Test It! Application Guidance

Support for writing your application

This guidance has been written to help you write the best possible application for the Test It! programme. We will be monitoring incoming applications to help you to complete your application as fully as you can, but the guidance below provides additional information to help you get going.

If you have any questions while you’re writing your application or need any tech support, drop us an email at testit@north-ayrshire.gov.uk.

 

1. Application Title: this can either be the name of your organisation or the name of your proposed project/idea, whatever best describes your application
2. Summary of your idea: tell us about the idea you’d like to develop through the Test It! programme. Your idea must help you to create an income for your organisation and you must be able to explain it in 200 characters or less (think of this like an ‘elevator pitch’). 
3. Project description: Tell us more about why you want to try out your idea; how you plan to do it and the difference you hope it will make.
   1. Applying  for staff costs: If you are looking for dedicated staff resource from one of the £10,000 investments, it is very important that you make a clear and specific case for this here, as we would only award one organisation with the funding for this approach. If looking to fund an existing staff member, this must be in the context of additionality, and you must evidence the clear, specific, new deliverables that you anticipate being achieved as a result of the investment over and above their current role. Your idea should be something that you can put in place and see early results from by November 2026, which is when the programme is scheduled to end. Please refer to the criteria to check what is allowable.
   2. Please clearly break down how you would spend the funding. We need to understand what each investment would pay for, and this must fit the criteria for the programme.
   3. Remember to tell us how the funding will generate an income for your organisation. Preference will be given to ideas that are realistic and can be tested within the timeframe of the programme; are repeatable in the future; or that can be scaled with additional support after the programme.
4. Starter Fund investment: should be either £5,000 or £10,000. The panel will make the final decision on the amount of funding awarded to each participant, taking into account the strength of the proposal and the funding available. If your application is successful you may be offered a place on the programme with a different amount of funding than you initially applied for.
5. What was your organisation's income at your last set of audited accounts? Please state the overall income from your most recent set of completed accounts. If you have been running for under a year and do not have a completed set of accounts, please provide a figure that reflects your overall income since you have established, and let us know the period this covers. We may ask to see a copy of your accounts as part of the programme.
6. Are any of your committee or board members related? If so, how many? By 'related', we mean parents, children, siblings, spouses or long term partners

The remainder of the application is comprised of very short answers (e.g. contact details) and tick box responses, and you can see an overview of the questions here.