The second round of the Coast-R Network’s Small Grants Fund is open until 4pm on Friday 15 May 2026.
We are offering grants of between £10,000 and £25,000 for projects contributing to coastal community resilience.
This page provides a summary. If you are interested in applying, please also read through the linked documents at the bottom of the page.
Round 2 will support small scale, place-based projects led by third sector organisations and involving researchers based at a UKRI-designated Research Organisation.
Projects are sought which undertake equitable two-way (or multi-way) research and knowledge exchange between third sector and research organisations. We also encourage projects to incorporate partnership and cross-sectoral working, including active engagement with individuals and organisations with lived experience of coastal change.
Generate new learning, data, approaches or resources
Make existing findings accessible to new and more diverse audiences
Inform policy and enable transformative decision making at the community level
Projects must address one of the following priority areas for research and knowledge exchange:
Supporting communities to collect new, or interpret existing, coastal data e.g. via citizen science, local monitoring or participatory mapping.
Developing new toolkits and methods to support community adaptation to coastal change and transition including relocation or rollback.
Capacity-building activities for community-led decision-making. This may include using creative approaches e.g. arts, storytelling, heritage and scenario-building methods.
Fostering the exchange of ideas and approaches between coastal communities ‘at risk’, including collating and scaling up learning across regions, nations or sectors.
Fostering skills for inclusive resilience, including trust-building and amplifying least heard voices e.g. young people, minority ethnic groups, Gypsy and Traveller communities, people with disabilities and other under-represented groups.
Developing innovative and creative evaluation and monitoring for existing projects.
Share learnings and best practice across sectors and disciplines so as to build UK coastal and marine resilience.
Co-design and host a range of events, specialist training workshops and mentoring opportunities to improve partnership working and nurture the next generation of resilience champions.
Work in partnership with coastal communities and other partners to identify and respond to priority needs using our Flexible Fund.
Collate key insights, case studies and resources through our website, policy briefs, foresight documents, conferences and practitioner events.
Build ongoing practitioner and community-led evaluation and reflection on the activities of the Network+ and funded projects, and thereby shape future learning, legacy and funding opportunities.
Before planning your project, please explore our downloads for more information on eligibility, expected outcomes and outputs and the application process:
Read our Small Grants Fund announcement for full background information
Share learnings and best practice across sectors and disciplines so as to build UK coastal and marine resilience.
Co-design and host a range of events, specialist training workshops and mentoring opportunities to improve partnership working and nurture the next generation of resilience champions.
Work in partnership with coastal communities and other partners to identify and respond to priority needs using our Flexible Fund.
Collate key insights, case studies and resources through our website, policy briefs, foresight documents, conferences and practitioner events.
Build ongoing practitioner and community-led evaluation and reflection on the activities of the Network+ and funded projects, and thereby shape future learning, legacy and funding opportunities.
Dr Kate Smith, Coast-R Project Co-Lead and Emma Platt-Lowe, Coast-R Project Manager will provide background and information about the launch of our Small Grants Fund round 2.
