**An online information session will be held on Thursday 9 February at 11am - 12pm - register here**
Aims/priorities: We can help provide the funding, expertise, and support to make it happen, linking you with other likeminded innovators in a growing community across Greater Manchester. The Foundational Economy Innovation Fund is for the “foundational economy”. That’s the “everyday economy”, or the “essential economy” – the businesses we all rely on for our daily needs.
We’re starting with four sectors:
- Health and social care
- Early education and childcare (0-5 years)
- Retail and personal services
- Hospitality and leisure
The fund will support the following:
- Localising supply chains - innovations that support local, sustainable, and circular supply chains. Circular supply chains being those that share, lease, reuse, repair, refurbish, and recycle existing materials and products for as long as possible within Greater Manchester.
- Low carbon and net-zero - innovations that reduce or manage energy consumption and carbon emissions, including via the development and testing of new technology, as well as new systems and initiatives to use and share resources more efficiently or reduce the use of resources.
- More effective services and products - innovations that help create or integrate new ways of delivering your current services or products to a higher standard by doing things more efficiently and effectively. This could include re-thinking your approach to resourcing, organising work, and the adoption or development of technology. This is not about expanding or fundamentally changing the services or products you provide, but instead doing what you do already, better.
- Supporting the workforce - innovations that help with developing, recruiting and retaining staff. This could include new ways of upskilling the workforce, improving progression routes or providing greater flexibility of working patterns and security of hours worked. This could also include finding new ways to connect employers and potential employees, including the self-employed and those who have struggled to find stable work, particularly individuals experiencing inequalities. This does not include using funds to subsidise staff to conduct business as usual activity, the use of monetary incentives, or the purchasing of wellbeing services.
Who can apply? Any individual or legally constituted organisation can submit an application, including organisations from across the public, private and voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sectors. We encourage multiple individuals and / or organisations to apply in collaboration to deliver projects. However, one individual or organisation must act as the “lead applicant” and take on responsibility and liability for the project, with other involved organisations being “delivery partners”. We are interested in applications from individuals, businesses, and organisations who work in, who work with, or who support the sectors in the foundational economy targeted by this fund. We also welcome applications from innovators and inventors that want to work with individuals, businesses, and organisations in these parts of the foundational economy. Organisations outside of Greater Manchester can submit an application in collaboration with an organisation within Greater Manchester.
Grant amount: The following is available:
Phase 1 - £10k grants
- Up to 40 projects will be supported with £10,000 to develop or trial ideas and innovations. Some projects will have ideas that need more development, while others will be ready to trial something straight away. We are interested in both at phase 1.
- All spending of Phase 1 funding must be completed within 6 months of receipt of the funding.
Phase 2 - £60k grants
- Up to 10 projects will be awarded an additional £60,000 to develop them further and expand on their impact following completion of phase 1 and a successful pitch to a prize panel.
- Details on the process and criteria for selecting projects for Phase 2 funding will be provided at a later date, but we expect the process for Phase 2 applications to open up around 4 months following the start of Phase1.
Application process: If you wish to apply, first please read in full the Foundational Economy Innovation Fund Application Pack. This includes all the relevant information you need to apply, including details regarding the sort of projects this fund will, and will not, support. Applications can be found and made on the funders website. The expression of interest phase is now complete. Applications will be judged exclusively on the information provided on the full application form.
Deadline: The application window is now open and is due to close at 23:59 on 12 March 2023.
Website address: www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk