Have you got a great idea? Do you want to help it grow with up to £5,000 from SEE?

We have set up the SEED Fund for UAL students, graduates and staff to give you the opportunity to develop your creative idea into a sustainable business or practice.

On top of the financial grant, successful applicants will also get access to a special business and intellectual property support programme. You don’t have to have a track-record in developing projects – we just want to find people with some good ideas and help them flourish. If you want to find out more or want help applying, book a place on one of our regular workshops.

The first deadline for applications is on 14 March 2012, with further deadlines every 6-8 weeks.

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Image from design studio VAL

Are you a fast growing Social Enterprise or SME?

NEW grant funding of £1,000 is now available …

Creative Futures Project Evaluation: Study Brief -

Deadline Extended to 16th December 2011

There is still time to register your interest to became a project evaluator of Creative Futures Business Support Programme. Send you tenders to Ola Badamosi. Please read below for information.

Context

Creative Futures is an ERDF Round 3 project with ERDF grant below the threshold which requires an independent externally commissioned evaluation study. Notwithstanding the CF Partnership has decided to commission the project’s evaluation in order to test the scope to include in the evaluation a number of elements usually only required in externally commissioned studies for larger projects.

Study Brief

1. The requirements for ERDF Project Self Evaluation set out in the London ERDF Programme 2007-13 Project Evaluation Toolkit are to be met in full.
2. In addition, tenderers are asked to set out a research methodology together with a description of suitable expertise and knowledge to enable some or all of the following key evaluation activities to be undertaken. It is for tenderers to describe their approach and the scope of their planned additional evaluation work.

• Conduct a suitably robust quantitative economic impact evaluation of the project that assesses performance including: achievement of gross outputs and expenditure against its approved targets; adjustment from gross to net outputs after accounting for deadweight effects, displacement, substitution and multiplier effects; assessment of the contribution of outputs to attributable outcomes including any unintended outcomes/effects; assessment of additionality and an assessment of wider impacts on London’s economy or more broadly if significant.

• Assessment of Strategic Added Value – broadly the added value realised through coordinating and influencing activities that result in project outcomes being delivered by others, in addition to outcomes directly delivered through funded activities.

• Value for money assessment of cost effectiveness in terms of input/output unit cost ratios and cost-benefit analysis to monetarise the social and economic return from the investment.

• An assessment of the project’s GVA.

Bidders will be expected to identify the economic analytical tools/statistical methods that they propose to use.

1. A suitable work programme is required which identifies, as appropriate, distinct evaluator roles and expertise. Evidence of individual study team members’ qualifications, skills and experience; individual roles and responsibilities within the study team and their input to the work would be welcomed.
2. As part of this Brief, a summary of the Creative Futures project together with summarised project objectives, results and target outputs is attached as Appendix A.

Budget

The Project has an indicative budget of £10,500 (ten thousand and five hundred pounds) excluding VAT, for the Evaluation Study.

Tender submissions and Timeframe

Written, costed proposals are required by 16^th December 2011 And should be addressed to Ola Badamosi marked as  Tender document.     The Creative Futures Project started July 2009 and is planned to complete on August 2012. We envisage that the successful bidder will be able to start their work in January 2012.

Appendix A

Creative Futures (CF) is a project under Priority 1, Theme 1, ‘Promoting Innovation’. It started in 2009 and plans to finish in August 2012. The target audience for the Project is creative, cultural and media companies (audio visual/ new media/ music/ film/ fashion/ design/ internet based) and businesses operating in the emergent environmental and climate markets, in West London. CF secured £526k ERDF grant matched by its 5 main partners: Paddington Development Trust (PDT), Portobello Business Centre, Julies Bicycle, University of Westminster and London Film Convention. PDT is the Accountable Body.

Creative and media companies are always innovating as their business model involves a constant production of new ideas and products. The less experienced companies are poor at commercialising these products. More experienced companies may not be aware of new market opportunities opening up (on e-business, broadband, mobile telephony etc) and so miss opportunities to create the right product or sell into, these markets. The Creative Futures Project will assist companies to develop their innovative offers to market standard and help entrepreneurs understand those markets and sell to them.

The CFP project is designed to offer commercialisation strategies for all beneficiaries seeking to develop and sell their unique creative product, which will include fashion, design, music, films animation, and digital technologies and cross platform work. Market analysis (understanding markets and engaging with them) are important parts of the offer and will generate outcomes in the form of more creative companies understanding and engaging with local, national and international markets.

