Scope
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are jointly inviting proposals for an independent, co-created What Works Centre (WWC) to identify, develop, test, and evaluate evidence-based locally delivered employment and labour market support to help people access, remain in, and thrive in work.
The What Works Centre for local employment support will focus primarily on the role and effectiveness of local and regional government levers to increase and sustain local labour force participation rates, with an emphasis on the role and effectiveness of locally-delivered active labour market policies (ALMPs) and other ‘active’ interventions aimed at achieving positive employment outcomes.
You are encouraged to adopt a whole-systems approach that drives collaboration and leverages evidence from across interconnected policy areas to improve local employment outcomes. We welcome proposals that look beyond traditional employment measures to include employment-related interventions in, for example, health, transportation, housing, and regional development, addressing the wider factors that shape people’s ability to access and sustain work.
ESRC and DWP are particularly interested in what works to support better employment outcomes for people living with, or caring for those living with, ill health (whether physical or mental), long-term health conditions (LTHCs), or disability. Both individuals who are out of work and those who are in work, but at risk of losing their job because of their health or disability, or caring responsibilities, are in scope.
The WWC will act as a central evidence ‘hub’, championing the systematic, purposeful, rigorous, and transparent assessment and implementation of what genuinely works for local and regional government actors across the UK in their quest to support better employment outcome for their communities.
You are required to apply to the What Works Network for formal Cabinet Office What Works Centre status within the first 12 months of the award. This process is independent from ESRC and DWP.
Context
The UK’s labour market is at a challenging crossroads with new, and emerging, labour market trends merging with longstanding, intractable problems to create a complex and highly uncertain environment for workers, employers, and policymakers alike. Rising employment costs, persistent labour and skills shortages, and the impact of digitalisation are, for example, being felt across many sectors and places. Most critically, record numbers of the country’s working age population are registered as economically inactive, including over 2.7 million individuals locked out of work because of ill-health, LTHCs, and disability.
Economic inactivity has profound implications for individuals and their households, as well as for local communities and local economies. DWP estimates that the cost to the UK of lost output due to working-age ill-health alone is £132 billion. The scale and impact of economic inactivity has created an urgent need to strengthen and make accessible the evidence base on what works to help people access and remain in good work.
While work is not an appropriate pathway for everyone, many of those who are currently recorded as economically inactive are able, and willing, to work. However, they face major barriers to accessing sustainable and good-quality employment. The UK labour market is characterised by considerable regional, sectoral, and demographic inequalities. As a result, employment challenges are experienced differently across populations, places and employers. This is especially true for people with physical or mental ill-health, LTHCs, or disabilities, particularly those with multiple or complex needs, as well as informal carers supporting relatives, friends, or neighbours. Even when in work, these individuals are at much greater risk of losing their jobs or of missing out on career progression opportunities in comparison with their colleagues.
The new English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill aims to bring about a radical change in the way that local government and other public sector bodies across England are able to address their place-based employment challenges. New locally led, innovative solutions like the Inactivity Trailblazers, the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, WorkWell, Connect to Work and JobsPlus have the power to improve local labour market outcomes. In parallel, the new NHS 10-year plan, Fit for the Future, marks a shift towards a more integrated health system, that prioritises prevention and early intervention including dedicated action to join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help people find and stay in work.
However, the success of all of these initiatives, and their counterparts in the Devolved Nations, depend heavily on local (and national) actors being able to identify, tailor and implement evidence-based approaches and best practice. Despite the UK’s long history of ALMPs, public health programmes, and welfare system reforms to help people to access work, there is a lack of robust, easily accessible evidence on what works, for whom, in what places, at what times, in what ways, and in what contexts. Where evidence and guidance does exist, it is often highly context-dependent, constrained by limited sample sizes, or impractical for policymakers and practitioners alike.
These evidence and implementation gaps have a direct impact on the ability of local and regional actors (including local and regional authorities, public service providers, and employers) to identify and implement practical, cost-efficient, and cost-effective employment support measures that genuinely work for both individuals and employers in their local areas.
This is a critical challenge in times when and in places where local and regional government and public sector bodies have limited resource and capacity to design, implement, and evaluate complex or costly measures. Good decision-making and delivery in these conditions requires robust evidence not only of what works, but also of the likely returns (or not) on investment. And while some local and regional actors are well versed in the complex world of employment support and evaluation; others are only just developing their strategies and processes.
