Funding

England only! 😞

I'm trying to get some funding for a "wild food corridor" project. Seems as though organisation called UnLtd can offer grants for "social entrepeneurs", without having to be a CIC https://www.unltd.org.uk/our-support/starting-up/. I'm applying here first, as National Lottery requires you to be a CIC limited by guarantee, which is a fair bit of paperwork to set up. https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding
If the pilot project is successful, I'll look at creating a CIC and going from there 🙂

This is way out of our league for now, but it's the kind of thing that could really accelerate forest gardening in the future. It looks like there will be a second round of funding next year, and they are accepting expressions of interest for that. It might be worthwhile getting one of those in at least.

Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF)
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Status:
Open to applications
Start Date:
23 May 2019
Application Deadline:
28 July 2019

Grant
Description

Funding for public bodies, non-government organisations, community groups, charities, individuals and private companies, to support the planting and establishment of large and small trees in urban and peri-urban areas of England.
Details

Fund Value:
£ 10,000,000
Minimum Value:
£ 500,000

Value Notes

The Fund has an overall budget of £10 million over a two-year lifespan (2019/20 and 2020/2021).

In the current phase (year one), it is only open to block bid applications. These are defined as applications with a value of at least £500,000, made up of multiple smaller projects, which may be geographically dispersed across England or focused in a single area. The grant can cover up to 50% of the standard costs for planting large and small trees and their establishment costs.

In year two (2020/21), individual applications will be accepted for much smaller, single planting sites. For those including large trees the minimum value will be £5,000. For applications with only small trees, the minimum value will be £1,150.
Extended Description

The Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF) has been developed in response to the government’s commitment to provide £10 million for planting both large and small trees in and around England’s towns and cities. The initiative will support Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan, whilst also contributing to meeting the government’s commitment to plant one million urban trees by 2022.

Urban trees are said to offer a range of benefits, including temperature moderation, flood risk mitigation, and improved wellbeing – particularly when in close proximity to large populations. The UTCF will contribute to delivering these benefits through the targeted planting of at least 20,000 large trees and 110,000 small trees in urban and peri-urban areas.

The support is being offered on a competitive basis, targeting projects providing the greatest environmental, social and economic benefits to towns and cities across the country.
Latest Information

The application window for year one is now open and will close at midnight on 28 July 2019.

Late applications will be accepted up to 31 August 2019. Bids received by the original deadline will take priority and those received after this date will be at risk if all of the available budget has been allocated.

There is no deadline for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for individual applications in year 2.
Key Criteria

Applications will be accepted from public bodies, community groups, charities and non-government organisations, individuals and private companies in England.

The applicant must have full management control over the land or signed consent from those with management control over the land. Agents are also able to apply on behalf of an organisation or landowner.

Land included in a UTCF application must fall within an urban area of England. An urban area, as defined for the purposes of the UTCF, is a built up area (based on Office of National Statistics data) with a population of at least 2,000 people, with a buffer of 1km to account for peri-urban planting.

In 2019/20, the UTCF is only open to applicants submitting a block bid for projects containing a number of single planting sites. Block bids can be geographically dispersed across England or focused in a local area.

In 2020/21, individual applications will be aimed at smaller organisations or community groups looking to deliver much smaller scale projects.
Eligible Expenditure

The UTCF provides capital funding to plant and establish trees that are an appropriate size for the setting in which they are planted; be it a street tree or a small community woodland.

Payments will contribute to the cost of weeding, watering and checking trees.
Match Funding Restrictions

Fund recipients should provide at least 50% match funding in the form of money or labour. Where labour is used as match funding, this must be converted into a monetary value to be included in the application. Applicants will be required to detail the sources of funding and their value obtained to confirm they have adequate funding to deliver the project.
Restrictions

Grants cannot be used to support the planting of trees required under a planning consent or restocking condition or as part of a tenancy agreement. In addition, grants cannot be used to support the replacement of trees. Checks may be undertaken to confirm that trees have not been in a proposed project location for at least three years.
Payment Procedure

The UTCF provides capital payments for tree planting, followed by three years of establishment payments. The three years of establishment payments are paid in two lump sums. Payments for tree planting and the first year of establishment will be paid following receipt of a claim form following completion of the works in year one. The second instalment of establishment payments will be available two years later following the submission of a claim.
Application Procedure

Applicants should submit an electronic copy of their completed application form to [email protected].

