The Digit Innovation Fund supports innovative research projects that advance our understanding of how digital technologies are transforming work.
Funded projects will complement the core Digit research programme exploring the impact and interaction of new technologies on employers, employees and their representatives, job seekers and policymakers. A total of £500,000 will be awarded through the fund over the life of the Digit research centre (2020-2024).
Funded projects
Five projects were awarded funding under the first round. The successful projects, announced in July 2020, are:
- Prof Gary Bosworth (Northumbria University), The Role of Co-working Spaces in Digital Rural Futures
- Dr Ayomikun Idowu (University of Sussex), Digital Entrepreneurship on Retail Platforms: A way to formalise employment for young people in the UK and Africa
- Dr Harry Pitts (University of Bristol), Co-working spaces and the urban ecosystem: the future of co-working post-Covid-19
- Dr David Robertshaw (University of Leeds), Digitalisation of employment services: a comparative case study of the UK and Australia
- Dr Francesca Sobande (Cardiff University), “Creators of Colour”, Digital Platforms, and Access to the Cultural and Creative Industries
The projects will each conclude in August 2021.
Future funding rounds
We anticipate there will be three further rounds with the intention to distribute funds equally across each call. Full criteria for future rounds will be announced in due course.
First round funding criteria
Criteria for the first round required projects to be costed at 100% full economic cost (fEC) and projects were funded at 80% fEC, according to UKRI guidelines.
Funding in the first round was available for projects which cost between £10,000 to £50,000 fEC for a maximum one year in length. We encouraged smaller applications as we are very limited in the number of large applications that can be awarded. The fund was open to research organisations across the UK, though project team members may be based elsewhere.
The criteria for Round 1 was for projects to align with Digit’s research objectives and relate to how digital technologies are transforming work at any stage of the policy process from inception to impact, at any level from the global to the local (though must be directly applicable to the UK) and in any setting, for businesses, unions, governments and/or NGOs and the voluntary sector. All projects could be developed in partnership with Digit researchers, though Digit researchers cannot themselves directly apply for funding.
Full guidance on first round funding criteria is available here: