Funding Round Up
Sport England to Launch Two New Volunteering Funds (England)
As part of its new strategy “Volunteering in an active Nation”, Sport England will launch two new funds at the end of February 2017. The aim of the funds will be to enable young people and adults from disadvantaged communities to take part in volunteering, using sport or physical activity. The funds are the Potentials Fund which targets children and young people aged 10 to 20 (with a particular focus on 10-14 year-olds); and the Opportunity Fund which targets people, especially adults, from disadvantaged areas. Each fund will have a total budget of £3 million and applicants will be able to bid for funding of up to £50,000 per year for up to three years. There will be a two stage application process. The first stage will be to submit an expression of interest by the 24th April 2017. Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to submit a full application by June 2017. Sport England aim to make funding awards by late-summer 2017.
Funding for Community-led Buildings and Housing Projects (England)
Local organisations such as Town or Parish Councils, Neighbourhood Forums or qualifying community organisations in England can apply for grants to support community-led building and housing projects. Two types of grants are available. These are the Community-led Buildings Pre-Feasibility Grant and the Community-led Buildings Project Support Grant. Through the Community-led Buildings Pre-Feasibility Grant scheme, grants of up between £1,000 and £10,000 are available to assess the feasibility of a community-led building project prior to submitting a Community Right to Build Order. The Community-led Buildings Project Support Grant scheme provides funding of between £5,000 and £40,000 to pay for the expert help and other costs associated needed to progress a community-led building project to the point of submitting a Community Right to Build Order. Application to both schemes can be submitted until the 1st October 2017.
Arts Award Access Fund (England)
The next deadline for applications to the Arts Award Access Fund is the 3rd March 2017. Grants of £100 to £1500 are available to Arts Award centres in England that are working with young people for whom access and inclusion is an issue. This can include young people with a disability; learning difficulties; that have special educational needs; etc. The aim of the grants is to enable Arts Award Centres to pilot, embed or develop their Arts Award work with these groups. The funding can be used for a range of activities, including fees for workshops with a professional or specialist; general art materials and printing costs; travel to and from a venue; and hire of specialist equipment or specialist venue; etc.
The Royal Society of Biology’s Regional Grant Scheme 2017 (UK)
The Royal Society of Biology’s has announced that the closing date for applications to its Regional Grant Scheme is the 21st April 2017. Through the scheme grants of up to £500 are available to individual members of the society to run an event or activity in their region is association with the 2017 Biology week. Biology Week will run from the 7th October to the 15th October 2017 and will showcase the important and amazing world of the biosciences, getting everyone from children to professional biologists involved in fun and interesting life science activities. The society is looking to fund a wide range of events and activities, supporting both those that are experienced in event delivery and people organising their first event. Funding will be available at two levels, small grants between £50 and £200 and full grants between £201 and £500.
Elton John Aids Foundation Pioneer Grants (UK / International)
The Elton John Aids Foundation’s Pioneer Grant has re-opened for applications. Pioneer Grants are available to support projects focusing on an individual key population at higher risk of contracting aids. The Foundations will only be considering projects from organisations working with People who Inject Drugs, Sex Workers and Prison Populations. To be eligible for funding, projects must fulfil the following criteria. These are: have a focus on service delivery; be catalytic in nature, scalable in design and innovative; able to track changes such as access to condoms, HIV testing and treatment of programme beneficiaries. The project must take place in one or more of the following countries: Cameroon; Cote D’voire; Ghana; India; Kenya; Lesotho; Malawi; Myanmar (Burma); Nigeria; Russian; Federation; South Africa; Tanzania; Thailand; Uganda; Ukraine; United Kingdom; Zambia and Zimbabwe. The closing date for applications is 6pm on the 20th March 2017.
Funding to Protect Cultural Heritage in Conflict Affected Countries (UK)
The British Council has announced that the Cultural Protection Fund Large Grants Programme has re-opened for applications. The aim of the fund is to protect cultural heritage in conflict-affected countries. The Fund is designed with UK organisations in mind, but any organisation is eligible to apply. Organisations must be working with; or be in the process of developing partnerships with local partner organisations in one or more of the Fund’s current target countries within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. These are Afghanistan, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen. Through the large grants scheme, grants of over £100,000 are available. For the large grants programme the deadline for submitting an expression of interest is the 31st March 2017. Organisations successful at this stage will then have until the 23rd June to submit a full application. There is also a Cultural Protection Fund Small Grants Programme which provides grants of up to £100,000. Small grant decisions are made on a quarterly basis in December, March, June and September and the next application deadline is the 21st April 2017.
The next closing date for applications to the Hilden Charitable Fund is the 16th March 2017. Within the UK, the Hilden Charitable Fund makes grants to projects that address disadvantage and by supporting causes which are less popular. In particular, the Fund wants to support projects that address homelessness; supports asylum seekers and refugees; support community based initiatives for disadvantaged young people 16 – 25; and penal affairs. The average grant awarded is £5,000 and preference is given to supporting small community organisations with an income of less than £500,000 per year. The Trust will consider funding project as well as core running costs of organisations.
