Round 2 of The Ideas Fund announced with £1.2m in further funding

As with the first round of funding, the Fund will continue to focus on ideas related to mental wellbeing, and this additional funding of £1.2 million will support community initiatives in North West Northern Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and Islands, Oldham and Hull.

For this latest round of funding, we have changed the application process based on the feedback and learning we received from organisations who applied in 2021 (the pilot year). This revised application process should reduce the time applicants need to spend on their submission. By providing more in-depth support to shortlisted proposals, we hope to help applicants with innovative ideas to realise their visions. 

The expression of interest for submissions will open from Wednesday 27 April 2022 and the application deadline is midday on Wednesday 8 June 2022 for both community groups and researchers. The Fund are particularly interested in applications from those who are keen to work in partnership to develop the project collaboratively. To support applicants, we have created documents with guidance on the expression of interest questions.

Guidance on EOI questions for communities

Guidance on EOI questions for researchers

Guidance on EOI question for existing community/researcher partnerships.

A series of webinars will be held to give more information about the Fund and the process: 

• Introduction to The Ideas Fund and support with the expression of interest process. Wednesday 4 May from 2.30 pm - 3.30 pm Register here
• Introduction to The Ideas Fund and support with the expression of interest process (repeat of the above) Thursday 12 May 10.30 am - 11.30 am Register here
• Researcher  Q&A Webinar: Wednesday 18 May from 3.00 pm Register here

Further information on the application process including details of the local sessions run by our Development Coordinators can be found here.