Through our Excellence and Impact Fund, the PSA supports projects that demonstrate the real-world significance of political research and practice. This section showcases initiatives that make a difference: promoting excellence, innovation, and public engagement across the discipline.
PSA Excellence & Impact Fund 2026/27
We were pleased to announce that the following successful project proposals that will receive funding for their 2026-27 projects:
The Excellence & Impact Fund supports projects that advance political studies and international relations through research, teaching and learning initiatives, public engagement, policy engagement, knowledge exchange, events or other innovative activities. Funded projects take place between September 2026 and June 2027.
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Autocracy and Regime Change Specialist Group, for Opposition Against Authoritarianism: A Resource for Students of Authoritarianism, in collaboration with Turkish Politics
- Participatory & Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group, for Children’s Participatory Rights in the UK and Beyond: Bringing Researchers and Practitioners Together, positioning paper and articles, in collaboration with CRIN (Child Rights International Network)
- Ethnopolitics Specialist Group, for the Midlands Hub on Conflict and Peace in Deeply Divided Societies, event, podcast and articles, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham
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Modern Liberty Specialist Group, for ECR support for attending
the ‘Debating Freedom: Practices and Normative Issues’ conference in Durham. -
Social Policy and Politics Specialist Group, for ‘Bridging
Research and Policy: A Social Policy Knowledge Exchange’ symposium. -
Technology, Internet, & Policy (TIP) Group, for ‘Growing
Up Digital: Young People & Technology Workshop’ event and blog, in
collaboration with Media and Politics Specialist Group. - American Politics Specialist Group for American Politics Group A-Level Engagement Project, essay competition, event and related outputs.
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Turkish Politics Specialist Group, for ‘Studying Authoritarianism:
The Method Clinics in Turkish Studies’ event and resources, in collaboration
with Autocracy and Regime Change Specialist Group. -
Political Leadership Specialist Group, for ‘Contemporary Statecraft in British Politics’ event and resources, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham’s British Politics Research Group
Excellence & Impact Fund 2025
In 2025, as part of the PSA’s 75th anniversary celebrations, we launched a new Excellence & Impact Fund. We received a number of extremely high-quality, innovative applications, which made the final decision very difficult.
We were pleased to announce that the following successful project proposals received funding for projects in 2025/26.
- Greek Politics Specialist Group, for Political Lessons from Greece: A Case of Unlikely Democratic Resilience, event and related outputs.
- Participatory & Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group, for New Frontiers of Democratic Theory and Practice: An International Workshop, and related outputs.
- Global Development Politics and Environmental Politics Specialist Groups for Geopolitics of NetZero Transition, Green Hydrogen and local and international dimensions of a Just Transition, event and related outputs.
- Political Thought Specialist Group for Political Theory and Impact Roundtable, and related outputs.
- Political Thought Specialist Group for The people vs the demos: rethinking the democratic collective in populist times, event and related outputs.
- Italian Politics Specialist Group for Italy under Giorgia Meloni: A Vanguard in the management of migration and security challenges?, event and related outputs.
- American Politics Specialist Group for American Politics Group A-Level Engagement Project, essay competition, event and related outputs.
- Autocracy and Regime Change Specialist Group for The Authoritarian Eco-System Policy Brief Series.
- Territorial Politics Specialist Group for Creative Methodologies in Political Science workshop and related outputs.
- Media and Politics Specialist Group for Scottish Election Analysis 2026: Media, voters and the campaign, first ever report dedicated specifically to the Scottish Election, launch event and related outputs.
Publicity about these projects and events will be shared across PSA platforms as and when the projects take place.
If you have a query about the Excellence & Impact Fund please get in touch.