HIKE

The HIKE Rapid Response funding stream is our most expedient application option as applications will be assessed within 10 working ​day​s of receipt of the application form.​

You can apply for up to £2,000 and as it’s a responsive-mode scheme, it is open all year round, with fixed criteria for ad-hoc and newly-emerging impact and KE-related activities.

HIKE rapid response aims to support small-scale projects with an activity length of 1 day up to 6 months maximum, allowing researchers to respond quickly to opportunities for impact and KE resulting from their research.

Funded activities could include meetings, forums and workshops with potential users/stakeholders/practitioners/policy makers; stakeholder focus groups; travel to give evidence to an Inquiry or Select Committee; design and print of evidence/policy briefings and reports and much more…..

Key asse​ssment criteria for this fund include:

• Urgency of the activities proposed (Why now?)
• Likely potential and/or degree of innovative impact and KE (Inc. policy and practice)
• Links to existing research
• Suitability of proposed activities to meet external need​

Our HIKE Delivery Team will be able to advise you whether your suggested activity fits this scheme, and help you develop your application, contact HIKE@hull.ac.uk​.

The HIKE Challenge funding stream is multi-faceted, offering a choice of schemes.

Intended length of activity for challenge fund projects is between 3-12 months, but longer projects may also be considered.

Key asse​ssment criteria for this fund include:

• Clarity and feasibility of the workplan
• Potential and/or degree of innovative impact and KE (Incl. policy and practice)
• Link to existing research
• Suitability of proposed activities to meet external need
• Suitability and involvement of partners
• Timeliness
• Evidence of Impact​
• Project Novelty/Creativity (Daredevil grants only)

Impact Starting Grants

Impact Starting grants are a special option designed for early career researchers (ECRs), offering much needed funds to create a step change in developing an independent research impact portfolio.

We expect projects to be in the range of £1k up to £5k, however requests above this suggested threshold can be made in special circumstances.

ECRs applying for an Impact Starting Grant should be within 5 years of their PhD, not including career breaks, time spent in industry, long term illness or maternity leave.

Co-Designed/Co-Produced

Co-design/production is an important route to impact, as stakeholders and users are engaged with projects from the start and the relationship between academics and stakeholders is seen to be more equal.

This scheme will fund co-designed/produced research and initial scoping projects up to £25k, with a view that this will result in an immediate uptake of the findings by the external partner involved in the application. It will also support activities that build the basis from which co-produced research can take place, such as sharing of data.

Wherever possible,​ projects activities should be co-funded with by partner(s).

External organisations can provide up to 50% matched funding towards this scheme and which this can be in monetary value or in kind, also reflective of affordability and ownership of outputs agreed.

The public and third sector can receive up to 100% of the costs, though co-funding is also welcomed. though funding for public and third sector partners will be considered.

Daredevil Grants

For the academics with unusual project ideas, such as combining unique methods or radical approaches, that could generate more speculative, innovative and creative impact, then this funding stream is most definitely for you!

The Daredevil funding stream is tailored to suit projects that really push the frontiers of research impact. We are looking for novel projects with proposed outcomes that could be considered high risk but offer high reward, with KE enabled transformation at their heart.

Funding up to £25k, the expectation is that that University departments/schools and their​ stakeholders (in particular private sector organisations) will provide matched funding towards this scheme, which can be in monetary value or in kind.

The Challenge Fund includes work that will feed into Strategic Highlight Areas to create a 'Yorkshire and Humber Living Lab' (YHLL). The YHLL is a new idea, a planned virtual co-creative cluster, which will focus on collaboration with a broad variety of regional partners and stakeholders. This aligns to our place-based and civic strategies, driven by external need, and will feature annual priority themes that will enable the greatest positive change, identified by the cluster, including HIKE partners' strategic challenges.

Please note - projects focused on Policy Engagement and Evidence are encouraged within all our streams and applications from the Arts and Humanities and Medical Sciences are particularly welcomed.

Our HIKE Delivery Team will be able to advise you whether your suggested activity fits this scheme, and are here to help you develop your application, contact: HIKE@hull.ac.uk

HIKE Confidence in Concept funding is pump-priming scheme specifically designed to support acceleration of the transition from discovery research to translational development, validating concepts to progress technology readiness levels and generate Intellectual Property.

Funding is available for up to £100k max per award, but most awards are expected to be between £20k - £80k.

Intended length of activity: between 6 - 12 months, but longer projects may also be considered.

Selected projects must demonstrate high potential for developing the evidence and supporting data required for substantive follow-on-funding.

Although this scheme is primarily aimed at projects grounded within the biomedical sciences (MRC)​ and STEM (HEIF), exploring the viability of an approach to enable new products/processes/practices for a range of settings particularly clinical, and for long-term economic/commercial benefit, projects from the Arts & Humanities ​and the Social Sciences will also be considered.

Key asse​ssment criteria for this fund include:

• Clarity and feasibility of the workplan
• Likelihood of progressing outputs to the next step in the innovation pipeline (How does this bridge the gap?)
• Commercial potential of completed output
• Link to existing research
• Suitability and stage of proposed activities to meet external need
• Suitability and involvement of partners during and after the fund
• Timeliness
• Evidence of Impact​

To maximise this funding opportunity, and help strengthen applications and partnerships for both HIKE and in preparation for follow-on activities e.g. applying for further external funding, HIKE expects that Departments/Schools/Institutes/Centres and their​ proposed external partners/stakeholders (in particular private sector organisations) will provide matched funding towards this scheme, which can be in monetary value or in kind.​

Our HIKE Delivery Team will be able to advise you whether your suggested activity fits this scheme, and help you develop your application, contact HIKE@hull.ac.uk​.

