Society, Politics & Law

Understanding how societies, governments, and legal systems work and shape our lives

#22 of 29 research categories by total funding · About £26 per person in the UK

Funded awards
6,728
Published funding
£1.7B
Average published award
£477K
Active funded awards
1,353
NIHR-supported projects
24

Amounts are published for 3,625 of 6,728 funded awards. Data as of 16 July 2026.

ESRC funds the most Society, Politics & Law research — 3,330 grants (49% of the topic). The busiest year was 2020, with 593 grants.

Top Funders by Funded Award Count

View data table
FunderFunded awards
ESRC3,330
AHRC1,951
EC572
UKRI489
Wellcome162
EPSRC148
InnovateUK21
MRC12
AMS10
CRUK10

Funded Awards by Year

View data table
YearFunded awards
2006238
2007261
2008212
2009170
2010157
2011164
2012200
2013190
2014138
2015176
2016250
2017436
2018455
2019561
2020593
2021588
2022588
2023551
2024501
2025202

Grants

GCRF - Drugs and (dis)order: Building sustainable peacetime economies in the aftermath of warSOAS University of LondonUKRI£7.3M2017Completed
Between deception and dissent: regulating unproven, disproven, or misleading health-related claimsAssociated with Lancaster University · McGill University · Universite Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar · University of Birmingham · University of Edinburgh · University of Kent · University of OxfordWellcome£5.0M2025Active
QUALREP: The Quality of Women's Political RepresentationKing's College LondonUKRI£3.8M2023Active
Inequality and Governance in Unstable Democracies: The Mediating Role of TrustInstitute of Development StudiesESRC£2.3M2019Completed
Rural Spatial Justice: Rural Discontent, Spatial Justice and Disruptive Politics in the 21st CenturyAberystwyth UniversityUKRI£2.1M2024Active
QUALREP: The Quality Of Women's Political RepresentationUniversity of EdinburghUKRI£1.6M2023Active
Who are the humans behind Human Rights? A Sociology of Human Rights in Eastern Europe and RussiaUniversity College LondonUKRI£1.3M2022Completed
Migration Diplomacy in International PoliticsUniversity of GlasgowUKRI£1.3M2022Completed
Governing Democratic Discourse: Social Media, Online Harms, and the Future of Free SpeechUniversity College LondonUKRI£1.2M2022Completed
Immigration Detention: Investigating the Expansion and Global Diffusion of a Failed ProjectUniversity of GlasgowUKRI£1.1M2022Completed
Immigration Detention: Investigating the Expansion and Global Diffusion of a Failed ProjectUniversity of EdinburghUKRI£1.1M2023Active
Who are the humans behind Human Rights? A Sociology of Human Rights in Eastern Europe and Russia—UKRI£857K2024Active
Disability and Political Parties (DISPOP)University of SouthamptonESRC£846K2025Active
The Sociality of Tax: A Multiperspective Study of Fiscal Relations (SocTax)University College LondonUKRI£827K2022Completed
Spatial Inequalities in African Political EconomyLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceESRC£811K2018Completed
Torture as a Political Technology: A Socio-Political Analysis of the Widespread Use of TortureQueen's University BelfastESRC£769K2021Completed
In the Gulag's Shadow: Producing, Consuming and Perceiving Prisons in the Former Soviet UnionUniversity of StrathclydeESRC£631K2018Completed
Assessing the potential of civil organizations within regions affected by organized crime to hold state institutions to human rights-based developmentUniversity of AberdeenESRC£582K2016Completed
'Diaspora States' in Somalia and Afghanistan: New Perspectives on Post-War Politics, Dual Citizenship and International StatebuildingLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceUKRI£267K2023Completed
Democracy and Social Change in Britain, 1851-2024Royal Holloway University of LondonESRC£248K2025Active

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Related topics

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