The WWC for local employment support will act as a central evidence ‘hub’, championing the systematic, purposeful, rigorous, and transparent assessment and implementation of what genuinely works for local and regional government actors across the UK in their quest to support better employment outcome for their communities.
The centre will work with local partners from across the public, private and third sectors to collaboratively identify, develop, test, and evaluate evidence-based, locally delivered interventions that genuinely help people to access, remain in, and thrive in good-quality, sustainable work. It will strengthen the evidence ecosystem by investing in the capability and capacity of organisations and individuals involved in generating, translating, and using evidence.
The centre will provide a coherent and authoritative voice on these issues, delivering economies of scale, reducing the duplication of effort across its stakeholder community, and driving evidence-based decision-making.
Policy background
DWP have commissioned a preliminary research project, ‘Labour Market Evidence Synthesis and Dissemination’, to prepare the groundwork for the WWC. It is expected to conclude by April 2027. The project includes the following activities:
- user consultation research to identify the evidence needs and preferred dissemination methods within local employment support partners. Partners include mayoral strategic authorities, integrated care boards and Connect to Work delivery areas
- evidence reviews and dissemination. Based on the user consultation research, this will assess the existing evidence landscape. Focus will be placed on ALMP interventions that can be effectively implemented at the local level. Dissemination will involve accessible user-focused resources such as web-based toolkits. All research outputs will be transferred to the WWC when established
- the project will conclude with a lessons learned report, to assess how well the project has worked for user organisations, and to generate recommendations
The WWC for local employment support will build on, and further progress, the work of the preliminary research project.
This WWC initiative aligns with the UK Government’s Get Britain Working strategy, the NHS’ 10 Year Health Plan for England, the Scottish Government’s employability strategic plan 2024 to 2027, the Welsh Government’s 2022 Plan for Employability and Skills, and the new Northern Ireland Disability and Work Strategy.
The focus of this WWC complements the employer-focused recommendations made by the 2025 Keep Britain Working Review, led by Sir Charlie Mayfield, as well as contemporary reforms to employment support and to integrated care systems aimed at tackling economic inactivity due to long-term ill health.
Centre focus
In order not to duplicate the work of other WWCs or forthcoming Government initiatives, the centre will focus on the role and effectiveness of local and regional government levers to directly increase and sustain local labour force participation rates.
Specifically:
- active labour market policies and programmes
- collaborative cross-policy ventures between different local or regional government actors or public service providers to increase or maintain high local employment participation rates. For example, interventions that cross over employment policy, health policy, transport policy, skills policy, and regional development policy
- collaborative ventures between local or regional government actors and employers or third sector organisations to increase or maintain high local employment participation rates
In all cases, the activities under observation must include employment as an intended outcome (whether primary or secondary). For example, the trial of a health-led intervention that does not include a person’s return to or remaining in work as an outcome is not within the scope of this WWC.
Where activities are a collaborative venture with employers or third sector organisations, they must either be government-led or substantively involve local or regional government in their design and implementation.
ESRC and DWP are particularly interested in what works to improve employment outcomes for people living with ill health (whether physical or mental), long-term health conditions, or disabilities, as well as informal carers. This includes both those out of work and those at risk of job loss due to health, disability, or caring responsibilities.
We are aware that terminology in this area (for example, ‘economically inactive’) can be contentious or sensitive. We welcome fresh approaches to framing relevant issues, including those that draw on the views of people with lived experience as necessary.
Not in scope
The following are not in scope for this funding opportunity:
- people for whom work is not an appropriate pathway
- interventions that do not include employment as an intended outcome, whether primary or secondary, are out of scope. For example, health-led initiatives that do not aim to improve employment outcomes are not eligible for this funding opportunity
- interventions that are not led by government actors or public service providers or do not substantively involve these actors in their design or delivery
- proposals that replicate the work of the planned Workplace Health Intelligence Unit (recommended by the Keep Britain Working Review) are out of scope. Using the unit’s future outputs is permitted, provided this does not involve duplication
- passive labour market policies outside the purview of local and regional government. For example, welfare system reform is outside the scope of this funding opportunity
- funding to deliver interventions at scale or to implement interventions in their ‘final’ form. For example, UK-wide national programmes or programmes across an entire Devolved Nation are not into scope
Centre objectives
The WWC for local employment support will pursue three core objectives:
Convene and build shared understanding
Bring together key partners across policy areas and stakeholder communities to develop a common evidence agenda and shared priorities for measures to increase and sustain local labour force participation. For example, from across employment policy, skills policy, health policy, and regional development policy. And across the academic, policy, practitioner, business, and third sector communities. This will involve co-producing insights and evidence needs with practitioners and laying the foundations for effective translation and implementation of evidence into local policy and practice.
