Fund - £225,000
(This is the first in a series of funding opportunities for the Digital Makers programme)
This open call is now closed. To be kept up-to-date with future calls please complete an Expression of Interest form.
Nesta and Nominet Trust, in partnership with Mozilla, are pleased to announce an open call for ideas to significantly increase the number of young people who participate in digital making activities.
We're looking to support initiatives that invite mass participation and use young people's interests and passions to drive demand from new audiences to become creators, not just consumers of digital technologies - in their thousands. We want to work with organisations who will shout loudly about this work, championing digital making activities and helping to raise demand amongst young people.
The first call is backed by a fund of £225,000 and we expect to make a small number of grants between £20,000 and £50,000 alongside a package of tailored non-financial support.
In the 21st Century digital technologies are ubiquitous. They go beyond the smartphone in your pocket and the computer at home. Digital technologies touch every aspect of life and business including finance, cutting edge medicine, engineering and entertainment. Even day-to-day physical objects from cars to fridges are becoming digital devices.
Our young people need to understand how digital technologies work and how they can use them to solve problems and express themselves; similarly they need to understand how they are constructed to be aware of how digital technologies affect their lives. We think the most effective way to learn this is through digital making.
Digital making is the creative process of making a product or digital artefact - from websites, apps, games, and 3D animations to physical objects driven by microcontrollers.
Digital making will often mean using coding and programming skills as well as the creative use of digital tools to make new products. Digital making skills are fundamentally underpinned by an understanding of computational thinking but may also include things like creative teamwork, problem solving, engineering and design in order to build new technologies.
These arguments, among others, have been articulated in Nesta's Next Gen report, which has already changed the debate about computer science teaching in schools. This is good news, but working within schools is only part of the story if we want to achieve our goal to inspire a generation of digital makers. Nesta's second report in the computing space, The Legacy of the BBC Micro, said:
'Delivering change means reaching homes as well as schools... kit, clubs and formal learning need to be augmented by support for individual learners; they may be the entrepreneurs of the future.'
Digital making opens new ways for young people to participate effectively in their communities. From our continuing research and work with active participants and practitioners within the Digital Maker community we know that there are personal, societal and economic benefits to learning these skills; that they are a fundamental literacy for a digital world.
That's the heavy version. We also think making things is fun and inspiring. This is about teamwork, sharing, problem solving and making really cool websites, apps, games, gadgets, interactive movies and art.
We're looking to support initiatives that invite mass participation and use young people's interests and passions to drive demand from new audiences to become creators, not just consumers of digital technologies. We're looking for applications from organisations that have the ability to engage thousands of young people in digital making activities
We want to support partners who are noisy advocates for the importance of digital making; who will use all the channels available to them to shout about and promote their projects.
Please note that this call is looking to support initiatives that have already been prototyped - not concept ideas. All applications will be scored against a set five of Core Criteria. We have also compiled the following list of features to keep in mind when completing your application.
Features to keep in mind
Collaboration, peer-based learning and sharing: Digital technologies are built in teams and frequently use open resources and knowledge from an international community. We're interested in approaches that encourage teamwork and celebrate different skills such as programming, design, content production or engineering. We're also keen to see ways of enabling young people to share their knowledge, skills and products with each other.
Assets that can be widely shared, replicated and repurposed: We want to see applications for open resources that can achieve maximum impact by being shared and replicated by other members of the digital maker community in different contexts around the country; for example, online products, project resources, event models or curricula which could be used in homes, classes, clubs or hackjams anywhere.
The web as a platform: The worldwide web is the most open platform for participation we have. How can we use the open tools and communities it provides access to in order to drive participation in creating new products and creative projects online?
A strong audience focus: Tell us who your initiative is aimed at, how they will find it and why should they be interested. How does your initiative use what you know about that audience to encourage them to take part? Does your proposal rely on a pre-existing interest in digital creation, or does it build on other interests (e.g. music, fashion, sport, games, data-sets) to encourage participation from different groups?
Sustainability: It is important to us that we support initiatives that have the potential to grow and thrive beyond this funds initial investment. We are open to different models for sustainability including commercial for-profit businesses. One-off interventions would need extraordinary power and reach to attract funding.
Clear opportunities for skills progression: We're interested in how Digital Makers move from one level of interest and participation to the next. We'd like to see applications that give a strong sense of where the participant should go next to take their interest to the next level, and how this would be facilitated. We're also interested in projects aimed at helping Digital Makers who have reached one level of mastery progress to the next.
New partnerships to achieve goals: Openness and partnership are important values to us. We're interested in proposals from new partnerships that find new routes to drive participation in digital making. Good examples of this include Mozilla's work with the Zoological Society to create their popular Thimble project, or Nesta's partnership with the Scout Association to reinvent their IT activities with a focus on digital making.
