Innovation Fund

What is the Innovation Fund?

The Innovation Fund is a competitive award created by the M25 Consortium. All member institutions can apply.

Successful applications will receive funding to deliver a project, resource, research or other activity that works towards one or more of the themes in the Consortium’s 2026-2029 Strategic Plan for the benefit of Consortium members. The four themes are :

Engagement and Inclusion: we will create a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment where all members feel engaged, represented, respected and valued
Partnership and Collaboration: we will form trusted alliances to enable an exchange of ideas, align resources and build productive relationships within the library and information community
Resilience and Sustainability: we will integrate resilience and sustainability into our operations, infrastructure and service provision and support our members to do the same
Talent and Innovation: we will foster a culture of continuous learning to support varied career pathways, empower members to reach their full potential, and align individual growth with institutional requirements

Read further details of the themes and the full Plan

What innovations will be considered

We want to encourage the broadest range of ideas rather than prescribe types of projects. The following are given only as indicative examples to prompt creative thinking. It is not an exhaustive list and other types of proposal are equally encouraged.

Supporting the establishment of themed regional networks where there is an identified gap in provision – e.g. communities of practice, action-learning sets, or reading groups.
Undertaking research into an under-investigated area of interest and benefit to M25 members.
Developing themed outputs of wider benefit to M25 members such as toolkits and case studies.

How much grant money is available?

The total amount in the Fund for 2026-27 is £2,000 and applicants can apply for grants from the fund from £100 up £2,000.

Applications must address the following criteria:

Provide details of the project, resource, research or other activity, for which you are applying to the Innovation Fund including:
- How it supports one of more of the Consortium’s strategic themes, how it is innovative and will be of benefit to the wider consortium.
- How you plan to ensure the outputs are shared and disseminated across the M25 Consortium
State how much you are applying for and how the money will be used. Provide a brief indicative budget breakdown of expected expenditure (suggest up to 12 itemised lines maximum).
Set out a mini-Project Plan (maximum one side of A4, or a brief spreadsheet) itemising the headline activities and actions that will be undertaken, with an indicative timeline and expected outputs from them.

Download the Application Form
The application form will be available shortly.

Assessment
Applications will be considered by the Innovation Fund Panel, comprising of an M25 Consortium Trustee and members of the M25 Consortium Steering Group. Applications will be assessed against the criteria set out above.

Innovation Fund Panel

Fiona Ainsworth, Steering Group member & Delivery Supervisor
Christopher Cipkin, M25 Treasurer & Panel Chair
David Clover, Steering Group member

Application Timeline

Thursday 18 September: Applications open
Tuesday 3 November: Applications close
Friday 4 December: Successful and unsuccessful applicants notified

Sharing success
A condition of receiving a grant from the Innovation Fund will be that successful applicants will be expected to share information about their project/activity at its conclusion and by no later than the end of December 2026. Sharing can be achieved in different ways and could be in the form of a report, a conference presentation or an online resource.

Restrictions

Grants can be applied from £100 up to the maximum of £2,000.
We expect projects to be delivered in twelve months but up to a maximum of 18 months.
Grants will not be awarded for events that could be delivered as part of the normal activities of the Consortium, including cpd25 and M25 events.
Grants awarded cannot be used to employ staff (but consultants undertaking short-term activities or projects may be permissable).

How to apply
Complete the application form and accompanying documents and send to the Innovation Fund Panel c/o Jill Howard, M25 Consortium Operations Manager m25libadmin@london.ac.uk

You are welcome to contact Christopher Cipkin, Chair of the Innovation Fund Panel, for an informal chat prior to sending in an application. Contact Christopher by email: Christopher.Cipkin@rhul.ac.uk

Further information
If you have any questions please contact the Innovation Fund Panel via the M25 Operations Manager m25libadmin@london.ac.uk

Successful Applicant

2025-2026: University of Surrey
University of Surrey Library was successful in its application to the M25 Innovation Fund to deliver free, in person accessible digitisation training for staff at M25 Consortium member libraries, with travel bursaries available. They ran a successful course on 15 July 2026 with another planned for 15 October 2026.