Synthesise and mobilise actionable evidence
Using this shared agenda, systematically assess and communicate what works, for whom and in what contexts, drawing on existing evaluations (including, where possible, evaluations in progress), quantitative research, and qualitative research to inform local and national policy and service delivery. We would also expect the WWC to draw on the lived experience of service users. Importantly, the WWC should also identify effective actions it can take to strengthen regional and local practitioners’ capacity and capability to undertake their own research and evaluation.
Generate, test and scale effective solutions
Co-develop, test and evaluate innovative interventions where evidence gaps exist, and support the wider adoption of proven approaches that improve access to, retention in and progression through good, sustainable work. We welcome evidence generation through primary research, such as co-delivered small-scale local trials, where this adds value. These activities must be properly resourced and must not compromise the WWC’s core functions.
You should outline a balanced approach across evidence synthesis, translation, capability-building, and, where appropriate, generation, recognising that the final balance of activities will be agreed during the ‘project refinement’ phase (see below).
You must clearly identify how your proposed centre design and programme of work will deliver on the three core objectives, outlined above. This must include a clearly articulated set of intended outcomes that are supported by a robust theory of change that outlines how the centre’s activities will lead to meaningful change.
You are strongly encouraged to look at the work of the existing What Works Centres when articulating your mission and approaches to impact. Proposals should demonstrate how the centre will foster a more informed and action-orientated evidence ecosystem; catalyse collaboration and co-production across local systems; and work with partners to co-develop and test innovative local solutions that can be scaled or replicated across the UK.
Areas of interest
The following areas of enquiry should provide a clear focus for the WWC:
- what local and regional government levers actually work to increase and sustain local labour force participation, especially for those affected by ill health, LTHCs, and disability, and their informal carers, to access, remain in, and thrive in good, sustainable work?
- how do these levers differ from those that work for other groups struggling to access, remain in, and thrive in good, sustainable employment?
- how and why do these levers play out different in different geographic locations and contexts, with consideration given to intersectionality?
- what doesn’t work and why, and what are the long-term outcomes, costs, and returns on investment (positive, negative, and context-dependent)?
- what actions are best taken by whom? At what territorial level and how?
- how do those designing policy, shaping working practices, and delivering interventions (formal and informal) acquire and update their knowledge about best practice and ‘what works’, and how do they apply this learning to their day-to-day practice?
- how can the most effective and efficient approaches and activities be replicated and scaled across different groups, places, employers, and other contexts?
- where it adds value to the existing evidence ecosystem and the WWC’s activities: profiling health and disability-driven economic inactivity at the local level, including drivers, patterns, and interactions
In exploring these questions, ESRC and DWP are particularly interested in:
- the role and impact of integrated support models, combining employment, health, skills and social care services
- how workplace factors and employer practices such as, the provision of flexible work pathways, and self-employment pathways interact with or shape government levers to support local employment participation rates
- multi-agency and joint working
- the lived experience of people living with ill-health, LTHCs, and disability (including complex or multiple conditions), their employment histories and transitions
- the barriers and enabling factors that are experienced by policymakers, public service providers, and practitioners involved in the design and delivery of employment support interventions. This knowledge should feed into the centre’s capacity building activities
- the systemic and structural factors that drive, shape, and condition health and disability-related economic inactivity at the local level, recognising that some of these may be beyond the control of local actors
You should demonstrate in your proposal how you would respond to these areas of interest, and to suggest relevant research questions.
The successful centre will be required to draw on and build on the insights and findings from:
The centre will also be expected to draw on insights from (amongst others):
We recognise that the findings from DWP’s Market Evidence Synthesis and Dissemination and the successful REinA project are unlikely to be published in time for applicants to be able to incorporate them meaningfully into their proposals, and that effective coproduction takes time and resource. To that end, the successful centre will undertake a nine-month ‘project refinement’ phase to engage with key partners (including funders) to further refine its vision, research questions, and work programme in light of new information. We also expect the centre’s plans to adapt to new outputs published after this funding opportunity to avoid duplication and ensure added value. This phase will run alongside early research activity. Applicants should include details of both in their programme of work.
Progress past the refinement phase will be subject to a light-touch stage gate review in month 10, which will be administered by the ESRC, in consultation with the DWP.
