Connect Fund Round 2

Applications are welcome from the voluntary and community sector, civic society and national representative bodies including for underrepresented voices. Applicants and partners must be formally established for public benefit and not-for-profit organisations. You can apply if your organisation is a voluntary or community organisation, registered charity, constituted group or club, not-for-profit company or Community Interest Company or a statutory body.

The Connect Fund will support East-West engagement and applications can be submitted for both standalone activities and also longer term proposals that facilitate ongoing engagement between civic organisations on a national and sectoral level. Funding can also be requested to enhance pre-existing projects taking place on an East-West basis or to establish new opportunities for engagement.  

Capital costs and core operation costs would not be eligible for funding under the scheme. We also cannot accept applications from: individuals or sole traders, organisations based outside the UK, companies who pay profits to directors, shareholders or members, including companies limited by shares, or organisations that have an ongoing application. Please note this list is not exhaustive. Staffing costs can be considered where directly ascribable to the delivery of a project, however, this must not exceed 20% of the total cost of the project.  

Further eligibility criteria includes:

• Proposals must demonstrate that the activities directly benefit Northern Ireland. Activities are not restricted by location and can occur in NI or GB provided stakeholders from Northern Ireland are involved; 

• NI applicants must be engaging with a partner in GB as part of their project/proposal (exceptions may be accepted if proposal is for a standalone activity; for example, attending a conference); 

• GB applicants must be engaging with a partner in NI as part of their project/proposal; 

• Applications from national representative bodies must engage with partners/organisations in both NI and GB; 

• If you want to apply for a new grant, you must wait until your current grant is closed.Organisations may only submit one ‘live’ application for funding (this means that several proposals cannot be submitted from an organisation while they await the outcome of their application or, where successful, until the project is complete); 

• Organisations already in receipt of UKG funding are eligible to apply for this grant; 

• If applying as a non-statutory body, you must have a governing document (e.g. constitution or memorandum and articles of association) which includes appropriate statements on members, Directors or Trustees not benefiting financially from the organisation or its dissolution, a minimum of 3 unrelated people on the committee, this will be unrelated trustees for charities and unrelated directors for companies limited by guarantee, and have your own bank account (which requires 2 signatories). 

If you’ll be working with children, young people or vulnerable adults, you will need to have a safeguarding policy in place that explains how they’ll be safe.  

While the Fund supports organisations collaborating with counterparts on an East-West basis, grants will be awarded to one lead organisation to support the collaborative activities set out in an application.

We retain the right to review and revise eligibility and criteria ahead of subsequent rounds of funding.

Applications must have a clear East-West lens and deliver on one or more of the following objectives:

• Strengthen East-West connections by developing long lasting civic relationships; 

• Propose an original approach to developing East-West connections; 

• Support the development of cultural, sports and people-to-people links; 

• Build leadership capability opportunities for community leaders on an East-West basis; or

• Facilitate positive and constructive dialogue on shared opportunities/challenges facing communities in the UK.

Applications will be open from January 7 2026 - February 12 2026.  

All applications to be considered for grant awards must be submitted by February 12 2026. 

Applicants should expect to hear the outcome of their application by the end of March 2026. 

Overview of key dates:

• Applications open: January 7 2026

• Applications close: February 12 2026 (midday)

• Applicants will hear outcome of their proposals by the end of March 2026

• Project delivery: April 1 2026 - March 31 2027

If completing the longer form, you will need to provide a payment schedule. If successful, this will be confirmed formally. You will be paid in arrears following milestone/project completion.

If the total funding you intend to request from the Connect Fund is less than £10,000 AND your submission is for a single activity / participation in a single event, please apply through this application form: 

Short-form application form;

If your total funding request is above £10,001 OR for multiple activities / participation in a multiple events over time, please apply through this application form:  

Long-form application form;

Please note, applicants who fail to direct their application through the appropriate channel will be discredited.    

Please find further advice on applying for the Connect Fund below. For the most detailed explanation of how to submit a high scoring application, what is / is not eligible and templates please see the ‘Supporting Information’ tab.  

Activity outline:

You must provide a summary of your proposed funding and set out how funding for this activity will support the proposed objectives for the grant (in the application form).   

Project plan:

If completing the long-form application, you must separately provide a timeline with milestones and costs associated for the project. The template can be found under ‘Supporting Information’. If completing the short-form application, this should be detailed in the application form.   

Budget:

You must provide a budget for the programme (in the application form) breaking down the total amount of funding being sought from the Connect Fund. You should clearly demonstrate through your application the project's scales, costs, timeframe and expected participants.  

If completing the long-form application, you must separately provide a payment schedule which sets out when you are expected to deliver project milestones and when you will request funding (please note you cannot draw down funding until milestones have been delivered). The template can be found under ‘Supporting Information’. 

If you are applying for a one-off activity please provide as much detail as possible about the event you plan to undertake including details of the event (organisers, partners activities, dates of travel, anticipated travel costs) that you are requesting funding for. An example might be participating in a conference or hosting an exhibition. You must make clear the dates of your intended activities, which would be linked to your payment schedule. Please also include estimated start and end dates for any wider activities.  

You will want to provide a summary for each of the proposed objectives for the grant. Please provide as much detail as possible about the event/engagement you plan to undertake including details of the delivery partners and or associated any activities that you would request funding for as well as the number of participants or beneficiaries for your project.   

Resourcing and costs:

Please provide a breakdown of your expected costs for your activity or details of any project you plan to undertake. You will want to capture operational costs, delivery costs, travel and subsistence costs. For travel you must provide the most up to date costs at the time of submitting your application. These costs can be cross referenced against your delivery plan.  

Please find a budget tool under ‘Supporting Information’, to help ensure all submitted budgets are within Connect Fund expectations on levels of detail. 

Monitoring and Evaluation:

Monitoring and evaluating the success of a project is essential to form a picture of how your grant will have an impact on the sector more widely. If your project is successfully awarded funding, it is expected that you adhere to monitoring and evaluation by identifying the benefits which the project is working to deliver, the baseline from which the project aims to deliver changes, any changes in need or progress made as a result of the intervention.

• For funding of a series of activities or funding over £10,000 you will be expected to provide reports on how the project is contributing to the delivery of the intermediary benefits you have identified. Your proposal should set out how they are to be assessed over the lifetime of the intervention.

• For funding under £10,000, you will be asked to prepare a short assessment (200 words) of how the project helped to strengthen East-West connections.

If you require any further information for your application please contact ggms.connectfund2.nio@cabinetoffice.gov.uk