Innovation charity Nesta has announced that it will be awarding up to five £10,000 grants for data-driven research into “below the radar” organisations.

The grants, which will be worth £10,000 each, are for research into small voluntary organisations, community groups and more informal or semi-formal activities in the civil society sector.

Nesta says these types of organisations, which are not normally represented in any formal register or database, make up large amounts of the activity happening in the social economy.

The grants on offer are about exploring new data driven methods for researching and understanding “below the radar” activity.

Nesta hope that the research will produce methods for capturing new types of data about “below the radar” organisations and examples of the application of these in practice in the UK.

Nesta welcomes applications from universities and research organisations, charities, companies and consultancies.

The deadline to apply is 4 March. To find out more go to Nesta’s website.