Government launches Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund
The Government have announced that they will be backing their Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund with £9.5 million, which will be used to tackle digital inequality across the UK.
The Fund was announced as part of the Government’s Digital Inclusion Action Plan, published earlier this year, and aims to close the digital divide that sees an estimated 13-19 million adults digitally excluded in some way and 1.6 million UK citizens stay offline.
How the Fund will work
The Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund is designed to support innovative measures to close the digital divide in the UK. Promoting digital inclusion doesn’t just mean getting more people to use the internet, but supporting individuals to access essential public services, access job opportunities, and stay connected with friends and family.
In England, local authorities, research bodies and charities will all be able to bid directly for grants worth between £25,000 and £500,000 to support schemes in their local areas. The funding is being directed through local groups as they are most in-touch with the needs of their local areas.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the money will be distributed differently. Allocations for the devolved governments have been calculated on a per capita basis and amount to:
- £400,368 for Wales
- £764,020 for Scotland
- £267,249 for Northern Ireland.
Grants can be used to support all manner of digital inclusion effort, such as device reuse schemes or digital skills classes.
techUK’s view
techUK welcomed the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund as part of the Digital Inclusion Action Plan, the first UK Government digital inclusion strategy for over a decade.
techUK also supported the Fund being used to support a variety of digital inclusion methods being run by the private sector, charities and by local government. This is because there are multiple reasons why people may be digitally-excluded and so there are different schemes required to help everybody.
We would welcome government clarification about how they will use the Fund to support innovative new digital inclusion schemes, and how they plan to assess and scale these. Digital inclusion schemes may, for example, be successful not just through how many people they help but in the depth of support they provide.
We would also recommend applying for the fund be made as simple as is feasibly possible, as otherwise there is a risk that only the organisations best-equipped to apply for funding will be able to do so, and innovative schemes will be missed. We are also concerned that companies are being excluded from the scheme, and would suggest that the Government reconsider this.
Overall, techUK welcomes this latest move by Government to tackle digital exclusion and to put their Digital Inclusion Action Plan into practice.
Get involved
You can find the announcement on the Government's website, alongside the full Digital Inclusion Action Plan.
techUK members can also join our Digital Inclusion Working Group to stay up to date with the latest announcements, meet like-minded members and direct our work in this critical space. You can find out more on our website.
Archie Breare
Archie Breare
Archie Breare joined techUK in September 2022 as the Telecoms Programme intern, and moved into the Policy and Public Affairs team in February 2023.
Before starting at techUK, Archie was a student at the University of Cambridge, completing an undergraduate degree in History and a master's degree in Modern British History.
In his spare time, he likes to read, discuss current affairs, and to try and persuade himself to cycle more.
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