Open Innovation Challenges

Go! London is excited to launch two Open Innovation Challenges. We’re inviting bold ideas that use physical activity and sport to build stronger, more resilient communities for children and young people in London.

About

We believe that when young people and communities co-design solutions and share resources, physical activity and sport become powerful tools for equity, belonging, and long-term resilience. We also know that lasting change happens when communities and partners work together.  

To make physical activity and sport available to all young people and children in London, it is essential to engage the organisations and stakeholders who hold influence, resources and decision-making power. Without their active involvement, the systemic barriers that restrict access will remain in place.  

That’s why we’re launching two new Open Innovation Challenges: Sport for Climate Action and Reimagining Spaces for Sport and Play.

Through them, we aim to support collaborations across communities, landowners, local authorities, individual local change leaders, and others. In doing so, we are giving people an active role in shaping their surroundings, ensuring solutions are both rooted in lived experience and supported by those who can scale them.  

What are Open Innovation Challenges?

Open Innovation Challenges are an invitation to collaborate on shared priorities and missions to generate positive impact. They’re about bringing new perspectives to big challenges and championing a ‘learning by doing’ approach – prototyping, testing, and iterating ideas to create meaningful solutions to real life problems.

There are three key stages:

  1. Eligible applicants review each other’s proposals, gaining valuable feedback while building connections and learning from peers. This stage is about sharing and strengthening ideas.
  2. Up to 10 finalists per challenge receive a grant of up to £10,000 and capacity-building support to refine and develop their ideas.
  3. Three to six finalists per challenge will receive a grant of up to £100,000 to deliver their idea and create impact in their community. The grant amount will vary depending on the solution’s maturity, impact potential, and needs.

Open Innovation Challenges are an invitation to be bold and experimental, connect with the right people, and gain the confidence to build innovative solutions. They give people an active role in shaping their surroundings, ensuring solutions are both rooted in lived experience and supported by those who can scale them.  

What can you apply for?

We welcome applications from a wide range of organisations and strongly encourage partnerships—whether community groups, landowners, local authorities, individual local change leaders, or others—who want to use physical activity and sport to address some of today’s biggest challenges.

The challenges focus on two themes:

Sport for Climate Action: At its core, this Challenge is about harnessing the energy, reach and collective spirit of sport and physical activity to build a healthier, more sustainable future for young people and the planet. We’re looking for projects that drive climate action through awareness, capacity building and engagement OR that enable climate-resilient participation of children and young people in physical activity.

Reimagining Spaces for Sport and Play: We welcome solutions that increase the availability of safe, inclusive and affordable spaces for sport and physical activity by adapting or re-imagining spaces that were previously not used for this purpose. We are also looking for solutions that make existing spaces for sport and physical activity more inclusive, welcoming and relevant to bring in young people previously excluded from those spaces.

Are you eligible?

To be eligible for these Challenges, applying initiatives must fulfil the below criteria:

  • Applicants must be over 18.
  • Initiatives must be designed for and delivered in London.
  • The lead applicant or organisation must have a registered legal entity, and should be a non-profit organisation (including schools, universities, and local authorities). For-profit organisations can be part of the partnership but not the lead applicant.
  • Previous and existing Go! London grantees are eligible to apply and/or to be part of a partnership that is applying.

Initiative stage:

  • Initiatives at all stages (early, mid, and late stage) are welcome to apply.
  • If your solution has not been implemented at scale, you must have a clear plan and minimum-viable solution (prototype, pilot, or other proof of concept), and you must have evidence of a track record in London among the partnership/consortium.

What we’ll need from you:

  • Eligible participants will be invited to take part in peer reviews: once the application phase closes, you will each be asked to review 5-10 applications. Doing so will give you access to exclusive feedback roundtables with a community of people exploring innovative approaches.
  • Finalists will be expected to be available from mid-March to the end of April 2026 to attend the capacity building programme.
  • Winners will be required to sign a Go! London funding agreement with the Greater London Authority (GLA), which will include quarterly reporting requirements – progress updates, impact reporting, expenditure update.
  • We will require Finalists and Winners to acknowledge Go! London and funding partners in your annual report and accounts, and in publicity, for a defined period.

How to apply

The programme is delivered by Ashoka and Play Verto. You can find out more about how to apply by visiting Ashoka’s website, which will be live at the buttons below from 3 December. Please make sure you read the guidance and terms & conditions before applying.

Sport for Climate Action
Reimagining Spaces for Sport & Play

The deadline to apply is 5pm on 17 February 2026.

For Winners, projects are expected to begin from September 2026.

Need support?

Ashoka will be running information sessions and taking your questions. Book your spot using the links below.

Info Sessions (1hr)
Office Hours (2hrs)

Accessibility

If you have accessibility requirements which mean you will be unable to complete the application form, please contact golondonchallenges@ashoka.org to discuss your application.