Education Endowment Foundation Autumn 2026 Grant-Funding Round Reception programmes that focus on communication and language Pilot Application Form

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Funding Round Open Date:

Funding Round Close Date:

Please Note: This form will go offline at 11:00 AM on the above closing date. Submissions will not be possible after this time.

Notes for applying for EEF Funding:
Please refer to the theme guidance notes, which explain each question in the application form. They can be found here.

This application form has four pages. Applications can be saved on the system while drafting. You may find it easier to draft first in another program, like Microsoft Word, paying attention to the word count for each question. If copying into the form, please format using the form’s tools.

To ensure that your changes are saved, use the ‘Previous page’ button at the end of the page rather than your browser’s Back button.

If you have any questions, please contact the EEF at applications@eefoundation.org.uk

Funding Round Id

Eligibility Screening

1.1 Where will your proposed programme take place?

1.2 Is your application from a legally constituted organisation?

1.3 Would this grant be used to pay for costs that have already been incurred?

1.4. What types of costs or activities would the grant be used for? (To select multiple items in a list, hold down the Ctrl (PC) or Command (Mac) key. Then click on your desired items to select.)

1.5 Does your application relate to the research agenda theme: communication and language in Reception?

Ineligible Formula

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

Unfortunately, your application cannot be progressed, due to one or more of our eligibility criteria not being met.

Here is a copy of our eligibility rules / criteria:

1. Where will your proposed programme take place?

Please note that the EEF can only fund programmes that will work for the benefit of children and schools in England.

2. Is your application from a legally constituted organisation?

We accept applications from legally constituted organisations, and not from individuals. The organisation does not have to be based in England, although if you are not based in England, we would expect you to demonstrate reasonable partnerships and knowledge to support you to work with English schools. 

3. Would this grant be used to pay for costs that have already been incurred?

Our grant funding is restricted to cover activities supporting your proposed programme and cannot be used to cover costs that have already been incurred. The grant typically starts after the programme has been given final approval by the EEF Grants Committee (any travel expenses incurred before this can be expensed).

4. What types of costs or activities would the grant be used for?

We are not a source of funding for ongoing delivery of existing programmes. If successful, you will be required to work with new schools that you have not previously worked with, and to collaborate with an independent evaluation team who will work with you to design a robust evaluation. Funding should support the direct costs of delivering the programme for the evaluation. Applicants should apply with a programme that has already been developed. We are not able to fund significant development work of a programme.

We cover: programme delivery, staff costs, resources to deliver the programme, travel and venue hire, and administration and printing costs.

We don’t cover: property or capital items, pupil fees, scholarships or bursaries, loan or debt repayment, indirect university costs (e.g. estate costs of permanent university staff)

In some cases, we would cover the following, but this is not guaranteed and would be determined with shortlisted applicants during the funding process: programme development work, website development, producing publications, and seminar attendance.

5. Does your application relate to the research agenda theme: communication and language in Reception?

We are only able to fund projects that relate to our specific key research agenda theme, anything outside of this theme is not eligible at this time.

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Applying Organisation

Organisation Details

2.1 Name of Organisation

2.2 Organisation Type

2.2a Other Organisation Type

2.3 Number of Employees

2.4 Applicant Title

2.5a If Other, please specify

2.5 Applicant First Name

2.6 Applicant Last Name

2.7 Applicant Contact Email

Please note: Confirmation of your application and the outcome of your application will be sent to this email address

2.8 Applicant Contact Phone

2.9 Applicant Job Title

2.10 Please describe the experience and expertise of the proposed delivery team, highlighting key members that will be involved. (max. 200 words)

2.11 Please give the name and a brief description of any partner organisations that will contribute to this programme. (max. 150 words)

2.12 Briefly outline your experience of working with children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. (max. 150 words)

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

GIVEN YOUR CURRENT ANSWERS TO THE FIRST 4 QUESTIONS OF THIS APPLICATION YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR FUNDING, IF YOU SUBMIT THIS FORM IT WILL BE IGNORED.

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Programme Details

3.1 Please select the main priority area the proposed programme is related to.
Further information on each priority area is included in the guidance notes.

3.2 How does your programme link to the priority area? (max. 150 words)

3.3 Programme title. (max. 15 words)

3.4 Please provide a brief, two sentence summary of your programme. (max. 50 words)

3.5 Please describe your programme.
A checklist to support your answer to this question can be found in the guidance notes. (max. 1,000 words)

3.6 Please describe how your programme is beneficial to socio-economically disadvantaged children. (max. 200 words)

3.7 Please describe how your proposed programme is likely to be different from usual practice in schools. (max. 100 words)

3.8 Please provide an explanation of the research evidence that supports the theory that your programme will work. You may provide references. Please also include information from any previous evaluations. (max. 200 words)

3.9 Please confirm that your programme targets children aged 4-5 years old.

3.10 Please confirm that your programme will be delivered in state-funded primary schools.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

GIVEN YOUR CURRENT ANSWER TO QUESTION 3.9 AND/OR 3.10 OF THIS APPLICATION YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR FUNDING, IF YOU SUBMIT THIS FORM IT WILL BE IGNORED.

3.11 Is your programme targeting whole school/whole class (or room)/targeted group of children?

3.12 Please outline how many schools/settings the programme has been delivered in, to date, and how many of those were in England. (max. 200 words)

3.13 How many settings/schools has the programme been delivered to in the last year?

3.14 Please describe any feedback you've collected from schools/settings and teachers that have participated in the programme. (max. 200 words)

3.15 Do you need to make any further adaptations to your programme before it is evaluated? (max. 150 words)

3.16 If the proposed programme was to be funded by the EEF, and positive results were found, would your organisation be able to deliver the programme for an EEF-funded impact evaluation, likely in around 50 schools? This would likely be a randomised controlled trial. (max. 100 words)

3.17 If the answer to the question above is no, would you be willing to work with the EEF to develop routes to scale? E.g. through finding a partner organisation to support delivery at scale. (max. 50 words)

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

GIVEN YOUR CURRENT ANSWERS TO THE FIRST 4 QUESTIONS OF THIS APPLICATION YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR FUNDING, IF YOU SUBMIT THIS FORM IT WILL BE IGNORED.

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Finances

4.1 Please include an indicative budget for a pilot with 20 schools, broken down into the direct cost per school and central costs for managing the project. (max. 200 words)

4.2 In each school, how many children benefit from the programme in a single academic year? (max. 50 words)

4.3 How much does it cost you to deliver your programme to one school for one academic year? What is included in this cost? Consider your staff costs, administrative costs, and non-staff costs. (max. 100 words)

4.4 Your budget is for 20 schools. Please outline any cost savings you would envisage if scaling the programme to more schools in the future. These can be indicative. (max. 100 words)

Additional Documentation (Optional)

If you have any further relevant information you would like to attach to your application, please upload it here e.g. theory of change, unpublished research etc.

Each file must not exceed 30MB. To replace a file, select a new one and it will overwrite the previous upload.

Where did you hear about the funding round?

Please let us know where you heard about the funding round

Other

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

GIVEN YOUR CURRENT ANSWERS TO THE FIRST 4 QUESTIONS OF THIS APPLICATION YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR FUNDING, IF YOU SUBMIT THIS FORM IT WILL BE IGNORED.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

GIVEN YOUR CURRENT ANSWER TO QUESTION 3.9 AND/OR 3.10 OF THIS APPLICATION YOU DO NOT QUALIFY FOR FUNDING, IF YOU SUBMIT THIS FORM IT WILL BE IGNORED.