The David Lyle Foundation opens up applications for 2024

David Lyle

The David Lyle Foundation (DLF), the industry-wide not-for-profit organisation that helps young executives to build successful careers in the international television business, is rebooting its scholarship programme after a three-year pandemic-related hiatus.

The DLF awards two annual scholarships to promising young creatives, offering a one-year programme of education and development designed to fast-track their understanding of the global television-content business.

This includes subscriptions to key trade publications and organisations, as well as all-access passes to the world’s leading content-industry events.

The scholarship winners are chosen from a shortlist of candidates selected by the DLF’s advisory board, which consists of executives from across the entertainment industry. Criteria for selection will include a demonstration of ideas of how TV can remain relevant to younger audiences and help to address global challenges.

Each winner receives complimentary subscriptions to international content-business magazines and websites (worth in excess of £3,000), as well as free access to more than 15 content business events (worth up to £10,000).

Also included in the scholarship package is a contribution of up to £1,000 for travel and subsistence to attend events of choice, and access to the DLF advisory board for up to four mentoring sessions across the year.

The DLF is facilitated by Cheryl Clarke, supported by an advisory board of international content industry executives and founding partners, all of whom provide support to the programme, include Broadcast, C21Media, Edinburgh TV Festival, FRAPA, Natpe, Realscreen, PACT, TBI and RX.

Scholarship applications will open today and close at the end of March 2024. The 2024 programme will run from April to April 2025.

The DLF scheme launched in 2019 and scholarships were awarded in January 2020, but the programme was frozen until now on account of the Covid pandemic and recovery. The inaugural winners Chris Sanders, development producer at Rare TV and Gabriella Lafor, development consultant and director of LineLight.

Lafor said the scholarship programme had “been a complete eye opener and inspired me in more ways than I can count. I’d say to future applicants — and I’m addressing my own community specifically here — Black people are still heavily underrepresented in all of the spaces I’ve been given access to over the last 12 months. I’d encourage as many people as possible to apply for a DLF scholarship. The insight you gain from this scheme is nothing short of game-changing.”

Sanders added: “The breadth of experiences the scholarship provides — from international conferences, subscriptions to the trade press and one-on-one sessions with industry leaders — really helped build my confidence at a crucial time in my career.

“For those looking to take a step up, but who are unsure how to go about it, a whirlwind year with the DLF will without doubt bring you into contact with the people and ideas you need to make the change. But perhaps most important of all is that DLF is not so much a scholarship as a family. The love and support on offer really does help you to navigate what is sometimes a very tricky industry.”

To apply for a scholarship, click here.