Innovation Fund launch
Deadline for applications: 5pm, Monday 15 December 2014.
The York Festival of Ideas is delighted to announce that it has received funding from the Holbeck Trust to enable it to launch an exciting new Innovation Fund to provide support for organisations and individuals wishing to develop activities for the 2015 programme. The Festival is now inviting applications for funding support of up to £2,000. The 2015 Festival programme will run from 9 to 21 June 2015 on a theme of ‘secrets and discoveries’.
About the festival
The Festival was created in 2011 by the University of York in partnership with three city partners. It has now grown to encompass partnerships with more than 40 national and city organisations and is the largest free festival in the UK. The objective of the Festival of Ideas is to enhance York’s reputation as a city of ideas and innovation by offering the highest calibre of public events to local, regional and visitor audiences and to demonstrate to the widest possible audiences the transformative power of education and ideas.
In 2014 the festival held 140 events over ten days and reached an audience of more than 40,000 last year. The Festival’s mission is to ‘educate, entertain and inspire’ and it is with this in mind that the Holbeck Trust agreed to support the Festival’s inclusive agenda by enabling it to create the Innovation Fund.
How the Innovation Fund will support the festival
The Innovation Fund will support this aim by offering grants of up to £2,000, with an average grant of £1,000, for any activity which is creative, innovative and links to the 2015 Festival theme of Secrets and Discoveries. This could include a talk or panel discussion, hands-on activity, performance, or exhibition. Applications are welcomed from individuals and organisations (this includes student and community groups, and Festival partners).
Applications will be assessed against four criteria:
- creativity
- effectiveness in engaging young people and/or hard-to-reach audiences
- quality of project planning
- the ability of project proposals to link with the 2015 Festival theme of Secrets and Discoveries
Projects must be delivered in the city of York and during the Festival period.
The deadline for applications to the Innovation Fund is 5pm, Monday 15 December 2014.