Applying to the OKRE Fund

The OKRE Fund is open for applications.

How much is available?

We provide grants from £500 – £25,000

Eligibility

  • The project must involve creative collaboration. Strong projects will involve creative working with someone from another sector or community i.e. between researchers, people with lived experience of an issue and entertainment professionals. Work with communities should follow best practise and can involve working with intermediary organisations.
  • Projects must be in R&D or early-stage development. It is not a production fund.
  • The OKRE Fund is open to both individuals and organisations

Current opportunities

We are currently interested in projects that explore one or more of the following areas:

  • Women and STEM-based careers
  • LGBTQIA+ issues
  • Environmental sustainability
  • Mental health, infectious disease and/or climate health
  • International development and the communities they seek to support.

Projects do not need to focus solely on a single issue or community. We’re interested in how they can be embedded and explored in unexpected and nuanced ways.

How to apply

If you’re interested in applying to the OKRE Fund, here’s what comes next:

  • Read through the OKRE Fund FAQs below
  • If you’re eligible, complete the application form below (a PDF is also available here, but please submit via the form)
  • Attach a project treatment at the end of the form in the format of your choosing.
  • If you have an accessibility requirement and need assistance please email [email protected]

Please note that any attachments should be in pdf format and no bigger than 10MB. Should you wish to attach a larger file, please contact [email protected].

The next OKRE Fund Committee meetings are scheduled for March 2024, May 2024 and July 2024.

FAQs

Please read the OKRE Fund FAQs before applying

Who can apply?

Individuals and organisations

What are we looking for?

The project must involve creative collaboration. By this we mean collaboration should meaningfully and creatively shape the direction of the project through the sharing of knowledge and perspectives. In entertainment, we’re interested in projects that take a fresh approach to exploring issues that impact our everyday lives and ideas that shape society. The audience for the project should be clear. In research, we’re interested in innovative approaches that make use of technologies and skills from the entertainment industries. Collaboration could be between researchers, people with lived experience of an issue and entertainment professionals. Work with communities should follow best practise and can involve working with intermediary organisations.

Are there specific subjects or issues you’re focused on?

Specific focus areas are shown further up this webpage. These are updated on a rolling basis. Please check out ‘Current Opportunities’ for more information.

What should my project treatment look like?

You can provide a treatment in a format familiar to your industry. It should excite and inspire us.

What are eligible costs?

  • Salaries, if persons are not already receiving a salary for the duration of the grant
  • Contractor fees e.g. consultants, creatives, delivery partners, community partners
  • Materials and equipment
  • Reasonable travel costs

When can I expect to hear about the outcome of my application?

We aim to provide responses within 8 weeks. Please note we are unable to provide individual feedback on applications.

How will applications be assessed?

Funding decisions are made by the OKRE Fund Committee which meets regularly to assess applications.

Criteria include:

  • freshness of the idea
  • potential for creative collaboration to shape the project
  • ability to deliver on the ambition of the project
  • alignment to current funding opportunities
  • potential for impact.

My project wasn’t awarded the first time around, can I apply again?

Resubmissions for the same project are by invite only.

How do I make my project stand out?

Unfortunately we get more projects than we are able to support. To ensure your project has the best chance of being funded here are the top 5 things to look out for on your application.

If you have further questions, please also refer to the FAQ in the OKRE Fund section.

1. Describe how your project explores our named themes and reflect this in your chosen collaborators: Carefully read the current opportunities section. We have to understand how your project explores one or more of these subjects. We don’t need it to be extremely on the nose in execution (in fact we’d rather it wasn’t!) but we have to see that the theme is clear and evidenced in your application as a topic you want to explore. We would also want to see your chosen experts (charities, lived experience, researchers) as specialists in this topic you want to explore. Even if we love your project, if it’s not clear which theme you’re exploring and which collaborators you want to work with to develop it further, we cannot fund it.

Example – funding theme is “infectious disease”

DO: Submit you zombie-themed feature, working with a infectious diseases researchers to innovate on the form.

DON’T: Submit your zombie-themed feature but not mention which theme it relates to or what experts you would want to work with.

2. Name your Collaborators: Who are you working with? Be explicit, provide links to their work, and ideally a line or two about why you want to work with them. This fund is set up to enable collaboration so we need to see you’re serious about working with your chosen partners.

DO: Tell us the collaborators name, title, bio and supply links to their work that you are specifically interested in i.e. We will work with Dr Jane Smith, Infectious Disease Researcher, Smith University (link) and John Smith, who has lived experience of a pandemic which relates to our main character and the charity Infectious Disease Charity (link).

DON’T: Name an organisation without telling us who specifically you are working with; or not include any detail whatsoever i.e. We will work with researchers in infectious diseases and charities. We will work with academics from universities like Smith University.

3. Demonstrate Feasibility: Provide evidence that your project is feasible. This could include details about your team’s qualifications, a realistic timeline, and a well-thought-out budget. Don’t just ask for the maximum amount of funding possible, be clear on why you need the funding amount you’re asking for.

DO: Provide a clear, reasoned budget, include a realistic timeline and provide links and bios about your team and any previous work. Be very specific about what each budget line is for in relation to development.

DON’T: Don’t forget this is a development fund, do not include production costs.

4. Know your audience: Who are you talking to? We don’t need you to have the broadest audience but we do need to understand your thoughts on who your project is for, and accordingly we will judge the project through this lens.

DO: Be specific i.e. The audience for my ZOMBIE MOVIE are 15-24 horror fan bracket, though we would seek primarily to appeal to a female-skewing audience who enjoyed films like MIDSOMMAR and PEARL.

DON’T: Be generic i.e. The audience are people 18-60 who enjoy horror films.

5. Highlight Innovation: emphasise any innovative aspects of your project. We are interested in supporting projects that bring new ideas, approaches, or technologies to the table. Clearly explain how your project is different from existing narratives.

DO: Be explicit about your fresh approach i.e. Through working with researchers, the modelling for the spread of the disease in my ZOMBIE MOVIE will be based in reality, offering an entirely fresh approach to the genre and offering a more grounded, and thrilling world for my film.

DON’T: Be generic i.e. Because I’m working with researchers my movie will be a fresh take on the genre.

When is the next OKRE Fund Committee Meeting?

The next OKRE Fund Committee meetings are scheduled for March 2024, May 2024 and July 2024.

Diversity Monitoring Survey

We would be grateful if you could also spend a couple of minutes answering the below questions relating to special category data (data concerning physical and mental health (including disability), data revealing racial or ethnic origin, and data concerning sexual orientation).

This will help us to better understand the demographics of the teams we reach and fund to inform our work moving forward. This data is captured independantly of the application form and will be aggregated after one month so that you can not be identified, and is then retained for internal reporting purposes only.