The Sustainability Fund provides you with the opportunity to co-create, design and implement sustainability-related projects.
Do you have a sustainability idea you’d like to research or put to the test? Apply for the Sustainability Fund by Friday 31 October!
Applications for grants of up to £5,000 are invited for projects or research which help the University’s Schools, Departments, communities or partnerships innovatively address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Read more about last year’s Sustainability Fund projects.
Details
Funds are distributed to projects through an annual grant competition where applicants submit their proposals in October 2025, notified of their outcome in November 2025, and start their projects ahead of Christmas break for project delivery in May 2026.
It is also essential that projects are formed on the basis of a partnership between students and University colleagues. Project teams must include at least one University colleague (academic, professional services or Students’ Union) and 2-4 students drawn from any taught or research programme. There must be more students than staff members in each group. Therefore, any project team must include at least 2 students and 1 colleague.
The Sustainability Fund will pay for projects’ equipment, consumables and other reasonable expenses associated with the project. Students who contribute to project teams will receive a £100 bursary at the end of the Sustainability Fund cycle, which recognises their extracurricular efforts. This must be included in project teams’ budgets.
Commitment
Project teams must complete the Sustainability Fund Application Form below by 31 October 2025. The application includes a simple series of questions to assess projects against the criteria listed above. Applicants will be notified of their application’s outcome via email by 14 November 2025. Applicants may have their proposals and/or budgets queried from 31 October to 14 November and must be available to respond to queries during this window.
If successful, the project teams should meet at least once before Christmas break in order to start the work of their projects in earnest in January. Successful project teams will be expected to keep in regular contact with the Sustainability Fund organisers as well as attend an in-person mid-point check-in to present their progress and an in-person final showcase.
Teams will also be welcomed back to the University in January with an online briefing session to ensure your project runs efficiently and in compliance with the University’s systems and processes. This includes the financial administration of your project, the responsibility of which sits solely with University colleagues.
Project teams should meet and communicate regularly among themselves during the project and keep the Sustainability Fund organisers informed of any issues as soon as they arise. The Sustainability Fund organisers are on hand from start to finish to help with all queries.
At the mid-point check-in, all projects must present their team’s progress to one another via a PowerPoint presentation. This will be done again at the final showcase, with the addition of the submission of a communications pack (abstract and annotated photos) and mandatory feedback. At this point, the Sustainability Fund project will be officially completed.
How to get involved
An online information session with Q&A for all students and colleagues interested will take place on Monday 13 October 2025, from 1–2pm. Please email [email protected] to RSVP or request a recording of the session, and feel free to reach out with any questions.
Apply for the Sustainability Fund by completing the form below and sending it back to [email protected] in Word format before Friday 31 October.
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