The Linnean Society's Our Local Nature grant scheme

The Our Local Nature grant scheme is designed to provide young people with an opportunity to take the lead on projects that involve their local nature and natural spaces, to aid young people in realising their influence, to have their voices heard, and see their ideas come to life.

We therefore fund innovative projects that are designed and led by young people in the UK.

Adult applicants should develop their proposal alongside young people and the projects should seek to empower local young people to enact changes they want to see, increasing access to natural spaces and improving understanding of the local biodiversity.

The maximum award is £1,000 per proposal. We welcome and encourage applications for significantly lower amounts - in the last two years we have funded a wide spread of projects ranging from £150 to £1,000. The Society is happy to co-fund any project with other organisations.

This grant is purposefully broad and welcomes novel ideas. Some examples of possible proposals could be: running a school festival about nature; painting community murals showcasing biodiversity in the area; building a community garden; creating a nature walk; hiring a speaker to come and talk about local foraging.

These grants are available to individuals and organisations who are linked with a group of young people within the UK. This includes, but is not limited to, school staff, student groups, home education groups, community groups and small charities. There must be evidence that the applicant is linked with a group of young people. We will not award more than one grant to any one applicant in any one year.

Our application process is designed to be simple to allow young people to apply with adult support.
Through this we hope to encourage thoughtful applications without too much strain on your valuable time.

Applications have now closed. We aim to inform applicants of the outcomes during December.

We don't!

The awardees will be selected by an online Youth Panel made up of 16-18 year olds across the country. The Youth Panel will review all applications and come to a decision, facilitated by the Society's Education Manager. The Youth Panel will also be encouraged to meet with the successful applicants to see impact first hand.

The Panel will be guided by these criteria:

• Are the applicants eligible for this grant?
• Do you fully understand this proposal?
  
• Have the applicants shown that their proposal is feasible financially and logistically?
  
• Does this proposal have a long term impact on the intended audience?
  
• Do you believe that this proposal is the best one to achieve the grant's objectives?
• Are the grants you have selected spread out across the country?

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email learning@linnean.org with 'Our Local Nature grant' in the subject.