To mark the launch of Edge’s new grant fund – the Edge Innovation Fund – Jane Samuels, Director of Projects and Operations at the Foundation joined Gavin O’Meara to talk all things funding.

The Edge Innovation Fund is a new approach to funding for Edge. The fund, which opened on 14th September 2021 will stay open until the end of 2025. There is £300k available for the balance of 2021 and then the fund will be refreshed every 1st January until 2025. The minimum amount available is £20k and the maximum for a one year project is £100k. Projects which run for multiple years (up to a maximum of 3 years) can bid for up to the entire amount in the funding pot.

Edge is looking for disruptive innovators with ideas and plans to challenge the current approach to education in the UK. All projects must support Edge’s strategic aim for a broad, flexible and engaging curriculum, providing high quality vocational and professional education which is employer and community engaged. More details about the Fund, the criteria and how to apply can be found here.

In the first episode of Edgy Thinking, Jane and Gavin discussed the new grant fund and how important it is to provide a source of funding for innovative education. They were joined by two organisations previously funded by Edge. Stefano Pacelli, at Blackburn College talked about their two successful bids, one centred on automotive engineering and one on eco-construction. Stefano stressed the Edge funding had allowed the College to not only develop state of the art facilities but also to provide lecturers the time and resources to develop deep and long-lasting employment engagement. This enables the College to put learners at the heart of relationships with local and national employers and engage with their community,

The second guest was Harriet Bird, who is Senior Trusts and Grants Manager at the Barbican Centre. Harriet spoke about Edge’s support for their Careers Rewired programme which looked to raise awareness and understanding of careers opportunity within the creative sector. Edge funding allowed the Barbican to develop a new approach to engagement with local schools which brought inner city students to the Barbican Centre for the first time and took creative professionals into the classrooms.

Both Stefano and Harriet spoke about the challenges of securing funding and of the impact that the projects had had. Measuring the impact and evaluating the success of grant funded projects is key to Edge, who have recently released an Impact Report on the whole of their Grant Funding programme.