London community groups urged to apply for £1m fund

Community groups in the capital have been urged to take part in a new £1m scheme, which aims to help solve some of the key issues facing London.

The groups have less than two weeks to apply for the London mayor’s £1m resilience fund, which will support local authorities, social enterprises and charitable organisations to identify and develop solutions to the capital’s biggest challenges.

The fund has been launched by the mayor of London and delivered in partnership with Nesta Challenges.

Community groups, such as local authorities, public agencies and social enterprises, will be asked to identify specific challenges they need to have solved.

Ten specific challenges will be selected and in the New Year, the country’s best innovators will be invited to present how they plan to address these challenges through new technologies, or by applying innovative solutions.

Each challenge will be given support of up to £40,000, as well as expert mentoring and advice.

The 10 groups will be selected to work alongside the UKs best innovators to solve these challenges and help London bounce forward post Covid-19.

The challenges could include inequality, poor air quality, food Insecurity, housing, ageing infrastructure, poor health and wellbeing

The deadline for submissions is December 14.

‘The fund demonstrates how some of the capital’s most important groups can work together to help businesses and communities bounce back from Covid-19 in a rapid time frame,’ said Nesta Challenges’ managing director, Tris Dyson.

‘We are first calling on community groups to come forward with identified issues that have arisen as a result of the pandemic. Importantly, the ten successful community groups will have the opportunity to co-create solutions with some of the best innovators across the UK, presenting opportunities for learning, sharing and ultimately the creation of successful prototypes.’

For information on the mayor’s resilience fund and to apply to be a community partner, please visit the website.

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