Applying for LPIP Stage 2

South-West Coastal Local Policy Innovation Partnership

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) awarded 10 Local Policy Innovation Partnerships (LPIPs) out of over 60 applications. The South-West Coastal LPIP is one of the ten awarded partnerships. UKRI has stated that it will support up to 4 (out of 10) partnerships. Each award will be up to £4.8m (of which ESRC will fund 80% of the FEC) over 36 months. The deadline for applying for stage 2 is 19 September 2023. It is therefore incredibly important that the SW LPIP can demonstrate the progress it has made in Phase 1 and the priorities we have collectively identified to be successful in the second round of money. Click on this box to understand more about UKRI priorities about awarding Phase 2 LPIPs. It is worth a read to understand the many priorities behind this funding opportunity and how we might meet them – though please be assured that your academic partners will take a lead in preparing the Stage 2 bid, in collaboration with our partners.

Applying for LPIP Stage 2 Phase 1
The aim of Phase 1 is to co-design research and policy priorities with respect to addressing social, community, economic and environmental priorities that contribute towards inclusive, sustainable economic growth. The focus during this phase is to connect local policy and research partners; provide research, evidence, data and expertise to take advantage of opportunities; and find place-based solutions to challenges that matter to local people and communities. We need to demonstrate that we have undertaken high quality, meaningful stakeholder and community engagement to define priorities; and that we understand how these agendas intersect, bringing a holistic approach to the challenges faced.

Our approach to bringing together evidence and engagement is as follows:
  • Collating evidence from previous community engagement/consultation exercises.
  • Mapping a range of social, economic and environmental indicators and service need – at the most granular level – and making these data accessible (in an interactive way) to all citizens and stakeholders through the SWLPIP website.
  • Calling for evidence from our VCSE partners who are often at the front line of responding to community needs but who do not always have a channel to evidence their contribution.
  • Calling for evidence from local (and wider) public (local authority, NHS, educational academies), private (businesses) and partnership (LEPs) who have explored coastal challenges, whether from an understanding of problems or development of solutions.
  • Calling for evidence from local (and wider) academic partners who have explored coastal challenges, whether from an understanding of problems or development of solutions.
  • Conducting further research with community researchers (trained as part of the programme) to sense test the evidence we are gathering from multiple sources.
  • Bringing together stakeholders in a series of workshops to discuss the evidence, priorities and ways forward.

Phase 2
Phase 2 awards will support successful LPIPs with resource to staff the LPIP, fund a work programme and support LPIPs to commission new activity to inform actionable solutions.
What UKRI will want to see during Phase 1.
We must demonstrate that, with respect to partnership building, stakeholder and community engagement, critical relationships have been developed through Phase I, that we are defining priorities and we understand how different agendas intersect, bringing a holistic approach to the challenges faced. We also need to demonstrate how our partnerships will be managed and maintained during the lifetime of the Phase 2 award.
With respect to partnerships, this means that we need to demonstrate our commitment and ability to:
  • expand and further develop equitable partnerships where this may add value or enhance the work programme and outcomes
  • capacity for people exchange
  • embed stakeholders that are often excluded from the research and innovation ecosystem
  • balance stakeholder expertise (new and existing relationship)
  • demonstrate a level of in-kind support from partners appropriate to the nature and scale of the work. UKRI strongly encourage cash co-investment, but it is not a requirement.

What UKRI will expect LPIPs to achieve during Phase 2
LPIPs will undertake an appropriate mix of evidence synthesis and translation, data analysis, knowledge exchange, public and community engagement, skills and capabilities development, and, where appropriate, novel primary research, depending on the needs of the area. Each LPIP will design its own work programme and devise an appropriate approach and methods, including novel approaches to public and community engagement.
The ultimate outcomes of Stage 2 LPIPs are to support a ‘what works here’ approach to local policy priorities, supporting areas with economic growth, levelling up, net zero, innovation, skills and societal resilience.
They envisage:
  • enhanced local research and innovation advice providing a single front-door for local expertise and advice in partnership areas, streamlining access to local public policy research and innovation capability
  • supporting local action through contributing to local implementation, testing and evaluation of evidence-informed policy change
  • improving UK and national policymakers’ understanding of local challenges and opportunities through improved access to stakeholders, local evidence and insights into ‘what works here’
  • creating stronger and more diverse partnerships by investing in the capability and capacity required for multi-partner collaboration, bringing the right stakeholders together at the right time to progress local priorities
  • empowering local communities and enriching knowledge exchange practices by ensuring people and grassroots groups are engaged, listened to and able to influence local agendas.

