Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund Guid­ance Note

What is the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund?

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund has been estab­lished to sup­port cap­it­al works and invest­ment in response to the changes that we have seen in our cli­mate over the last few dec­ades and pre­par­ing for the chal­lenges that we will face as our cli­mate con­tin­ues to change.

The fund will con­sider the themes set out in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027: Nature, People, and Place.

The fund has three guid­ing principles:

1. Adapt­a­tion – pro­jects will con­trib­ute to cli­mate adapt­a­tion with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park that help deliv­er the Scot­tish Nation­al Cli­mate Change Adapt­a­tion Programme.

2. Nature Based Solu­tions – pro­jects will pro­mote nature-based solu­tions and green engin­eer­ing to help adapt to cli­mate change while con­trib­ut­ing to hab­it­at and spe­cies recov­ery in the Nation­al Park.

3. Eco­nomy – Pro­jects will endeav­our to max­im­ise their con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­able loc­al employ­ment and eco­nom­ic activ­ity with­in the Nation­al Park.

What will it fund?

We are inter­ested in applic­a­tions from indi­vidu­al busi­nesses & landown­ers, com­munity bod­ies, registered char­it­ies, and oth­er incor­por­ated bod­ies with an interest in pro­gress­ing cli­mate adapt­a­tion with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park through cap­it­al items that could unlock long term deliv­ery, which could include:

• New assets (items with a multi-year lifespan); sig­ni­fic­ant works which will res­ult in bene­fits or change span­ning mul­tiple years i.e. hab­it­at enrich­ment; plant machinery, or oth­er equip­ment with a multi-year lifespan.

Cap­it­al fund­ing can­not sup­port staff salar­ies, con­sultancy fees, run­ning costs oth­er than in excep­tion­al cases where some salar­ies and fees may be eli­gible in the devel­op­ment of ini­tial designs for projects.

Examples of pro­jects might be: fire man­age­ment solu­tions includ­ing wild-fire, flood pre­ven­tion through plant­ing or oth­er works, rain-water catch­ment ini­ti­at­ives, con­ver­sion from gas or oil to green energy sources, green-energy stor­age, plant to sup­port under­tak­ing new cap­it­al works to sup­port pro­jects address­ing cli­mate change impacts, sup­port for nature-friendly farm­ing. This is not an exhaust­ive list. Your pro­ject ideas will be assessed based on the con­tri­bu­tion it will make to the prin­ciples of the grant scheme set out above and the more detailed cri­ter­ia set out in this guidance.

How much is the Fund worth?

The expec­ted grant awards to suc­cess­ful pro­jects will be in the range of £20,000 to a max­im­um of £100,000. Grants less than £20,000 will be con­sidered. All pro­jects will need to be com­pleted by March 2026 (includ­ing all spend).

We have not set spe­cif­ic inter­ven­tion rates or grant fund­ing per­cent­ages. The Fund is a broad fund open to a wide range of poten­tial applic­ants and pro­jects, and it is not pos­sible to estab­lish set per­cent­ages of grant fund­ing. If a pro­ject will make a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate adapt­a­tion action, meet­ing the prin­ciples of the Fund, and requires full fund­ing to allow it to hap­pen then we will con­sider 100% fund­ing. Applic­a­tions will be assessed in terms of their fit with the scheme prin­ciples; their deliv­ery against the object­ives of the fund and indic­at­ors; and value for money, includ­ing the total value of a grant award and the per­cent­age of total cost being sought.

Cri­ter­ia

Applic­a­tions will be assessed against a scor­ing sys­tem based on four cri­ter­ia lis­ted below.

1. How well does the pro­ject con­trib­ute to at least one of the selec­ted themes, out­comes, and indic­at­ors of the adapt­a­tion fund?

2. How well does the pro­ject provide wider pub­lic benefit?

3. How well thought-out is the pro­ject? Does it have clear object­ives, meas­ur­able outcomes/​outputs and is it deliv­er­able by 31 March 2026?

4. What’s the level of pro­ject risk and can the risks be managed?

What are the key dates?

1. Expres­sion of interest now open

2. Applic­a­tions by invite open 7 April to 15 May 2025

3. Decision pan­el end of May

4. Pro­ject start date by 1 June 2025
5. Pro­ject com­ple­tion (includ­ing all spend) by 31 March 2026

The Park Author­ity has secured the money to sup­port this Fund for the cur­rent fin­an­cial year, to 31 March 2026 only. The expres­sion of interest stage open from 19 Feb­ru­ary will include time to work on a pro­ject idea with staff and will then lead to feed­back or invit­a­tion to applic­a­tion. There­fore, early expres­sions of interest are encouraged.

When will funds be received if our applic­a­tion is successful?

We under­stand that cash flow for new pro­jects can be dif­fi­cult to arrange. For approved pro­jects, grants will be on the fol­low­ing basis:

a) On approv­al of pro­ject and con­firm­a­tion of start: 40%. b) At mid stage (date to be agreed) on basis of reas­on­able evid­ence of pro­gress: 40%. c) On com­ple­tion of pro­ject and pro­vi­sion of any deliv­ery inform­a­tion includ­ing your final pro­ject report: 20%.

Altern­at­ively, funds can be claimed 100% on com­ple­tion of the project.

Ready to apply?

If you have read these Guid­ance Notes and think you have a pro­ject that meets with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund themes, out­comes and indic­at­ors, and set cri­ter­ia, then please apply using the Expres­sion of Interest form in the first instance. This is a com­puls­ory step, and a full applic­a­tion will only be accep­ted once this pro­cess has com­peted. Sub­mis­sion of an expres­sion of interest will allow the Park Author­ity to give you ini­tial advice on the suit­ab­il­ity of your pro­ject ideas for this fund.

Early engage­ment with the Park Author­ity is encour­aged to allow us to provide advice to help devel­op your pro­ject idea and to assess wheth­er there are any leg­al implic­a­tions in provid­ing grant that may be con­sidered a com­mer­cial sub­sidy. Early con­tact will there­fore allow us to con­sider with you how the grant offer may be struc­tured appro­pri­ately if your applic­a­tion is suc­cess­ful. We also do not wish poten­tial applic­ants to spend a large amount of their time writ­ing applic­a­tions that may not fit with this fund. The sub­mis­sion of a brief expres­sion of interest will provide an oppor­tun­ity to receive advice on wheth­er the idea fits with the fund and addi­tion­al time in sub­mit­ting an applic­a­tion is worthwhile.

The Park Author­ity is an open, inclus­ive, innov­at­ive, and pro­fes­sion­al organ­isa­tion that behaves with integ­rity. We will admin­is­ter these grant funds in line with these values.

How to con­tact the Fund

If you need any fur­ther inform­a­tion on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund, please con­tact the Fund by email­ing CommunityGrants@​cairngorms.​co.​uk