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The government has opened applications for the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) Innovation Fund for 2024-2025.
Under the funding, all 38 LRFs in England are eligible to apply for a share of £450,000 to ‘drive innovation, enhance local engagement and make sure communities are better equipped to prevent, respond to, and recover from emergencies’.
The aim of the LRF Innovation Fund is to enable LRFs to try new and innovative ways of working which they would not have been able to progress otherwise, often as a result of being hamstrung by the element of risk associated with innovation.
This year’s LRF Innovation Fund theme is community engagement, with a view to encouraging projects that prioritise inclusivity, collaboration and innovation in building community resilience.
The government says that, by focusing on empowering marginalised communities and enhancing collaboration between LRFs and Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations, the valuable relationships that have been builtin recent years will be further strengthened.
Thames Valley LRF, West Mercia LRF and two consortiums led by London LRF and North Yorkshire LRF all saw their projects funded in the 2023 to 2024 round of innovation funding.
The deadline for LRF Innovation Fund applications is 5pm on Monday 4 November 2024 and more information can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/innovation-fund-2024-to-2025-prospectus-for-local-resilience-forums/innovation-fund-2024-to-2025-prospectus-for-local-resilience-forums
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