Frequently Asked Questions

No, unfortunately, we are only able to offer fellowships to those people who reside in the north east region, during and for twelve months after completion of the fellowship. Our funders consider the North East to be Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and the Tees Valley. People residing elsewhere (including North Yorkshire) are ineligible.

You are able to apply for a fellowship. We appreciate that you have bills to pay and do allow some part-time working however, the hours in any one week must not exceed 16.

The fellowship award is made to enable you to cover your living costs during the fellowship period, ideally so that you do not have to undertake any part-time work. If you require funding for equipment, there are other organisations you should contact, for example Business Enterprise North East or Middlesbrough Council, who may be able to offer support for start-up companies. However, if you must purchase equipment with the bursary you must not exceed a limit of £1500 per item and you must obtain three quotations in order to ensure best value for money.

Unfortunately, you are not able to apply for a fellowship until you have attended the pre-application seminar. Once you have attended the pre-application seminar, you will be better informed about the requirements of the scheme and therefore, do not need to attend again. You should submit your full application with supporting material which will be included in the next shortlisting panel.

Unfortunately, this is not possible. The Fellowship scheme has been developed to help regenerate the North East by supporting the creation of businesses and jobs in the region. With the exception of the Junior Fellowship, projects MUST lead to the creation of a business. As such it does not fund one-off arts projects. There are other organisations such as the Arts Council who do this and you would be advised to contact them.

The Fellowship scheme has been set up to help entrepreneurs produce work that leads to the creation of new businesses. If you already run a company, you are still able to apply for a fellowship providing this leads to the creation of a new company; however, you might not receive funding as a fellow yourself. There are other support mechanisms for existing companies – namely through DigitalCity Business, the University of Teesside, Business Enterprise North East and Chamber of Commerce etc.

No. Fellowships are available only to those who have not been awarded a Fellowship previously. This also includes those who have been awarded a Junior Fellowship in the past and now wish to apply for one of the other Fellowships. For the sake of fairness and consistency we only offer one Fellowship per person.

You will be asked to sign a contract which details your obligations as a Fellow. You will be expected to devote all of your time to your project, attend a programme of workshops and mentoring meetings as agreed. If you’re awarded a Creative or Innovation Fellowship you must register as a business by the end of the fellowship. Failure to deliver any of the things outlined in your contract could result in your Fellowship being cancelled and you having to repay part or the entire bursary.

Yes, each fellowship is allocated a minimum of five days of mentoring support. As each project is unique the mentoring you will receive will be different to what others receive. We will discuss with you the kind of support you require and we will appoint the relevant mentor(s). Most projects have a mix of mentoring support e.g. business, legal, software etc. If you would like to be mentored by a particular person please inform us and we will try to include that person in your project.