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 also 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 res­tor­a­tion; land man­age­ment activ­it­ies; 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 equip­ment to reduce the risk of, and tackle wild-fire.
• Flood pre­ven­tion and drought alle­vi­ation through plant­ing, water mar­gin man­age­ment or oth­er works, rain-water catch­ment initiatives.
• Regen­er­at­ive agri­cul­ture prac­tices that pro­tect and boost soil health, mak­ing them more resi­li­ent to the impacts of cli­mate change.
• Plant or con­tracts to sup­port under­tak­ing new cap­it­al works to sup­port pro­jects address­ing cli­mate change impacts.
• Meas­ures to reduce car­bon emis­sions, use of fer­til­izers and pesti­cides on farms.

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 31 March 2027 (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 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 2027?
4. What’s the level of pro­ject risk and can the risks be managed?

What are the key dates?

1. Expres­sion of interest close on 3 April 2026
2. Expres­sions of Interest officer review 9 April 2026
3. Applic­a­tions by invite open 16 April to 23.59 10 May 2026
4. Decision pan­el end of May
5. Pro­ject start date by 1 June 2026
6. Pro­ject com­ple­tion date by 31 March 2027

The Park Author­ity has secured the money to sup­port this Fund for the cur­rent fin­an­cial year, to 31 March 2027 only. The expres­sion of interest stage open from 9 Feb­ru­ary 2026.

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

Applic­a­tion form

Sec­tion 1

Applic­ant details, include pro­ject title, con­tact inform­a­tion and pro­ject loc­a­tion which can include What3Word or Nation­al Grid Reference.

Sec­tion 2

Basic Eli­gib­il­ity

• If you are VAT registered and can reclaim VAT this will come off your grant award.
• The pro­ject must be com­pleted in full by March 2027?

Sec­tion 3

Pro­ject details

• Which of the themes do you think your pro­ject meets, you must choose an out­come from Theme, plus at least one from theme 1 or 2.

Theme 1: there is an increase in cli­mate adapt­a­tion solu­tions and cli­mate change resi­li­ence with­in Cairngorms Nation­al Park

• Pro­ject sup­ports com­munity empower­ment and resi­li­ence to the chan­ging climate
• Pro­ject that addresses wild-fire risk with­in the Nation­al Park
• Pro­ject that addresses flood risk or is con­sidered flood pre­ven­tion in the nation­al park

Theme 2: Pro­ject will deliv­er nature-based solu­tions and green engin­eer­ing to help adapt to cli­mate change effects, con­trib­ut­ing to improved eco­sys­tem, health, resi­li­ence and spe­cies recov­ery in the Nation­al Park.

• pro­ject sup­port­ing nat­ur­al solu­tions to mit­ig­ate against flood­ing, includ­ing engin­eer­ing works & tree plant­ing to rein­force flood banks; invest­ment in plant; small-scale wet­land cre­ation; and flood­plain restoration.
• pro­ject that sup­ports the use of nature-based solu­tions to com­bat car­bon emis­sions for example sol­ar, hydro, water pumps, soil aer­at­ors, rain water col­lec­tion and storage.+
• pro­ject that sup­ports water attenuation/​slow­ing the flow inter­ven­tions in the upper catch­ments i.e recon­nect­ing small burns and rivers to their flood­plains, ditch block­ing, re-mean­der­ing of straightened ditches.
• pro­ject that sup­ports nature friendly farm­ing activ­it­ies: pur­chase of equip­ment for example sol­ar water pumps, soil aer­at­ors, equip­ment to sup­port tree planting.

Theme 3: Com­munit­ies and Busi­nesses in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park max­im­ise their con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­able loc­al employ­ment and eco­nom­ic activity.

• pro­ject using loc­al con­tract­ors and or boost­ing the loc­al economy
• pro­ject that upskills loc­al work­force in the CNP

You are asked how your pro­ject will con­trib­ute to the themes/​outcome that you have selec­ted to help deliv­ery cli­mate adapt­a­tion and the deliv­ery times­cale, capa­city and risks of the pro­ject. You will be asked of any match fund­ing includ­ing inkind and if plan­ning per­mis­sion or con­sents are required.

Sec­tion 4

Pro­ject costs

Detail the total cost of the pro­ject and the grant reques­ted, detail­ing the cap­it­al items and costs exclud­ing recov­er­able VAT.