FAQs

The East Ayrshire Council Innovation Fund (EACIF) is designed to support services to review, streamline or modernise Council procedures or interventions, delivering long term financial savings, after the original grant has been repaid.

The fund is open to any Council Department, Service, or Team to support the identification of initiatives aimed at incurring one-off costs which would then result in longer term savings and improved outcomes.

An application can be submitted via this website.  Applications should include outlining the problem that the innovation aims to address as well as demonstrating the potential impact, feasibility, robustness, and suitability of the proposed assessment innovation

Evaluation of all written applications is undertaken by CMT, supported by officers who will be selected on a project-by-project basis based on their experience and expertise in relevant field.

CMT expect that applicants will provide confidence that the proposal is sufficiently aligned to a minimum of one of the following principles:

• Delivers a transformational service/intervention balancing improved or maintained outcomes with the cost of service delivery. 
• Reviews and modernises Council processes by implementing technology/process management to make services more readily available, efficient and cost effective.
• Uses data and technology in insightful and efficient ways to enable high quality services and outcomes, removing the disconnect in data across the customer/resident journey.
• Using data more collaboratively and throughout the whole customer/resident journey to improve the level of perceived value of Council processes as a means of enabling choice, understanding needs and progress and informing every stage of the customer/resident journey.

CMT expects applicants to demonstrate the following criteria:

• Project outcomes are measurable and concise and are appropriate for the purpose of the project.
• The design of the project is suitable for delivering the identified outcomes and aims of the project in line with the Council’s Project Management Framework.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the strengths and limitations of the project and how potential unintended consequences could impact outcomes.
• Considers any controls required to meet relevant ethical standards and ensures the project does not discriminate unlawfully or unfairly.
• To provide confidence that the risks and uncertainties are suitably mitigated and deemed appropriate within the accepted risk threshold for the project

CMT expect that applicants will demonstrate the following criteria:

• To provide confidence that the proposal has been adequately resourced in terms of pricing and that this delivers value for money.
• To provide confidence that the proposal has been realistically and optimally resourced in terms of time.
• To provide confidence that the applicant’s experience will ensure they are successful in delivering the project as well as that the applicant has the required means to access the tools/resources required to prototype their solution and implement effectively

Following approval by CMT the bid will be submitted to Cabinet for final approval.

The Council’s Project Management Office will appointed each project with a Project Lead to assist project teams to further develop the proposed project plan which sets out how the project will be delivered and the project milestones.