The Jane Hatfield Award

Supporting the next generation of researchers and activists.

Apply Now: Applications for the Jane Hatfield Award 2026 are open

To find out more about the application process, please download the application brief. Applications for the 2026 Award are open until Monday the 23rd of February at 5pm.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Houda (houda@ivar.org.uk) for any further queries, and share the opportunity to those within your network.

Download Application Brief

Upcoming webinar: The Jane Hatfield Award 2025 recipients

There will be an upcoming webinar showcase of the research done by the recipients of the 2025 award. This is a first chance to hear about new work from early-career Black and minoritised researchers in the fields of community, social action and social justice.

Date: Monday 16th February (12:00-1:00pm), Online Webinar

This year’s project topics are:
‘International Responses to Intergenerational Trauma‘ and
‘Using Data to Tackle Racial Inequality in Scotland‘

To learn more about the 2025 recipients and their work, click here.

Sign up here

About The Jane Hatfield Award

IVAR launched the Jane Hatfield Award in partnership with The Ubele Initiative CIC (‘Ubele’) in 2022. This award provides two annual grants of £6,050 to two teams of young researchers, to investigate issues or topics related to community, social action and/or social justice.

It’s with thanks to Impact on Urban Health and City Bridge Foundation for funding the award to our two project teams to explore the experiences, barriers and opportunities in social action and social entrepreneurship for young people of Black and Minoritised communities. 

Mirroring the award’s pilot year, we have decided to select the teams from within Ubele’s network of young people who had some prior experience of supporting research. Over the course of the award, we provide guidance, resources and platforms for project development and delivery to support the next generation of researchers and activists.

The Award is named in memory and celebration of Jane Hatfield: Trustee and then Chair of IVAR from 2006 to 2021.

She was a passionate and valued member of the voluntary sector. Her contributions strengthened the sector and included – among many things – supporting the next generation of researchers and activists. As Chair of IVAR, she advocated for the organisation to proactively support people in the early stages of their careers, and always pushed IVAR’s thinking.

Meet the 2025 award recipients

IVAR is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2025 Jane Hatfield Award, supporting two teams of early-career researchers investigating critical issues related to community, social action and/or social justice, affecting Black and racially minoritised communities across the UK.

Find out more about our four recipients and their chosen areas of research:

‘International Responses to Intergenerational Trauma‘
and
‘Using Data to Tackle Racial Inequality in Scotland‘

Find out more

With thanks to our funders and partners:

Meet previous beneficiaries

Meet the 2024 award recipients

In 2024, the Award returned, and two more teams of recipients conducted research into social action in Black and minoritised communities. The two projects were:

‘“Let My Candle Shine” – Young Black Women Navigating the UK Voluntary Sector‘
and
‘Exploring experiences and barriers in seeking mental health support among male asylum seekers in hotel accommodations‘

Find out more

Meet the 2023 award recipients

In September 2023, IVAR and The Ubele Initiative had the pleasure of hosting an event to share the work of the first recipients of The Jane Hatfield Award.

The 2023 recipients conducted and released research, and shared the themes that had emerged from their research, like equitable funding and support needed in the social action space:

‘Barrier after barrier‘
and
‘Social entrepreneurship as a reintegrative solution for ex-prison residents‘

You can watch the video presentation of the work below.

Find out more

Research

With thanks to the researchers for image use. Some images are stock.

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