OSC 'Challenge Us' Fund

What Is 'Challenge Us'?

Challenge Us! – our research ideas competition will run from the 15th March to 15th May 2024. The competition will be open to all UK Charities and we are looking outside The Open University for real-world problems that can be tackled through research approaches.

Winning Challenges will receive a baseline of £25,000 in research funding as Open Societal Challenges and winners will be invited to co-design the specifics of the research project with the research team. Winners will also receive a paid internship with the research team.

In selecting our winners, we will be looking for entries where the expertise of our community can make a difference. Specifically, we will be looking to put together research teams to take on Challenges proposed by Charities over the summer months, with projects starting in autumn/winter 2024. This will be an outstanding opportunity for researchers at all career stages to work with some brilliant partners on some truly co-designed, Challenge-led research.

We are fully aware that Charities and many businesses may already be working at full capacity, and we are able to offer support in putting together entries – if you are a Charity who may be interested in putting together an entry, please do reach out to [email protected] and [email protected] so we can discuss available support.

Please reach out if you have any questions about this and we look forward to working with you.