£3.75 million awarded to People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund winners
Three pioneering initiatives have shared this year’s £3.75 million People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund. The announcement comes as the Dream Fund prepares to celebrate its 10th Dream Fund year.
Launched in 2011, the Dream Fund gives charities a chance to deliver projects they have always dreamed of but never had the opportunity to bring to life. To date, the Fund has supported 35 ‘Dream’ projects, awarding £20 million to inspirational initiatives thanks to funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
Charities were invited to apply for up to £1.25 million to deliver their ‘dream’ project through collaborative initiatives of at least two organisations over a period of 24 to 36 months.
The 2022 Dream Fund winning projects are:
The SMART Suit, a project that will develop a revolutionary suit for young people who have been robbed of the ability to use their arms, received an award of £1.25 million. The SMART Suit will apply cutting-edge technology to restore arm function and deliver dignity in disability. This is a project being led by Duchenne UK in partnership with Spinal Muscular Atrophy UK, and the University of Liverpool.
Space 4 Nature aims to increase understanding of the state of wildlife and habitats using the latest imaging and AI technology to map and catalogue large land areas. This will enable focused interventions to help nurture nature to recover and in doing so will provide thousands of job opportunities in conservation. This initiative is a collaboration between Surrey Wildlife Trust, Painshill Park Trust, University of Surrey, and Buglife and was awarded £1.25 million.
Nature Positive Food Challenge will see Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Sustainable Food Trust tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. Awarded £1.25 million, the project aims to deliver food that enhances nature and wildlife on supermarket shelves within two years. The Challenge is set to provide a high-profile source of competitive advantage that will reshape how food is designed, grown, and marketed, providing scalable solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss.
Laura Chow, head of charities at People’s Postcode Lottery said: “The Dream Fund offers an unrivalled opportunity for charities and organisations to work together to deliver an original, high impact, innovative project.
“These winning projects are all very different but they’re each aspirational in their solutions to deliver change to the critical issues affecting our communities. This makes them perfect recipients of our 2022 Dream Fund awards, made possible thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery.”
Over 600 charity representatives joined People’s Postcode Lottery as they hosted their annual Charity Gala in Edinburgh last night.
Over £900 million raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery has been awarded to more than 9,000 charities.