Bush Telegraph…

This phenomena is real. Let me explain. In the outback of Australia I lost my lap-top - worse than that - I left it in a donga! In a place called Quilpie. I hand’t realised this until I’d got to Windorah and crashed out in the Western Star Motel, over 5 hours up an unsealed road. I felt sick. My life is on that machine and it wasn’t backed up. (my life wasn't backed up?) Near to tears I asked the motel owner Marilyn, if we could ring the roadhouse that ran the donga. She got straight onto it and within five minutes, she was speaking to road-train drivers, bakers and DJ’s (seriously...DJ Duck) and had identified the whereabouts of my machine and a driver to bring it out. Within 10 hours, my laptop was back in my arms. Can you imagine if you lost your laptop in Manchester? It would never be seen again, yet here in a vast landscape with so few people (6 children at the school here) the bush-telegraph works, people go out of their way to help. So it was, I met up with Geoff in Birdsville, the guy who so kindly had driven my laptop out to me, without any fuss, just as a favour. Now that’s another story.

This week, the Arts and Health training I’ve been delivering in Lithuania with Socialiniai Meno Projektai comes to a close. My work has been part of a rolling programe of activity supported by the British Council and has seen the input of amongst others the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival, Pia Strandman, Jenny Elliot and Carmel Garvey. This Thursday I am thrilled to be speaking at the National Gallery of Lithuania. Following my presentation I’ll be joined for a discussion by participants in this years artists training: Eglė Gudonytė, Ulijona Odišarija, Gailė Prackūnaitė, Kunigunda Dineikaitė, Gretė Siliūnaitė, Kamilė Klevinskaitė, Rasa Baradinskienė, Gabrielė Ganžaitė. I very much look forward to meeting up with friends and colleagues again.

UIA Charitable Foundation 

The UIA Charitable Foundation has announced that the next deadline for applying to its grants programme is the 31st December 2013. The Foundation is funded entirely by donations from UIA (Insurance) Limited, a mutual insurance company providing household insurance to trade union members, their families and other like-minded individuals.  Since inception the Foundation has made grants in excess of £450,000 to projects based in the UK and Internationally.  The aim of the charity is to support projects under two main categories. These are:

· The Community Support Programme

· The World Programme. 

In both areas the Foundation will consider projects that empower individuals and communities to improve their lives and the prospects of the community.  The Foundation will not usually provide grants to organisations with a turnover of more than £500,000.  The Foundation's grants range in size from a few hundred pounds to £5,000 for individual donations but they will consider funding for development projects on their individual merit. However applicants will need to be clear about the specific amount required, the timescales for the achievement of objectives and how the project will be monitored and evaluated. Read more at:

http://www.uia.co.uk/About-Us/Charitable-foundation/

The Wellcome Trust – Broadcast Development Awards 

The Wellcome Trust's Broadcast Development Awards(BDA) support the development of broadcast proposals in any genre that engage the audience with issues around biomedical science in an innovative, entertaining and accessible way. The Trust are interested in funding individuals and organisations with brilliant early-stage ideas for TV, radio, new media or gaming projects. The funding will enable these ideas to be developed into high-impact, well-researched proposals that can be used to secure a broadcast platform and/or further funding. Development funds might be used to undertake thorough research, create a taster tape, develop a script, or build a game prototype or mood reel. The project should primarily be aimed at a mainstream UK and/or Republic of Ireland audience in the first instance, although the subject matter can be international. Broadcast Development Awards are up to £10 000, for a maximum of one year. The next closing date for applications is the 24th January 2014. Read more at: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Funding-schemes/Broadcast-games-and-film-awards/Development-Awards/index.htm

...out of office (part 2)

As time in the outback draws to a close, here is another one of those wonderful 'willy-willy's.' Sitting in a hotel (at last) in one of the most remote places on this continent, I'd like to rant just a little, about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty, which considering my presentation on Big Pharma last week, has never seemed more relevant. Click on the flowers below to find out a little more why we should be interested in this. TPP will make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to have greater control in our lives and even provision that allows surgical procedures to be patented! Sounds irrelevant? It's not! This is about our creative and intellectual freedom. 

OK...here are some funding opportunities, including this first international opportunity, which I have had the pleasure to support successful applicants with, over these last few years.

Artists International Development Fund 

The Arts Council England has announced that its new Artists' International Development Fund is currently open for applications. Through the Artists' International Development Fund the Arts Council offers grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 to individual freelance and self-employed artists based in England to build links with artists, organisations and/or creative producers in another country.  The fund is open to individual artists, including creative producers, curators and editors.  Although the Artists' international development programme is aimed at individual artists, small groups of artists who normally collaborate in their work can also apply. This could include, for example, musicians and visual artists who usually create work together, or writers and their translators. 

In parallel with the Artists' international development fund, the British Council are administering a separate fund for film makers designed to help emerging UK film talent travel with their work and reach new international audiences. The Travel Grant Fund will support makers of short films in the UK in showing their work at international film festivals.

The closing date for applications is the 7th February 2014. Read more at:http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/artists-international-development-fund/

Hyperlocal Media Competition Launched 

Innovation agencies Nesta and Technology Strategy Board have announced that they are seeking entries for Destination Local Demonstrators - a new hyperlocal media competition which will invest £2.5 million in projects that provide online news or content services to local communities.  The competition is looking for entries that:

· Demonstrate the potential for technology-led news or content services to specific geographical locations across the UK

· Enable people to connect more easily with their communities

· Provide evidence for the commercial and social potential of new services. 

Between three and five projects across the UK will be backed by the competition to support the development of new forms of hyperlocal media information and content services. It is estimated that projects will range in size from £700, 000 to £1.4 million. Entries to the competition can be submitted by technology, content and community focused organisations of any size that will go on to form business-led partnerships.   Projects will commence by May 2014 and last between 12 and 18 months and may be deployed in specific geographical areas.

The deadline to register to take part in the competition is the11th December 2013. Read more at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/project/destination-local 

Government Launches New Vulnerable & Disengaged Young People Fund 

The Cabinet Office Centre for Social Action has announced the launch of a new £2million Vulnerable and Disengaged Young People Fund to inspire England’s most vulnerable young people. Administered by the Social Investment Business, organisations looking to create or further develop inspiring projects for young people can apply for a development, evidence or scale-up grant of between £30,000 and £250,000. The funding can be used towards:

· Setup costs

· Frontline delivery

· Evaluation

· Mentor/volunteer expenses

· A percentage of core costs (e.g. overheads). 

The grants can only fund up to £5,000 of capital expenditure.  Applications can come from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, public bodies (for example Local Authorities) and businesses with a social mission or a clear objective in their corporate social responsibility policy towards increasing social action, or businesses involved in the delivery of public service.   The closing date for applications is the 6th December 2013. Read more at: http://www.sibgroup.org.uk/youth/ 

Healthy Hearts Grants 

Heart Research UK has announced that its Health Hearts Grants Programme will re-open in January 2014. Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Grants support innovative projects designed to promote heart health and to prevent or reduce the risks of heart disease in specific groups or communities. Grants of up to £10,000 are available to community groups, voluntary organisations and researchers who are spreading the healthy heart message. The closing date for this funding round will be the 28th February 2014. Read more at: http://www.heartresearch.org.uk/grants/healthyheartgrant 

Thank you Wills for the photographs and company. To anyone who's emailed me, but not yet had a reply, I promise to get back to you over the next week or so.

...out of office!

...please excuse the self-indulgent nature of this blog whilst your blogger is outback, chasing tornadoes! OK, well maybe not tornadoes, but Australia's very own, 'Willy-Willy's'! I promise normality soon.