ElevatED – Empowering Equal Access to Educational Funding Information

Our hack addresses a key pattern in the Wealth Defence Industry: the unequal access to information on educational funding, specifically scholarships, which disproportionately affects students from underserved communities. Scholarships are essential for upward social mobility, offering financial aid that allows students to pursue higher education without the burden of excessive debt. In the UK, over 40,000 scholarships are available annually, excluding small grants and bursaries. However, the fragmented nature of this information across multiple platforms creates barriers for students who lack the time, resources, or knowledge to locate opportunities. The aspiration to design this platform stems from personal experiences gathered in the UK.  In our survey of 500 randomly selected students, parents, and teachers, 75% said they did not know where to start searching for scholarships. Additionally, 82% indicated they would spend at least a week searching, and of those, 42% would spend more than a month trying to find scholarships or funding opportunities for which they are eligible. Access to funding information is often dependent on personal connections or the time that can be dedicated to searching them out. However, not everyone has these resources. The current system often perpetuates inequalities by concentrating financial opportunities among those who already have access to wealth, power, and privilege leaving underrepresented groups with limited access to these crucial resources needed to advance their education and economic prospects.  Our solution aims to democratise access to scholarships by matching talented students with relevant scholarships based on personalised criteria regardless of background. This will ensure that opportunities are distributed by competence and eligibility, not connections. The matching platform would reduce the time spent on research, allowing people to focus on what is most important: applying. The platform directly addresses a key flaw in the Wealth Defence Industry: the often invisible yet powerful role of social networks and access to information, which perpetuates inequality in wealth distribution. ElevatED aims to transform how students, especially from disadvantaged communities, access wealth-building opportunities.

We believe access to educational funding information should be quick, personalised, and inclusive. Educational funding is a key avenue for upward social mobility, but current systems favour those with connections, time, or privilege. By developing ElevatED, we aim to shorten the search for scholarships, enabling users to find and apply for opportunities in less time and with better access than ever before. Our hack creates a digital platform that matches students to scholarships based on their eligibility, needs, and interests. This approach ensures that students, traditionally excluded due to lack of information or access, can quickly discover opportunities they are eligible for. Work on the platform has already begun, and as part of this challenge, we want to focus on three key areas Inclusive design: We emphasise co-creation with communities during the platform’s development. Engaging with schools in Brighton has helped us incorporate feedback, and we plan to extend this to other regions across the UK. Collaborating with local charities and NGOs will also connect us with the target underserved communities and better serve disadvantaged families. Collaboration: We aim to partner with scholarship providers to include their opportunities on the platform and “translate” the eligibility criteria, ensuring individuals can be accurately matched. We plan to use web scraping and API integration to automate data collection from institutions, ensuring the platform stays up to date. Personalised matching: We are creating a user interface where students can set up a profile, enabling them to be matched with scholarships. We are designing an algorithm to ensure accurate and personalised connections between student profiles and available opportunities. Scalability: Though initially UK-focused, ElevatED will be built with global scalability in mind. We plan to incorporate international scholarships and support multiple languages, making the platform a valuable resource for students worldwide. This hack has the potential to redefine access to educational funding worldwide. Why Us? Our team has personal experience of missing out on educational opportunities due to a lack of information. We combine strong technical skills in full-stack development, stakeholder engagement, user research, and systems design. We also have strong connections with key stakeholders across academia, international development, and corporate sectors, giving us the credibility to build and scale this platform effectively. What the funding will achieve: The Hacking Wealth Challenge funding will help us build a working prototype, establish partnerships with scholarship providers, and conduct research to ensure the platform is optimally designed for users. Specific costs will cover backend and frontend development, API integration, data aggregation, eligibility mapping, user research, outreach to scholarship providers and NGOs, legal consultations for GDPR compliance, and cybersecurity measures to protect user data. ElevatED is more than just a platform for scholarships; it’s a step towards creating a more equitable society by dismantling financial barriers to education. With your support, we can scale this vision, ensuring that students, particularly those from underserved communities, are empowered to pursue their education without financial constraints.

ElevatED aims to create a significant and lasting impact on users by providing them with easy access to scholarship information, and facilitating their pursuit of higher education or other skill training opportunities.  The intended impact of our work: Short to mid-term outcomes include:  - By connecting users to funding opportunities they are eligible for we save them time and make the process fun opposed to the frustrating ambiguity of typical online searches.  - By reducing the research time we help our users to focus their time on   applying for more opportunities they are eligible for thereby increasing their prospects for funding. - By educating users on their diverse funding options they can make more informed decisions and eliminate the reliance on loans and reduce accumulation of long-term debt.  - By providing deadline reminders and application tips related to the funding opportunities we clarify what users need to do in order to secure the funding. - By providing users, regardless of their background with a simple tool we  empower them to search independently, and ask questions from a supportive community and take charge of their future. Long-term impact include:  - Enhancing trust in institutions and scholarship providers among citizens who can access information about opportunities they are entitled to. - A more confident next generation, with users empowered to continue and return to education and skills training in the UK. - Users from disadvantaged backgrounds experience upward social mobility, leading to long-term wealth redistribution and economic empowerment, including reduced debt burdens and better job opportunities after completing their education or skills training.