Sport England reveals new funding timeline

Sports organisations and governing bodies will be able to apply for grants through Sport England’s new funding programmes from December 2016.

The grassroots sports quango has made public its first timeline since the publication of its Towards an Active Nation strategy in May.

Providers aiming to take a slice of Sport England’s £7.5m (US$9.1m, €12.2m) facilities pot – called the Community Asset Fund – will be able to bid from January 2017 following a December 2016 launch. Money will be available for the development of single and multi-sport community facilities.

Awards of between £5,000 and £150,000 will be made for these projects, with the first batch of awards announced in April 2017.

In January, Sport England will also publish its wider facilities investment guide to give partners more information on the types of projects it wants to support.

A bulk of the organisation’s funding over the next four years (25 per cent) will go towards tackling inactivity, with the first £10m (US$8.3m, €11.1m) inactivity fund launching in December 2016.

The first phase of the inactivity fund will be focused on getting the over-55s active, with 42 per cent of this age group likely to be inactive compared to 29 per cent of the population as a whole.

Organisations bidding for money from this pot can expect awards of £250,000-£500,000. Expressions of interest need to be submitted by 13 February 2017, with the first awards announced in June next year.

In the coming months, Sport England will be publishing guides on how to bid for money from forthcoming pots of investment.

Bodies that are interested in “supporting sport’s core market” will find out the requirements in December 2016, while those wanting to work with children and young people will be briefed next February.

Information on mass market funding projects will be published a month later in March, as will literature based on local delivery projects.