# Innovate to Save fund open to Welsh public & third sector organisations

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/02/28/innovate-save-fund-open-welsh-public-third-sector-organisations/
- Published: 2017-02-28T10:30:39+00:00
- Author: Melanie May

**Nesta has launched a £5m programme to support public and third sector organisations
in Wales in generating cashable savings and improving the quality of service delivery.**

[Innovate to Save](http://www.nesta.org.uk/project/innovate-save) aims to tackle
some of the most complex issues currently facing Welsh public services while generating
cashable savings through a new model that blends different kinds of finance and 
intensive support. It will prototype, trial, scale and evaluate projects through
a mixture of grant funding, non-financial support and repayable loans.

The programme launched on 17^(th) February and is open to applications from all 
Welsh public and third sector organisations until 23^(rd) May.

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The programme has three phases; pre-application support, where it will support the
development of new ideas into robust research and development (R&D) projects; research
and development, where new ideas will be prototyped and tested, and implementation,
where ideas that show the capacity to improve services and generate savings will
be rolled out.

Innovate to Save is keen to support projects that fall into one of the following
four thematic areas:

 * Improving services for looked after children
 * Using data and digital technology to drive change
 * Social prescribing
 * Public sector procurement

It is also seeking applications from partnerships, particularly where activity in
one organisation generates savings in another.

Innovate to Save will provide financial and non-financial support to enable successful
applicants to take part in the R&D phase with grants of between £5,000 and £15,000
available. Implementation projects will be supported with interest free, unsecured
loans and a package of non-financial support. There is currently no upper limit 
to the value of loans that can be applied for.

The programme has been born out of the Welsh Government’s [Invest to Save](http://gov.wales/topics/improvingservices/invest-to-save/?lang=en)
programme, which has run as a loan scheme since 2009, offering unsecured, zero interest
finance to public sector projects that require up front investment to implement.
A review of Invest to Save highlighted various challenges with the programme and
recommended segmenting the Invest to Save fund to create a new bespoke offer for
organisations considering more radical options for achieving savings, which was 
developed as Innovate to Save.

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