Sutton Trust Summer School Programme (UK)
The Sutton Trust has re-opened its Summer Schools programme for applications. The Sutton Trust summer schools programme provides students from non-privileged backgrounds with an opportunity to taste student life. During previous application rounds, the programme will provide an opportunity to over 1700 students to experience student life at the universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Imperial, King’s College, Nottingham, St Andrews, and UCL. All expenses are met by the Trust and participating universities. To apply, applicants must be in Year 12 or equivalent (eg S5 in Scotland) and attend a state school or college with a low overall A-Level, Higher/Advanced Higher (or equivalent) point score and/or schools or colleges with low progression rates to higher education. In addition, applicants need to come from neighbourhoods with low overall progression rates to higher education or high levels of socio economic deprivation. The closing date for applications is 5pm on the 2nd March 2017.
Funding to Develop Joint Projects with German Schools (UK)
UK Schools that have existing partnerships with German Schools can apply for funding of up to £5,000 (£6,000 in exceptional circumstances) to support joint projects. This can include mutual visits, and is designed to inspire young people from the UK and Germany to get involved in relevant interaction, collaboration and learning. For example, the Dukeries Academy, Newark and Gesamtschule Rheydt-Mülfort, Mönchengladbach took part in a cross-curricular project involving their local communities to investigate how can local transport infrastructure be made more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Grants provided through the Challenge Fund grant can support costs such as travel and accommodation for reciprocal partner visits, project resources and joint activities and will be a contribution to the overall costs. Applicants must contribute at least 25% of the overall eligible activity costs through participants’ contributions and other sources of funding. The deadline for the Challenge Fund is the 31st May 2017.
Funding for UK-French School Partnerships (UK)
The British Council has announced that grants are available for secondary schools (including sixth form and further education colleges) that have existing partnerships with a school in France. The funding is being made available through the Charles De Gaulle Trust. The Charles de Gaulle Trust offers a grant of £5,000 per school for students aged between 17 and 19 who will be working on joint projects and study visits that can demonstrate a link to their school syllabus. A minimum of three students must participate in the project work. The deadline for applications is the 15th May 2017.
Royal Society of Chemistry – Outreach Fund (UK)
The Royal Society of Chemistry has announced that its Outreach Fund has re-opened for applications. The Outreach Fund is split into two categories. These are: small grants – up to £2,000; and large grants – between £2,000 and £10,000. The fund will be open to individuals and organisations (this includes, but is not limited to, Society members and member networks, researchers in academia or industry, museums, community groups, not-for-profit organisations, arts groups and libraries) to enable them to run chemistry-based events and activities for public audiences. Priority will be given to projects that raise awareness of the place of chemistry in people’s everyday lives, especially those not already interested in chemistry, and/or develop the science communication skills of people who are already highly trained in chemistry. Previously funded projects include “Cool chemistry at the seaside” where the Society awarded a grant of £2,000 to volunteers in Ramsgate who transformed an empty town-centre shop into a makeshift theatre, delivering free chemistry demonstrations to anyone. The closing date for small grants is the 3rd April 2017 and for large grants the 3rd July 2017.
Partnership in Learning Fund (UK)
UK-German Connection an organisation dedicated to increasing contacts and understanding between young people in the UK and Germany has announced that its Partnerships in Learning funding programme is open for applications. The funding programme aims to support UK-German school partnerships undertaking a variety of educational activities in both countries, including peer learning, with a flexible thematic and cross-year approach relevant to the curriculum.The maximum grant available is £5,000, which is to be shared between the participating schools to support costs such as travel and accommodation for reciprocal partner visits, project resources and joint activities. Applicants must contribute at least 25% of the overall eligible activity costs through participants’ contributions and other sources of funding. For example, Wishaw/Shotts Youth Exchange Group in North Lanarkshire and Kreisjugendring Wunsiedel worked on an exchange to promote European citizenship and investigate what life was like living on a border. The deadline for applications is the 31st May 2017.
Funding for Project that Support Children and Young People (UK)
Registered Charities that work with young people have the opportunity to apply for grants through the DM Thomas Foundation for Young People (formerly the Hilton Foundation) Central Grants Programme. Registered Charities can apply for grants ranging from a few hundred pounds up to £30,000 per year for up to 2 years that are working in the areas of education or health with one of the Foundation’ four chosen focus groups. These are children and young people with disabilities; children and young people who are sick in hospital; and children and young people who are life limited (requiring palliative care). There is approximately £200,000 available to distribute each quarter. Grant applications for up to £5,000 can be approved by the Director; up to £10,000 can be approved by the Committee, and applications for more than £10,000 are recommended to the Trustees for final approval. There is no limit on the amount of money that a charity can request. However, the Foundation is a small charity and generally will not make awards of over £30,000 (per year). Funding can be requested for up to 2 years for any particular project. The next closing date for applications is 5.30 pm on the 9th May 2017.
Royal Bank of Scotland Skills and Opportunities Fund (UK)
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that its Skills and Opportunities Fund re-opened for applications. Charities, social enterprises, community groups, state-funded schools and colleges across the UK and Ireland will be able to apply for funding of up to £35,000 to help people in disadvantaged communities develop create or access the skills and opportunities they need to help themselves and skills that will enable them to get into work or start a business. When all applications have been received and reviewed, the RBS will publish a shortlist of projects being considered for funding in each region. Voting will then be open to the public. The outcome of the public vote will be taken into consideration by the regional judging panels. Previous winners included John Hampden Grammar School which received funding towards a project aimed at young adults who are struggling to reach the required standards or have behavioural issues and come from deprived backgrounds; and the Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre which received funding for a Women Ex-Offenders Peer Mentoring Programme which aims to improve the life chances of women ex-offenders through educational and volunteering opportunities. The closing date for applications midday on Friday 24 February 2017.