Harlington Grant

The Harlington Trust was established in 1989 to manage money received from the gravel extraction operation at the Harlington playing fields, for the benefit of Imperial College students. The Harlington Grants Fund Committee oversees the allocation of grants on behalf of the Trust.

The Harlington Grants Fund Committee acts on behalf of the College’s Council to award grants from the Harlington Trust. The members of the Committee are the Vice-Provost (Education), a Past President of Imperial College Union and the current President of Imperial College Union. The Vice-Provost (Education) acts as the Chair of the Committee and the College Secretary & Registrar as its Secretary. The College Secretary & Registrar delegates this role to the Scholarships and Governance Officer or an appropriate alternative.

Criteria & Guidelines

The Committee has a maximum of £50,000 to allocate in any one financial year (1 August to 31 July). As a guide, grants normally amount to between a few hundred and a few thousand pounds depending on the nature of the application. You can find out below what the Fund will consider for funding and the criteria that has to be met to be successful. All application projects are arranged in Major, Moderate and Minor Projects based on their size.

  • Who can apply for a Harlington Grant

    The fund is to support ICU student communities only, including: 

    • Sports Clubs
    • Societies
    • Student-led Project Groups
    • Liberation Networks
    • Campaign Groups
    • Academic Reps
  • What that Harlington Grant Committee will consider for funding

    Income from the Trust will be applied for the benefit of students of Imperial College in relation to sporting, athletics, recreational, and cultural facilities. 

    They will consider funding for:

    • The cost or purchase of new facilities
    • The cost of redeveloping current facilities
    • The purchase of capital assets or equipment
    • The refurbishment or replacement of existing items
    • The cost of specialist safety or first aid training, in relation to the above bullet points if necessary.

    Personal Equipment or Assets:

    At the discretion of the Committee, an award may be granted to an individual for the purchase of personal equipment. However, unless prior agreement is obtained from the Committee, the equipment will remain the property of the appropriate club upon the individual leaving the College.

  • What the Harlington Grant will not consider for funding

    The Committee does not fund:

    • Support for expeditions, trips, tours, accommodation, travel and training
    • The cost a student groups regular activities
    • The running or maintenance costs of facilities, assets or equipment if the project is funding the purchase or redevelopment of them (past the implementation/redevelopment year).
    • Anything outside of the scope of the Union or College's risk appetite
    • Anything that would bring the Union or College's reputation into disrepute
    • The cost for the provision or replacement of consumables, including such items as balls and team strips
  • Application Criteria

    The panel will review each application on its own merit using the criteria below. The more criteria points that an application can successfully meet, the more likely it is to receive funding.

    Values Based Criteria:

    • Student Community Impact: The application should be clear on its benefit to a community of students, a range of student communities or the wider student population. Applications that have a wider reach and impact will be favoured.
    • Equity and Inclusion: Applications that have a well structured approach to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
    • Merit: Whether the purpose of the bid is likely to enhance or maintain the reputation of the College or Union through involvement in a prestigious activity or event. Or if it supported the delivery of a new unique activity they enables the Union or College activities to be world class. 
    • Outside Benefit: Whether those who are not current students are likely to benefit unduly from any grant. Where they are, the application will have a less likely chance of be funded.
    • Sustainability: The panel will review the applications ability to use sustainable practices within their project. 
    • Impact Measures: The panel will be looking for applications that can show, that they can measure the impact of their successful grant applications  (Where possible linked to the college or Union strategies)

    Operational Effectiveness Criteria:

    • Cost Benefit: Whether the cost of the bid is likely to benefit an adequate number of students or the College as a whole, as compared with other bids for support. And whether the application is appropriately costed. Applications that have a better cost analysis will be favoured.
    • Official Support: Has the support of the Imperial College Union and is likely to have a sufficiently long and continuous existence. If an application is not supported by the Union, it will be screened before reaching the panel and will not be reviewed for funding.
    • Financial Risk: Whether the proposed activity is unduly dependent on commercial or non-college involvement, or whether the upkeep and maintenance passed it application funding is non sustainable. 
    • Asset Management: Consideration the ability of the recipient to safeguard items purchased with Trust funds. Thus, they will seek assurances that proper precautions will be taken to prevent the loss, damage or theft of equipment and may require such items subsequently to be produced for inspection.
  • Application Size & Length: Major, Moderate or Minor

    There are various factors of that will help determine the size of your application.

