Eligibility

1.The Trust has one priority: Religion and Worldviews (Religious Education) as a school curriculum subject. All applicants will be asked to justify their project in terms of this priority.

Our understanding of Religion and Worldviews is aligned with the proposed Statement of Entitlement contained in the Draft Resource: Religion and Worldviews in the Classroom- developing a worldviews approach.

The Trust advocates for the importance of an education in Religion and Worldviews because it prepares pupils for life in a complex world. It enables them to become free thinking, respectful, critical participants of public discourse, who can make academically well-informed judgements about important matters of religion and belief. To secure all types of funding applicants need to be able to demonstrate that they share this understanding

2.The Trust does not fund:

Projects or individuals based outside the United Kingdom
Building costs or ongoing running costs
Deficit reduction i.e. covering costs already incurred
Teaching equipment, day-to-day consumables or resources such as textbooks
Chaplaincy or collective worship
Religious or non-religious proselytising, relating to a particular worldview
External religious or community groups visiting schools to deliver single one-off lessons or events

3.All applicants are asked to explain how their project will align with and contribute to the vision and mission of the Trust:

The Trust’s vision is for broad-based, critical and reflective education in religion and worldviews contributing to a well-informed, respectful and open society.

The Trust works towards it vision by:

Increasing public understanding of religion and worldviews education
Engaging with, informing and influencing decision makers
Creating well-informed, empowered and influential educationalists
Establishing and building strategic and collaborative partnerships and networks
Commissioning and publishing focused and accessible research
Championing and developing inspired and well-resourced teaching and learning.

4.All applicants are asked to explain how their project aligns with one or more of the Trust’s strategic objectives:

Promoting positive public perception of an education in religion and worldviews
Influencing government policy in supporting religion and worldviews, including the recommendations of the Commission on RE (2018)
Advocating for the importance of a high-quality education in religion and worldviews within the education world
Developing excellent leadership and teaching of religion and worldviews
Facilitating the Religion and Worldviews community to work more cohesively.

Further information about these objectives can found here

Please note that all applicants invited to submit a Stage 2 application are expected to have a recently reviewed safeguarding policy in place.

5.The trust places a particular emphasis on the importance of dissemination, collaboration and partnership, and is also interested to learn how a project can be helped to become self-sustaining.

6.Taking into account responses to the above four points, the Trustees will then evaluate your application using the following criteria:

Relevance – Does the project have a practical or policy application to rigorous, innovative teaching, curriculum enrichment or leadership in UK schools, related to an education in religion and worldviews?

Capacity – Does the applicant individual or organisation have the knowledge, expertise, commitment and judgement to deliver the project? Is the application supported by two referees not connected to the project?

Collaboration – Does the proposal include plans for active collaboration with others within and/or outside the Religion and Worldviews community? Are there opportunities within the proposal for strategic partnerships between organisations/individuals?

Impact – Does the proposal include plans for the project to have positive impact on learning, teaching or policy? How well is this impact defined and prepared for? Will the proposed impact further the Trust’s mission and support its strategy objectives?

Dissemination – Does the proposal include clear plans for spreading and embedding good practice in and beyond one institution? Do the plans include a strong commitment to collaboration, partnership and dissemination of excellence?

Value for money – Ought the funding to support the proposal be coming from local or central government, or from the applicant’s faith/belief community? Is the amount requested broken down into budgeted detail? Is the amount justifiable when compared with the number of teachers and/or learners affected?

Success and sustainability – Does the project have a clear definition of success? For corporate applications, can the project continue independently after funding?

7.The Trust has an Open Access Journal Policy.

This means outputs which are not open access will not be able to be included in impact measures. Our open access policy is available here.

8.If your grant application is successful, then conditions will be applied to your award.

Conditions that are usually applied to all awards include:

Submission of a short progress report and an annual impact report each year
If the proposed project is not completed, the remainder of the award is to be returned to the trust
If the proposed project is not undertaken, the award is to be returned to the trust in full
The project is timed to complete by a given date
CSTG should be informed of any other grant applications made and if you succeed in gaining any financial support from other sources, this must be declared immediately, and may lead to adjustment of the grant

Examples of other conditions include the following:

If the proposal includes matched funding, CSTG’s offer will be conditional on the applicant gaining the full remainder of the amount needed from other sources
An external evaluation of the project to be included
A CSTG trustee or staff members to sit on a steering or advisory group
Any resources/reports from your project to acknowledge the support of CSTG
Attendance at CSTG Grantee events