About the opportunity
The Nuffield Foundation has launched the Essential Employment Skills Fund to build high-quality evidence on how to support young people aged 16-24 who face significant barriers to work in developing essential employment skills and accessing good jobs. The fund offers grants of up to £500,000—with most expected to range between £200,000 and £400,000—to evaluate frontline UK programmes, share learning, and inform the wider scaling-up of effective practice. Additional funding may be available to cover programme delivery costs where not covered elsewhere. Teams require expertise in both evaluation and frontline delivery, so applications are expected from collaborations between an evaluator and a delivery organisation.
Funding and benefits
- Grants of up to £500,000 for evaluation, with most grants expected to be between £200,000 and £400,000
- Potential additional funding towards the costs of programme delivery where not covered from other sources, including partnership funding models
- Foundation support throughout the project lifecycle, including communications and impact assistance
- Brokered contacts with other grant-holders and a wider stakeholder network to share learning and support the diffusion of good practice
Who can apply?
- Applications must come from collaborations between an evaluator/research organisation and a delivery organisation, with the evaluation partner expected to be the lead applicant
- Partnership must be established prior to applying, and research design must be co-developed with clearly assigned roles ensuring evaluation impartiality
- Target programmes must support young people aged 16-24, or a narrower age group within that range such as 16-19 year olds, living in the UK
- Target group must face significant barriers to work, such as low/no qualifications, persistent school absence, SEND, mental health difficulties, care experience, young parenthood, being a young carer, Gypsy/Roma/Traveller background, or living in areas with high youth unemployment
Required documents
- Outline application submitted via the Nuffield Foundation's online application process
- Project description (optional brief one-page description for preliminary feedback via email)
When to apply
- Outline application deadline: December 2026
- Shortlisting decisions communicated to applicants: February 2027
- Full application deadline: April 2027
- Funding decisions made: July 2027
- Earliest possible start date for projects: September 2027
- Published FAQs available by the end of October 2026
How to apply
- Review the Nuffield Foundation's Guide for Applicants and General Eligibility Requirements
- Establish a collaborative partnership between an evaluator and a delivery organisation prior to applying
- Submit an outline application via the Nuffield Foundation online application portal by December 2026
- Contact eesf@nuffieldfoundation.org for preliminary feedback on a brief one-page project description if desired
Additional information
- Programmes must have an explicit focus on developing at least one essential employment skill (such as collaboration, communication, creative thinking, information literacy, organizing/planning, or problem-solving)
- Programmes must be based on a clear theory of change and include existing evidence of promise
- Proposals must feature a robust impact evaluation using control/comparison groups or high-quality qualitative impact designs, alongside a process and implementation evaluation
- Applicants intending to request funding for delivery should get in touch with the Foundation before applying
Our Take on This Opportunity
This section reflects Open Opportunities’ own analysis of the opportunity from an applicant’s perspective.
You may be a strong fit if…
- An established research or evaluation organization seeking substantial funding to conduct a rigorous impact and implementation study on youth employability.
- A frontline youth service, training provider, or educational organization partnering with an experienced evaluator to test and scale an existing intervention.
- Teams focused on addressing youth unemployment, economic inactivity, or disadvantage among 16-24 year olds in the UK using evidence-based frameworks.
What should you think carefully about?
- Applications require a pre-established, formal collaboration between separate evaluator and delivery partners, which demands early coordination before the deadline.
- Proposals must incorporate robust evaluation methodologies—such as control/comparison groups—meaning lightweight or purely anecdotal project designs will not qualify.
- The timeline spans several months from the December 2026 outline deadline to a September 2027 project start, requiring long-term planning.
How could this fit your current goals and plans?
This fund is an excellent fit for collaborative consortia aiming to generate high-impact empirical evidence on youth employment interventions in the UK. It suits organizations looking to secure major grant backing to rigorously evaluate established programmes, influence regional or national policy, and share best practices across education and youth support sectors.
Our take
Research and delivery partnerships working with disadvantaged youth in the UK should seriously consider applying if they possess an existing intervention ready for rigorous evaluation. Organizations without a pre-established evaluation partner or those looking to launch brand-new un-piloted concepts from scratch will find this funding opportunity less suitable.
Ready to apply?
Review the opportunity on the official website before applying.
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