The call is backed by a fund of £225,000 and expects to make a small number of grants of between £20,000 and £50,000.
Alongside the grant, a package of tailored support will be offered; this includes expert advice and mentoring, access to Nesta, Nominet Trust and Mozilla's expertise and networks, desk and event space. The support package will be designed with you to strengthen and develop your initiative to maximise impact and sustainability.
We hope to see applications for projects at a range of price points within the £20,000 - £50,000 scale. Not every grant will be made at the highest level.
This call closed on 17 January 2013 and grants will be awarded in March 2013.
Applications for funding will follow this format:
Stage 1: Complete an Expression of Interest form and attend a mandatory Digital Makers workshop or webchat before deciding to submit an application.
**The workshops and webchats have now finished. If you were not able to attend any during this round, we will be unable to accept your application for funding. The Expression of Interest form will remain open for those who wish to be involved in the programme in other ways and a second funding round should be available later this year.
Stage 2: Submit a short video pitch of no more than 2 minutes and a short application form that captures some basic information about the idea and organisation. Deadline date Thursday 17 January 2013.
Video pitches should briefly and clearly explain your idea. You are not expected to cover all five of the core criteria in your video pitch and we advise that you focus particularly on impact, innovation and the audience of your work.
NB: Video pitches must be uploaded to Vimeo and made publicly available. Videos will not be assessed on the quality of production. The main objective is to take two minutes to explain your idea as clearly as possible. Feel free to be creative where that helps you explain your idea, but it is perfectly acceptable to simply talk to a camera.
Stage 3: We will shortlist the most promising applications and invite the people behind them to pitch to a panel of experts. If your application is shortlisted at this stage, you will be notified by Thursday 14 February 2013.
Applications will be scored against the core criteria.
Stage 4: Pitches to the panel of experts will take place in late February/early March 2013. Confirmation of awards will be made in March 2013.
NB: The most compelling and promising projects may be eligible for further stages of funding. This will not necessarily be in the form of a grant and will be structured to reflect the nature and needs of the organisation and its initiative.
Single events: Our aim is to reach a wide range of people and encourage real participation with digital making. Single events are limited in scope in terms of the number of people they reach and the on-going engagement with the attendees. The exception would be if the event could easily be packaged into a replicable format that could be promoted elsewhere.
Supply of kit: We don't want to fund x number of Raspberry Pis / iPads / laptops / other kit for schools or clubs without clear guidance and support for their use as part of a wider project. However we do want to support partnerships between product creators / suppliers and networks of instructors to bring digital making to life.
Materials aimed solely at teachers: The focus of this fund to reach young people directly. However, we believe that if you make a product or service that is engaging enough to inspire young people to learn digital making skills, that teachers will find it - and we will engage with networks like Computing at Schools and STEMNET to help make that happen.
Business as usual: This fund aims to provide new opportunities for participation in digital making and to build audiences beyond those that exist already. We want to work with great organisations that are already reaching young people - but to help scale up participation, reach new audiences or create new products - not fund the everyday running of current practices.
The Fund is focused on increasing young people's participation in digital making in the UK. While your organisation can benefit international markets your proposal should focus primarily or significantly on the benefits it can deliver to UK audiences.
We are open to proposals from all sources and sectors and all types of organisations - communities, charities large and small, social entrepreneurs, businesses, academia, public services or other organisations. We cannot fund activity which is party-political in intention, use, or presentation and we will not normally fund the purchase of capital equipment.
The Fund is open to for-profit and private companies; however funding will only be awarded for projects that have an identifiable public benefit related to the aims of the Fund and our charitable objects. Any financial profit arising from funding provided must be reinvested in the same or similar social purpose.
Applications for funding will follow this format:
1. Complete an Expression of Interest to register
2.Attend a workshop or webchat: These have now finished. If you were not able to attend, we will be unable to accept your application during this round of funding.
3. Submit video pitch and short application form (which can be previewed here) : 5pm, Thursday 17 January 2013
4. Invited by Nesta to pitch to a selection panel: notifications received by Thursday 14 February 2013
5. Panel pitches: late February/early March 2013
6. Confirmation of awards: March 2013
![Digital Makers logo [original]](http://admin.nesta.org.uk/library/images/Digital-_Makers_Logo.png "Digital Makers logo [original]"){kind=logo}
![Arrow icon green [original]](http://admin.nesta.org.uk/library/images/arrow_green.jpg "Arrow icon green [original]"){kind=icon}
Complete the Expression of Interest form for the Digital Makers open call here
T +44 (0)20 7438 2500
F +44 (0)20 7438 2501
Nesta Operating Company, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833.