    Application Timescale

    At the point you submit your application, we ask that you note how long you think your project will take to complete that you are asking funding for. 

    The committee have a preference for projects that can be completed within 1 year, but will review applications for major projects that may take longer than a year. 

    The committee may reduce the timeframe expected of a funded application to complete its project f they think reasonable. 

    Project Size & Scope:

    As part of the application process we would like you to decide whether your application is one of the below using some of the criteria below. These criteria are only a guideline and as part of the screening process the Union will take before submitting applications to the committee also review the size of the project and ensure it is labelled correctly. This will help the panel make swifter decisions. 

    Category Spend Financial Risk Capital Space Development Length of Development Work/Project Health and Safety Risk Union Oversight
    Major Project £5000+ High Risk (Including significant maintenance costs) Impacts a whole space service and/or ceases operation for development Over 1 year High Risk Requires Union Staff Oversight
    Moderate Project £1000-£5000 Medium Risk Space can continue operating around  Within 6-12 Months Moderate Risk Requires Union Staff Oversight
    Minor Project <£1000 Low/No Risk No impact to space operations <6 Months Low/No Risk Doesn't require Union staff Oversight

     


Applications Process & Deadline.

Applications can be submitted online via the Harlington Fund Application Form Here. 

  1. Applications are submitted to the Students' Union and are screened by the DPSC and Activities Team. You may be asked for further information at this state. 
     
  2. The Union will confirm whether it will recommend it for funding to the Committee or not. If your application is being put forward to the committee, you may be asked for further information or to collaborate with other potential stakeholders. Once you have produced the final version of you application form it will be passed to the committee within 1 week of the deadline passing (outlined below)
     
  3. Following the committee meeting, you will receive an outcome outlining either your award, or your reasons for rejection. 

Below you can view the funding deadline dates for Harlington for the academic year 2022/2023

Round

Application Deadline

Outcome expected by 

One (Term 1) Friday 10th November 2023  Friday 8th December 2023
Two (Term 2) Friday 2nd February 2024 Friday 1st March 2024
Three (Term 3) Friday 24th May 2024 Friday 21st June 2024

Successful Applicants

For any applications that are successful we are happy for you to spend the money from your grant as soon as you have received an approval letter from the committee.

It may take up to 3 working weeks for the funds to show in your grant transaction lines.

Depending on the size of your projects, within 2 months of your project completion date, you must submit a report that will be passed onto the committee detailing the impact your spend has had. Further details on reporting, including support, a template and submission portal will be launched in November 2023.

If you need to extent your timescale, or wish to request a change to your funding spend, please see below the processes relating to this. 


Further Information & FAQs

  • Spending Time Extension Request & Funding Recalls

    In the case of a successful application, the Committee expects the funds to be spent in the proposed way within agreed time scale of the project application. In exceptional circumstances this can be extended at the discretion of the Committee. A Club, Society or Project Lead must contact email activities@imperial.ac.uk with a detailed outline of why they need to request any extension on this time period and outline the amount of extension time you need. Once the agreed project time has elapsed, you will get an email from the Students' Union notifying you that the funds from your unspent grant will be recalled. The Committee reserves the right to recall the funds back into the Harlington Trust if the project brings the Trust in to disrepute. 

  • Change of Funding Use

    Any proposal to change the use of the money that has been awarded to a club or society must be emailed to activities@imperial.ac.uk, and the Committee reserves the right to reject any such change, whereupon funding must be returned

  • Disposal or Selling of Harlington Funded Equipment or Assets

    In the event that a club wishes to replace or dispose of equipment then the following points should be considered:

    Where the club is selling old equipment to part fund replacement equipment, or disposing of equipment that is no longer fit for use then this should be done in line with the College and ICU guidelines on equipment disposal.

    A club should consult with the Committee if they wish to dispose or sell a piece of equipment that is still useable but that they longer wish to use and are not intending to replace.