Closed: funding call: identification of survivors

The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC) has re-opened a call for research on identification of adult victims of modern slavery in the UK.

Following helpful feedback, we have re-opened this funding call, originally launched in September 2021, to include the following changes:

1. The project timeframe has been extended to six months (from four months), with scope to discuss timeframes with the successful applicant.
2. We have specified the minimum number of first responder training initiatives expected to be assessed.
3. We have clarified which objective is “desirable”.
4. We have made the requirements for key elements of the research more flexible, so that they can be confirmed in collaboration with the Modern Slavery PEC rather than being pre-fixed at the point of application.
5. We have an agreement in principle from the Home Office to share Duty to Notify referral data, redacted to protect personal details, subject to a data sharing agreement with the successful applicant. This data sharing agreement is for the Home Office to share Duty to Notify data with the successful team and not for the researchers to share their own data with the Home Office. The Home Office has already agreed to this in principle.

In addition, the project can now be led by a charity registered in the UK with a focus on modern slavery, a UK higher education institution or an approved research organisation which is eligible to receive UKRI funding.

The deadline for applications is at 4pm (UK time) on 22 June 2022.

The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (the Modern Slavery PEC) has issued a targeted call for proposals on a research project on improving the identification of adults who have lived experience of modern slavery in the UK.

Improving survivor recovery and support and understanding longer-term outcomes are priority research areas for the Modern Slavery PEC. We are seeking to complement our existing projects through additional research to fill priority evidence gaps in this area.

About the call

The aim of this research project will be to identify promising practice to improve the identification of adults with lived experience modern slavery in the UK, the factors which support informed consent and the quality of referrals into the NRM as well as to explore the reasons behind a decision to give or not give consent to enter the UK NRM.

Scope

The scope of the research is limited to adults with lived experience of modern slavery in the UK. Exploring the journeys of people who opt not to enter the NRM and the impact this has on recovery and outcomes is out of scope, as is exploring why people decide to leave the NRM.

Objectives

The objectives are to:

• Assess types of training focused on awareness-raising and spotting the signs of modern slavery, and available evaluations of training, for at least 4 different NRM First Responder Organisations. We expect projects to include at least one statutory and one non-statutory First Responder Organisation and ideally to reflect a range of different types of First Responder Organisations;
• Identify good practice structures that drive up the quality of referrals to the NRM;
• Develop a methodology to generate evidence that can inform recommendations for how First Responders can effectively identify people who have experienced modern slavery and improve the quality of referrals into the NRM. This may involve working with First Responders to pilot a systematic assessment of effectiveness of training;
• Explore the reasons why adults with lived experience of modern slavery decide to give or not to give consent to enter the NRM;
• Explore patterns according to the characteristics of individuals; exploitation type, organisation of First Responder; and
• Explore nature of and causal explanations for changes in number of Duty to Notify referrals.

Desirable objectives:

• Consider objectives A and B across different regions of the UK.

Type of funding

This call is part of the Modern Slavery PEC Responsive Research mechanism that has been created to fund responsive and agile research projects. It is led directly by the Modern Slavery PEC, but is funded and actively supported by the Arts and Humanities Council (AHRC).

Working with the Modern Slavery PEC

In accordance with the Modern Slavery PEC’s strategic objective of facilitating collaboration, successful teams will work in collaboration with the Modern Slavery PEC throughout the project to ensure alignment with our objectives and to maximise impact. This will include developing the research methodology and developing outputs such as the full report and summary briefing, as well as their dissemination.

Budget and eligibility

The Modern Slavery PEC has allocated a maximum budget of £80,000 at 100% full economic cost (FEC) for this project. We expect to fund one project for this work. Projects may be led by either a UK higher education institution, an approved research organisation eligible to receive UKRI funding or a charity registered in the UK with a focus on modern slavery or EDI. Project teams must include at least one academic or research organisation and one UK based third sector organisation.

• Charities registered in the UK may apply for up to 50% of the project’s budget, they will be funded at 100% FEC (for every £1 spent, they receive £1 of funding, so the Modern Slavery PEC covers 100% of the full economic cost of the project)
• International organisations are eligible to apply as partners to this call, they can receive a maximum budget of 30% and will also receive their funding at 100% FEC
• The combined UK registered charity and international costs can account for a maximum of 50% of the total budget of the project

For full budget details, see the call document.

Please note that a portion of this funding is conditional on the successful team putting in place a data sharing agreement with the Home Office to analyse Duty to Notify referral data held by the Home Office, redacted to protect personal details. This data sharing agreement is for the Home Office to share Duty to Notify data with the successful team and not for the researchers to share their own data with the Home Office. The Home Office has already agreed to this in principle.

How to apply

You can find the full details and specification of the call in the call document below:

Application process

The applications to this call must be made through our online form.

All applications will be reviewed by an assessment panel convened by the Modern Slavery PEC that will include external independent reviewers.

The deadline for applications is 4pm 22 June 2022.

The decision on the award of the funding will be made by the week beginning 11 July 2022. This funding will be dependent on the host organising putting a data sharing agreement in place, with the project due to start by mid-September, and final outputs to be delivered by end of March 2023.

Call Webinar & FAQ

We held an information webinar about this funding call on 10 May 2022. Please see the video of the webinar below. We will shortly post a frequently asked question document including the questions and answers from the webinar.