Guidance

Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund

Updated 10 September 2025

Applies to England

The Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund aims to support:

• innovative interventions to produce new knowledge on ‘what works’, building the evidence base on effective digital inclusion interventions
• best practice with the ambition to scale and replicate successful activities across England to increase digital participation

Grants of £25,000 to £500,000 were available to fund projects of different sizes.

Application criteria

All applications needed to explain how the proposed project would:

• contribute to either one of the Fund’s primary objectives:

  • to support innovative initiatives to increase digital participation, producing new knowledge on ‘what works’ and building the evidence base on effective digital inclusion interventions
  • to support best practice with the ambition to scale and replicate successful digital inclusion activities across England

• Address at least one of the Digital Inclusion Action Plan focus areas:

  • opening up opportunities through skills
  • breaking down barriers to digital services
  • tackling data and device poverty
  • building confidence and supporting local delivery

• Support at least one of the Action Plan focus demographic groups:

  • low-income households, specifically grades C2, D and E (1)
  • older people, specifically aged 60 and over
  • disabled people, specifically people with a a physical or mental health condition or illness that has lasted or is expected to last 12 months or more, and the condition and/or illness reduces their ability to carry out day-to-day activities
  • people experiencing unemployment
  • young people (25 and younger), including those not in education, employment or training

• Address a clear digital inclusion challenge with rationale for intervention and the outcomes expected while ensuring value for money
  

• Allow for effective monitoring and evaluation

• Be delivered and result in long-lasting impacts beyond the funding period

Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit proposals to support best practice with the ambition to scale and replicate successful activities to increase digital participation across England. Proposals designed to scale or replicate an example of best practice must provide evidence to demonstrate the past success of that example as well as details of how the proposal would build on that success.

Examples of proposals to support best practice in this context include:

Replicating a project that has previously been completed successfully.

A project that has been completed successfully in one area but will now be expanded further, for example, by targeting new demographic groups or expanding to a new area.

A new project that will implement or expand the use of an existing tool or framework.

Alternatively, applicants were strongly encouraged to submit innovative proposals. To qualify as ‘innovative’, the proposal must meet the 5 criteria for Research and Development (R&D) set out in Annex C of the government’s consolidated budget guidance 2024-2025.

Examples of innovative proposals in this context include a:

• brand-new idea that has never been tried before
• project that has been implemented before but not in the same way i.e. novel and uncertain aspects
• project that has been implemented before but to collect new evidence
• project to develop a new digital inclusion tool
• project to gather new evidence to inform an existing tool or framework

R&D is described as “creative work undertaken on a systematic basis to increase the stock of knowledge, and use of this stock of knowledge for discovering or developing new products, including improved versions or qualities of existing products, or discovering or developing new or more efficient processes of production”. More information, including the criteria that needs to be met, can be found at Annex C of the government’s consolidated budgeting guidance.

Long-lasting impacts beyond the funding period refers to how the expected outcomes of the proposal would continue to support digital inclusion in the local community after the fund ends on 31 March 2026.

Applicants must make clear the duration of the proposed project which can run until 31 March 2026, including setting out clear delivery milestones.

Funding cannot be awarded to support the following activities:

• any project that is ongoing or available to the public on the date that the grant recipient signs the grant funding agreement or Memorandum of Understanding
• to match fund a project which was already receiving government funding, whether in whole or in part -staff costs unless required to deliver the proposed project
• installation of physical digital infrastructure projects e.g. broadband infrastructure, telecommunications, data centres. This does not include devices such as laptops and computers
• cyber security activities that have received funding under the CyberFirst or Cyber Local programmes in Financial Year 2025/2026.

The maximum amount of overheads able to be claimed by an applicant is 20% of fixed labour costs.

Ongoing projects were not eligible for funding and a grant recipient cannot allocate funding received through this Fund to support activities that have already received funding, in whole or in part, or were available to the public. Funding also cannot be used to fund a project which was already in receipt of government funding (whether in whole or in part).

A project must be new in that it must be distinct from any existing projects that have already received funding (in whole or in part) or were available to the public. For example, if a project in question is due to conclude, a proposal could request funding to run a new project that would replicate the activity that is coming to an end, provided evidence to demonstrate the past success of that example as well as details of how the proposal would build on that success are adequately explained.

What can the funding be used for

This fund will support diverse projects addressing digital exclusion and promoting innovative interventions and best practice in England. Funding is for eligible activities that meet the application criteria including aligning with at least one of the focus areas in the Digital Inclusion Action Plan:

• improving digital skills
• improving access to digital services
• improving data and device poverty
• improve confidence in the use of digital services

Applicants were encouraged to consider a range of topics relevant to digital inclusion, including but not limited to:

• community engagement – how can digital inclusion support greater social cohesion and strengthen local communities?
• financial services – are there ways to improve access to financial services and economic empowerment through digital inclusion interventions?
• employment – how can expanding engagement with digital society help people to access and pursue employment opportunities?
• education and skills – how can increasing digital inclusion support greater access to education and skills including media literacy?
• safety and security – what interventions can support greater understanding of how to be safe and secure in a digital society?
• health and wellbeing – what are the opportunities to support greater understanding of and control over personal health and wellbeing through digital inclusion?

