Digital Xtra Fund
Since its inception in 2016, Digital Xtra Fund has distributed £550,000 to 55 high-quality, exciting extracurricular computing and digital technologies initiatives across Scotland. This funding has helped engage nearly 30,000 young people in tech and showed them the breadth of opportunities these skills can provide. A new round of grant awards was launched on 2 September 2019 with a total of £75,000 available.
Grants of up to £5,000 will be awarded to extracurricular activity providers that teach skills and concepts such as coding, computational thinking, digital creativity, data science and cybersecurity from an young age and help inspire Scotland’s next generation of digital makers, leaders and technologists. Submissions will close on 31 October 2019.
To be eligible for a Digital Xtra Fund grant award, applicants must demonstrate that:
- The Main Applicant is a UK registered company, registered charity, chartered body, Local Authority, school, college, or university actively involved in the provision of computing education and/or digital technologies related activities
- The proposed initiative meets the Core Objective of Digital Xtra Fund as outlined in the Grant Application Guidelines
- The grant requested is between £500 and £5,000
- The primary audience are young people aged 16 years and under
- The proposed initiative will commence after 1 January 2020 and be completed by 31 December 2020
- The proposed initiative will be delivered entirely in Scotland
- The activity is extracurricular as defined below:
What we want to achieve
The core objective of Digital Xtra Fund is to inspire young people to learn advanced digital technologies skills through high quality, exciting extracurricular activities, thus expanding the talent pipeline of young people who might study related disciplines and ultimately pursue a career in digital technologies. Initiatives must clearly demonstrate how participants will be involved in the digital making/creation and what skills they will learn.
Applications are sought for initiatives which tangible demonstrate exciting and stimulating ways of engaging young people. In particular, Digital Xtra Fund is keen to support projects which appeal to:
- audiences currently unengaged in digital technologies
- audiences from areas often excluded from digital tech activities through lack of local facilities or geography (i.e. areas of high deprivation and/or rural isolation)
- groups underrepresented in the digital technologies sector (i.e. girls and young women and/or minority groups)
Activities which contextualise the skills learned and promote various pathways into a career in digital tech or computing science are also particularly of interest. Partnerships with other organisations such as industry, industry bodies, charities, schools, other extracurricular activity providers, etc. are strongly encourages to help achieve this aim.
The Digital Xtra Fund grant awards are made possible by the generous support of the Fund’s Partners. The binding commonality across Digital Xtra Fund and our Partners is a will to engage and inspire more young people to understand and create with digital technologies and give them the skills needed to succeed in an increasingly digital world. In addition to providing financial support, many of the Fund’s Partners will also help successful applicants via employee engagement, further contextualising skills and promoting various career pathways.
What we are looking for
Digital Xtra Fund will be looking for evidence that the grant is needed, is of value, and that the activity will provide a positive impact on the provision of extracurricular digital technologies and computing science activity across Scotland for young people aged 16 years and under.
Applicants will need to clearly demonstrate how the proposed activity aligns with the objections of Digital Xtra Fund and well as:
- Define measurable and realistic targets and outcomes for the proposed project
- Indicate how participants will learn about the proposed project and become involved
- Explore partnerships with industry and other key stakeholders to generate synergy
- Outline plans to sustain and/or develop the activity post grant
- Provide a project plan including key personnel, budget, and key milestones
- Provide post-project evaluation
APPLY NOW!
Applications for the Round V (2019/20) Grant Awards are now open!
The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2019 with the application evaluation period taking place throughout November. Successful applicants will be contacted shortly thereafter for a further round of due diligence. These dates are indicative and may be subject to change with notice of any change provided to applicants via social media.
Download the Round V (2019/20) Grant Guidelines and Grant Application Form here
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