calls (which previously ran as themed grant rounds). These are based around seven sectors. One of the sectors is ‘Policing’, which covers violence prevention strategies that involve the police and focuses on the individuals most likely to be involved in serious violence. Currently available opportunities include:
Open Call for projects: no fixed closing date
- This call is looking to fund the delivery of services of well-established projects in order to evaluate them.
- Projects must be operating at a reasonable scale, or have plans to scale up, and be suitable for a full impact evaluation. Applications must include existing evidence of the positive impact the project has had on young people.
- Projects must recruit a minimum number of young people for the impact evaluation. See the application guidance for more information.
- Review YEF’s portfolio of previously funded projects to ensure your proposal is sufficiently different.
2. Place-based funding
- Neighbourhood Fund: discussions about future rounds being held.
- Agency Collaboration Fund: funds and evaluates activities to find the most effective ways agencies can work together to identify and support the children most in need of support. The activities funded must be delivered by a minimum of two statutory agencies (for example, the local police force and a local authority). Discussions about future rounds being held.
3. Targeted projects: currently paused.
Typical eligibility criteria (varies by funding round but at a minimum):
- Delivery in England and/or Wales
- Delivery to a large number of young people
- Intending to impact outcomes in YEF’s outcomes framework, including: aiming to reduce young people from becoming involved in violence and targeting young people ages 6-18yrs old (with YEF’s main target age range being 10-14yrs old)
- Project teams willing to support robust evaluation
- Agree to storing data
- Some provision of in-kind or cash funding
Sign up to YEF’s monthly newsletter to receive the latest news, opportunities and research from the YEF to support our mission on the prevention of youth violence: Newsletter | Youth Endowment Fund
For all grant enquires please email: [email protected]
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body of the UK Government that invests in research and innovation to enrich lives, drive economic growth, and create jobs and high-quality public services across the UK.
Funding calls are published across the 9 UKRI Research Councils. Those of particular relevance to policing include the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). However, you may wish to review opportunities available across all Research Councils, which further include:
- Arts and Humanities Research Council
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- Medical Research Council
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Innovate UK
- Research England
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
Technological themes may cover multiple councils and be included in UKRI-wide calls. Funding opportunities available across all councils can be found here: Opportunities – UKRI
Subscribe to UKRI emails to keep up to date with the latest funding opportunities and news: UK Research and Innovation (govdelivery.com)
For enquiries, please contact the relevant council: Contact our councils – UKRI
Can Policing apply (as a lead or partner)? | What is the size of funding available? | What are the typical timelines?* |
Yes - as a partner organisation | £X00k - £Xmn | Application window: months Delivery: varies |
*The funding call information will specify actual timelines. Typical timelines have been provided to give a sense of application turnaround times and length of time before project delivery would start.
ESRC is the UK’s largest funder of economic, social, behavioural and human data science. They fund research and invest in training, methods development, and resources such as data collections and services in the social science disciplines. These disciplines include:
Area and development studies; Demography; Economic and social history; Economics; Education; Environmental planning; Human geography; International relations; Linguistics; Management and business studies; Politics; Psychology; Science and technology studies; Social anthropology; Social policy; Social statistics, methods and computing; Social work; Socio legal studies; Sociology.
Before making a research proposal, you can check if your research is suitable for ESRC funding.
Eligibility criteria:
- Policing is NOT an eligible organisation to apply for ESRC funding but would need to partner with an eligible organisation and be registered as a project co-lead. Guidance is available for including project co-leads from outside academia in research funding applications.
- Eligible organisations include higher education providers as well as a number of research institutes, public sector research establishments and independent research organisations and Catapult centres.
Open calls – no specified closing date – to flag:
1. ESRC responsive mode: secondary data analysis round two
- This funding opportunity supports research that exploits existing data resources for social and economic research. Applicants have considerable flexibility to focus on any subject area or topic providing that it falls within the ESRC’s remit.
- Proposed research is not required to use ESRC-funded data resources, though this is encouraged.
- This funding opportunity also aims to develop the capacity and skills of social sciences communities in using large and complex existing data resources. ESRC encourages partnerships with non-academic stakeholders to ensure generation of high-impact, policy and practitioner-relevant research.
- The full economic cost of your project can be up to £300,000. The duration of this award is up to two years (24 months).
2. ESRC responsive mode: research grants round two
- This flexible opportunity funds basic, applied and strategic research from any disciplines and on any topics within ESRC’s remit. Ambitious and novel proposals addressing new concepts and techniques are encouraged, as are those with the potential for significant scientific or societal and economic impact.