Following the close of the application window, all applications will be reviewed, scored and ranked. These applications will then be assessed against each other to ensure they meet the objectives of the fund.

The fund will launch again in spring 2020.

The UTCF provides capital payments for tree planting, followed by three years of establishment payments. The three years of establishment payments are paid in two lump sums. Payments for tree planting and the first year of establishment will be payed following receipt of a claim form following completion of the works in year one. The second instalment of establishment payments will be available two years later following the submission of a claim.
Addresses and contacts

Application forms may be available to download on this site - please see the downloadable files on the right hand panel at the top of this page - or alternatively please check the funding body’s own website.

Contact details:
Enquiries
Forestry Commission
620 Bristol Business Park
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol
BS16 1EJ
Email:
[email protected]

This is exciting Tomas. Jennifer Schulz who came to the Oxford AGM last year has funding from her Federal Agency for Nature Conservation to establish forest gardens in 5 cities in Germany. I wonder if it would help if we were to demonstrate that we're learning and connecting between our two countries? @jenniferschulz would you be up for sharing learning? And even to suggest what was it about your proposal that appealed to your government funders? :slight_smile:

It would definitely make sense to build in some knowledge exchange with international partners, if the programme allows for that.

Tomas Remiarz

https://forestgardeninginpractice.com/

I wonder about what Erasmus would have to make of this, or further European collaboration on community food growing in publicly-accessible spaces?

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I am currently working on a training project with Social Farms and Gardens (previously Federation of City Farms and Gardens), working to link more community food growing to share ideas.

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Wonderful Robert. Will you be attending the AGM in Manchester and would you be able to share this story?

How about linking to the Sustainable Food Cities network - contact Leon Ballin - [email protected] for edible forest gardens and urban regenerative agroforestry? The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact would also be a good link - mayors of global cities have signed a pact to improve food systems, diets, nutrition and health of their populations. I have a contact Florence Egal who helped establish MUFPP who could potentially be useful. What about including Jeremy Isles who was doing a scoping study on promoting urban agriculture - it could perhaps be tweaked to include urban agroforestry/forest gardens?! I'm doing a lot of food system/diet/nutrition advocacy on Twitter and have been targeting Kenya/East Africa and enery is building there to shift the food and farming system. I can introduce you to some key Kenyan food activists. There's a group of us in the UK looking at food nutrient density and we've just submitted a proposal to Wellcome Trust for a citizen science project in UK and Kenya to improve awareness about growing and eating nutrient dense food and how to measure it. If your project can include something on nutrient density of forest food, e.g. fruits, nuts, tubers, vegetables, fungi, etc and how to measure it, as well as soil tests, that could potentially bring in Julia Wright at CAWR and my other colleagues. Also, Steve Briggs is a key agroforestry farmer in Cambridgeshire - I feel there's a lot of potential bringing forest gardening to farmers interested in doing agroforestry - also Organic Research Centre, the Innovative Farmers and the Woodland Trust promote agroforestry. Jake Cingel of Re-Nature Wick and Ben Margolis of Gardens of Sanctuary may be good too! I'm following the very dynamic Felipe Villela of ReNature Foundation on LinkedIn who is doing global land restoration with regenerative agroforestry and is also creating an urban rooftop urban forest garden for a restaurant! So, lots of potential synergies with the National Forest Gardening scheme!

Hi Elizabeth your dynamism is infectious. Thanks so much for troubling to post this. I hope it's sparking ideas in everyone who is reading. The very least I can do between now and the next funding bid opportunity is to link with the people above.