BFSS Annual Report 2020

BFSS Annual Report 2020

A challenging year in which BFSS had to adapt to support Grant Holders as the world went into lockdown.

In 2020, 32 new grants with a total value of £1,000,541 were awarded (2019: 43, £761,069), this includes 7 grants which were awarded from the restricted funds totalling £54,699. In addition we continued to support 30 grants awarded in previous years.

In response to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 we made the decision to cancel our June 2020 grants round to reduce the pressure on potential applicants feeling the need to submit grant applications. However the full budget from the June round was rolled forward to the October 2020 round. In addition, ahead of the October round we introduced a new 2-stage application process making it less time consuming for applicants to submit their initial proposals. Subsequently a record number of new grant applications (183 applications) were received for the October grants round. This was exceptional and three times the average of recent rounds. Several factors are likely to have contributed to this high number, including the cancellation of the
June 2020 grant round, the increased need caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the new two-stage application system.

In total 244 applications for the main fund were received for the 2020 grant rounds, which is higher than 2019 but on par with recent years.

Published: 15 April 2021