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It probably took me a day or so to fill in the application forms.

Followed by answering questions about why we only had "0.3 employees" at @DoESLiverpool when their system said we should have six; the five directors are all volunteers so it didn't seem they should be included as "employees", and the sole member of staff works one-and-a-half days-a-week

Not quite sure why it's on their application form if they already think they know the answer and won't believe that we do know the answer.

I know, we're not supposed to do that. We're supposed to apply for funding so we can hire folk to "deliver outcomes" and hire more folk to apply for more funding.

And then we'd have closed years ago.

Like all of the other makerspaces across the country that followed in our wake, but chose the funding route. Or the £12m "sensor innovation centre" that's done less sensor work than we have and has now been shuttered for longer than it was open.

Then their panel met to assess our application.

They had some questions.

"Surely the heating is the landlord's responsibility; why aren't they applying?" It's not their responsibility, here are the relevant bits of our lease.

"How long is your lease? There might not be long enough left on it" It's three more years, we've already renewed once and might again; heaven forbid someone else gets to reduce /their/ carbon footprint rather than us

We're applying for their smaller grants, below £25k, and it's 50% match funding so we'd have to find £2.5k to go with the £2.5k grant we're asking for.

If successful the funding will need to be spent by the end of January (and obviously you have to pay it all first and then claim the grant afterwards).

So in early December they gave us a final decision. Which, as you've all guessed, was "no".

No explanation of why they'd turned us down.

It's okay, half of the "Formal Decline Letter" is given over to the audit trail of who created the document, when they emailed it to get a signature, and when it was "e-signed". So they made sure the process got followed correctly.

So there's no reduction in carbon, as we'll still be using inefficient oil-filled radiators over the winter, and the money isn't going to go to a more deserving cause because this was the last round and AIUI they haven't spent it all (the EU will be slightly better off, as it'll get returned to them)

But don't worry, a bunch of better paid than me folk will continue to delude themselves that they're helping, and there'll be another project that makes grand claims and they can follow process on while failing to live up them along soon. We had two just recently: one about how Liverpool is leading in helping the creative industries solve climate change; and the same week another about how the universities will help the creative industries use AI. Apparently those things aren't in conflict.

If anyone wants to help with the make-@DoESLiverpool@does.social-less-cold fund, there are details on how you can make a donation at https://github.com/DoESLiverpool/somebody-should/wiki/DoES-Liverpool-Bank-Details

We don't have such detailed processes, but promise to use any funds to continue doing epic shit.

@amcewen I've donated.

@ColinTheMathmo thank you. You're a star!