What we might do in stage 2
Examples of potential activities and outputs for delivery during Phase 2 include:
  • demonstrator and consultancy type projects for local policy development and implementation
  • landscape and evidence analysis, including secondary data analysis
  • designing and evaluating evidence informed interventions • community engagement to co-develop and deliver projects, including establishing local ‘citizen science’ and other community-led initiatives
  • developing regional data resources
  • local reports, policy briefings and resources (for example, think-kits and toolkits)
  • workshops and training programmes
  • building local evidence bases to support policy development and applications for locally focused funding, including commissioning new activity to address gaps in evidence base.

Stakeholder agendas
UKRI requires that each partnership brings together local stakeholders from a range of sectors and disciplines to address a selection of key local agendas which contribute to inclusive and sustainable local growth, including: the community, economy and environment
At phase 2, applications will demonstrate that the partnership’s priorities have been developed through high quality, meaningful engagement which demonstrates how agendas intersect and brings a holistic approach to the challenges faced.
This will involve 3 major components: identifying and prioritising challenges at the local level that are good candidates for support from research and innovation stakeholders and experts; supporting the application of knowledge and evidence through connections with experts, review and synthesis work, developing relevant evaluative frameworks, improved access to and use of available data, and funding research or testing solutions to help address the challenges; and application of diverse data usage and collection methodologies to connect with knowledge embedded in local communities to deepen understanding of challenges.

Geographical footprint
This is risk with respect to applying for Phase 2 funding, in part because reviews of our Phase 1 application suggested that covering Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset would be challenging in terms of overall scale for building stakeholder and community engagement, delivering activities on the ground and positioning in relation to the research and policy landscape. This is an issue that stakeholders need to discuss and provide a coherent view on.

LPIP priority areas
As set out by UKRI, these include economy, community and environment. The SW Coastal LPIP know that the specific priority setting is up to local stakeholders and communities (i.e., have to be identified from the bottom up. It is nevertheless important to identify UKRI themes. These are:
Economy
  • Inclusive and sustainable local economic performance
  • Innovation
  • Skills
Community
  • Communities in their places
  • Felt experiences and pride in place
  • Cultural recovery
Environment
  • Living and working sustainably in a greener economy.
There is also an opportunity for us to apply for funding under an ‘open local priority’. This is where we identify a locally driven priority that does not currently feature within the Economy, Community and Environment themes. However, it must align to inclusive sustainable local growth. Examples UKRI use here are the environment and greener economy. This could be used as a perspective from which to view local economic performance or innovation. The themes do not have to be considered separately. They recognise that these broad research agendas and priorities identified within them may be highly interconnected and, if we target this theme, we should highlight connectivity and overlaps between priorities defined in the proposal.

Commissioning fund
Each LPIP will manage a commissioning fund independently to fund projects that support delivery of actionable insights to address local priorities identified at Phase 1 and Phase 2. The design of the flexible pot will need to be responsive to emerging policy opportunities during the lifetime of the LPIP award that align with LPIP programme objectives. The fund will be ringfenced within each main LPIP award and its size will be determined by applicants.

