A knowledge fund of £10m has been launched to support closer working between police and academia, providing opportunities for officers and staff to get involved in innovative approaches to policing and crime reduction. The Police
Knowledge Fund, is a joint initiative between the College of Policing and the
Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). It is resourced by the
Home Office and HEFCE, who are also administering the fund. The application form can be found here. http://whatworks.college.police.uk/About/News/Pages/Knowledge-Fund.aspx
 What is the aim of the Police Knowledge Fund?
The Police Knowledge Fund, in the form of grants, aims to support the development of sustainable education and research collaborations between police forces and academic institutions in England and Wales. The fund will contribute to the evidence base in priority areas of policing. It will also develop the skills of frontline officers and staff, build their knowledge and expertise about what works in policing and crime reduction, and put it into practice. The fund is about developing and building the infrastructure that intrinsically links forces and academics together.
We are interested in the process by which partnerships will seek to improve the capability and capacity of officers to identify, use, and undertake research. This may also come in the form of developing sustainable national centres of expertise focused on particular topics and/or cross-cutting issues of relevance to policing.
 What are the core objectives of the Fund?
There are three Knowledge Fund objectives. Applicants can bid for funding against one or more of these (applicants will not be disadvantaged in the bid assessment process if their bid is only against one of these objectives).
They are to:
1. build sustained capability amongst officers and staff to understand, critique and use research, including the potential for officers and staff to carry out research and reviews of the evidence;
2. embed or accelerate understanding of crime and policing issues, and evidence based problem-solving approaches; and,
3. demonstrate innovation in building the research evidence base and applying it through knowledge exchange and translation across all levels of policing.

 Can the funding be used of one off, standalone research projects
undertaken in partnership between forces and universities?
The Knowledge Fund does not support individual/discrete stand-alone research projects carried out in partnership between police and universities.
For example, a single evaluation of a specific policing tactic, unless there are specific educational or knowledge translation opportunities associated with the bid.
 Who is eligible to apply?
As the fund is being administered by HEFCE, an academic institution must be the lead institution for the collaboration as set out in the HEFCE eligibility criteria for Catalyst funding. The lead institution takes primary responsibility for submitting a proposal, and for administration and reporting of any subsequent grant funding.
Further education colleges (FECs) can apply only for projects to deliver and support prescribed courses of HE. HEFCE is unable to fund research and knowledge exchange activity in FECs.
Under current legislation HEFCE is also unable to fund ‘alternative providers’ of higher education (or those providers who do not receive annual funding allocations). So these providers are not eligible to apply. Further information is available on the HEFCE website: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/invest/funds/catalyst/
Through the Knowledge Fund, the College is encouraging the police to join with experts from a wide range of disciplines including, but not limited to criminology, economics, neuroscience, epidemiology and computer science, to develop new skills, understand more about why crimes are committed and use that evidence to develop new and innovative ways of policing.
 If universities and colleges/existing partnerships already have funding from other funding bodies to support collaboration, can they apply for ‘top up’ funding to strengthen existing grants/funding
streams?
Yes, but they will need to show what the additional funding from the
Knowledge Fund will deliver against one or more of the three core objectives.
The application form will also request details of existing funding streams to be provided.

 Where can I find out more information on the Knowledge Fund?
A pre-application event is being arranged for 5 March at our Ryton site . This will provide an opportunity to ask questions about the process, as well as to identify potential collaborative partners. There will also be an opportunity to book slots with College research staff to discuss the suitability/eligibility of outline bids for the fund – this is to ensure that you have an early indication as to what types of bids would not be likely to pass the selection stage.
 Who submits the Knowledge Fund applications and to where?
Bids should be submitted by academic institutions in partnership with police forces. All bids should be submitted to knowledgefund@college.pnn.police.uk
by 5pm Friday 15 th May 2015.
 What criteria will be used to assess the applications?
Funding decisions for applications are based on a number of assessment criteria which can be found here. http://whatworks.college.police.uk/About/News/Pages/Knowledge-Fund.aspx
 When will we know if our bid has been successful?
It is our intention to notify successful bidders by the end of June 2015.
 Who do I contact if we have any further queries?
Initially, please contact knowledgefund@college.pnn.police.uk