Who can apply (eligibility)

• local authorities (LAs)
• combined authorities (CAs)
• charities
• research organisations
• consortiums (with a lead organisation that is a combined authority, local authority, charity or research organisation)

Any of these organisations can also submit an application as the lead organisation of a consortium.

A local authority refers to those organisations listed in section 23 of the Local Government Act 2003.

A combined authority refers to those established under section 103 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009.

Applicants must:

• be based and registered in England
• have their head office in England.

It also means the proposed project must take place in at least one of the 9 regions of England, but it can also span multiple regions of England (North East, North West, Yorkshire and The Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East, and South West).

The total amount available is £7.278 million which is comprised of 3 types of funding:

• Category 1: £2.630 million to be allocated to support a wide range of projects with a particular emphasis on replicating or scaling examples of best practice in digital inclusion interventions.
• Category 2: £3.380 million to be allocated to support innovative interventions that produce new knowledge and help fill evidence gaps on effective digital inclusion interventions. These projects must meet the R&D criteria in Annex C of the government’s consolidated budget 2024-2025.
• Category 3: £1.267million to be allocated to physical and intangible assets that can be capitalised. This equipment and inventory to support the delivery of digital inclusion activities may include laptops, devices, and new software.

Applicants needed to specify:

• at least one category of funding they are requesting
• the amount being requested.

Also, applicants:

• can apply for a mix of funding from categories 1 and 3, or 2 and 3
  
• cannot submit an application that requests a mix of funding categories 1 and 2. This is because category 2 funding requests must meet the R&D criteria to produce ‘new knowledge’ while category 1 is focused on replicating and scaling best practice.
  
• can apply for grants of £25,000 to £500,000 regardless of the organisation, category of funding, or region of England
  
• should make clear the amount of funding being requested and how it will be spent.

Eligible charities and research organisations must:

• be registered and operating in England
• have been registered for at least 1 year from the date that this Fund went live
• commit to ensuring that any funding awarded is used exclusively to implement the proposed project

To be eligible for funding as a research organisation, the applicant must be a research organisation eligible for UKRI funding. The complete list of eligible research organisations can be found here.The following organisations are not eligible to apply for funding as an individual applicant or as a Lead Organisation of a consortium:

• NHS bodies
• Catapult centres
• Companies

Applications from consortiums (groups of stakeholders) are welcome. However:

• a consortium must have a Lead Organisation to serve as the main contact point through which the grant can be awarded and managed
• the lead organisation must be a local authority, combined authority, charity or research organisation
• all participating organisations must be identified. This may include local stakeholders such as companies, voluntary and community groups, and social enterprises
• all members of the consortium responsible for delivering the project will be subject to due diligence checks
• the Lead organisation will be responsible for conducting relevant due diligence checks (in addition to those conducted by the fund administrator) and ensuring that any partners who receive funding only use it to support implementation of the funded project

Applicants working with subcontractors are responsible for ensuring that these partners can meet their obligations and must carry out appropriate due diligence checks. All subcontractors must be clearly identified in the application, and DSIT will also conduct its own due diligence on these organisations. Applicants must also provide a detailed breakdown of all associated costs in their application.

Key dates

Date	Stage
13 August 2025 (12pm)	Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund opens for applications
10 September 2025 (3pm)	Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund closes for applications (submissions after 3pm aren’t accepted)
10 September 2025 to 19 October 2025	Assessment of submitted applications (inc. eligibility checks; decision-making and due diligence checks)
20 October 2025	Notification letters sent to inform applicants of results
22 October 2025 (2 working days)	Notification letters sent to inform applicants of results
23 October 2025	Grant funding agreements and MOUs issued
29 October 2025 (5 working days)	Grant funding agreements and MOUs must be signed
3 November 2025	Projects begin
16 January 2026	First instalment of invoices to be submitted by this date. They should account for activities that took place up to and including 16 January 2025
31 March 2026	All funded activities must conclude
30 April 2026	Final instalment of invoices must be submitted by this date. They should account for all remaining unclaimed activity up to and including 31 March 2026.

How to apply

The Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund application page closed on Wednesday 10 September 2025.

All funded activities must be completed by 31 March 2026.

Background

The Digital Inclusion Action Plan – First Steps highlights the need for locally delivered, highly tailored and targeted interventions that meet the needs of digitally excluded people, and commits to building on the strength of existing local support.

The Action Plan also highlights that while the evidence base on digital inclusion in the UK is significant, it is also fragmented. The complex nature of digital exclusion, and the diverse barriers that people face, means that understanding the underlying drivers of digital exclusion and designing effective interventions remains a challenge.