As Government develops the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Funding Service Design Team are seeking to conduct User Research with people who have experience of applying for grants from UK Government funding schemes, as well as those who are likely to seek this type of funding in the future.
This will allow them to learn directly from your experiences and use these learnings to create a better service in the future.
Grant funding may be delivered to you through a Growth Hub, Local Enterprise Partnership, Local Authority or directly from a UK Government department such as MHCLG. Examples include the Local Growth Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. If you receive a grant but you’re not sure what funding scheme it falls under, that’s no problem.
The best way for the Funding Service Design Team to learn about your views and experiences is to talk to you directly in a 1-hour, 1:1 interview session. The interview will cover topics such as:
- Your experiences (if any) of applying for grant funding in the past
- What has worked well when applying for and receiving funding, and what have been the challenges
- Your needs and expectations for funding projects in the future.
If you are interested in taking part, please provide a little information about yourself by completing this short (under 5 minutes) survey: https://forms.office.com/r/8hNBTHtjTN.
The survey responses will be used to select a sample of representative users to take part in the research. While it would be great to speak to everyone who responds, it may not be possible if there are a large number of responses.
For any questions about this work, please email FundingServiceDesign@communities.gov.uk.
Please also see MHCLG’s Personal Information Charter for details about how your information will be used and stored: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-housing-communities-and-local-government/about/personal-information-charter
About the UK Shared Prosperity Fund:
- The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK in places most in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people who face labour market barriers.
- It will operate UK-wide, using the new financial assistance powers in the UK Internal Market Act 2020.
- We will ramp up funding so that total domestic UK-wide funding will at least match EU receipts, on average reaching around £1.5bn a year.
- In addition, to help local areas prepare for the introduction of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022, we are providing additional UK funding through the UK Community Renewal Fund to support our communities to pilot programmes and new approaches.
- The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is the domestic successor to the EU Structural Fund programme. It will maximise the benefits of leaving the EU through quicker delivery of funding, better targeting, better alignment with domestic priorities and by cutting burdensome EU bureaucracy.
- Spending Review 2020 set out the main strategic elements of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in the Heads of Terms. The Government will publish a UK-wide investment framework later this year and confirm its funding profile at the next Spending Review.