Digital Arts and Creative Ageing Fund

The Digital Arts and Creative Ageing Fund is a new £500,000collaborative grant funding programme from the Nominet Trustand The Baring Foundation.

Entrepreneurial-minded organisations that have already demonstrated the distinctive value that digital technology and the internet can bring to connecting older people aged 65 and over with the creative arts, and the beneficial social outcomes offered by this broadening of digital engagement, are eligible to apply.

The creative arts includes music, singing (including opera), film, dance, drama, creative writing, design (including graphic design), photography, painting, drawing, printing, craft, sculpture and installation art.

Successful applicants willreceive:

o Grant funding for each project of up to £90,000, depending on the requirements and the number of projects that receive funding;
o Funder support for project delivery over an 18-month period; and
o A support package including mentoring, marketing and communications advice and networking opportunities.

Applications are invited from a wide variety of UK-based organisations including social organisations such as a charity or Community Interest Company (CIC), or for-profit organisations (for example, a residential care home, retirement village, theatre, arts centre, museum or community centre).

By the end of the funding, successful applicants will be expected to have:

o Demonstrated a model of scale and sustainability for using digital technology to engage older people in the creative arts;
o Developed a strong evaluation methodology;
o Provided evidence to inform decisions about the wider use of digital technology to engage older people in the creative arts.

Funding is not available for:

o Individuals;
o Organisations that represent a political party or a political lobbying group;
o Hardware or software procurement projects; for example, a project to equip a school with PCs, buy software licences, or install wi-fi for a community;
o Website improvements where no new functional or service delivery innovations are created;
o Website development unless the project and organisation meets the funding criteria;
o Core organisational running costs;
o Organisations that simply want to add digital to existing services in order to make them more efficient or cost-effective.

The stage 1 deadline for applications is midday on Tuesday 16 August 2016.

PLEASE NOTE: As part of the Stage 1 application, applicants will need to film a 90-second video pitch which helps to introduce the team and project. The pitch should outline the proposal, its current stage of development, what evidence has already been collected to demonstrate its effectiveness, and how the funding will help it to scale or become sustainable.

Further details about the Fund, including the application process, are available on the Nominet Trust website.

Contact details for the Trust are:

The Nominet Trust
Minerva House
Edmund Halley Road
Oxford Science Park
Oxford OX4 4DQ
Tel: 01865 334000
Email: enquiries@nominettrust.org.uk

(Source: GRIN)