Scotland: National Rural Network
Connecting Rural Scotland - Promoting Rural Growth

After a gap in its main funding programmes the BIG Lottery Fund Scotland has announced that it will launch new Investing in Communities programmes on 30th June 2010. Around £350 million will be available for 2010-2015. This is more than was expected due to a rise in lottery tickets sales and revised financial forecasting by the BIG Lottery Fund.

Investing in Communities will have three familiar investment areas, a new Growing Community Assets programme, Life Transitions and Supporting 21^st Century Life. The primary focus will be tackling need, and in particular, addressing inequalities. There will be more defined outcomes and a clearer two stage application process. They also intend to incorporate development support and possibly, development funding into the application process.

Investing in Ideas is still open and will be re-launched to coincide with the new Investing in Communities programmes. Other current Scotland programmes are Awards for All Scotland and 2014 Communities.

An additional £50 million will address supporting people with dementia and their carers, and supporting young people who are leaving the care system. This will not be an open programme but will involve the BLF working with stakeholders to identify projects.

You can also listen to a recent podcast by Alison Magee, chair of the BIG Lottery Scotland committee, where she discusses the new programmes here.