Engaging external stakeholders in research can result in a range of potential benefits to research. When applying for funding it is important to clearly demonstrate the rationale, mechanism and management of planned engaged research throughout the application.
Below are several key steps important to demonstrate in any funding application. Work in collaboration with the engaged partners on the grant to develop both the plan and the engaged research section (see our section on developing partnerships). Be sure to also check the specific needs and expectations of each individual funding call.
Define
Define Engaged Research Clearly
- Briefly explain what engaged research means in your discipline.
- Highlight how it involves collaboration with non-academic partners (e.g., communities, policymakers, industry).
- Define how the engaged research approach supports the overall scientific objectives.
- Emphasise mutual benefit and reciprocal knowledge exchange.
- Highlight if there will be co-creation of knowledge.
Approach
Clearly Articulate the Engagement Approach
- Describe who you will engage with and why they are relevant.
- Highlight if engagement has already happened in the design phase of research.
- Explain how engagement will happen (e.g., workshops, co-design, participatory methods).
- Clarify the level of involvement—whether advisory, collaborative, or co-led.
- Include the rationale of levels of involvement across the research lifecycle.
- Highlight how the engaged research approach will be monitored or assessed.
Plan
Detail the Engagement Plan and Resources
- Resources should be sufficient to support the planned activities.
- Include engagement activities in the timeline, staffing and budget.
- Include engagement in project management and gantt charts.
- Include monitoring and evaluation in the engaged research plan.
- Show that you have accounted for hidden costs such as accessibility, travel, software, access to digital communication platforms, and incentives for engaged partners.
- Include any training or support for researchers and partners.
- Consider costs for external partners that they could not access otherwise, such as conference travel and registration, where appropriate.
- Highlight if the budget and proposed resources have been co-designed with external partners.
Ethics & Safeguarding
Address Ethical Considerations
- Acknowledge any risks of engagement. Consider power dynamics, informed consent, conflict resolution mechanisms, and any potential liability issues.
- Demonstrate how you will ensure fair and respectful collaboration, and how you will assess this.
- Describe the plan for ownership of outputs.
- Reference engagement frameworks, ethical frameworks or best practices. Try to identify those used within your discipline where possible.
- Reference local supports available to navigate any potential issues.
- Highlight if engaged partners collaborated to identify any potential risks and mitigation strategies.
Impact
Impact and Benefits
- Outline expected incoming and outgoing benefits. Ensure that mutual benefits or value (for both researchers and partners) is clearly identifiably in the research proposal.
- Show how engagement strengthens the research (what is now possible that otherwise wouldn't be?).
- Highlight any new routes to impact you have identified through engagement (Do you have access to a new audience? Do you have access to additional skills that promote transferability of your research? Do you have a wider network that may adopt your findings sooner? etc)
- Provide evidence from previous similar projects, if possible.
- Ask partners to identify potential impacts they may achieve through collaboration with academic researchers.
Clear Language
Use Clear and Accessible Language
- Demonstrate your ability to communicate to a broad audience by writing in clear and accessible language.
- Avoid jargon and write for a broad audience, including non-academic reviewers.
- Implement universal design principles where possible.
- Be concise and persuasive. Use specific examples of activities that have previously been undertaken by the proposal team than demonstrate you can deliver.
Align with Funder
Align with Priorities
- Identify the funders call-specific and organisational priorities related to engaged research. Demonstrate clearly how your proposed engagement aligns.
- Identify aligned policy prompts/support for engaged research in your discipline. Highlight how your proposal aligns to these.
- Make it easy for the funders to understand how your proposal aligns with their priorities. Identify the funder language and terminology used in relation to engaged research. Use the funder terminology where possible, or given an explanation as to why you are not.
Review
If the engaged research in your proposal is clear, specific and well considered, then a colleague or external partner unfamiliar with your proposed research should be answer to answer each of these questions if they review the grant.
- Can you tell if and how external partners have informed this grant application? Is there any evidence highlighted to back this up?
- Does the abstract/summary clearly describe why the research may be important to society/ end users or other people impacted by the research?
- Can you identify how engaged partners will influence the research throughout the project lifecycle?
- Can you identify how engaged partners will be managed and supported throughout the project lifecycle?
- Is the collaboration between academic researchers and engaged partners of benefit to both parties?
- Has/will taking an engaged research approach potentially add any additional value to the research that otherwise could not have been achieved?