Strategic Development Fund

This document provides details of HEFCE's new Strategic Development Fund, and the process for submitting proposals. A key aim of the fund is to support a wide range of collaborative arrangements for facilitating strategic change and development that will benefit the sector as a whole. Proposals can be made at any time, and will be reviewed at regular intervals throughout the year.

View updated guidance (July 2007)

To:	Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions Heads of HEFCE-funded further education colleges
Of interest to those responsible for:	Planning, Finance
Reference:	2003/28
Publication date:	June 2003
Enquiries to:	HEFCE regional consultant or higher education adviser

Executive summary and link to supporting documents (read on-line)

Download

Invitation to submit proposals
[ MS Word 339K | Zipped Word 59K | Adobe PDF 83K | Zipped PDF 56K ]

Annexes A, C, D, E
[ MS Word 44K | Zipped Word 9K | Adobe PDF 17K | Zipped PDF 12K ]

Annex B - SDF business case summary - template for completion
[ MS Word 22K | Zipped Word 4K | Adobe PDF 9K | Zipped PDF 6K ]

Executive summary

Purpose

1. This document provides details of our new Strategic Development Fund (SDF) and the process for submitting a proposal for funding.

Key points

2. The overarching purpose of the SDF is to facilitate constructive development and change, at a strategic level, in relation to our priorities as set out in our strategic plan. These are fully consistent with the Government's White Paper 'The future of higher education'.

3. The development of a wide range of collaborative arrangements between higher education institutions (HEIs), and between HEIs and colleges from the further education sector, is likely to be an important feature in the coming years. Supporting such arrangements will be a key priority for the SDF. In this context, we are interested in exploring the potential for multi-partner collaborations, piloting new arrangements, and providing incentives for institutions to develop innovative and flexible programmes of study, particularly in regional and sub-regional contexts.

4. We will consider supporting projects of any scale, but we expect to provide a significant proportion of funds to a relatively small number of large scale projects.

5. We will move further towards a risk-sharing and investment-based approach with the SDF. We will provide a significant proportion of funds in the form of a repayable grant rather than a standard discretionary grant.

Action required

6. There is no specific timetable for proposals to the SDF. The process is open to proposals at any time, and they will be considered on a regular basis throughout the year. Proposals should be discussed with the institution's HEFCE regional consultant or higher education adviser in the first instance. For contact details see our web-site www.hefce.ac.uk, under About us.