The government earmarked £5m last year to tackle knife crime under the Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) but future funding is likely to be affected by the current financial situation.
A project run by charity Rathbone, which was awarded £100,000 from the Home Office for 12 months, has now ended despite being described as remarkable by researchers.
Paul Fletcher, director of policy at Rathbone, said pilots and pilot funding are welcomed because they allow charities to pioneer and test new ways of working and to seek solutions to problems such as knife crime.
"It is the short-term nature of the funding which is problematic, especially funding which is less than 12 months," he said.
"Ideally, initiatives should be funded for between two and three years to be given a realistic prospect of identifying robust strategies to tackle serious social issues of the day involving young people."
