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The Road Safety Trust: Large and Small Grants Programme

The Road Safety Trust supports projects and research aimed at making roads across the UK safer for all road users. A range of organisations are eligible to apply for grant support, including registered charities, Community Interest Companies, statutory agencies such as local authorities, fire and rescue services and police forces, and universities. The vast majority of the Trust’s funding tends to go to statutory organisations and universities.

The Trust has an annual theme for its Large Grants programme. In the current round of funding, which opened on Thursday 26th September 2024, the theme of “Inequalities in Road Safety” also applies to its Small Grants scheme.

For its “Inequalities in Road Safety” theme, the Trust wants to explore how various interconnected factors, including human, vehicle, and environmental elements can result inequalities in Road Safety. There is also interest in how practitioners and policy makers may be supported to address inequalities in Road Safety through following a safe system approach.

Grants are available for projects that address one or more of the following areas:

1. The impact of social determinants such as income and health and other demographic factors on local communities and their exposure to risk related to:
Access to, and use of, technologies that make vehicles and roads safer.

  • Illegal, dangerous and anti-social use of the roads, the effectiveness of current countermeasures and potential new methods for reduction, and
  • Rural areas and different age groups within such communities.

2. Road safety issues for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and/or disabilities; and the issues for their carers,and
3. Improving the availability, quality and strategic use of demographic evidence and information, alongside other safety related evidence and information to support practitioners and policy makers in respect of road safety. 

The Trust offers the following grants to help develop innovative approaches to road safety, including research:

1. Small Grants of between £10,000 to £50,000 over a two-year period
This is usually an open programme with no specific priorities for awarding grants. However, in the autumn 2024 round, projects that address the theme “Inequalities in Road Safety” are likely to be prioritised. Projects should have the potential for being brought to scale – with the ultimate goal of reducing deaths and injuries both locally and across the UK.

2. Major themed grants of between £50,000 and £500,000 for projects which focus on the Trust’s annual theme
The major theme for the Autumn 2024 round is ‘Inequalities in Road Safety’. Project proposals should address issues that have an impact on discrepancies in the public safety of UK roads, such as age, disability, health, gender, rurality and economic wellbeing.

Please note that the Trust will expect applicants to have sought and secured matched funding prior to applying.

All applications should:

  • Generate new knowledge about what road safety measures work.
  • Influence road safety policy and practice.
  • Support partnership working and collaboration, and
  • Translate ideas into new measures.

To apply, eligible organisations should use the Trust’s application portal (applicants are required to create an account in the first instance). Further information and guidance can be found on the Trust’s website.

Potential applicants can book a 1:1 session with a member of the Trust’s Grants Team. Two dates are available: Monday 30th September and Tuesday 8th October 2024. Further details can be found on the Trust’s website.

Contact details for the Trust are:

The Grants Team
The Road Safety Trust
Colwyn Chambers
York Street
Manchester
M2 3BA
Email: [email protected] or[email protected].

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