- There are no thematic or methodological priorities; ESRC will fund the highest quality proposals received, regardless of focus or approach.
- The FEC of your project can range from £350,000 to £1 million. The duration of this award is up to five years (60 months).
Can Policing apply (as a lead or partner)? | What is the size of funding available? | What are the typical timelines?* |
Yes - as a partner organisation | £X00k - £Xmn | Application window: months Delivery: varies |
*The funding call information will specify actual timelines. Typical timelines have been provided to give a sense of application turnaround times and length of time before project delivery would start.
EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK.
They fund research, support talent and innovation, and invest in facilities in areas including:
Chemistry; Engineering; Information and communications technologies; Materials; Mathematical sciences; Physics.
Though EPSRC does not have restrictions on application areas, the majority of research they support must be in engineering and the physical sciences. Before making an application, you can check if EPSRC is right for you.
Eligibility criteria:
Policing is NOT an eligible organisation to apply for EPSRC funding but would need to partner with an eligible organisation and supply a letter of support. EPSRC define a project partner as a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include cash or in-kind contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities. A well-written letter of support can significantly strengthen research proposals by demonstrating the benefits of the collaboration, and the potential impacts of the research. See here for more information on project partner letters of support.
Eligible organisations include higher education providers as well as a number of research institutes, public sector research establishments and independent research organisations and Catapult centres.
Open calls – no specified closing date – to flag:
1. EPSRC standard research grant, Nov 2023: responsive mode – UKRI
Through the standard research grant, EPSRC funds a wide range of projects, from small, short-term grants to multi-million-pound research projects including:
- High-risk or high-return research embracing new concepts or techniques
- Feasibility studies
- Instrument development
- Project specific equipment
- Collaborative projects that cross different disciplines
You can apply for a standard research grant in any field of research relevant to EPSRC’s remit and those related to the 5 critical technologies specified in the funding opportunity guidance will be particularly welcomed.
When applying for funding from EPSRC, you should consider how your research contributes to EPSRC’s strategic priorities.
There is no limit on the value of the grant, nor on the length of your project.
Facilities and resources
EPSRC funds advanced research facilities and resources for engineering and physical sciences. A full list of EPSRC-funded facilities and resources you can use for your research can be found here. You do not always need EPSRC funding to use EPSRC’s facilities and resources. Discuss your research proposal with the facility or service you want to use.
Can Policing apply (as a lead or partner)? | What is the size of funding available? | What are the typical timelines?* |
Yes - either as a beneficiary or to lead a consortium | £Xmn | Application window: 5 months with consortia being formed up to a year in advance Delivery: starts 6-10 months after application window closes |
*The funding call information will specify actual timelines. Typical timelines have been provided to give a sense of application turnaround times and length of time before project delivery would start.
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. It is a large scale, multi-national, partnership focused programme, with funding of over €95.5 billion. The funding calls run annually for 7 years at a time. The current programme, Horizon Europe (2021- 2027) will then be replaced by a subsequent programme.
Within the Horizon Europe programme, the Civil security for society cluster is of most relevance for law enforcement, and covers 6 distinct destinations:
- Better protect the EU and its citizens against crime and terrorism
- Effective management of EU external borders
- Resilient infrastructure
- Increased cybersecurity
- A disaster resilient society for Europe
- Strengthened security research & innovation
To view the 2025 call topics for Civil Security for Society that fall under these destinations go to the draft Work Programme here. The final version will be linked once available (anticipated end of January 2025).The funding available for the Civil Security for Society 2025 Work Programme for Research and Innovation is ~€130 million.
If there is a call topic of interest, and you would like to apply, you will need to either join or form a consortium. If this is your first experience participating in Horizon Europe, consider initially joining rather than leading a consortium. For most calls for proposals, consortia will need to be made up of at least 3 partner organisations from 3 different EU or Associated countries. For more information on this and much more, go to the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.
For more UK specific advice and assistance get in touch with the National Contact Point for Civil Security for Society, Zale Johnson ([email protected]).
Assistance on offer:
- How to participate in Horizon Europe
- Navigating around the EU Funding and Tenders Portal
- Partner searching and consortium building
- Proposal writing
Timelines:
- The opening date for the Civil Security for Society 2025 work programme is 12th June, closing 12th November. Successful projects will be notified March/April 2026, with projects starting July – November 2026.
