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The Youth Music Trailblazer fund offers grants of £2,000 to £30,000 to organisations in England to run projects for children and young people (25 or under) to make, learn and earn in music. The project should trial work or test a new way of working, sustain a grassroots programme or disrupt the status quo (or all three!).

Your work must meet one of our themes:

Early years
Disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent young people
Youth justice system
Young people facing barriers
Young adults
Organisations and the workforce.

A Trailblazer project could be:

A new CIC testing out different ways of supporting nurseries to embed music-making into their day-to-day activities.
A small grassroots music organisation that wants to sustain a successful programme of music-making.
A Music Education Hub that wants to disrupt the status quo of their local music scene by setting up a Youth Board that has budget & power to make decisions about how the hub is run.
An established youth centre trialling a programme of music activities for the first time

Check out our Trailblazer Fund project examples for more information.

Trailblazer Fund Dates

Trailblazer Round 8
Deadline: 22 November 2024
Notification: 21 March 2025
For projects starting between: April and June 2025

Trailblazer Round 9
Deadline: 11 April 2025
Notification: 8 August 2025
For projects starting between: September and November 2025

All deadlines are 5pm.

Apply to the Trailblazer Fund

Download our application guidance for full details about our fund criteria.

You can also download from below a copy of our application form questions to draft your questions offline. All applications must be submitted online through our Grants Portal - click on 'Apply' to be taken there.

APPLY TO THE TRAILBLAZER FUND

DOWNLOAD APPLICANT GUIDANCE (PDF)

DOWNLOAD APPLICANT GUIDANCE (WORD)

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION QUESTIONS (WORD)

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in applications

We know that organisations use AI to help with their funding applications. However, if you do use AI to help you draft your application, please make sure it’s an honest reflection of your work and plans. We often find AI answers don’t tell us enough about your actual practices, and this can have a negative impact on your assessment.

Resources to support your application

a group of children play violins in a classroom

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Trailblazer Fund and Catalyser Fund Questions and Answers

These are questions we have received about our Trailblazer and Catalyser funds.

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Trailblazer Fund Project examples

Here are some examples of projects supported by Youth Music that are trailblazing, by trialling work or testing a new way of working, sustaining a grassroots programme or by disrupting the status quo.

Young man on stage with guitar smiling and giving thumbs up sign

Access Support

Youth Music is committed to accessibility. Learn how our Access Support, Application Access Fund, and personal access costs help break down barriers to funding and participation.

Resource Hub

Explore our Resource Hub for essential guidance, expert tools and insights to support and strengthen your music project.

Exchanging Notes

Discover Exchanging Notes, our learning programme sharing expert insights and tools to inspire inclusive, sustainable, and impactful change in music education.

Current Priorities

Discover Youth Music's funding priorities, key regions, and themes for our Funds. Learn about success rates and recent grant awards.