Road Safety Trust: Large Grants

Overview

The Large Grants round opened on 26 September. The theme for this round is ‘Inequalities in Road Safety’ detailed in the Grants Guidance document.

Overview

The purpose of The Road Safety Trust is to make UK roads safer, achieving impact through the funding of practical measures, research, dissemination and education initiatives. The Trust intends to uphold the highest of ethical and safety standards in both the conduct of initiatives and research it funds and prudence in the expenditure of the funds that it holds. Its Values of Rigour, Partnership, Independence and Challenge, and Knowledge are reflected in the approach it takes with each and every funded project.

Strategic Priorities

The Road Safety Trust aims to make a tangible difference on the roads via its Strategic Priorities:

• Intelligence that defines
• Research that informs
• Pilots that test
• Dissemination that reaches, and
• Advocacy that influences

Objectives

To support the achievement of these strategic priorities, the objectives of the Grant Programme are to:

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

Eligibility

UK based organisations, public and professional associations, registered charities and university departments in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland may apply for Large Grants.

Individuals are not eligible for grants from The Road Safety Trust unless they are part of a larger research or project team. In addition, private commercial enterprises, Community Interest Companies and not-for-profit businesses will be considered for funding as long as the schemes or initiatives proposed are for charitable activity, are for public benefit and are in line with our priorities.

In some cases, they may also accept applications from overseas organisations, eg. for world class research with the potential to benefit UK road users. This should be discussed with them before applying.

The Road Safety Trust usually invites applications on a road safety theme each year. They take feedback from their stakeholders through consultation on the priorities and gaps. Consultations take place every few years, so if you would like to be a participant in this, please let them know. There are also occasional open rounds without themes.

Amount of Award

The minimum award is £10k and the maximum is £300k

Trustees will consider the total amount of money to be allocated for funding on an annual basis, based on an assessment of potential demand and income received by the Trust. Successful applications may not be funded in their entirety. This will depend on the size of the request made and funds available. Grants are available for up to two or three years depending on the programme. The minimum award is £10k and the maximum is £300k.

Theme

The grant theme for Autumn 2024 round is on the subject of Inequalities in Road Safety – Treating each project as a journey to making a tangible difference on the roads

Road Safety is relevant to everyone, but there are known inequalities in health, sex and gender, age, society and economic circumstances which mean that the use of the roads is not equally safe for everyone.

The aim of this grant programme is to bring to light areas of road safety inequality and investigate ways they can be addressed to save lives and prevent injury on UK roads.

In this round they are interested in how the interplay of various interconnected factors, including human, vehicle, and environmental elements may give rise to inequalities in Road Safety.

They are also interested in how practitioners and policy makers may be supported to address inequalities in Road Safety through following a safe system approach.

Within this topic, and following a scoping exercise, they have identified priority areas where they believe funding can make a difference. Therefore, they are inviting applications under this round for grants to focus on Inequalities in Road Safety in one or more of the following areas:

• The impact of social determinants (such as income and health and other demographic factors) on local communities and their exposure to risk related to:
  • Illegal, dangerous and anti-social use of the roads, the effectiveness of current counter-measures and potential new methods for reduction
  • Rural areas and different age groups within such communities
  • Access to, and use of, technologies that make vehicles and roads safer
• What are the Road Safety issues for Children with SEN and/or disabilities and what are the issues for their carers?
• How to improve 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

There are two routes to funding in this round depending on the amount you are applying for – a Small Grant strand and a Large Grant strand.

More details are provided in their Guidance Notes.

The main difference is that the application process goes into more detail for the Large Grants, which are particularly suited to research-based projects, and the development, implementation and evaluation of innovative interventions.

The Small Grants strand is more suitable for practical projects or local pilots or trials.

Projects, including research projects, should aim to have a practical focus and develop evidence-based tools and interventions in the above areas of Inequalities in Road Safety.

The type of projects that may be funded under this round are:

• Projects with a practical approach
• Research projects with a practical phase
• Projects focused on early research may in some cases be funded in order to understand the issue and make recommendations. In these cases the intended application of the research for policy and practice should be outlined.