Friends of Energy House 2.0 Impact Fund

We are looking for impact-driven programmes that will raise awareness, provoke interest, improve knowledge, and deliver benefits on the themes of sustainability, energy efficiency and climate change. This work must impact the communities of students, residents and/or the wider public, particularly within Salford and Greater Manchester, although will consider national programmes. 

We are open to hearing from you on how your project will most effectively achieve the outcomes outlined above – it could be a community-based initiative or an education programme within Schools. We are open to programmes that impact children (all ages) as well as the adult community.

We are interested in embedding some of the work and impact of Energy House 2.0 within project delivery, such as via an educational workshop on campus or integrating the facility within the content or information that is shared. We want to share with our community the relevant research that is happening right here in Salford. We would love to hear how you think you might be able to build this into your project or model. 

The Friends of Energy House 2.0 industry partners are also keen to get involved, where possible, with delivery. If there is the opportunity for engagement of the Friends, then please do let us know.

The University of Salford also has a network of Schools and FE Colleges within Salford and Greater Manchester, so if you have a programme but need our support in communicating it with local Schools, we’re happy to help.

Most of all, we want the work to be impactful. We are not setting expectations on the number of beneficiaries to be targeted, nor specific outcomes - we want to focus more on impact and engagement. It’s your call on how you think that balance could be reached.

This year we are supporting four projects:

• Marple Education and Spotlight School of Speech and Drama’s Our Future Homes in Words and Pictures will engage school children in exploring sustainability and climate change through poetry and animation.
• Refugees & Mentors CIC’s Pilot Sustainability and Climate Change Programme aims to create a pilot sustainability and climate change education program for refugee professionals, focusing on sustainable energy and climate studies.
• Better We’s Achieving Net Zero by Empowering Ethnic Minority Women will deliver a series of training sessions covering topics like climate change, sustainable practices, and leadership skills, to empower ethnic minority women in Greater Manchester to engage in climate change practices.
• University of Salford’s XR Workshops ‘Our Decisions and their Consequences on Climate Change’ will conduct workshops, focused on climate change education, with K12 students, introducing them to XR technology and climate change topics.

Grant sizes will be capped at £30,000 this year. 

Successful applicants will be notified early December, and we expect project delivery to start between January and February 2025. Project duration can vary.

We know how time-consuming reporting can be. Therefore, we won’t ask you for lengthy or complicated forms. However, we do want to hear the impact of the programme / project so we can share it back with our funders – the Friends. 

We will request that you share updates with us as and when relevant (such as a short blog, or quick summary of delivery), and would like at least one impact report to be shared at completion of the programme – this can be written or presented by you in whatever form you think best reflects your work. 

Please note that this funding is for a one-off programme, however, we would love to hear if there is an opportunity to grow or continue your work in the future as we review the next phase of our Friends of Energy House 2.0 programme.