The application process for Sport England’s
Innovation Fund will be two-stage and competitive.
By competitive we mean that we will be
assessing all eligible projects and identifying those which score
highest against our assessment criteria, as opposed to working on a
‘first come, first served’ basis.
Sport England is using this approach because
we have limited funds available to invest; we want to achieve
specific sporting outcomes with our Lottery funding, as explained
in our Funding
Strategy.
Sport England will develop a balanced
investment portfolio of its innovation projects. The portfolio
approach will help us to make our investment decisions.
For example, if we receive a number of
proposals for similar projects, we may select just one or two so
that we can test the effectiveness of a particular type of
innovation and learn whether it could be replicated or scaled
up.
The portfolio approach will also enable Sport
England to balance risk against outcome across the full portfolio
of projects, which will enable us to be less risk averse in some of
the investment decisions that we make.
This is a new and exciting approach for Sport
England, and one which we believe will deliver maximum impact and
value for community sport in this country.
Stage 1 – Call for Innovation Projects
This first stage of application opened on
12 May 2009 and will close at 5pm on 10 August 2009.
If you want to apply you will need to complete
our standard application form, and answer a number of additional
questions specific to the Innovation Fund.
You can only apply online through
investment centre. We have created a dummy version
of the form you can download to help you see what information
you will need to supply before you start.
The criteria and assessment process will allow
us to assess and screen applications robustly and fairly and then
to assess promising projects rigorously.
To ensure that the Stage 1 process is
effective and efficient, all eligible applications will be
considered by the Innovation Fund Panel, which will also guide
Sport England on developing its balanced portfolio of innovation
projects.
Applicants will be notified of the outcome in
October 2009.
Applications will be assessed, and classified
as one of the following:
- Progression to development of full bid
- Rejection
- Conditional offer made (for small and/or exceptional bids) or
Innovation Pipeline offer made
For small schemes (up to £100,000) that are
already well-developed, Sport England has the ability to accelerate
the Stage 2 assessment and make an early decision in these
cases.
Certain conditions may be attached to any
offer of funding, for example confirmation of funding from
partners. Some projects may be invited to become part of the
Innovation Pipeline; this means that they demonstrate significant
potential, but still require considerable development work and will
be re-considered for funding in 2010.
Innovation Pipeline projects may be provided
with development funding or support from Sport England for this
work; the type of support will be offered on a project-by-project
basis.
If you are asked to develop a full bid, it
means that, on the basis of the information you have supplied, you
have demonstrated the project meets the basic eligibility criteria,
and is likely to score well against our criteria. However, it
does not mean that you are guaranteed funding, and final bids are
developed at the applicant’s own risk.
Final bids must be received by Sport England
by 5pm on 7 December 2009. Bids received after this deadline will
not be assessed for the current year but may be considered for the
following year.
Applications that are rejected will receive
formal notification of this decision, together with an explanation.
An applicant is entitled to appeal the decision made. The criteria
and details of the appeals process are available on request from
Sport England, or can be viewed here.
Depending on the range and quality of
applications received, Sport England may choose to encourage and
support or resource some projects that still require developmental
work to undertake this additional work and submit their Stage 2
during the 2010/11 Innovation Fund process. These projects
will become part of the Innovation Pipeline.
Stage 2
Applicants will be supported to develop the project at this stage,
and to produce a robust and viable business plan to ensure it can
deliver against Sport England's outcomes as effectively as
possible.
The type of support offered by Sport England
will depend on how well developed the application is, and whether
the application is at the ideas, innovation or incubation
stage.
Consequently, the support may include sports
development, innovation and/or business development
expertise. The documentation required at this stage will
depend on the nature of your project, but is likely to include:
- A detailed development/project plan outlining
how the sporting opportunities will be delivered and how the
project will deliver against Sport England’s strategic
outcomes
- Financial information including projected
income and expenditure appropriate to the size of your project to
demonstrate the financial viability and sustainability of the
project.
- A risk register identifying the main
risks your project will face and how you will deal with them
- A marketing plan outlining how the proposed
project will be publicised
- A schedule of milestones and
deliverables to enable us to track the progress of your
project
- Appropriate measurement and evaluation – this
will be absolutely key to understanding whether your project is
successful, and why
- A description of how the project fits with
the partner’s strategies, if appropriate.
All projects will then be reviewed as part of
the process for achieving a balanced investment portfolio for
innovation.
Interviews may also be used as part of this
stage of the assessment process.
We may also use some of the future year’s fund
to increase the award for projects which demonstrate that they can
scale up to deliver against our strategic outcomes sooner than
originally planned.
Innovation Fund timescales
| Action |
Timeline |
Opening of the Innovation Fund for initial applications
|
12 May 2009 |
Deadline for initial applications
|
10 August 2009 |
|
Completion of initial assessment by Sport England and production
of balanced Innovation Fund investment portfolio
Early decision on small schemes may be made at this time
|
5 October 2009 |
| Applicant development of full bid |
15 January 2010 |
Sport England final assessment, and review of Innovation Fund
investment portfolio
Notification of decisions |
29 January 2010 |
The timetable above is one we expect to be
able to meet.
However, we have allowed a relatively short
time to assess bids, given the potential complexity of some
applications.
If we receive a much larger number of
applications than we anticipate, or the complexity of applications
requires a more wide-ranging assessment, we may need to extend the
assessment periods to ensure all applications are assessed
robustly, and that all projects are given the right support.
If this happens, we will notify all applicants
as soon as is practicable.
Decision making
The administration of this grant process will
be undertaken by Sport England. An Innovation Fund Panel, under
delegated authority from the Sport England Board, will assess both
stage one and stage two applications, and take final decisions.
The Innovation Fund Panel will include senior
representatives from Sport England, national governing bodies of
sport, national partners and organisations outside of the sport
sector with specific knowledge of innovation.
Those projects that are innovative, but are
not selected at this stage may be given advice or support to:
- Apply to other, more suitable funds
- Link up with other organisations and
networks that can help them to improve their project proposal for
consideration in the next funding round.
Further information
For further information please review our
Frequently Asked Questions.
If you have a query on the Innovation Fund,
please contact Sport England on 08458 508 508 or email
funding@sportengland.org