The Open Innovation Team (OIT) is inviting applications for its 2025 Policy Fellowship programme, an academic mentoring scheme for civil servants grades SEO-G6.
The OIT is a cross-government unit that works with experts to generate analysis and ideas for policy, helping colleagues review evidence, engage experts, develop policy and evaluate impact.
Our Policy Fellowship is a bespoke, flexible, part-time mentoring programme that supports officials by providing help and expert insight to answer a specific policy question. Over the course of six months, civil servants will work under the supervision of an academic mentor in a relevant field to research and produce an output based on their policy area. Mentors are drawn from OIT partner institutions: Brunel University London, the University of Essex, Lancaster University, the University of Surrey and the University of York.
What you'll gain:
- In-depth support and insight from leading academics
- New contacts across academia and the civil service
- Practical skills in data analysis and interpretation
- Enhanced subject knowledge in your chosen field
This is the third round of the Fellowship - in 2023/24, nine civil servants from five different departments were paired with academics from four universities. An example of one of their research outputs can be found here .
This year's programme offers an expanded range of research topics, including (but not limited to) education, health & social care, AI and digital, environment and sustainability, government, and business, work and employment.
The Policy Fellowship was a really insightful experience - it gave us the chance to test our ideas with academics and structure our research effectively. Regular check-ins kept us on track, and we delivered an internal report that supported our department's policy work.
It was great to collaborate beyond government and gain fresh perspectives from academics, who were really understanding and supportive. I'd recommend the fellowship to policy officials looking to fill evidence gaps-or even map them out!
Georgina Kaye, Policy Advisor Digital Strategy Division, Digital Data and Technology, Department for Education
