Deadline: 6-Apr-23
Applications for Digital Xtra Fund’s eighth round of grant awards are now open.
These grants will support initiatives during the 2023/24 academic year. Once again, grants of up to £5,000 are available for extracurricular activity providers which teach children and young people skills and concepts such as coding, computational thinking, games design, data science and cyber security and help inspire Scotland’s next generation of digital makers, leaders and technologists.
Objectives
- 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 being sought for initiatives which tangibly demonstrate meaningful and stimulating ways of engaging young people in digital tech. Applicants must clearly demonstrate how participants will understand and create with technology, not simply use it, and what digital skills they will learn. In particular, Digital Xtra Fund is keen to support projects which appeal to:
- 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)
- audiences currently unengaged in digital technologies
- Activities which provide ‘real-world’ context for the skills being learnt while promoting industry engagement and various career pathways are also particularly of interest. Partnerships with other organisations such as industry, industry bodies, charities, schools, other extracurricular activity providers, etc. are encouraged to help achieve this aim.
- The grant awards programme is made possible by the generous support of the Fund’s Partners. Digital Xtra Fund and the Partners share a common will to inspire young people to understand and create with digital technologies while giving them the skills they need to succeed in an increasingly digital world. In addition to providing financial support, many of the Fund’s Partners also look to support successful applicants via employee engagement, further contextualising skills and promoting various career pathways.
What they 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 via the Grant Application Form.
Funding Information
- The grant requested is between £500 and £5,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- 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 primary audience are young people aged 16 years and under
- The proposed initiative will commence after 1 July 2023 and be completed by 30 June 2024
- The proposed initiative will be delivered entirely in Scotland
- The activity is considered ‘extracurricular’ in nature
For more information, visit Digital Xtra Fund.