2022 Studio Recovery Fund Call Out
Following the success of last year’s fund, The Studio at Palace Yard Mews, Bath Spa University’s city-centre research and innovation hub, is delighted to be running the Studio Recovery Fund again to support B&NES-based freelancers, micro-businesses and third sector organisations to progress their creative technology project ideas.
Supported by the University’s strategic Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries, the fund’s key areas of focus are inclusion, environmental sustainability, and innovation. These link with the recovery ambitions of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), and its broader vision for the support and growth of the creative industries in the region.
Call for proposals
Freelancers, micro-businesses and third sector organisations within the creative industries continue to be negatively impacted by the pandemic. To help support the ongoing recovery of the sector in B&NES, The Studio is putting out a call for proposals for creative technology projects with budgets of £1,000 to £5,000, to explore or develop specific research questions or business areas to aid growth.
There are three key areas of focus for the Fund. Proposals will need to address at least one of these:
- Inclusion; supporting new talent, engaging new audiences, enabling diversity
- Environmental sustainability; providing solutions, ideas, and education
- Innovation; new and creative thinking, problem solving, risk taking
By ‘creative technology’ we mean interdisciplinary projects that work creatively with technology across areas such as digital, arts and culture, science and the humanities.
Proposals will need to include defined outputs, which can be either research-based or business-led. Outcomes could include, for example, a research paper, a prototype or product, a business plan (which may include paid-for consultancy), a marketing strategy (including rebranding, an upgraded website, etc), or profile-raising activity.
In addition, we would like to encourage projects to think about how they might involve Bath Spa students, graduates and/or academics in their work. This ‘Knowledge Exchange’ element could relate to research (i.e. collaborating with an academic on an element of your project), a live brief (i.e. engaging a group of students to deliver a specific task), or a student internship. While this kind of exchange is desirable, we realise the pandemic may continue to mitigate against this kind of engagement, so this is not an essential element of all applications.
Awards
The fund has a total of £25,000 and from this we expect to award:
Five grants of between £1,000 and £2,000
Four or five grants of between £2,000 and £5,000
Eligibility
All Residents and Alumni of The Studio, and B&NES-based creative technology freelancers, micro-businesses, and third sector organisations, are eligible to apply.
**Applications are now closed for The Studio Recovery Fund – awardees will be announced in April 2022!**
Timeline
Deadline for applications: Monday 21st March, 2022 by 5pm
All applicants informed of panel decision by Friday 8th April 2022
Projects due to start mid/end April 2022
Progress check in early July 2022
Projects completed & evaluated by mid September 2022
Showcase event at The Studio on Thursday 22nd September 2022, time tbc
Should you have any questions about the call, or eligibility, please contact Louisa Clark, Project Manager, on thestudio@bathspa.ac.uk
For inspiration, you can read about the awardees of the 2021 Studio Recovery Fund here.