On Thursday 10th December the first of the Cardiff Capital Region Challenge Fund development workshops took place. This was the first in a series of workshops designed to support interested applicants in thinking through their challenges in order to strengthen their applications into the Challenge Fund.
The first workshop focused on exploring what makes a good challenge and listening to attendees to get a better understanding of what support they can access along the way. Participants heard from speakers on what has constituted good, successful challenge definition in other challenge fund competitions. There was an opportunity to ask questions, network with other attendees who may become potential collaborators, and to talk about what future support might be needed.
A total of thirty four delegates attended this first development workshop with another expected in January 2021. It was great to hear some fantastic examples of how previous UK and Welsh Challenges have helped to solve societal and public service challenges in Wales. We also heard from Y Lab on the principles and processes for designing effective Challenges. Delegates were split into breakout groups and invited to discuss burning issues.
The workshop was notable for the range of participants and for their enthusiasm for the opportunities that the Challenge Fund presents. Equally welcome was the willingness to explore opportunities to collaborate and the scale of ambition of some of the participants. There was a strong commitment to explore how challenges could be developed in ways that benefited the Cardiff Capital Region and a desire to see that benefit extend beyond financial outcomes.
Breakout group discussion included how meeting climate change targets could be delivered in ways that benefited the region; how health and decarbonisation agendas were potentially complementary and could be viewed and developed as linked in some ways and also how the Challenge Fund could contribute to the region’s ability to secure further investment in a variety of UK-wide sources.
There was a very positive response from participants and a number of suggestions for follow-up activities, including further workshops.
Interested in finding out more?
Please visit the webpage www.cardiffuniversity.ac.uk/challengefund or email the CCR Challenge Fund team at CCRChallengeFund@cardiff.ac.uk.
If you would like to book onto one of our upcoming Challenge Development Workshops please contact the team at CCRChallengeFund@cardiff.ac.uk .You can also book a 1:1 meeting with the CCR Challenge Fund management team at one of our Challenge development surgeries.
