The NESTA Future Ready Fund is a £250,000 fund to support high-potential, early-stage interventions to test and further develop interventions that promote wider skills in secondary-age (11-18) young people, focusing on social and emotional skills and resilience. They are looking to fund between 5 to 7 projects for between £35,000 to £50,000. They will also offer non-financial support focusing on evaluation.

Projects should focus on developing at least one of the following skills:

• Emotional intelligence, in particular how to build good relationships and collaborate effectively.
• Social and emotional competence, particularly in relation to collaboration.
• Resilience and coping.
• Perceptions of self (self-confidence and self-efficacy).
• Motivation, goal orientation and perseverance.

Projects can be delivered in school/college curriculum time or as an extra-curricular activity within schools/colleges, or be delivered outside of school/college entirely. This may include, but is not limited to, mentoring, social action, employment experience, in-curriculum approaches and project-based initiatives. Find out more about NESTA’s selection criteria.

Key dates

• November 2018: participate in a webinar to find out more about the fund.
• Monday 10 December 2018, 9 am: deadline for expressions of interest. submission. Submit your idea via the online form.
• Mid-January 2019: shortlisted applicants invited to a development meeting to discuss their application and invited to submit a full application.
• Monday 4 February 2019, 9 am: deadline for full application.
• End of February 2019: shortlisted applicants informed of the final decision.
• March 2019 to August 2020: period of grant funding.

Further information

More information and answers to FAQ’s can be found here.