Intended target audience
The primary target audience for this WWC will be the main regional or local actors involved in the design and delivery of government-led mechanisms that actively support people to access, remain in and progress in good, sustainable work, with a particular emphasis on those addressing ill-health, LTHCs, and disability. The primary target audiences include (but are not limited to):
- local and regional government (including local authorities, mayoral strategic authorities)
- local health service providers and public health practitioners (including, local NHS Trusts, NHS primary care networks, integrated care boards, and integrated care systems)
- employment services providers (including, Jobcentre Plus, Access to Work, Connect to Work, Inactivity Trailblazers, other DWP frontline actors), local employers (public, private and third sector, including social enterprises)
Secondary target audiences include (but are not limited to):
- other local support providers (including community, private-sector and third-sector organisations)
- workers’ representative organisations, including trade unions and non-union representatives
- member organisations or their networks, including local government associations, NHS Confederation Networks, and business and industry representatives
- professional organisations and bodies such as, the Health and Care Professions Council, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
We anticipate that the centre’s outputs will also be of interest to central government, the devolved administrations, and national-level policy advocates and practitioners; however, these should be viewed by applicants as an indirect audience.
Proposals must include project co-leads and project partners from outside academia (subject to ESRC eligibility and costing rules), with preference given to those that include regional or local actors.
You are free to propose your own coproduced centre focus and design. You must clearly identify and justify how your vision, objectives, research questions, centre design, and intended outcomes fit with the scope and intention of this funding opportunity and deliver meaningful change for local communities.
Core centre activities
We expect the WWC’s programme of work to be built around the three core objectives outlined above, namely:
Creating a collective evidence ecosystem
The centre will systematically assess, evaluate, and synthesise the existing evidence base to better understand and identify the challenges and interventions related to supporting (and maintaining) higher local employment participation rates, especially among people experiencing or caring for people with ill-health (physical or mental), LTHCs, or disability.
Where evidence is weak or unavailable, the centre will work with partners and stakeholders to co-identify critical gaps. It will then seek to fill these through its own primary research or by encouraging other organisations to do so.
Activities and outputs here should include (but are not limited to):
- assessing the existing evidence base (including the international evidence base). This may be achieved through rapid evidence reviews, comprehensive systematic reviews, and evaluations
- publicising gaps in the evidence base, including data, knowledge, and implementation gaps. For example, through living evidence maps and research recommendations
- filling strategic gaps in the evidence base through co-produced primary research. For example, through impact, process and value for money evaluations; small-scale primary trials empirical testing; or participatory action research projects (where these add value beyond any existing evaluations).
- establishing, where possible, feedback loops to aid the early identification of promising interventions
Co-developing and mobilising actionable evidence
The centre will work with partners and stakeholders, including people with lived experience (PWLE), to translate evidence into meaningful and practical outputs that can be used by policymakers and practitioners to inform and shape their work.
Activities and outputs here should include (but are not limited to):
- easily digestible summaries of the existing evidence base. For example, interactive data dashboards and dynamic evidence comparison toolkits
- easily digestible and practical advice and guidelines on best practice, targeted at specific evidence users. These users may include local government, local public service providers (employment, health, and social care), and local employers
- digital media communication tools and approaches, including through a high-quality website and an active social media presence
- user-centred outreach activities to connect and share findings with a diverse range of potential beneficiaries, including those who may not normally turn to a WWC for information (such as, micro, small and medium sized local employers)
- capacity-building activities to develop and strengthen the ability of researchers and other evidence creators to translate their findings into accessible formats for evidence users
You must clearly outline your approach to knowledge translation or knowledge mobilisation within your proposal, identifying how your chosen frameworks will guide the design of your outputs and achieve your intended outcomes. You should identify any challenges associated with your chosen approaches and explain how these will be mitigated. The project team must include members with expertise in designing and delivering complex knowledge translation or knowledge mobilisation strategies.
Proposals should also include an action plan for ensuring a sustainable legacy from the centre, in particular the maintenance and archiving of website and other electronic and digital materials.
Implementing evidence
The ultimate aim of this WWC is to engender real, meaningful change for local communities. The WWC must go beyond simply making evidence available, the evidence must be actively used by local actors to support individuals (and especially those living with ill-health, LTHCs, and disability) to access, remain in, and thrive in good quality work.
Activities here should include (but are not limited to):
- embedding coproduction and collaborative working into the centre’s design and programme of work
- creating genuine opportunities for local decision-makers, service providers and employers to actively engage with and shape the evidence. For example, as research participants and sites of research
- strengthening research and evaluation capacity and capability among regional and local decision-makers, policymakers, and practitioners. For example, through tailored caster classes, open-access online training offers, secondments, or engagement with the Cabinet Office Evaluation Task Force and Evaluation and Trial Advice Panel
- creating opportunities for local government and public sector bodies to learn from each other through the use of facilitated and non-facilitated action learning sets, peer learning partnerships and learning networks
You must provide a clear theory of change framework that sets out explicitly how the centre’s activities will lead to improved (local) labour market participation rates. The framework must include concrete pathways to influence policy and practice, thoroughly thought-out assumptions and risks, for example, areas where the centre’s evidence might be insufficient to drive change and specific mechanisms for evaluating success. The framework should be viewed as a living document that will be further refined over the course of the successful centre’s lifetime.
You should clearly signal how your proposed work programmes delivers against the types of What Works Centre activities required by the What Works Network.
Centre leadership
The project lead of the application should have a collaborative mindset, excellent leadership and management abilities, and strong stakeholder engagement skills. You will be expected to work closely with academic, government, industry, and third sector stakeholders.
The WWC leadership team should be composed of internationally recognised experts with a diversity of skills and experience in the following areas:
- labour and employment studies
- public health and wider determinants of health, and their intersection with work and employment
- public administration and public policy, with an emphasis on regional and local government and public service delivery
- evidence synthesis methodology to accelerate cutting-edge developments in methods, and demonstrable expertise in synthesising evidence, including evaluative evidence for policymakers
- cutting edge expertise in bridging research, evaluation and policymaking
- coproduction and demonstrable experience of working successfully with non-academic partners
- demonstrable experience of creating, cultivating and leading high-performance teams through good management practices
Although business, third sector or government body project co-leads are permitted on applications, this should not occur at the expense of sufficient academic leadership.
Centre management and structure
You should carefully consider the structure of your proposed centre to ensure it is best positioned to successfully deliver meaningful and impactful progress against its objectives.
The centre will need to have clear plans for:
- how leadership will be managed across the centre, including the role that non-academic co-leads and partners will play
- how the management of the centre and its activities will be carried out, including details of project management and administration resources
- its approach to risk management (including operational and team resource risks)
- how existing partnerships will be managed, and new partnerships explored in an effective, equitable, and sustainable way
- how equality, diversity and inclusion principles will be embedded into the centre’s structure and management framework
- succession of leadership and roles across the lifetime of the centre, and beyond, particularly with a view to the sustainability of the centre
Advisory structure
The WWC will be responsible for establishing an independent advisory board (or other appropriate advisory structure) to provide the centre with strategic input, expert guidance, and challenge. Membership should include representatives from academia, policy, practice, and other relevant stakeholders with a diverse range of expertise and experience relevant to the centre’s focus and activities.
You must outline clear plans for how your proposed centre will make effective use of the advisory group and provide an indicative list of members.
You must ensure that any costs associated with the advisory group are factored into the budget (for example, the cost of in-person meetings), and that sufficient staff resource has been allocated for its management and operation over the lifetime of the award. We would advise budgeting for at least one in-person meeting a year. You should also consider accessibility requirements when planning your advisory structure, for example, ensuring a mix of in-person, hybrid, and virtual meeting formats.
The WWC Advisory Board will operate completely independently of the ESRC and DWP; however, we expect the WWC to invite a representative from ESRC and from DWP to attend board meetings as observers to support our investment management responsibilities.
Reporting requirements and performance monitoring
The WWC will report regularly to the ESRC and the DWP via a Funders’ Group, which will serve as the primary accountability body for the centre. The group will be solely responsible for any formal decisions on the performance of the centre and its continued funding.
Its remit will cover:
- monitoring progress against agreed milestones, timescales, and deliverables (including outputs and outcomes)
- monitoring against agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (see below)
- financial oversight
- risk assurance, including monitoring the Centre’s risk register and actions to manage risk
- providing strategic oversight, challenge, and guidance
The group will meet formally on a quarterly basis, with additional meetings scheduled as needed. For example, the group will meet with the centre leadership team on a monthly basis for at least the first nine months post-award to ensure a smooth project start and build trusted relationships.
As part of the formal reporting requirements, the centre leadership team will be required to submit a director’s report every six months, as well as a final report at the end of the award.
