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£3.75 Million Awarded To People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund Winners

Three pioneering initiatives have shared this year’s £3.75 Million People’s Postcode Lottery Dream Fund

The announcement comes as the Fund celebrates ten years of inspiring awards.

Launched in 2011, the Dream Fund gives charities a chance to deliver projects they have always dreamed of but never had the opportunity to bring to life. To date, the Fund has supported 35 'Dream' projects, awarding £20 Million to inspirational initiatives thanks to funds raised by players of People's Postcode Lottery.

Charities were invited to apply for up to £1.25 Million to deliver their 'dream' project through collaborative initiatives of at least two organisations over a period of 24 to 36 months.

Winning Projects

The 2022 Dream Fund winning projects are:

The SMART Suit

The SMART Suit, a project that will develop a revolutionary suit for young people who have been robbed of the ability to use their arms, received an award of £1.25 Million. The SMART Suit will apply cutting-edge technology to restore arm function and deliver dignity in disability. This is a project being led by Duchenne UK in partnership with Spinal Muscular Atrophy UK, and The Inclusionaries Lab at the University of Liverpool.

Emily Reuben, CEO of Duchenne UK, said,

"We are absolutely thrilled to receive this transformative grant which will have a truly game-changing impact on young lives.

"For people living with progressive conditions like DMD and SMA, losing upper body function means losing the ability to feed yourself, put your hand up in class, or hug your loved ones.

"With the help of this grant, we can finally change this. A huge thank you to the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery and the Dream Fund for enabling our dream project to become a reality."

Space 4 Nature

Space 4 Nature aims to increase understanding of the state of wildlife and habitats using the latest imaging and AI technology to map and catalogue large land areas. This will enable focused interventions to help nurture nature to recover and in doing so will provide thousands of job opportunities in conservation. This initiative is a collaboration between Surrey Wildlife Trust, Painshill Park Trust, University of Surrey, and Buglife and was awarded £1.25 Million.

Nature Positive Food Challenge

Nature Positive Food Challenge will see Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Sustainable Food Trust tackle climate change and biodiversity loss with the circular economy. Awarded £1.25 Million, the project aims to deliver food that enhances nature and wildlife on supermarket shelves within two years. The Challenge is set to reshape how food is designed, grown, and marketed to accelerate scalable solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss in the food industry.

Andrew Morlet, CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation said,

"With the Dream Fund award, we can put the same energy and resources into our Nature Positive Food Challenge that we were afforded previously by players of People’s Postcode Lottery to research and highlight solutions to the plastic pollution crisis, and carry on our mission to redesign the future of fashion."

Players' Support

Laura Chow, Head of Charities at People's Postcode Lottery said, "The Dream Fund offers an unrivalled opportunity for charities and organisations to work together to deliver an original, high impact, innovative project.

"These winning projects are all very different but they're each aspirational in their solutions to deliver change to the critical issues affecting our communities. This makes them perfect recipients of our 2022 Dream Fund awards, made possible thanks to players of People's Postcode Lottery."