PRS Foundation expands its Talent Development Network for 2025-2026

• 7 new organisations join Year 2 cohort including Hotbox Ent, Latino Life and Oram Awards
• Year 2 of the programme will involve 78 organisations working at the frontline of talent development, strengthening the music ecosystem from the grassroots up
• At a time where grassroots funding is under the spotlight, TDNs continue to play a vital role unearthing and nurturing talent, and bolstering music ecosystems for the benefit of the wider sector

PRS Foundation, the UK’s leading charitable funder of new music and talent development, announces today that the Year 2 cohort of its Talent Development Network expands to 78 organisations around the UK. The organisations in this year’s cohort are:

Asian Arts Agency

AudioActive

AVA Festival

B:Music

Bradford Producing Hub

Brighten The Corners

Brighter Sound

Bristol Music Trust

Britten Sinfonia

Café Oto

Capsule

Carousel

Cheltenham Festivals

Cobalt Studios

Come Play With Me

Cre8ing Vision

Create Define Release

Cryptic

Dialled In

Drake Music

Drake Music Scotland

English Folk Dance & Song Society

eavesdropping

FOCUS Wales

Forté Project

Fuel Productions

Future Bubblers

FUTURE YARD

Generator

Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble

Heart n Soul

Hot Boxent

HQ CAN

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

International Guitar Foundation

Jazz North

Jazz re:freshed

LatinoLife

LIMF Academy

Liverpool Sound City

Manchester Collective

Manchester Jazz Festival

Mercury Musical Developments

Moving On Music

Music Local t/a Music Leeds

Nerve Centre

Oh Yeah Music Centre

Opera North

Oram Awards

Oxford Contemporary Music

Paraorchestra

Presteigne Festival

Red Note Ensemble

Royal Philharmonic Society

Saffron Music

Serious Trust

Showcase Scotland Expo

Sound and Music

Sound Festival

Sound Roots

sounduk Arts

South Asian Arts UK

Tees Music Alliance

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

The Marian Consort

The Music Works

The Roundhouse Trust

The Warren

Through The Noise

Tomorrow's Warriors

TY Cerdd

UD Music Foundation

Ulster Touring Opera

Un-Convention Hub

We Are The Unheard

We Make Culture

Wide Events

Yorkshire Sound Women Network

Launched with the first cohort of orgnisations in 2024, the Talent Development Network, supported by PPL, offers grants of up to £25,000 per year to organisations for up to 3 years. Funding supports music creator development programmes, and grantees are part of a UK-wide network enabling them to share knowledge and make connections.

The 7 organisations and their talent development programmes joining the network this year are:

• AVA Festival – celebrating, amplifying and developing electronic music, visual art and immersive technology through their programme of a live & broadcasted performance at AVA Festival Belfast, talks, workshops and keynotes for all ages to attend for free in Belfast.
• Brighten The Corners – building artist careers in Ipswich and develop a national profile using their experience and wide network of industry contacts and focussing on the development of 10 key regional artists with opportunities for a further 50+ acts.
• Fuel Productions - commissioning music creators to develop completely original music for live performance and theatre, encouraging risk taking, creativity, collaboration and experimentation – giving opportunity to new creative partnerships and working with new technology and creating the best possible conditions for unique and interesting work to be composed and then produced by one of the UK’s leading independent theatre producers.
• Hotbox Ent - intensive development journey that fuses creative mastery with mental wellbeing support for emerging Northern Irish artists, engaging in weekly hands-on workshops, bespoke one-to-one mentorship, group resilience and wellbeing clinics, finishing with artists showcasing their work at a live industry event, digital demo drop and facilitating connections with labels, promoters and media.
• LatinoLife – advancing the careers of Latin music creators in the UK to wider audiences, through their programme providing high profile performance opportunities/touring in the UK, Europe and Latin America, as well as access to booking agents, managers, branding, PR, marketing and mentoring from music industry professionals with the aim of releasing and marketing their music to larger audiences.
• Oram Awards – honouring and supporting the work and voices of women, trans, non-binary, and gender-expansive artists who challenge the boundaries of innovation in sound, music, and related technologies through their programme commissioning new works, providing mentoring, and offering live performance opportunities
• Ulster Touring Opera – combining an open call for new opera works with professional mentorship and performances in iconic venues, their programme promotes new music, nurtures young talent and fosters inclusivity.

The Talent Development Network creates a strengthened and better-connected web of support for the music sector. With more support, over a greater period, organisations can plan for the longer term and increase the support for talented music creators from the grassroots up, across the UK.

With so many organisations contributing exceptional work to the talent development pipeline and benefitting from the network, this year sees the introduction of an ‘Associates’ strand, for organisations not receiving direct funding this year that will retain a key role within the network. English Folk Dance and Song Society, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, LIMF Academy, Opera North, Manchester Jazz Festival and South Asian Arts UK will be part of this year’s cohort as Associate Talent Development Network Members, benefitting from and contributing to the connections and communications as well as the information and resources sharing within the network.

Joe Frankland, CEO at PRS Foundation said, “Talent development organisations around the UK provide a vital role in the development and sustainment of music scenes and ecosystems in every nation and region of the country. Music creators from the grassroots up rely on these local organisations run by incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated individuals. We’re incredibly proud to not just support these brilliant organisations and their impactful programmes but provide a network of knowledge and opportunity sharing, creating a community that continually innovates to supports music creator talent, practice and develop their careers, investing in the future of music.” 

Becci Scotcher, Senior Grants & Programmes Manager at PRS Foundation said, “Huge congratulations to all the organisations making up this year’s expanded co-hort. These organisations are an integral part of the talent development pipeline for music creators to develop their talent towards sustainable careers and become the next generation of the culturally important talent, that the UK historically has played a leading role in globally. With so much talent being unearthed and supported recently by such organisations, including English Teacher, Amelia Colburn, LEMFRECK, Jordan Adetunji and corto.alto, the Talent Development Network will provide not only that programmatic investment but will facilitate the interconnectivity of opportunities and best practice to benefit the organisations and the music creators and communities they serve locally.”

Kate Reilly, Chief Membership and People Officer at PPL said, "PPL is proud to support the newly expanded Talent Development Network, helping organisations across the nations and regions cultivate and grow fresh talent from the grassroots up. Congratulations to all the organisations taking part this year.”

The next intake of organisations will be in 2026, when new organisations will be invited to apply for 1 year of support and to be part of this new cohort of the network.  Find out more on PRS Foundation’s website towards the end of 2025.

The Talent Development Network was announced in December 2023. PRS Foundation continually looks at ways of ensuring its support has the most impact for the music creators and organisations it serves. The Talent Development Network was created following feedback from the sector, and by removing some of the limitations of existing programmes enabling a more sustainable way of supporting talent development, addressing the numerous barriers facing music creators and build on PRS Foundation’s proactive approach to supporting organisations in all UK nations and regions. Additionally, by consolidating the budgets of both the Open Fund for Organisations and the Talent Development Partner initiative, PRS Foundation has increased its efficiency as a funder and improve support and the evaluation of the impact of its funding.