You should propose an appropriate performance monitoring framework, including KPIs as part of your application. The final framework and KPIs will be refined and agreed between the successful WWC and the funding partners (ESRC and DWP) within three months of the project start date.
We recognise that both the framework and the KPIs will be informed by each individual proposal’s specific design and change framework and, as such, a one-size-fits-all approach to performance measures is not appropriate in this instance. However, you are expected to base your framework and KPIs around the WWC’s core objectives, as outlined in this funding opportunity specification.
These are likely to include (but are not limited to) KPIs around:
- evidence generation and translation (including quantity, fit-to-target-audience, and impact)
- coproduction and capacity-building
- reach and engagement
- use and adoption of evidence
- changes in policy, practice, and behaviour
You may find it useful to consult the following sources of information when designing your approach:
Evaluation
We will commission an external evaluation for this investment. The successful team will be expected to work with the Funders Group, the ESRC Evaluation team, and the commissioned evaluators to ensure relevant data and evidence is collected to support the evaluation.
You should ensure you have capacity to engage with this exercise.
You should also ensure that your proposed theory of change supports effective evaluation.
Key requirements
The centre’s design and activities should be underpinned by the following principles, which will need to be evidenced in your proposal.
Strategic clarity and added value
Strategic clarity is essential to ensure the centre delivers high-impact, evidence-informed work that is relevant, inclusive, and sustainable.
You must demonstrate a clear and coherent strategic vision for establishing and delivering a WWC focused on improving the effectiveness of local and regional government levers to increase and sustain local labour force participation, especially for those living with, or caring informally for people living with ill-health, LTHCs, and disability. This should include a clearly articulated mission, supported by a targeted set of strategic objectives and priorities. The mission, objectives, and priorities should be informed by evidence gaps, stakeholder needs, and the potential for impact.
You should also illustrate how your proposed centre will remain focused on its core mission while adapting to emerging evidence, policy developments, and user needs. This includes mechanisms for horizon scanning, learning, and strategic review.
You must clearly demonstrate how your proposed Centre adds value to the existing ecosystem, including the current What Works Network, known forthcoming Government initiatives, and existing DWP evaluations.
You are strongly encouraged to build on learning from the What Works Network when designing your proposal. These include:
Outcomes-focused centre approach
You must demonstrate a clear outcomes-focused approach throughout your proposed centre design. This should include a clearly articulated set of intended outcomes (short, medium and long-term). These should be supported by a robust framework, such as a theory of change or logic model, that outlines how the centre’s activities will lead to meaningful change. You should include any assumptions, risks, and external factors that may influence the centre’s intended outcomes and outline potential ways that these could be mitigated.
As part of this, you should demonstrate how your proposal will build the capability and capacity needed to generate high-quality evidence, including through evaluation, and support its use in decision-making. This may include developing research and evaluation skills and expertise, strengthening organisational systems and governance, fostering collaborative networks, and embedding strategies for knowledge mobilisation. Proposals should outline clear objectives and indicators to show how these activities will contribute to the centre’s long-term sustainability and impact.
You are encouraged to consult guidance by the Cabinet Office on developing an effective Theory of Change (PDF 2MB).
Coproduction and collaborative working
Partnerships and collaborative working are an integral component to this funding opportunity.
You must demonstrate a robust and meaningful approach to coproduction and collaborative working throughout the lifecycle of the WWC. This includes the design, delivery, dissemination, and evaluation of the centre’s activities.
Proposals must include co-leads and project partners from outside of academia. You should check ESRC rules on including project co-leads from UK business, third sector or government bodies to ensure roles and costings are correct.
We particularly welcome proposals that involve people with lived experience (PWLE), either as project co-leads, team members, research participants, or in advisory roles. For the purposes of this funding opportunity, we define lived experience in its broadest sense to include:
- people directly affected by ill-health, LTHCs, or disability (including as informal carers)
- individuals experiencing or who have experienced unemployment or worklessness
- individuals and actors involved in designing and delivering labour market or employment-focused health interventions (formal and informal)
- employers with experience of participating in labour market or employment-focused health interventions (including HR professionals)
Where proposals include PWLE, you should explain how you will be involved in the design, leadership, governance, and delivery of the project. You must ensure that PWLE who are involved in the centre in a personal capacity (for example, people living with ill-health, LTHCs, or disability) are fully costed and offer remuneration.
The successful centre will be expected to draw on best practice guidance on patient and public involvement in research, such as the NHS England statutory guidance on patient and public participation in commissioning health and care.
