Up to £500,000 Employment Skills Grant

The Nuffield Foundation, a UK charity that funds research on education and society, is offering grants of up to GBP 500,000 to rigorously evaluate UK programmes that help young people aged 16 to 24 facing significant barriers to work build essential employment skills such as communication, teamwork and problem solving. Applications come from partnerships between an evaluator and a frontline delivery organisation, with the evaluation partner as lead applicant. This is the outline stage; shortlisted teams are invited to a full application.

What you get:

• A grant of up to GBP 500,000 for evaluation, with most expected between GBP 200,000 and GBP 400,000
• Possible additional funding towards programme delivery costs where these are not covered from other sources
• Support from the Foundation throughout the project, including with communications and impact
• Introductions to other grant holders and the Foundation's wider stakeholder network
• Optional feedback on a one-page project description before applying, by email to eesf@nuffieldfoundation.org

What you'll do:

• Run an existing programme with some evidence of promise that explicitly develops at least one essential employment skill
• Deliver a robust impact evaluation tracking skills and progress towards employment, using control or comparison groups or high-quality qualitative impact designs

• Grants go to organisations (the host institution), not individuals
• Lead organisation must be based in the UK; overseas organisations only in exceptional cases where no UK host is feasible
• Applications are expected from a partnership of an evaluator and a delivery organisation, established before applying, with a co-developed research design
• The evaluation partner is expected to be the lead applicant, and a named Principal Investigator employed by the host institution leads the project
• The programme must serve young people aged 16 to 24 (or a narrower band within that range) living in the UK who face significant barriers to work
• Projects led by schools or further education colleges, by undergraduates or master's students, or by unaffiliated individuals are ineligible
• Must be an existing programme with some evidence of promise and a clear theory of change, not a new programme launched from scratch