Assessment criteria

These are some of the assessment criteria by which phase 2 bids will be judged:
a) Vision and Approach
Question: What are you hoping to achieve with and how will you deliver your proposed work?
For the vision, explain how your proposed work:
  • will strengthen local capability for innovation, knowledge exchange and research
  • clearly positions your partnership in the local research and policy landscape, addressing the objectives of the programme, demonstrating the unique potential to build on the existing infrastructure and bring value to the defined geography
  • will identify and implement actionable insights to address challenges that are a high priority for local stakeholders and communities.
  • will demonstrate effective and meaningful cocreation and co-development with stakeholders building on and informed by the work undertaken in phase 1.
For the approach, explain how you have designed your work so that it:
  • shows evidence that balanced equitable foundational partnerships and relationships are in place. Providing a clear summary of how these were strengthened and expanded in the previous phase 1 work. Explain how they will be built upon and progressed in phase 2
  • has a balance of proposed stakeholders (policy, industry and local communities) and the approach to developing the partnership is appropriate to the areas of focus identified, with the potential to deliver impact across local policy agendas
  • has effective plans in place for continued engagement including codesign and where appropriate codelivery with stakeholders (policy, industry and local communities) to create a strong and mutually beneficial relationships and ensuring equity across the partnership
  • has an approach to managing the commissioning fund for new activity that will contribute to addressing evidence gaps identified by the LPIP, including a proposed value up to a maximum of 30% of the grant
  • addresses a mixed portfolio (selecting at least one priority area from each of the economy, community and environment themes) and, where determined by the applicant, an ‘Open Local Priority’ which aligns with inclusive sustainable local growth
  • describes how your research environment (in terms of the place, its location, reputation and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
  • is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
  • includes a clear work plan with activities that can be delivered with the resource and time available
  • show how your proposed activity will return benefit to relevant user communities including but not limited to those that are formally partnering on the proposal.
  • demonstrates a model for delivery that is suitable and clearly specified
  • presents coherent leadership, management and governance plans, including clearly defined roles.

Geographic coverage
Question: What is your rationale for how the Geographic coverage requirements are met? What is the chosen geographic coverage of the LPIP?
Evidence of how you and your team, have:
  • a fully evidenced rationale of the geographic coverage and relevance to the partnerships, infrastructure and policy challenges referenced in the proposal
  • met the geographic scale requirements of the opportunity.

Other UKRI considerations
Evaluation capability is required to support the trialling of innovative interventions, including new methods to account for displacement effects, and understand potential unintended and adverse consequences more broadly.

Living and working sustainably in a greener economy
This involves the following:
  • The UK has committed to reaching net zero by 2050, supporting a greener circular UK economy. National and local governments, businesses and public and third sector organisations require high quality evidence concerning the policy and practice changes, investment strategies, and population behaviour shifts needed to deliver a sustainable and biodiverse environment and a net zero society.
  • To bring about the scale of transformation needed, place-based pathways to net zero are required across the UK. These will combine strategies for the following. These strategies will realise the economic and societal benefits of protecting, renewing and restoring our natural environment.
  • The creation of new jobs.
  • The development and application of new technologies and low-carbon solutions.
  • Improvements in population health and wellbeing.
  • The adaptation of the existing built environment and heritage assets, infrastructure, transport and housing.
  • There is now an opportunity for the evolving social, economic, cultural and environmental evidence base to be applied to the specific circumstances that exist within each area, and for new multi-sector collaborative partnerships to be formed to bring together the collective expertise needed to identify new opportunities and solutions.
  • Co-produced guidance for policy decision making at local, regional and national levels requires examination of individual, community and organisations’ behavioural practices, understanding of place-specific climate-related and bio-diversity challenges, and challenges that restrict access to finance and investment. Collaborative working can lead to the design and evaluation of interventions which will facilitate the transition to more sustainable and equitable high-impact low carbon and nature positive behaviours.

