Form

Breakthrough Fund and Release of Data Fund

Information about the Release of Data Fund and Breakthrough Fund, and details of how to apply.

• From: Cabinet Office and Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
• Published: 1 April 2014
• Last updated: 3 July 2014 — See all updates

Documents

Guidance on Release of Data and Breakthrough Funds

PDF, 119 KB, 6 pages

Application form for Release of Data and Breakthrough Funds

MS Word Document, 35.4 KB

Details

Cabinet Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) have announced the next round of funding for the Release of Data Fund and the Breakthrough Fund for 2014 to 2015 to support the wider release of open data.

Release of Data Fund

The Release of Data Fund, administered by Cabinet Office, has a budget of up to £7 million. It aims to boost the release of public data by funding:

• the release of specific datasets prioritised by the Open Data User Group on behalf of the wider open data community
• training for public servants

The Breakthrough Fund

This is administered by BIS and has a budget of £2.5 million per year. It provides funding to government departments, agencies and local authorities to publish open data where there are short-term technical barriers to its release. There are 2 strands of funding available, aimed at:

• central government departments
• local government

Eligibility

As transparency policies are devolved across UK regions, only UK central government departments and their agencies, and local authorities and private sector organisations in England are eligible to apply for funding via these routes.

To qualify for funding, bids for either fund must show:

• value for money, and that the bid is well costed
• that the applicant cannot get funding through existing budgets
• a commitment to make the data available free under the Open Government Licence
• that there is a clear demand for the data and a longer term economic, social or environmental benefit from making the data available
• that the project design meets the needs of at least 1 consumer, who should be involved at an early stage
• a commitment to tracking the use of the data and resulting benefits with clear monitoring and evaluation plans
• that other organisations in similar situations will be able to reuse the patterns, standards, platforms and tools easily under open source licence
• that data released has relevance at a national level, or, if produced at regional level, can be potentially scaled to national level
• plans to work with other organisations or local authorities
• that the project will be finished by March 2015

Published 1 April 2014
Last updated 3 July 2014 + show all updates

1. 3 July 2014

   Application form updated.

2. 1 April 2014

   First published.