Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Lord Rootes Fund

lord rootes four person banner
Funding from £100 to £3000 to turn your idea into a reality…

The Lord Rootes' Fund is intended to encourage creativity, innovation and positive impact and is open to all current Warwick students. The Fund made its first award in 1967 and to date it has supported over 1,500 students and over 600 different projects covering innovation and enterprise, personal challenge, the arts and culture, and campus and community initiatives.

About the Lord Rootes Fund

The Lord Rootes Fund is intended to encourage creativity, innovation and positive impact through support of projects by individual and groups of University of Warwick students, especially projects that:

  1. Demonstrate innovative and creative thinking
  2. Encourage personal development and challenge in pursuit of an idea or objective
  3. Create new enterprises, cultural initiatives and/or positive social impact

How do I apply?

Students are invited to apply via one of the following tracks for funding:

  1. Develop Yourself – for projects focusing primarily on personal development and challenge. This might include arts or cultural initiatives, activities focused on education and/or outreach or campus/community projects that have a positive impact on you and your proposed beneficiaries. Your application should:
    • include a detailed plan of action, time line and proposed costs
    • outline the transferable skills that the project will help you to develop
    • describe how your project will support your future aspirations
  2. Develop Your Idea – for those looking to develop a new business venture or social enterprise idea and who are looking for proof of concept funding. Your application should:
    • include a detailed plan of action, time line and proposed costs
    • provide evidence of market need/demand for your venture
    • describe how your enterprise idea is innovative, viable and sustainable

Steps to Apply:

  • Register and create a profile on our Innovation Community Platform here
  • Click on the Opportunities tab at the top of the page once you are signed into the platform
  • Follow the link to the Lord Rootes application form and submit your application

Please indicate on your application form which track you are applying for.

Next Application Deadline is Monday 19th February 2024 at 12:00pm (GMT)

Who can apply?

Full or part-time, undergraduate or postgraduate Warwick students/groups of students on courses of at least one year's duration, including students about to leave the University, provided the project is limited to the period of the long vacation. See Fund Regulations.

For group projects only those students who will be involved in organising the project and writing the report should be included as applicants.

How much funding is available?

Grants usually range from £100 to £3,000 - you are encouraged to apply only for the minimum level of funding that you need to carry out the project. Successful applicants will receive 80% of their total award up-front and their remaining 20% of the award on submission of an acceptable report. See Writing a Report and Fund Regulations.

Who was Lord Rootes?

Lord Rootes was a noted Coventry motor manufacturer and the innovative Chairman of the Promotion Committee which founded the University of Warwick. Lord Rootes’ untimely death in 1964 prevented him being installed as the University's first Chancellor. To commemorate Lord Rootes' commitment to innovation and enterprise and to the University of Warwick, distributors of Rootes Group products generously contributed to a fund to encourage student enterprise and effort, supporting imaginative projects by groups and individual students.Rootes Group Logo