The project has a strong community enterprise focus designed to guarantee high levels of participation by community businesses and social enterprises and encourage them to commercialise, invest in, and improve their own creative output through accessing networks and services through CFP.

The sustainability theme in Priority 1 will be met by the provision of high quality GHG auditing and energy management advice supplied by the environmental specialist organisation Julie’s Bicycle, working closely with the Environmental Change Institute atOxfordUniversity.

Aims

The project aims to help companies develop and commercialise (sell/license) their innovative creative content. The project aims to work with companies from community level, through to established high growth businesses. In working with this variety of companies, the project also aims to provide a progression route for companies from basic advice, provided by the Community Enterprise focus of PDT, to advanced,  high level learning about innovative products/services and market changes and opportunities – provided by the UoW.

A further aim for all businesses in the CFP programme will be to provide them with a high level of environmental guidance in order to reduce carbon emissions, reduce negative environmental impact and provide energy management support and tools going forward. This will be an important part of the project and delivery will be undertaken by Julie’s Bicycle working in conjunction with the Environmental Change Institute atOxfordUniversity.

One objective of CFP is to support a range of businesses, including community based enterprises that will include a large representation of disadvantaged groups; especially BAME, women and youth run businesses.

Objectives can be summarised as:

• Assisting creative enterprises to develop innovative content and product to a standard required by competitive creative, cultural and media markets.
• Assisting companies to improve and commercialise their creative content and product, including understanding markets, engagement with markets, sales and distribution platforms
• Ensuring that beneficiaries are aware of emerging market opportunities, especially multi platform opportunities made possible by digital convergence and new technology in design tools, interactive open source, emerging swipe telephony, and production methods
• Assisting growth oriented SMEs with high quality industry specialist mentoring
• Assisting companies working in the expanding environmental and energy management markets
• Assisting community based micro enterprises in new media that are often a seedbed of creativity and in need of commercial expertise
• By assisting community based micros, support will be offered to groups normally excluded from expert business support and to equalities groups that are prominent at community level
• Establishing a progression route for community based businesses to access the high level business expertise at UoW
• Providing specialist environmental support to beneficiaries through expert partner agencies in order that all beneficiaries reduce their carbon footprint, improve energy management, and identify adaptation strategies where relevant
• Providing a CFP AIG hotline and access to quick response queries and enquiries
• In general, to work with growth oriented companies that aim to expand and create creative jobs in a sustainable manner, not lifestyle companies

Outputs

Creative Futures is in the process of developing a mentoring programme that will run along side the current Business Support programme.

At this time, we are looking for expressions of interest. To get involved and learn more simply email Neil Johnston at neil@pdt.org.uk and Zoba Ezeh at CreativeFuturesUK@gmail.com

Applications to a special free Arts in Education Open evening on 20 September 2011, from 4pm to 7pm at Kensington Town Hall, are now open. The event has been organised by the Culture Service, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, especially for artists and cultural institutions working in the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Westminster. The aim of the event is to give arts and cultural practitioners an opportunity to meet teachers from over 300 schools across the three boroughs in order to facilitate possible working partnerships.

As well as getting a chance to network with these schools, selected applicants will be offered the opportunity to undertake practical demonstrations on the day to illustrate how workshops could be facilitated with pupils and students. Invitations have gone out to EMA/EAL teachers, nursery and children’s centre practitioners and all primary, secondary and special needs teachers

To apply for a stand at this special event, please fill in the online application atwww.rbkc.gov.uk/leisureandlibraries/culture/artsservice.aspx

For further information contact Alan Kirwan at alan.kirwan@rbkc.gov.uk or phone on 020 7361 3618.

As you may have seen, the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London have set out a number of support measures for businesses affected by last week’s riots. These include:

• Businesses damaged will be able to seek compensation under Riot Damages Act.
• A new £20 million high street support scheme to help affected businesses get back up and running quickly.
• Local authorities will be given the ability to grant business rate relief, by funding at least three quarters of their costs, to minimise the costs facing businesses.
• Tax payments will be deferred for businesses in greatest need, through Time to Pay and other practical support.
• Government has instructed the valuation office to immediately stop liability for council tax and business rates for houses and businesses that have been the most badly damaged.
• Unnecessary planning regulations will be weeded out to ensure that businesses can get back on their feet and feel secure as quickly as possible.
• Urgent funding is immediately available through a new £10 million Recovery Scheme to provide additional support to councils in making areas safe, clean and clear again.

