The Department of Health has also launched an Innovation Excellence and Service Development Fund for 2010-11. This is largely aimed at national work but there is some scope for local work provided that you:

"Have, or plan to have, an effect nationally. This means we will not consider projects with a purely local effect. To have a national impact, a project should be able to make a difference to the health and well-being of people across England. A locally based project can be said to have the potential for making an effect nationally if it is trying out new solutions for services that have not been tried before and the learning or good practice can be shared or copied in other areas of the country."

There is no minimum or maximum funding that organisations can apply for. However under the previous scheme the average grant awarded was around £50,000.

There is a two stage application process. Outline proposals need to be submitted by 4th September 2009. Those organisations that are successful at this stage will be invited to submit detailed applications by 27th November 2009. For more information, click here

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_103016