Overview
We are looking for human insights (research relating to human behaviour) that can be converted into ideas/concepts that will resonate with manufacturers, industrial digital technology (IDT) providers or policy makers. By converting these into actionable insights, we aim to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies and digitalisation within manufacturing.
What is an actionable insight?
Actionable insights are succinct conclusions drawn from research findings that can:
- be turned directly into an action or a response
- help all of us to understand why something is happening, and how to take appropriate action
- be relevant, specific, and valuable to the targeted stakeholder group that helps them to build actions, create and alter strategies, and make decisions that will improve their situation.
Proposal assessment criteria
Proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:
- Objectives: InterAct is a part of Made Smarter Innovation and supports several of its objectives. Give us a brief description of your proposal and tell us how your proposal supports one or more of these objectives. Visit About – InterAct Hub (interact-hub.org) to find out more.
- People: Who is your proposed audience? Are there key segments of this audience of particular interest, and how could you best connect with them?
- Product: What actionable insights will you provide to InterAct’s target communities? What is the format of the output(s)? What is the benefit you are providing?
- Platform: How will you distribute your insights? E.g., online/offline, social media, email, websites, events?
- Push: How are you going to get your actionable insight to your target audience? What activities do you have planned?
- Pull: How do you know your actionable insight is working? What measurements/metrics will you use to determine success?
Format
We want to encourage creativity in the format of the outputs. It’s important that the format resonates with the target audience and provides insights in an actionable way. Potential formats could include a combination of reports, videos, apps, interactive platforms, online assessment tools, diagnostic tools or web repositories. However, other formats are welcomed. The funding you request should be appropriate for the scope, ambition and expected actionable insight and can be spent within the maximum twelve months permitted.
Timeline
| Call Opens | Tuesday 24 January 2023 |
| Question and Answer Session Meeting ID: 365 858 156 339 Passcode: HD8VYi Link: Click here to join | Join on the web | Friday 3 February 2023 9.00- 9:30 am |
| Call Closes | Friday 21 April 2023, 12.00 (midday) |
| Earliest Project Start Date | Monday 3 July 2023 |
| Latest Project End Date | Friday 28 June 2024 |
Benefits
InterAct’s Actionable Insights fund can help you in the following ways.
- Amplify the impact of your research in a demonstrable way.
- Make available up to £18,000 of funding per project (at 100% of the cost).
- Give access to the Emerald Impact Services (EIS) toolkit and library of impact resources.
- Face-to-face induction workshop focused on impact.
- Support from InterAct’s Impact and Communication Managers to support the development of your pathways to impact and communication plan.
Prerequisites
There are three prerequisites for accessing this fund:
- Access to research findings relating to human behaviour (from completed research) that could provide actionable insights to one of the InterAct target audiences (manufacturers, IDT providers or policy makers).
- Applicants must be employed within a UK University/research organisation.
- Funding is only available for the development of the outputs. Funding is not available for new research or staff hours.
How to apply
Provide a brief description of your idea and how it meets the assessment criteria by filling our application form.
Intellectual Property and Confidentiality:
- InterAct treats all submitted proposals in confidence. We do not distribute proposals to third parties.
- We ask our reviewers and panel members to treat proposals in the same way.
- We ask that you describe the proposed research project in sufficient detail for our reviewers to assess your application.
However, we recommend that potentially patentable results are not included in the proposal until after a patent application has been filed.
If you need any help, please contact us at info@interact-hub.org
Submissions
Download “Actionable Insights Fund - Guidance” Actionable-Insights-Fund-Guidance.pdf – Downloaded 320 times – 161.42 KBApplication forms and short (two page) CVs for all applicants and named researchers should be submitted in PDF format to this email address: info@interact-hub.org
The deadline for submissions is Friday 21 April 2023, 12:00pm (midday).
UKRI has commissioned SQW, an independent research consultancy (www.sqw.co.uk), in collaboration with the survey company IFF, Frazer Nash and the Institute for Manufacturing (University of Cambridge), to evaluate the programme. The evaluation will continue to 2025.
SQW will conduct a range of research activity for the evaluation including a survey of companies receiving funding from the programme, interviews with stakeholders and programme participants and analysis of secondary and monitoring data. By submitting an application for this InterAct ECR fellowship, which is part of the Made Smarter Innovation programme, you agree UKRI may share your contact details with SQW. SQW may subsequently contact you to discuss your involvement with InterAct.
Any information you provide SQW will be treated in confidence and held securely. No information you provide will be attributed to you or your organisation. Aggregated and analysed responses will be used to prepare reports to UKRI. You can find SQW’s privacy notice here.