Further details can be found on the BIS website.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has also announced £50 million investment in long term improvements to town centres and high streets in London that have been damaged by the recent disturbances.

We will continue to liaise with the Mayor and the Metropolitan Police on issues which have arisen from the public disorder. In the meantime, if your business has been affected, this guide to legal and insurance issues may be useful. As we receive further details of additional support that will be provided to businesses that have been affected we will keep you informed.

Grants are available to help give assistance to single homeless people through the Crisis Private Rented Sector Access Development Programme. Voluntary or community organisations, with the support of their partner local authority, can apply for a grant of up to £40,000 to fund services that help single, non statutory homeless people overcome financial hurdles to private renting and match them with private landlords, while providing support to all parties. An extra £10,000 may be available in some areas, bringing the total to £50,000. The grant money is provided by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

If you submit an application form by 25 July 2011, Crisis will be able to provide feedback on your application which you can then use to make amendments prior to submitting a full application. You can also submit an outline proposal anytime to receive bullet point feedback. See the guidance document on the website for more information on how to do this.

Deadline: 5 September 2011

Contact: Crisis
Telephone: 020 7426 5685
Email: private.renting@crisis.org.uk
Website: www.privaterentedsector.org.uk/round-2-programme.asp

The Big Venture Challenge is launched, a competition to find 25 of the nation’s most ambitious social entrepreneurs and give them the chance to fast-track their ventures to the next level.  The initiative, run by UnLtd and supported by the Big Lottery Fund and the Millennium Awards Trust, offers more than £1.2m of capital investment to the winners of the nation-wide ‘Dragons Den’ style competition.

The competition runs in three stages.  In stage one, which opens today, the search is on to find 25 winning entrepreneurs. These winners will receive funding of £25,000 each and intensive business support, including support from the competition’s corporate partners, including Deutsche Bank, Hogan Lovells, Coutts and The Supper Club.

Of these 25, the best ten ventures will receive a second round of £50,000, with a final two which demonstrate the fastest growth receiving an additional third round of £100,000 – a potential additional £150,000, but only if applicants can match it with loans or equity from co-investors. This mix of investment capital and grants is unusual in such a competition and reflects one of the competition’s main ambitions to attract new investors to the social capital market place.

Big Venture Challenge seeks to provide the leverage for ambitious social entrepreneurs to scale their ventures up in order to meet increasing social needs in a time of significant public service budget constraints. These ventures, given top-flight business support from UnLtd, are a key solution to fill the ever-growing gap between publicly funded services and society’s needs. As well as providing crucial services, social ventures stimulate economic growth by contributing more than £24 billion to the economy.
Applications close at 5pm on 30 June. Shortlisted entrants will be invited to a business pitch in front of a panel of experts – including Pret A Manger co-founder Sinclair Beecham, other investors and successful entrepreneurs and business leaders – and will be chosen on the basis of their venture’s potential and their ability to scale it up to the next level at speed.

PFF is calling all film makers to submit their entries by 17 June 2011.

Mark your calendars the festival will take place 1 – 18 September, 2011.

Check out the PPF website to check out a recap of the last year’s festival.

Announced on 7 June 2011 funding will promote the use of digital technologies to connect with wider audiences and explore new ways of working.

Arts and cultural organisations are being given the opportunity to apply for a share of a half-a-million-pound fund to harness new technology.

The Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture was announced today by Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

It follows a speech by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey in January where he called on cultural organisations to embrace new technology and the opportunities it offers.

“Our lives are increasingly defined by how we engage and interact with the world digitally and cultural organisations can’t afford to be left behind,” Mr Vaizey said. “Too often finances, structures or traditions can constrain the arts from making best use of the technology which now sits at the heart of many people’s everyday lives.

“This programme seeks to show how digital technology can revolutionise our cultural engagement, helping people to derive greater value from cultural activities and to find new ways to generate income.”

Organisations that are eligible to apply to the Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture include visual and performing arts organisations, cultural organisations in England including arts and cultural archives, literary organisations, museums and galleries, libraries, commercial arts and cultural organisations and creative industry businesses. Applications will be open until 2 September 2011.

Further information

• Arts Council England website
• AHRC website
• NESTA website
• What we do: funding for the arts