Community Project Grant Fund

People and Place 2025/26

Applications to the Community Project Grant Fund for 2025/26 are now closed.

About the fund

The Nestrans People and Place Community Project Grant Fund is a key part of the regional delivery of active and sustainable travel behaviour change.

It aims to fund small up projects (up to a total award ceiling of approximately £10,000) that support people to increase their use of active and/or sustainable transport modes. We're looking to work with community groups, voluntary organisations, registered charities, social enterprises, community benefit societies and community interest companies (CICs).

We want to maximise every available opportunity to increase modal shift towards active and sustainable modes within north-east communities.

Projects can focus solely on active travel or sustainable transport interventions or a combination of both elements. Projects must align with at least one of Nestrans’ People and Place Programme themes below:

People and Place Themes

Schools and Young People
Interventions in North East schools (taken broadly to encompass educational settings, from nurseries through to universities) that deliver holistic solutions for creating an environment where active and sustainable travel choices are not only an option, but the most effective ways to travel for young people and families.

Workplaces
Interventions that focus on places of work, that make active and sustainable travel choices a realistic solution for staff and volunteers. These could include investment in workplace cycle storage/parking or maintenance provision, or incentivisation schemes that make, walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport a more attractive choice to private car use.

Everyday Behaviours
Interventions that focus on capitalising on the breadth of projects that could be delivered and help even more people in the north-east to positively change their daily travel habits and reinforce the messaging that, irrespective of individual circumstances, everyone can make incremental but impactful changes to how they move around daily so that, in future, they can do so more actively and/or sustainably.

Accessibility and Inclusion
Interventions that focus on inclusion of underrepresented groups in Scotland who might face additional barriers to active and sustainable travel, such as cost, social perception, culture, health, ability, and geographical location. Interventions should positively integrate with groups and aim to significantly reducing the barriers they face to increase opportunities to choose active and sustainable travel.

Capacity and Capability Building
Interventions that focus on seizing opportunities for reinforcing Nestrans’ ability to adapt, react and lead the programme as it progress, for knowledge and skills transfer from, and among, delivery partners through a range of mechanisms from close partnership working, and which build capability for improved monitoring and evaluation, but also for continuing of key deliverables and all other aspects that can demonstrate a contribution to supporting modal shift.

Sustainable Travel
In the context of the People and Place behaviour change programme, we are focussing on those projects that involve solutions that can specifically improve:

  • travel planning – this is all about getting the right information to the right people at the right time, to develop solutions to get accurate, timely travel information to give people the confidence to leave the car at home; and
  • encouraging more joined-up journeys – improving integration between transport modes, and wherever possible providing a choice allowing people to choose the most suitable mode for their journey.

Application Timeline

Key dates for noting:

Applications Open: Monday 14 April 2025

Applications Close: 17:00, Friday 9 May 2025

Decision in Principle: By Friday 16 May 2025

What happens next?

Once your application form and project delivery plan have been submitted, eligible projects will be scored by Nestrans and local authority officers following a scoring criteria. You can find out more about this in our application guidance.

A decision on each project will be taken and, if successful, a decision in principle will be issued by 16th May*.

*Decisions will be issued subject to confirmation of funding for the Programme from Transport Scotland.

Further Information

Informal queries on any matters related to the fund should be directed to Caroline Hood, Transport Executive (Travel Planning and Delivery) and Jon Barron, Active Travel Development Officer.