Funding competitions

Each competition we issue will have its own process as described in the supporting documents.

Who can bid?

Our regulatory framework governs which higher education providers we can fund.

We cannot fund individual students or academics, and will not accept bids outside of our specific competitions. 

What to include in a bid

• Bids to all competitions will require explicit support from students, and other strategic partners, depending on the competition (for example, employers, local government) as well as from the provider itself.
• Successful bids will need to set ambitious goals which foster change and deliver successful outcomes for students.
• Bidders will need to commit their own resources alongside our investment – and we may require one-to-one match funding for some competitions.

Guidance for bidding

We've provided general guidance on bidding for funding competitions.

Decisions and approvals

Bids will usually be assessed by Office for Students staff and external experts. For some competitions we may interview bidders, depending on the criteria we set and level of funding available.

We will convene expert panels, chaired by a member of the Office for Students senior leadership team, in order to oversee our processes and provide advice to the chief executive.

Our chief executive will take final decisions, and take into account the overall level of funding involved, and risk.

The chief executive may on occasion decide to refer higher value and/or higher risk individual bids, or multiple bids, to the board for final decisions.

We will write to all bidders setting out our decisions.