Funding competitions

OfS Challenge Competitions will support projects in specific areas where the higher education sector is not serving students as effectively as it could.

Identifying priorities

We will use evidence to identify the gaps and issues which will benefit from this type of additional funding.  

We will get this evidence from:

• student engagement
• external expertise
• horizon scanning
• our own analysis and research.

OfS Challenge Competitions aim to ensure that successful bidders sustain and embed their innovative developments. So we will also ask projects to evaluate their activity and share the results, including best practice.

Objectives of OfS Challenge Competitions

The objectives of this funding reflect our strategic objectives.

They are to:

1. develop new and innovative activities
2. bridge gaps in the higher education system by supporting interventions where demand and/or supply side mechanisms are not working optimally for students and graduates, and to incentivise innovation through targeted investment
3. challenge providers to collaborate and undertake higher risk but potentially higher reward activity to improve the student experience and outcomes at a sector level
4. balance and share managed risks – particularly where there are financial contributions and complimentary investment/leveraged funding from employers and other strategic partners
5. stimulate new and imaginative solutions in order to respond to important issues affecting students
6. identify and build upon best practice for the benefit of students, and disseminate findings and evidence across the sector
7. deliver value for money through the funded projects and activities
8. deliver joint strategic activity with UKRI primarily with Research England.