Nesta, the innovation foundation, has today launched its 12-month Rapid Recovery Challenge which aims to “find and support tools and solutions that improve access to jobs and money for people across the UK”.
Nesta is calling on businesses, charities and organisations to submit plans for innovative solutions to be in with a chance of joining its Rapid Recovery Stream and winning £475,000 in non-partnership funding.
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Funding Focus - Covid recovery funding
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Two winning organisations will be picked to join the stream, funded in partnership with the Money and Pensions Service and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.
It “will support solutions helping connect people with open job positions that match their skill sets, potentially providing tailored learning, training or advice to people seeking work".
“The Rapid Recovery Challenge will support innovators to develop and scale solutions through financial grants and non-financial support such as help with product and service design, and access to a wider support network of organisations,” Nesta said.
Projects must already exist in at least prototype form and have been piloted with a minimum of 1,000 users.
The launch comes as new figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that 16- to 24-year-olds have been worst hit by the impact of Covid-19 on the jobs market with 76,000 more young people unemployed in the three months to the end of July than in the same time period as last year.
Research by Nesta reveals that 32 per cent of workers including young people, those in insecure roles and low paid workers said a second lockdown would “tip them over the edge financially” while just 35 per cent said they are confident they would be able to find another job in three months if they were made redundant.
Ravi Gurumurthy, chief executive of Nesta, said: “Covid-19 has created a huge economic shock. Millions face severe threats to their job security and household finances, and we know that low-paid workers, people in insecure roles and those under 25 will be hit hardest. I’m looking forward to seeing the range of solutions innovators develop to support those whose jobs and finances have been most impacted by the pandemic.”
Entries to the Rapid Recovery Challenge are now open, closing on 26 October 2020.
Two winning projects will be announced at the end of the programme in September 2021.
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