About the Trust
A trust built for independent student research
The National Student Policy Trust advances the education of students at universities across the UK — funding the people and the work behind rigorous, non-partisan policy research.
Our mission
Advancing the education of students through policy research
Our charitable object is to advance the education of students at universities and higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. We do this by backing student-led think tanks and policy research societies — the students who research, analyse, write and publish, and the skills they build in the process.
Every grant is made through a registered students' union and applied to the advancement of education. We receive no commercial services in return, and we never buy influence over what students conclude.
Why the Trust exists
Independence is the whole point
Student think tanks produce genuinely useful public research, but good research needs resources: bursaries so students can commit real time, training so the work is rigorous, and money for events and publication. Funding that work directly from donors risks a subtler problem — the appearance, or the reality, that whoever pays can shape what gets said.
The Trust is designed to remove that risk. Funds are channelled through a students' union and held as a restricted fund. We contract with the union through a Funding Agreement, not with donors, and our governing policies prohibit any donor from previewing or influencing research. A donor may choose which think tank to support; they can never direct its conclusions.
We also guard against a quieter dependency: once a think tank has operated on Trust funding for years, a sudden withdrawal could threaten its survival. Our Emergency Continuity Reserve exists to give supported think tanks two to three years of runway, so their independence never rests on our continued existence.
A phased, public-benefit approach
Prove the model, then grow it
In its first phase the Trust develops and tests its grant-making model with a primary partner — the Leeds Policy Institute at the University of Leeds — before expanding to student think tanks at universities across the United Kingdom. This measured start is consistent with the Charity Commission's guidance on proportionate start-up activity for new charities.
The public benefit is twofold: the students we support develop research, analytical and communication skills that enrich their education, and the public gains high-quality, freely available policy research that is not commercially motivated. As a condition of every grant, supported think tanks must be open to the wider student body and publish their outputs free of charge.
Non-partisan by design
We fund analysis, not campaigns
The Trust only funds research that is objective, balanced and genuinely educational. We do not fund work whose primary purpose is to campaign for a political outcome, or that promotes a particular party, candidate or movement.
Want to understand the detail?
Read how our grants work, or see the governance that keeps them independent.