Press release: Adnodd awards £50,000 to ten innovative and collaborative projects across Wales

Adnodd – the body responsible for leading and co-ordinating educational resources for the Curriculum for Wales – has announced the first ten recipients of the Innovation and Collaboration Fund. Each will receive £5,000 to explore co-creating inclusive and imaginative resources that reflect the national priorities of literacy, equity and anti-racism, and wellbeing.

The successful projects will run from July to October 2025, with the option to apply for further development funding later in the year. They include interactive workshops, creative digital tools, bilingual apps and community-led storytelling.

Launched in line with Adnodd’s strategic priorities, the Innovation and Collaboration Fund aims to empower practitioners, freelancers, and organisations to co-create inclusive, imaginative, and impactful educational resources that support the Curriculum for Wales. Along with tackling national priorities, the projects also champion bilingualism, creativity and community-led learning

Celebrating innovation in Welsh Education

From immersive storytelling and emotional literacy to AI-powered equity tools and creative science workshops for migrant learners, the ten successful projects represent a diverse and exciting cross-section of Wales’ educational landscape.

The successful projects include:

• Represent.me by AIMAITES Ltd: A bilingual AI resource helping learners to uncover bias in algorithms and explore equity through image classification.
• Navigating Belonging by Athronydd Research and Consulting: Using immersive storytelling to support boys’ emotional well-being and challenge stereotypes around masculinity and race.
• Science Belongs to Everyone by Swansea University PhD researcher Zaina Aljumma: Bilingual science workshops for forced migrant children, promoting inclusion, confidence, and Welsh language learning.
• The Miracles App by Connor Allen and Sugar Creative: Transforming children’s poetry into a bilingual wellbeing app to support emotional expression and creativity.
• What next? by Wes Glei: Co-developing interactive anti-bullying films focused on anti-racism, with learners and practitioners across Wales.
• Story Maker by Goiawn Ltd: Empowering children to create animated dramas exploring fairness, empathy, and emotional resilience.
• Big Play / Little Play by Yr Egin: Investigating how structured and free play fosters creative thinking and well-being in foundation learning.
• Feel It, Say It by Hyfforddi Sioned Roberts: Developing bilingual emotional literacy resources to help primary pupils name and manage their feelings.
• Co-Create by Academy Arts: Using bilingual drama and dance to embed Welsh language into expressive, everyday experiences.
• Llyfr-Gell Escape Room by the National Library of Wales: Designing a digital escape room to engage 13–15 year olds in literacy through Welsh history and culture.

A new approach to collaborating in education

Reflecting on the successful projects, Adnodd’s CEO Emyr George said:

“This fund is about more than just commissioning resources — it’s about investing in people’s time to be creative, collaborative and embrace learning through experimenting and making mistakes. These ten projects reflect the bold ideas, diversity, and creativity we want to support in education across Wales.”

Each project will submit a reflective report at the end of Phase 1. Selected projects will then be invited to apply for further funding to develop full-scale, bilingual resources for use in schools

Adnodd received 64 applications to the Innovation and Collaboration Fund. These were assessed by a panel of 12 experts who worked closely with Adnodd’s Commissioning and Quality team, and whose expertise shaped the final decision and awards.

All final resources will be bilingual, free to use, and aligned with Welsh Government priorities, including Cymraeg 2050, the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan, and the Well-being of Future Generations Act.