Disabled people, their organisations, academics and partners are
being invited to apply for grants for research and pilot projects to
find out how disabled people, and those with long term conditions, can
participate fully in society, achieving independent living.
Organisations can apply for up to £150,000 from the DRILL (Disability
Research on Independent Living and Learning) programme, which launched
last autumn and expects to fund around 40 projects in the UK over the
next four years. DRILL opened this Monday 9 May for applications and
will close on 27 July. Please visit the DRILL funding page for further information.
Disabled people will be at the forefront of designing projects (with
academics and policy and practice experts), for the programme. DRILL is
funded by a £5 million grant from the Big Lottery Fund and will be
delivered by Disability Rights UK, Disability Action Northern Ireland,
Inclusion Scotland and Disability Wales.
The Programme Board said:
“Our aim is to build new evidence on what would enable disabled
people to take full part in society – with disabled people in the lead,
setting the priorities and co-designing the projects. We’re looking
forward to receiving some exciting proposals”.
Proposals will be assessed by a National Advisory Group, with a
Central Research Committee made up of disabled people, academics and
policy experts making a final decision on which projects receive
funding.
Fast Track Applications will find out if they have been successful in
September. Larger applications using a 2 Stage Application
process will find out in March .
This is the first call for applications. A further 3 calls is anticipated over the next 4 years.
Tom Shakespeare, Chair of the Central Research Committee for DRILL, added:
“The starting gun has been fired on a very exciting competitive
research process. We are looking for teams that have great ideas, true
partnership between researchers and disabled people, and with real
chance of improving the lives of disabled people. This is the first
tranche of a five year funding programme that will change the United
Kingdom for the better.”