- A typical project timeline is 3 years.
See Innovate UK's Horizon Europe page for more information on the application process, timelines and eligibility.
Subscribe to receive free Horizon Europe updates on funding opportunities, news and events related to your area of interest.
Can Policing apply (as a lead or partner)? | What is the size of funding available? | What are the typical timelines?* |
Yes - only as a partner | Up to £250,000 | Application window: 4-5 months with 2 submission drawdowns within this timeframe Delivery: notification of successful applicants is made within 2 months of drawdown and projects start promptly thereafter closes |
*The funding call information will specify actual timelines. Typical timelines have been provided to give a sense of application turnaround times and length of time before project delivery would start.
KAGF is run by the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) and funded by the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT). The programme has funding available up to March 2026 and runs annual calls as advertised on it’s webpages. The fund aims to support the identification and development of public sector knowledge assets, including repurposing, commercialisation or expanded use. These assets can include:
Inventions; Designs; Certain research and development (R&D) outcomes; Data and information; Creative outputs such as text, video, graphics, software and source code; Know-how and expertise; Business processes, services; Other intellectual resources.
There are 3 bands of funding to apply for:
1. Explore Grant (up to and including £25,000)
2. Expand Grant (£25,001 to £100,000)
3. Extend Grant (£100,001 to £250,000)
All projects should last between 2 and 18 months.
Eligibility:
Police forces are not eligible to apply on their own, but may partner with an eligible organisation who would have to be the lead applicant. Eligible organisations include:
· UK central government departments
· Arm’s length bodies
· Public sector research establishments
If you are unsure whether your project is in scope, you can contact the KAGF secretariat at [email protected]. You can also visit the GOTT Grant Fund webpages where they offer further guidance and support for our applicant community.
Be the first to hear about new competitions, events and other GOTT news. To join the GOTT mailing list enter your information.
Can Policing apply (as a lead or partner)? | What is the size of funding available? | What are the typical timelines?* |
Yes - either as a lead or partner | Up to £300,000 | Application window: varies Delivery: successful applicants are notificed within 4 months of the closing date for large grants, and sooner for small grants |
*The funding call information will specify actual timelines. Typical timelines have been provided to give a sense of application turnaround times and length of time before project delivery would start.
The Road Safety Trust (RST) is an independent grant-giving trust supporting projects that make UK roads safer for all road users. Their not-for-profit trading subsidiary company, UKROEd, gifts any surplus at the end of the financial year which enables The RST’s grant-making programme.
There are generally two funding rounds per year, one for Small Grants (between £10,000 and £50,000) in Spring and one for Large Grants (between £50,000 and £300,000) in Autumn. Their purpose is to support innovative road safety research or practical interventions designed to reduce the number of people killed or injured on our roads. Practical interventions might focus on education, engineering or enforcement approaches - or a combination of these. The RST usually invites applications on a road safety theme each year complemented by an open grants round every few years.
- The main aim is to improve road safety at a local level.
- Eligible projects include pilots/trials, improving, developing and expanding successful trials and interventions and/or the evaluation of projects and interventions. Projects should have the potential to be brought to scale both locally and across the UK.
- Maximum project length is 24 months.
- All small grants projects should have other sources of funding, cash or in-kind.
- Funding is available for research and the development of innovative practical interventions.
- Eligible projects include research, pilots/trials, improving, developing and expanding successful trials and interventions and/or the evaluation of projects and interventions.
- Maximum project length is 36 months.
- All large grants projects should have other sources of funding, cash or in-kind.
Eligibility and grant criteria:
- Police forces, amongst other bodies, are eligible and very much encouraged to apply.
- An element of partnership or collaborative working is expected in all projects.
- The RST is keen to support projects through to practical implementation. Some early-stage research may be funded where this is judged to address a clear gap in knowledge and where an eventual practical application for that research had been positively outlined.
- Projects are expected to outline outcomes and impact for road safety that may be expected from the research or practical intervention, how these outcomes have been calculated and how they will be achieved.
- A clear indication should be given of the projects outputs.
- All applications must include a focus on monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness.
- Applications can be strengthened by the inclusion of academic support to develop the project design or evaluation plan.
The Roads Policing Academic Network can provide advice and academic partners for road policing projects. You may contact Dr Helen Wells or Professor Gemma Briggs who run the network on [email protected] and [email protected].
Please see The RST’s website for more information on both programmes, editable application workbooks to help develop funding applications and their Guidance for Applicants document which lists full application criteria.