C0100 Grant Holder Learning

NB: Contract commenced on 3 November 2025. Due to supplier office re-location, the contract was signed on 12 January 2026. This had no impact on the scope of this contract.

The contract will promote a culture of shared learning between all Fund grant holders in Northern Ireland, offering a scheduled programme of support and activities for grant holders to sign up to. It will offer a tiered approach, with availability of different levels of engagement to suit grant holders' specific needs and circumstances. Grant holder focussed research has helped us identify the importance of bringing communities together to learn from each other, including peer learning, coaching, mentoring, and communities of practice as well as supporting them to share their learning and impact with a wider audience. The contract aims to be creative, exploring new ways to facilitate learning and connect grant holders. Grant holders will be given opportunities to engage with each other related to where they are located and with regards to themes related to specific learning. It will not focus on traditional classroom learning or training but focus on developing skills and knowledge through connection with others. It will also provide opportunities to share this learning with each other, communities, the wider sector and policy makers.

This contract will be for the clear benefit of participating grant holders, however, learning from the contract should feed into a wider system of sharing information and evidence across the Evidence and Impact function and the Fund more widely. There will be three main aims of the learning contract, under which we expect the delivery partner(s) to define specific activities. It may be that some activities could meet more than one of these aims: 1) Engage - facilitate networks and collaboration, promoting a culture of shared learning between grant holders; 2) Enable - build grant holders' skills, knowledge, and expertise through connecting with other grant holders; and 3) Empower - support grant holders with the skills to share their learning and creating opportunities for them to do this and amplify their reach.