Place-based approaches
The centre must embed place-based approaches throughout its work to ensure that the evidence generated is relevant, actionable, and sensitive to the diverse socio-economic and institutional contexts across the UK. This diversity should be reflected in the centre’s work, without an unduly skewed focus towards specific geographical locations. For example, areas with established mayoral strategic authorities (MSAs) versus areas without.
Specifically, the centre must:
- recognise geographic variation, demonstrating an understanding of how the implementation and impact of local and regional government levers may manifest differently across places and populations
- engage meaningfully with relevant local stakeholders from the public, private, and third sectors. These relationships should inform the centre’s research priorities, methods, and dissemination strategies
- generate locally relevant evidence, producing insights that are disaggregated by place and capable of informing local decision-making. This includes identifying what works in specific contexts and understanding the conditions under which interventions are successful or unsuccessful
- support local capacity building for evidence use, including through training, knowledge exchange, and co-production activities with local partners
- ensure national learning from local innovation, facilitating learning across places, identifying scalable interventions and transferable lessons while respecting local distinctiveness
You can include a comparative or international dimension, but any findings, insights, and recommendations must have a bearing on the UK context.
You should include details of your proposed stakeholder engagement plans, and your approaches to working with stakeholders.
You should refer to the WWC’s primary target audience (detailed above) when identifying key stakeholders.
Whole system approach
The successful centre will incorporate a multi-dimensional approach to the phenomenon that goes beyond a focus on individual policy areas or individual factors influencing local employment outcomes.
Interdisciplinarity
Proposals should be interdisciplinary in both approach and team composition. The successful centre will integrate insights and methods from multiple disciplines to generate new shared knowledge, supported by a coherent, interdisciplinary work programme.
Methodological rigour
The WWC will embed a clear, consistent, and transparent process for evidence generation and synthesis to ensure high-quality, reliable outputs.
This should include (but is not limited to),
- establishing and publishing clear methodological standards for evidence generation, including criteria for quality, relevance, and rigor
- publishing protocols and synthesis reports openly, with assumptions, limitations, and confidence levels clearly articulated
- ensuring clear and demonstrable alignment with recognised frameworks for ranking evidence. For example, the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale (SMS), GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation), CERQual (Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research), Nesta’s Standards of Evidence model, and Realist and Meta-Narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards (RAMESES)
- providing ongoing guidance and training for staff and partners to ensure consistent application of the relevant processes
- including mechanisms for stakeholder engagement to capture practice-based insights alongside academic evidence
While we anticipate that experimental and quasi-experimental methods will form a core component of the centre’s methodological approach, we also recognise the value of theory-based and process evaluations involving mixed-methods research. We particularly welcome proposals that integrate robust quantitative, qualitative, and, where appropriate, participatory approaches into a holistic, methodologically rigorous approach.
Your team
You will be expected to assemble a multidisciplinary team with the capacity, expertise, and credibility to deliver the objectives of an outcomes-focused centre.
The centre’s core team should demonstrate the following capabilities.
Strategic leadership and governance, including:
- clear leadership with a track record of delivering complex, multi-partner programmes that generate and mobilise evidence to improve outcomes
- strong governance arrangements that ensure accountability, transparency, and alignment with ESRC’s values and public benefit objectives
- ability to engage constructively with senior stakeholders across government, public services, academia, and civil society
- ability to bring together diverse expertise within projects, conceptually, methodologically, and theoretically
Research and evidence, including:
- relevant thematic and policy expertise within and beyond academia. For example, in the fields of labour and employment studies, public health, and public administration
- demonstrable expertise in designing, commissioning, and synthesising high-quality research, including experimental and quasi-experimental methods, qualitative approaches, and mixed methods
- capacity to generate robust, policy-relevant evidence that supports decision-making and contributes to improved societal outcomes
- familiarity with outcomes frameworks, theory of change, and longitudinal approaches to impact assessment
Knowledge mobilisation and knowledge engagement, including:
- proven ability to translate research into accessible, actionable insights for a range of audiences including policymakers, practitioners, and service users
- experience in co-production and stakeholder engagement, ensuring that the centre’s work is informed by lived experience and practitioner knowledge
- commitment to inclusive and innovative approaches to dissemination, including digital tools, events, and tailored communications
Monitoring, evaluation and learning, including:
- capacity to design and implement a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the Centre’s effectiveness and impact over time
- experience in embedding learning and continuous improvement into programme delivery
Programme and operational delivery, including:
- strong programme management capability, including financial management, risk mitigation, and delivery against milestones
- the ability to operate at pace and scale, with appropriate infrastructure and systems to support delivery
- the ability to understand and respond to local contexts and work collaboratively with local stakeholders to ensure that WWC activities are relevant, practical, and impactful
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), demonstrating:
- commitment to embedding EDI principles across all aspects of the centre’s work, including team composition, stakeholder engagement, and research design
What Works Network membership
The centre is expected to apply to the What Works Network for official What Works Centre status within 12 months of the award start date. This process is independent of ESRC and DWP.
