NESTA funding

NESTA – AGE UNLIMITED SCOTLAND
Lottery funder NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is seeking individuals and informal groups of people in their fifties and sixties within Scotland who have ideas about how their communities could become a better place to live.
The plan is to invite residents in this age group to attend a workshop in February 2011 to enable them to take the basis of the idea they have to make their community a better place and create a project/programme that could be put forward to attract up to £10,000 in funding.
Your idea does not need to be fully formed. It should have a “social good” and focus on innovative and different ways to improve your community. You could be approaching retirement and unsure what comes next; you could be thinking about retiring early; or you may have retired recently and be looking for new opportunities. It could be that you are facing redundancy or have lost your job recently and are looking to get back into the workplace.
Your idea may be built around volunteering interests or specific gaps in current services. NESTA is looking for ideas that are innovative and do not duplicate what is already in the community.
The services they expect to see emerge could include community ventures, small-scale projects or social enterprises. Constituted organisations, charities and social enterprises cannot apply.
NESTA is inviting up to 100 people to its first set of workshops in February and expects to take up to 10 to 20 ventures forward to the full programme of training, mentoring and the opportunity to pitch for grant funding.
The workshops are in:
• Aberdeen on 23rd February
• Edinburgh on 25th February
• Dundee on 26th February

Travel expenses up to £25 will be paid to those invited to the workshops.
Amount – After an extended period of support to firm up their ideas, the winning applicants will also have an opportunity to bid for up to £10,000 to test their idea out.
Contact – Full guidance notes and an application form can be accessed through http://www.nesta.org.uk
Deadline – Applications are open until 7th February 2011 and those picked to attend a workshop will hear by 16th February. After the workshops, decisions will be made by 2nd March 2011 to select the 10 to 20 ideas/people to go forward to the next stage, which takes the form of five training sessions throughout March/April/May. Pitches for the £10,000 will take place in June and projects will need to get underway soon thereafter.