The Road Safety Trust guide to applying for funding
Making Roads Safer
Turn your vision into action with our grant funding
The Road Safety Trust provides grants which make a positive difference for all road users
Our vision is to have zero deaths and serious injuries on UK roads
What does The Road Safety Trust do?
Established in 2014, The Road Safety Trust is the largest independent funder of road safety initiatives and research in the UK.
We provide grants of up to £300,000 towards innovative practical, research, dissemination and education projects that aim to make the UK roads safer and protect all road users.
Where does the funding come from?
We are solely funded by our trading subsidiary company, UKROEd, which operates the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS). Surplus generated from this scheme is distributed to The Road Safety Trust to fund road safety initiatives.
Who is the funding for and what can I do with the grant?
We support a range of UK-based organisations, including public sector bodies, nonprofits, charities, Community Interest Companies, research institutions and universities. They all use that funding to deliver evidence-based road safety projects which align with our strategic priorities:
• Research that informs
• Pilots that test
• Dissemination that reaches
• Advocacy that influences
Over the past decade, we have funded over 100 projects, including behaviour change campaigns; evidence reviews; research and evaluations; trials, pilots or rollouts of practical interventions; engineering, infrastructure and technological measures; the development of resources or guidance to improve policy and practice.
You can find case studies and examples of our grant-funded projects on our website.
www.roadsafetytrust.org.uk
What type of grants are available?
Generally, we run two funding rounds every year.
Our Small Grants Programme responds to the road safety sector’s need for one-off local projects with a practical focus. This programme opens every March. Awards range from £10,000 to £50,000 for projects lasting up to 2 years.
Our Main Grants Programme centres on evidence-based projects. Previous grants have been awarded to a range of bodies, including research institutions, who have developed, implemented and evaluated innovations designed to improve road safety, often in conjunction with practitioners in the field. This programme opens every September. Awards range from £50,000 to £300,000, for up to 3 years.
Some of our programmes are themed around a particular topic and we expect applications to focus on that area. Further details and guidance are available on our website.
Our role is not only to award grants, but also to work closely with potential, current and past grantees. Throughout the process of grant-making, we will support you to ensure we can maximise the impact of our funding, and the outcomes of your projects so that we can tangibly improve road safety across the UK.
How to apply
We announce the grants programmes and provide accompanying guidance, criteria, resources and an application workbook on our website.
Please be sure to read these documents carefully before you apply.
When the programme launches, we hold a webinar with key members of the Grants Team who explain more about the grant-making process, and provide useful information about what we expect from applications. Following the webinar, we also offer prospective applicants 15-minute virtual appointments with members of the Grants Team, during which you can explore your proposal and ask any further questions, prior to making a formal application.
We recommend that you bookmark our website, follow our social media channels, and keep checking our latest announcements.
Further information
www.roadsafetytrust.org.uk
Our website is the key resource for grant applications. It also has:
• Information about our structure and team
• Guidance on the grants scheme, criteria and how to apply
Contact us
• Case studies of funded projects
• Links to final reports of funded projects and the Road Safety GB Knowledge Centre
• Information about the ‘Safe System’ approach and how we use it to demonstrate the impact of projects we have funded
Our team are often at key road safety events and welcome further discussion in person. You can also contact us via:
Email: info@roadsafetytrust.org.uk
Website: www.roadsafetytrust.org.uk/our-grants
Social Media:
@TheRSTrust
@RoadSafetyTruUK
Don’t miss this opportunity to bid for funding to bring your ideas to life.
Together, we can make a difference to the future of road safety in the UK. Inspiring change | Saving lives | Together
