Deadline: 20-Jan-23
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) is seeking applications for the Local Resilience Forums (LRF) Innovation Fund.
Aim of the LRF Innovation Fund
- The LRF Innovation Fund is designed to allow LRFs in England to develop and test new and innovative ways of working which partners would not have been able to progress otherwise. Projects should promote effective working within and across boundaries to build resilient communities and encourage a whole of society approach to resilience.
- Innovative projects come with an element of risk which may not have made them viable without this funding. Sharing information, lessons and learning across LRFs – whether funded projects are successful or not – is a key component of the programme. They want to see projects which will help inspire others to embrace new and innovative activities.
Thematical Focus
- Following feedback from last year’s pilot scheme, the government has decided to welcome bids under a specific theme for each of the next 3 years. This will drive innovation within a certain area, concentrating proposals on specific elements so LRFs find it easier to work together on bids.
- The theme of the LRF Innovation Fund 2022/2023 is data and digital technology. Successful bids will embrace future digital trends, and utilise data, technologies, and equipment to improve LRF’s ability to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from emergencies.
- To help generate ideas the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has set 3 design challenges that LRFs may want to seek to address. Whilst bids are welcomed for projects on any aspect under the theme of data and digital technology, applicants are strongly encouraged to consider the design challenges when developing their submissions. This will help the department coordinate and promote joint bids as well as determine the strength of proposals.
- Design challenge 1: utilise new approaches in data, technology and information to improve risk management
- Design challenge 2: promote a ‘whole of society’ approach to resilience using data, technology and information.
- Design challenge 3: use of data, technology and information to improve interoperability and co-operation between agencies and partners.
Funding Information
- This year, LRFs are invited to bid for a proportion of £450,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- Emergency preparedness promotes effective collaboration and co-operation between LRFs, with partners free to design new and flexible approaches to work together as best suits their needs.
- The 38 LRFs based in England are eligible to apply for a portion of the Innovation Fund. Whilst only LRFs in England are eligible to bid for LRF Innovation Fund, bids for projects which increase collaboration with and contribute to the work of regional resilience partnerships in Scotland, emergency preparedness groups in Northern Ireland and local resilience forums in Wales, are welcomed.
- They welcome bids from:
- Single LRFs
- Small consortiums of 3 to 5 LRFs which may be neighbours or more widely geographically distributed
- Larger partnerships made up of circa 10 to 12 LRFs (an indicative range), which may reflect existing regional partnerships or a group of LRFs with some common risk or context (e.g. large urban areas, areas with major ports, areas with major industrial locations/CNI)
For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-resilience-forum-innovation-fund-20222023-prospectus/lrf-innovation-fund-prospectus