The movement of staff between organisations is particularly welcomed through HIKE and therefore these funding streams offers 2 pathways to help drive a step change in the movement of staff between the University and stakeholder organisations, including industry, public and third sectors, and policy makers in particular.

The key aim is to strengthen relationships between the University and external partners and to facilitate opportunities to learn new skills and acquire inside knowledge.

We particularly welcome applications for the HIKE Secondment and KE Fellowship Scheme that focus on the Yorkshire and Humber Living Lab; building and strengthening relationships between the University and external partners/stakeholders around activity and work which has the City or Region as its focus, or where research has clear utility for local and regional partners.

Key asse​ssment criteria for this fund include:

• Clarity a feasibility of the workplan
• Likely potential and/ or degree of innovative impact and KE (Incl. policy and practice)
• Likelihood of capacity building and/ or skill development for all involved parties.
• Link to existing research
• Suitability and involvement of partners​

If this scheme interests you, it is recommended that before applying for either a Secondment or Fellowship, you discuss your plans at their earliest convenience with your department/school/faculty/institute. We also suggest that you identify and connect with a mentor within the host institution to ensure maximum benefit.

HIKE expects all proposals to this scheme to have a clear set of objectives and outcomes.

Secondments

HIKE secondments offer a needs-based responsive mode to help deepen and broaden existing links between University of Hull researchers and non-academic stakeholders (including strategic partners) through short-term staff secondments, either from the University out to the external partners or vice-versa.

Awards can be up to £4k max per Secondment and are anticipated to be 1 - 3 months duration, but​ shorter secondments will also be considered

How the secondments are used should reflect the needs and interpretation of UoH Departments/Schools/Institutes and their external partners.

We welcome creativity. The scheme could for example fund a secondment between members from non-academic organisations and academic department(s) at the UoH e.g. a member from an external partner organisation might be spending between 1-3 months at the UoH as a fellow (or vice versa or both), or short interchanges of staff between the UoH and partner organisation will also be considered.

Another option might be for secondments between the UoH and partner organisations (or vice versa) for one or more days a week for a period of up to three months.

Fellowships

We envisage that HIKE KE fellowships will act as change agents - enabling the free flow of knowledge and expertise between the University and partner organisations, thus accelerating impact for both organisations and the potential to generate IP.

Awards can be up to £10k max per fellowship and are anticipated to be 3 - 12 months duration, however longer, more strategic fellowships may be considered, particularly in the Arts & Humanities​. ​​​​​​​

The HIKE KE Fellowship could e.g.​ support a KE or Translational Fellow for research projects recognised for their research excellence and growth through major awards in recent years, and really spearhead the generation of impact from the research. The fellows will be responsible for the sharing and flow of knowledge and expertise between the projects and its stakeholders, partners and/or user communities with the aim of generating impact from their research​.

​The secondment and fellowship awards are the only HIKE awards that will pay for teaching buy-out for departments (non-FEC), and it is expected that UoH and private sector organisations will provide matched (up to 50%) funding towards this scheme.

This can be in monetary value or in kind. The public and third sector can receive up to 100% of the costs if essential and justified, though co-funding is also welcomed.

Our HIKE Delivery Team will be able to advise you whether your suggested activity fits this scheme, and help you develop your application, contact HIKE@hull.ac.uk​.

The HIKE Innovation Sandpits are professionally facilitated workshops where a group of cross-disciplinary and diverse participants with varying backgrounds, including active researchers and potential users of research outcomes, come together to create new projects around a given theme - providing an opportunity to foster innovation and creativity in research, impact and knowledge exchange design.

HIKE Innovation Sandpits are 1 - 2 day interactive workshops involving up to 30 participants and the funding award is up to £7k, split into:

• Up to £4k for facilitation costs for the actual Sandpit event
• A further £3k of pump prime funding for an onward research project/initiative*

*This research project/initiative must be borne from existing research and will be chosen as it offers maximum impact. Initiatives can be:

• A single large research project
• Several smaller projects
• Feasibility studies
• Networking activities
• Overseas visits.

Preferred projects would include:

• Validation of our own products.
• Novel approaches for market readiness and retention of Intellectual Property.
• Public sector processes or services that have undergone adaptation or transformation and can be scaled up or applied elsewhere. Additionally, we are interested in use case studies that illustrate these adaptations or transformations.
• Projects which establish strategic partnerships with influential decision-makers, commercial businesses, and other valuable contacts that will bring significant value to the University of Hull.

This scheme aims to enable flexible approaches to knowledge exchange and impact in cross-cutting thematic areas (mainly driven by the ​University and the HIKE strategic partners) of strategic importance and harmonised across all our HIKE funding streams and in particular the UKRI IAAs.

Our HIKE Delivery Team will be able to advise you whether your suggested activity fits this scheme, and are here to help you develop your application, contact: HIKE@hull.ac.uk​