The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) has announced the launch of the Digital Innovation Fund, a grant designed to support digital inclusion projects and innovative interventions across the UK.
The £9.5 million grant will see a share of £7.242 million go to projects within England, with the remaining funds being shared equally between Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in order to achieve their ultimate goal of helping to “shape the Government’s evolving digital inclusion strategy”.
The DSIT notes two key objectives of the fund, to support innovative initiatives to increase digital participation, producing new knowledge on “what works” and building the evidence base on effective digital inclusion interventions; and to support best practice with the ambition to scale and replicate successful digital inclusion activities across England.
Applicants must be able to demonstrate how their project meets either one of those objectives, also being required to address and support at least one of the focus areas and demographic groups outlined in the Digital Inclusion Action Plan. DSIT Staes the need to address a clear digital inclusion challenge, allow for effective monitoring and evaluation, and delivering long-lasting impacts beyond the funding period. They should also consider how their project supports wider community engagement, financial services, employment opportunities, education and skills, safety and security and health and wellbeing.
The funding is made up of three different categories: Category 1 allocates £2.594m for projects that focus on replicating or scaling examples of best practice in digital inclusion interventions; Category 2 allocates £3.380m to innovative interventions that produce new knowledge and help fill evidence gaps on effective digital inclusion interventions; and Category 3 allocates £1.267m to physical assets such as laptops, devices and new software.
According to DSIT, “ongoing projects are not eligible for funding” as projects must be completely new and “distinct from any existing projects that have already received funding”. Applicants must be based in England and must specify which funding category they are requesting. They can reportedly apply for grants of £25,000 to £500,000 “regardless of the organisation, category of funding, or region of England” by submitting an online application before 3pm on 10 September 2025.
Earlier in the year, DSIT also launched a new round of the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund, offering up to £5.5 million in total funding for innovation in critical sectors and helping support the delivery of the Plan for Change. It was designed to support AI in healthcare and smarter ways to test out new treatments.
Government funding across health and care
In July, the government announced £75 million of funding to more than 170 hospices to support the delivery of “major upgrades” across facilities, tech, and outreach services, as part of the Plan for Change’s promises to improve care in the community where people need it most. The funding is being distributed by Hospice UK, with hospices allocated a portion of the funding which can be invoiced for once work has been completed.
Wales recently launched a £120 million package to fund the reduction of long wait times and the size of waiting lists in the NHS by 200,000, according to an announcement made by health secretary, Jeremy Miles. The plan is to eliminate all two-year waits, cut waiting lists by 200,000 and restore diagnostic wait times to under eight weeks by March 2026.
In May, over 1,000 GP surgeries were given a share of £102 million as part of the government’s Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund, the first national capital fund for primary care estates since 2020. According to the announcement, the funding will support primary care to either enhance the use of existing infrastructure or to create additional capacity.
