Seed Funding for Real Change

Leeds Institute for Societal Futures has seed funding available for teams of academics, industry, civic and community partners to co-produce projects and develop new communities. All projects should be aimed at tackling any of the following four societal challenges below. These are:

To distribute this funding, we’re running a series of workshops that will bring new project communities together. If involved, you will work with a diverse group of like-minded academics, professionals and community groups to scope opportunities for projects, develop ideas for meaningful change and build new networks. You will build the foundations of a project team on the first day and then, on the second day, we will coach your team to develop a pitch for our funding, helping you to consider how you can make the biggest impact from your ambitions. Each day will be filled with creative and thought-provoking coaching exercises aimed at getting you working outside of your comfort zone and helping you to access more innovative and expansive thought processes.

We would love for you to join us.

Participants must commit to attending both days in their cohort. Teams convened via the sessions in May will work together on the June days and then present projects for funding at a third, short, pitch to panel session (dates below). Project teams will also need to complete a light-touch application form, which may be used to triage applications for pitch should we have too many applications. If successful at pitch, teams will then have to follow the typical internal approval and costing processes before funding can be approved.Participants will be asked to focus primarily on one challenge area for the first session but will be able to work across challenge areas for their project development session and any subsequent seed funding project pitch.

Key Dates

Cohort 1  - 12 May Connect: Partnership Building Day - 16 June  Co-Design: Project Development Day

Cohort 2  - 14 May Connect: Partnership Building Day - 18 June  Co-Design: Project Development Day

All - 30 June or 1 July - Pitch: Seed Funding Panel Days

Connect: Partnership building

This session will bring together external partners and University of Leeds colleagues to build meaningful partnerships, share expertise, and scope opportunities for meaningful change within all four of our challenge areas.

The session is designed to create collective ownership and shared understanding, grounded in a coproduction ethos. Together, we will imagine what becomes possible when diverse stakeholders come together with a shared commitment to tackling complex societal problems.

We will:

• Identify shared barriers, opportunities, and areas of alignment within our challenge areas;
• Exchange perspectives and expertise to spark collaborative thinking;
• Identify immediate opportunities for responding to existing opportunities;
• Build momentum for long term, cross-organisational partnerships with real world impact.

Co-Design: Project Development

Building on the foundations of the first workshop, teams will start shaping practical and innovative projects that create real change. Teams will comprise people from numerous academic disciplines and external partners from a variety of sectors and/or perspectives. On the day, they will be coached through the project development process and supported to develop a coherent and inspiring project story which answer questions such as:

• What their project goals are;
• What barriers they might have to overcome to meet those goals;
• How they could overcome those barriers;
• What success for their project looks like.

At the end of the session, teams will be left with an empowering narrative and project overview from which to refine their project proposal, ready for their subsequent pitch to panel.

Pitch: Seed Funding Panel Day

The culmination of the previous two sessions, teams will pitch for seed funding to turn their transdisciplinary, challenge focused ideas into reality. This will be an empowering, light-touch and supportive process aimed at inspiring and motivating all teams to achieve their aims and develop further ambitions and connections. More details of this process will be shared during the first two development days.

Want to get involved? Sign up to join one of our cohorts here.