Armed with statistics that show just five women have received the Barclaycard Mercury Prize in its 18 year history and that less than 5% of works performed at last year's BBC Proms were composed by women, the Foundation will launch a new funding opportunity to coincide with International Women's Day on March 8.

Funding worth up to £5000 will be made available to help with every stage of the writing process from commissioning through to the costs of the first ...