The Policy Insights Unit is a cross-government team that develops analysis and ideas for policy, working like an in-house consultancy for UK departments and public bodies on a cost-recovery basis. Its Policy Fellowship is a mentoring scheme for serving officials — not a job, not a research grant and not a taught course. Over six months a fellow works part-time, alongside their existing role, under the supervision of an academic mentor on one specific policy question taken from their own brief, and produces an output from it. Mentors for the 2026 round came from four partner institutions: Brunel University London, Lancaster University, the University of Surrey and the University of York. The unit sits inside the Open Innovation Team, which renamed its core policy service the Policy Insights Unit in May 2026, so earlier rounds were advertised under the Open Innovation Team name. The 2026 round was the fourth, and the 2025 round paired 20 civil servants from 12 departments with academics; applications for the 2026 round closed on 15 July 2026.
Benefits & funding
- Six months of supervision by an academic working in the fellow’s own policy field.
- New contacts in academia and across other government departments.
- Practical skills in data analysis and interpretation, and deeper subject knowledge in the chosen area.
- A research output on the fellow’s own policy question. One output from the 2025 cohort, a report on informed AI adoption in government, is published by Brunel University London.
- Part-time throughout, so the fellow keeps their existing post. The call page publishes no application fee, no stipend and no salary — the return is the mentoring, the contacts and the skills.
- Weekly time commitment, the format of mentor meetings, and each cohort’s start and end dates are not published on the call page; they sit in the fellowship Q&A pack linked from it.
Eligibility
- Open to UK-based civil servants and public officials.
- Grade SEO to Grade 6, or an equivalent grade.
- The bar is the job rather than the passport: no nationality requirement is published, and anyone outside the UK public service cannot apply.
- No degree level, age limit or years-of-experience requirement is published; the grade band is the seniority test.
- The policy question needs to sit in a field one of the partner universities can supervise. Topics named for the 2026 round were health and wellbeing, sustainability and net zero, AI and emerging technologies, governance, global systems and relationships, education and social justice, creative and cultural futures, and economic development, and the unit stated that list was not exhaustive.
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Application process
- 1Check eligibility: a UK-based civil servant or public official at grade SEO to Grade 6 or an equivalent grade.
- 2Read the fellowship Q&A pack linked from the call page for the full criteria and the process.
- 3Define the specific policy question the fellowship would answer, and the output it would produce.
- 4Complete the application form, a Microsoft Forms questionnaire linked from the call page, before the closing date.
- 5Send any questions to policy.fellowship@policyinsightsunit.gov.uk.
- 6Selected applicants are paired with an academic mentor from a partner university for the six-month programme.
Program timeline
30 January 2025
2025 round opens
10 March 2025
2025 round closes
11 June 2026
2026 round opens
15 July 2026
2026 round closes
Six months
the fellowship runs part-time under an academic mentor
Cohort start and end dates are not published on the call page