Innovation
This involves the following:
  • The discovery, adoption and diffusion of innovations is a key driver of productivity and growth. A successful innovation ecosystem is one where businesses can navigate and access the facilities, funding and advice needed to support innovation. Business, universities, public institutions, charitable organisations and private sector investors are all key partners contributing to the innovation ecosystem.
  • Local economies are enriched by clusters of innovative businesses which attract investment and skilled workers to the area. Intervention and support to build local innovative capacity must be tailored to the needs of business and informed by insight about local, system-wide and sector-specific factors that shape current and future opportunities in the area.
  • Sectoral challenges are often geographically bounded and dependent on relationships between places (supply chains, infrastructure, transport and access to training, markets goods and services). Business, public and third sector partnerships are essential in addressing these challenges.
  • Place-based innovation policy can support local institutions to address the needs of the community in the context of local economic development objectives. Greater connectivity to research enables business access to new knowledge, skills and cutting-edge technologies that deliver sustainable economic impact.

Skills
This involves the following:
  • The supply and demand of skills in a particular location is rarely aligned. Skill acquisition, a major component of supply, occurs through education, training, apprenticeships, employment and experience. However, access to these acquisition routes will vary depending on transport and education infrastructure, local labour market characteristics and employer provision of opportunity.
  • Placed-based approaches to tackling supply and demand challenges for emerging and traditional skills must be built upon understanding of community needs, education attainment shortfalls, business and sector requirements, training and employment pathways, and the aspirations and talents of individuals.
  • Local growth can be supported by improved alignment between demand for skills and the skills that exist in a location, and employers and education providers. Evidence development and mobilisation driven by place-based partnerships is well placed to support local understanding of the acquisition, supply and demand challenges that are the highest priority for local areas.
  • Evidence and data can inform approaches to targeting education and training resources across a lifetime of learning, supporting firms to invest effectively in skills and training, and boost educational attainment and wellbeing.

Communities in their places
This involves the following:
  • Cohesive communities can mobilise social capital, tackle placed-based challenges, and identify avenues to bring about social, economic and environmental improvements in their area. Cohesion is at its strongest when there are aligned goals, morals and values between members of the community, local businesses, and the public institutions serving and governing the community.
  • Greater alignment can bring about increased levels of community trust in public and private organisations, and greater willingness to contribute to community efforts, invest social and financial capital, engage in local culture and tackle local inequality in opportunity.
  • Communities can be affected by crime, deprivation, inadequate housing, schooling or other poor infrastructure, lack of investment and declining natural environments. The embedding of co-design and co-production methods recognises communities, local organisations and researchers as equal partners, and will help ensure that the most pressing challenges and evidence needs in a location are identified, and that a breadth of expertise is drawn upon to bring about change.
  • The practice of engaging and working with communities and the research and evidence required to understand the role of communities in addressing place-based challenges will be central to the LPIP’s ability to deliver against their locally identified priorities. This collaborative approach to priorities, processes and impact can help understand individual and community behaviours, and shape social policies and local services that grow connectedness, build interpersonal and institutional trust and the wellbeing economy, and increase community resilience, and feelings of safety, health, wellbeing and quality of life.

Felt experiences and pride in place
This involves the following:
  • Nurturing the social fabric of places is an essential aspect of achieving successful place-based policies and practices. Place-based approaches need to develop a richer understanding of the ways in which people interact with place through their everyday routines, built and natural environments, and patterns as residents, visitors, workers and businesses.
  • Research is needed on developing key concepts such as pride of place, belonging and attachment, satisfaction, and how people feel in and about place.
  • This theme will also make connections between these felt experiences and decision-making preferences, including investment preferences from a range of different communities of practice, interest and use. How communities navigate and feel about place change will be key to understanding the short, medium and longer term impacts of place-based policies or practices.
  • An understanding of locational preference, place continuities or changes, innovation and economic development will therefore be grounded in a deep understanding and application of knowledge regarding the everyday feelings about place.

Cultural recovery
This involves the following:
  • Across the 4 nations of the UK, culture and heritage have a clear role to play in place-based recovery and resilience. Understanding the cultural sector in a holistic manner that can capture the contributions that it makes to society and the economy is key to thinking about re-balancing regions, areas and nations.
  • Ensuring greater access to culture, understanding how and why people engage with culture, and accessing and evidencing the role of culture as both producer and consumer in the economy and society are vital to successful levelling up agendas both across the UK and within areas and region.