You must clearly outline throughout your proposal how your centre design and activities meet the six What Works Network principles.
You are strongly encouraged to familiarise themselves with the What Works Network guidance on setting up a What Works Centre when developing their proposals.
Duration
The duration of this award is 60 months.
Projects must start by 22 January 2027.
Funding is for a single award.
Funding available
The FEC of your project can be up to £15 million.
ESRC and DWP will fund 80% of the FEC.
Funding is for a single award.
What we will not fund
We will not fund:
- proposals that duplicate the work of other current What Works Centres
- proposals that wholly focus on only one age group. For example, proposals that focus only on young people or only on older people
- proposals that wholly focus on only one type of ill health, LTHC, or disability. For example, proposals that focus only on mental ill health, or only on musculoskeletal skeletal conditions (MSKs), or only on neurodiversity
- proposals that employ only quantitative or only qualitative research methods
- clinical trials
- associated studentships are not eligible for inclusion
A proposal will be automatically excluded from consideration if it does not:
- start by 22 January 2027 at the latest
- run for 60 months
- fit the scope of this funding opportunity
- include at least one project co-lead
- include at least one project co-lead from a business, the third sector or government organisation based in the UK (subject to ESRC eligibility and costing rules)
Supporting skills and talent
We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.
ESRC data infrastructure
We supports a range of data infrastructure. Where relevant, we encourage you to consider whether the use of these resources could add value to the project. See Facilities and resources for information on finding and using ESRC datasets which are available across the UK.
Where relevant, details of datasets and infrastructure to be used in your project should be given in the Facilities section.
Data requirements
We recognise the importance of data quality and provenance. Data generated, collected or acquired by ESRC-funded research must be well-managed by the grant holder to enable their data to be exploited to the maximum potential for further research. See our research data policy for details and further information on data requirements. The requirements of the research data policy are a condition of ESRC research funding.
Where relevant, details on data management and sharing should be provided in the Data management section. See the importance of managing and sharing data and content for inclusion in a data management plan on the UK Data Service (UKDS) website for further guidance. We expect applicants to provide a summary of the points provided. The UKDS (datasharing@ukdataservice.ac.uk) will be pleased to advise you on the availability of data within the academic community and provide advice on data deposit requirements.
Impact, innovation and interdisciplinarity
We expect you to consider the potential scientific, societal and economic impacts of your research. Outputs, dissemination and impact are a key part of the criteria for most expert review and assessment processes. We also encourage applications that demonstrate innovation and interdisciplinarity (research combining approaches from more than one discipline).
Knowledge exchange and collaboration
We are committed to knowledge exchange and encouraging collaboration between researchers and the private, public and civil society sectors. Collaborative working benefits both the researchers and the individuals or organisations involved. Through collaboration, partners learn about each other’s expertise, share knowledge and gain an appreciation of different professional cultures. Collaborative activity can therefore lead to a better understanding of the ways that academic research can add value and offer insights to key issues of concern for policy and practice.
Knowledge exchange should not be treated as an ‘add-on’ at the end of a project but considered before the start and built into a project.
Equitable partnership principles
When undertaking research and innovation activities outside the UK, you must recognise and address the possible impact of contextual, societal and cultural differences on the ethical conduct of those activities.
Researchers should also follow the principles of equitable partnerships to address inherent power imbalances when working with partners in resource-poor settings.
Applying the principles will encourage equitable access, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), while maintaining incentives for innovation. You should consider the principles from the start of the research and development cycle.
Read UKRI’s guidance on research in a global setting.
Research ethics
We require that the research we support is designed and conducted in such a way that it meets ethical principles and is subject to proper professional and institutional oversight in terms of research governance. We have agreed a Framework for Research Ethics that all submitted proposals must comply with. Read further details about the Framework for Research Ethics and guidance on compliance.
The requirements of the research data policy are a condition of ESRC research funding.
