Announcing the Catalyst Award funded projects for Round 1 of 2021-22

Every year, the Catalyst programme awards £100,000 of funding to Fellows in the form of:

• £2,000 Seed Grants, for enabling Fellows to test a seed of an idea,

• £10,000 Scaling Grants, for proven concepts that are ready to grow.

Reviewed by a shortlisting panel of RSA staff and then a decisions panel of Fellowship Councillors and RSA community members, the projects that are funded align with and make a contribution towards the visions of the RSA Impact Programmes and projects.

It was an extremely competitive round and the 8 awarded projects represent only a small fraction of the incredible work undertaken in our wider Fellowship of 30,000 Fellows. We were moved and inspired by all of the positive actions Fellows across the globe are taking to make our world better.

We are delighted to announce the projects awarded Catalyst funding for Round 1 of 2021-22. Congratulations to the exceptional projects listed below.

Scaling Awards

Kilifi District Menstrual Health Project (Kenya) Freedom4Girls aims to tackle period poverty within impoverished communities in the Kilifi District of Kenya. The programme will employ local seamstresses and a project worker to sew and sell washable period pads; profits from sales will support free provision of period packs and menstrual health education for schoolgirls.

_{Project Lead: Tina Leslie FRSA}

The Offers and Needs Market (OANM) is a two-hour, guided process in which community members meet (virtually or in person) to identify and exchange their passions, knowledge, skills, resources and needs - from finding a place to live, to offering graphic design or a hug! Responding to increasing community demand, the team is scaling its OANM facilitator training.

_{Project Leads: Donnie Maclurcan FRSA, Crystal Arnold, Antonela Ferraro, Vanessa Michael, Dani Leonardo}

Plait is a business administration system for domiciliary care providers written by ReallyCare (UK).  It makes extensive use of open-source software and will be open-sourced itself.  The grant will be used to add a care planning module (with back office and point of care capability) and to roll out to new clients.

_{Project leads: Mark Chapman FRSA and Simon Burrows}

Seed Awards

The PATCH (palliative care patient-led change) project offers individuals with a life-limiting illness the opportunity to lead change in palliative care policy and practice. Recognised as experts by experience, participants identify an issue which matters to them. Facilitated through an online programme of support, they then lead action to address it.

_{Project Lead: Amanda Roberts FRSA}

'Her Pivot' (Japan) is an initiative by Next Big Pivot to empower women in sports business in Japan. The project aims to increase the number of female speakers at sports business seminars by providing women working in the Japanese pro basketball league with free public speaking trainings and opportunities to speak in public.

_{Project Lead: Mie Kajikawa FRSA}

Ina Ciel (UK, London) is a tech startup with a supportive working environment to tap the creative abilities of the neurodivergent to design digital products. A lived experience approach to inclusive technology will benefit marginalised audiences while connecting with an ecosystem of partners and developing a platform to ethically deliver data and insights for research and policymaking.

_{Project lead: Marc Goblot FRSA}

Pelepah Project works with a community of farmers and women in rural Indonesia developing a sustainable village enterprise through the cultivation of agricultural waste such as pelepah pinang (areca palm sheath) for bio-material packaging. The project offers alternative solutions to reduce plastic consumption whilst providing opportunities for the village communities to improve their livelihood.

_{Project leads: Almira Zulfikar and Gamia Dewanggamanik FRSA}

Community Climate Circles (Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, Canada) is working to train people to become Community Climate Connectors with the skills and confidence to run a Community Climate Circle with their neighbours, who will then support each other as they work to reduce their household climate pollution.

_{Project Lead: Guy Dauncey FRSA}