Digital Xtra Fund
Since its inception in 2016, Digital Xtra Fund has distributed £660,000 to 80 high-quality, exciting extracurricular computing and digital technologies initiatives across Scotland. This funding has helped engage nearly 38,000 young people in tech and showed them the breadth of opportunities these skills can provide.
In February 2021, Digital Xtra Fund will open applications for a sixth funding cycle to further boost interest in computing and technology amongst young people across Scotland. Grants of up to £5,000 will be awarded to extracurricular activity providers that teach children and young people skills and concepts such as coding, computational thinking, digital creativity, data science and cyber security and help inspire Scotland’s next generation of digital makers, leaders and technologists.
Applications for the Round VI (2021/22) grants cycle will open shortly and close in April 2021. Successful applicants will be announced in June with supported initiatives running between July 2021 and June 2022, aligning supported activities with the academic year. This year, the grants programme will also include at least two grants focused specifically on cyber security skills funded by the Scottish Government under the cyber resilience strategy.
Also new for this round, proposed activities must be delivered entirely through remote learning channels or have processes and procedures in place to continue running remotely should in-person or blended learning become untenable.
What we want to achieve
The core objective of Digital Xtra Fund is to inspire young people to learn digital technologies skills through high quality, exciting extracurricular activities, thus expanding the talent pipeline of young people who study technology related disciplines and ultimately pursue a career in digital technologies.
Applications are sought for initiatives which tangibly demonstrate exciting and stimulating ways of engaging young people. Applicants must clearly demonstrate how participants will be involved in the digital making/creation and what skills they will learn. 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 provide ‘real-world’ context to the skills learned and promote industry engagement or highlight career pathways are also particularly of interest. Partnerships with other organisations such as industry, industry bodies, charities, schools, other extracurricular activity providers, etc. are strongly encouraged to help achieve this aim.
The Digital Xtra Fund grant awards are made possible by the generous support of the Fund’s Partners. The 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.
To be eligible for a Digital Xtra Fund grant award, applicants must demonstrate:
- 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 for young people
- The proposed initiative meets the Core Objective of Digital Xtra Fund
- 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 July 2021 and be completed by 30 June 2022
- The proposed initiative will be delivered entirely in Scotland
- The activity is considered ‘extracurricular’ in nature
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 objectives 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
Round VI (2021/22) Grant Awards
Grant applications for the Round VI (2021/22) Grant Awards are now closed. The closing date for applications was Thursday, 22 April, 2021.
Thank you to all those who applied. We look forward to reading all the fantastic ideas of how to engage more young people in tech in 2021/22!
Following an evaluation period throughout May, selected applicants will be invited to go through a due diligence process before grants are awarded.
All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application following this process.
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