Equality and Diversity Innovation Fund

The Skills Funding Agency and NIACE are pleased to invite bids from Skills Funding Agency-funded providers to deliver projects which advance equality, diversity and inclusion.

This is a flexible project fund, designed to enable colleges, training organisations and other providers to design and deliver the projects that will have the greatest impact for learners and potential learners. The aim of the fund is to support innovative and sustainable projects which develop the capacity of the sector to meet the public sector Equality Duty (2010).

Individual colleges and training organisations are invited to bid for a grant of between £1,000 and £25,000. Successful bids of £5,000 or less will have a higher level of freedom and flexibility in how they deliver their projects, and be subject to a lower level of reporting and monitoring than projects receiving larger grants.

Projects will normally begin in October 2013 and should be completed at the beginning of June 2014. Monitoring and reporting of project outcomes and impact will be required after project funding ceases up until the end of March 2015.

A key aim of the project fund is to catalyse change across the sector, so all projects will be required to collaborate with each other and disseminate their findings locally and nationally. Mandatory dissemination events will take place in June/July 2014, followed by ongoing dissemination in autumn 2014 and beyond.

For full details see the prospectus (MS Word, ~500Kb) - audio summary (mp3, ~4MB),

Applications to the fund should be made online via this page (www.niace.org.uk/edif) between Saturday 10 August 2013 and Monday 16 September 2013.

Online Application

Online applications will be live from 9am on Saturday 10 August 2013

Closing date: 11pm on Monday 16 September 2013

Continue to the EDIF application form

Before you apply

Please read the prospectus carefully. To help you prepare your application, there are two templates:

The application form template (MS Word, 300KB)
containing the online fields and word limits you will be required to complete when applying for a grant.
The budget template (MS Excel, 44KB)
you will need to complete this template and submit it along with your application
Read our Frequently Asked Questions

Create an account on the NIACE website

In order to apply online you will need to be registered on the NIACE website. If you are not already registered you can create an account now

Check back here for updates

We will publish additional information, such as frequently asked questions (FAQs) and an easy read version of the prospectus to support you to engage with learners in developing your ideas and proposal.

For further information/enquiries please email edif@niace.org.uk