£300,000 funding for research on UK impacts of US-Iran conflict
Howard Lake | 16 June 2026 | News
The Nuffield Foundation has created a rapid-response fund for research into how the current conflict involving the USA, Iran and Israel has and will affect people and businesses in the UK.
Up to £300,000 is available to researchers, academics, think tanks and policy institutes. The fund will support “high-quality, policy-relevant research informing responses to rising energy, fuel and living costs linked to the 2026 conflict involving the US, Iran, Israel and the wider region, including disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz”.
Eligible projects will be those that can rapidly generate robust evidence on how these developments are affecting households, businesses and the wider economy, and also to identify practical policy responses.
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Although a ceasefire appears, again, to be at hand, the impacts and tensions are going to persist and require action, “underlining the importance of timely and rigorous analysis to support decision-making”.
The new funding is part of the Nuffield Foundation’s wider commitment to supporting rigorous, independent research that informs social and economic issues. It funds and undertakes “rigorous research, encourages innovation and supports the use of sound evidence to inform social and economic policy, and improve people’s lives”. This research is designed to help ensure that the UK is better prepared to respond to ongoing and future economic challenges.
Gavin Kelly, Chief Executive at the Nuffield Foundation, said:
“During periods of heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainty, it is essential that policymakers and practitioners have access to robust, timely evidence. The Foundation’s new rapid-response funding will support research that helps to understand the impacts of global disruption on people’s lives, informs policy trade-offs, and learn lessons that will help strengthen the UK’s future resilience.”
Applications have opened today and close at 11.59 on 10 July 2026. Up to eight projects will be supported. Successful projects are expected to run for three to six months, “ideally beginning in August or September 2026”.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.