2023-26 Investment Programme: The timeline
Here are the key dates you need to know about if you’re thinking of making an application to to be a National Portfolio Organisation or Investment Principles Support Organisation.
Important update: Application decisions paused
Update: New date confirmed for decisions
We are pleased to confirm that all our 2023-26 Investment Programme applicants will receive decisions from us on Friday 4 November.
Making your application
Mid January 2022: Guidance for Applicants published
We published the full Guidance for Applicants, including the questions you will need to answer in your application, along with activity templates you will need to complete. It is available in various accessible formats, and you can find it here on our website, along with FAQs.
We also published the Activity Plan and Investment Principles Plan templates that you’ll need to submit as part of your application.
31 January - 22 April 2022: Introductory conversations
If you planned on making an application, you could book an introductory conversation with one of our team, to take place between Monday 31 January and Friday 22 April 2022.
All applicants who aren’t currently an NPO must have one of these conversations in order to make an application. The conversation included advice from us on how much investment applicants should consider applying for. Conversations were booked with our Customer Services team by 4pm on 8 April 2022.
Current National Portfolio Organisations could also have a one-to-one conversation with their Relationship Manager during this period, if they wanted to do so.
3 February 2022: Relationship Frameworks published
We published our Relationship Frameworks, which set out how we’ll work with National Portfolio Organisations and Investment Principles Support Organisations for 2023-26.
23 February 2022: Addendum to the guidance published
We published an addendum to the Guidance for Applicants, which explains how the government’s ‘Levelling Up priorities’ affect the 2023-26 Investment Programme and we strongly advise you read it before submitting your application. This is the last piece of information we have to share with you before the application portal opens.
28 February 2022: Application portal opened
On Monday 28 February 2022 our online application portal Granitum opened for applications. Applicants could save theirr application progress on Grantium and return to it until they decided to submit it by 12pm on Wednesday 18 May.
We strongly recommended that applicants did not leave making their application to the last minute. We also suggested they aim to submit their application at least a few days before the application deadline, at the latest.
7 - 17 March 2022: Digital briefings
We held some more digital events, after publishing the Guidance for Applicants. We answered more detailed questions about the process, including technical ones about making an application. Find out more.
8 April 2022: Deadline to book your introductory conversation
If you’re not currently a National Portfolio Organisation, you had to have an introductory conversation with one of our team in order to make an eligible application. This needed to take place by 22 April and you needed to book it through our Customer Services team.
22 April 2022: Deadline for creating your applicant profile and having an introductory conversation
4pm on 22 April 2022 was the deadline for having created an applicant profile on our application portal, Grantium, and for having an introductory conversation with us (mandatory for organisations not currently an NPO).
18 May 2022: Application portal closed
At 12pm (midday) our online application portal Grantium closed for applications.
Once again, we strongly recommended that you do not leave making your application to the last minute. We also suggested you aim to submit your application at least a few days before the application deadline, at the latest.
Decision-making
Spring to September 2022: Assessment, balancing and decision-making
We received a total of 1,730 applications, requesting just over £2 billion over the three-year investment period. This record-breaking number of applications is more than double the number of NPOs we currently invest in and makes this our most over-subscribed investment round to date. Find out more >
Our teams assessed your application during this period. We then made recommendations to our Area and National Councils on which applicants will, from the budget available, make up the best National Portfolio Organisations and Investment Principles Support Organisations to help deliver our strategy from 1 April 2023 onwards. Information about the assessment and decision-making process could be found in the Guidance for Applicants.
Friday 4 November 2022: Sharing our funding decisions
We’ll contact everyone that made an application and let them know if we’re making them an offer of funding. That offer will be conditional and subject to the negotiation of a satisfactory funding agreement. We’ll also publish the names of the organisations we’ve made an offer to online.
Funding agreements and starting the portfolio
November 2022 – February 2023: Funding agreements
We will negotiate funding agreements with organisations offered investment, along with the amount we’ll be investing. Funding agreements will detail how we’ll work together, exactly what work we’ll be investing in and how much this investment will be.
1 April 2023
The 2023-26 Investment Programme will come into effect from this day.