Hundreds of centres supporting ICT in communities will get their chance to bid for new funding, thanks to a new grant scheme being introduced by UK online centres.

The funding is the first result of the £30 million investment in digital inclusion announced by Gordon Brown in December's Smarter Government report. The report recognised the potential to reduce the cost of public services and improve customer experience by moving the majority of provision online. It also acknowledged 100% online government had to mean 100% online citizens, and the money was pledged to UK online centres to help get one million people online over the next three years.

Managing Director of UK online centres, Helen Milner, explains: "It is at grassroots level where digital inclusion happens, and where it is made to reach the most deeply excluded - and it is at grassroots level where the credit crunch has bitten the hardest. It was therefore obvious to us that the majority of the £30m announced by Gordon Brown should go to grassroots providers in the form of grants in order to extend their work, and support even more people to get online. I'm delighted we've been able to get that first round of grant funding off the ground so quickly.

"Grants will be available for UK online centres members, and any other digital inclusion providers willing to become members so we can effectively administrate and monitor spending and progress centrally. We'll be looking to recruit new centres working with deeply excluded groups, or based in areas of high deprivation and low network coverage. This is the first phase of a three year plan, and over the course of the next three years, many hundreds of centres will benefit from grants.

"It is important this new influx of funding benefits the wider digital inclusion community, and it's a chance for us to deliver a more holistic response to the digital divide, increase partnership, share expertise, and make the money work as hard as possible for as many people as possible. Our one million target is ambitious, but working together, and working from the ground up, I'm confident we can achieve it."

There are some 15 million adults in the UK are still not using computers and the internet and they are likely to be socially excluded as well as digitally excluded. Nearly half of those without access are in the lowest socio economic groups, and a full 70% of people living in social housing aren't online. A further 50% of those without access are over 65.

More information about the funding, different models, criteria and obligations is available at www.ukonlinecentres.co.uk/corporate/regions-and-network/funding alongside the application forms. The deadline for bids is 10 February 2010, with projects funded by the grant running from 1 April 2010 until 31 March 2011.

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For more information please contact Abi Stevens on 0778 666 0689 or astevens@ufi.com

Notes to editors