The Coast-R Network has announced awards to five coastal resilience projects through the second round of its Small Grants Fund, supporting innovative, place-based initiatives led by UK third sector organisations.
Five grants, totalling over £110,000, have been awarded to projects that demonstrate original approaches, strong partnerships and a commitment to sharing learning in ways that benefit coastal communities across the UK.
Professor Briony McDonagh, Project Lead for the Coast-R Network, welcomed the new awards:
“We are delighted to support this exciting new cohort of projects through our Small Grants Fund.
These projects place communities at the heart of knowledge exchange and action, generating valuable insights, practical solutions and new partnerships that will contribute to more resilient coastal futures.”
The successful projects represent a diverse range of organisations, communities and approaches, reflecting the breadth of challenges and opportunities facing coastal areas. Together, they will explore new ways of sharing knowledge, strengthening community engagement and improving responses to environmental, social and economic change along the coast.
Each project is led by a third sector organisation with support from researchers based at a UKRI-designated Research Organisation.
The funded projects are:
A Par Bay Tempest – Creation Works CIO, working with the University of Plymouth (Centre for Coastal Communities)
Empowering grassroots co-creation and production of knowledge on sustainable responses to flooding through a co-devised community performance in Par Bay, Cornwall.
The Cleveland Open Coast Project – Redcar and Cleveland Voluntary Development Agency (RCVDA), working with Teesside University
Documenting the structural barriers that prevent communities from accessing the Redcar to Skinningrove coastline and translating that evidence into policy recommendations.
Creative Catalyst: Youth Voice in Coastal Life – Remixd CiC, working with Kent & Medway Mental Health NHS Trust
Amplifying under-represented voices in civic decision-making through a creative skills and opportunities programme with young people aged 18–24 in Thanet, Kent.
Mersey Coastal Futures – Liverpool World Centre, working with the National Oceanography Centre
Connecting Wirral communities with coastal futures modelling and local climate change predictions through coastal walks and creative workshops with scientists and participatory educators.
Solway Sea Change – Solway Firth Partnership, working with the University of Glasgow
Capturing and curating lived experience of climate change in the Solway Firth along its English and Scottish coasts, focusing on people who use, work on and record the sea.
The five new grants build on the Network’s inaugural Small Grants Fund awards, which saw eight early career researchers receive support for their coastal resilience projects. Over the coming months, these funded projects will contribute to Coast-R Network webinars, blogs and other knowledge-sharing activities, helping to ensure that lessons learned are accessible to researchers, practitioners, policymakers and communities across the UK.
The Coast-R Network is a £2.1 million UK-wide initiative funding by the UKRI/DEFRA Resilient Coastal Communities and Seas (ReCCS) programme. We bring together academics, coastal communities, government agencies, industry and third sector organisations to improve understanding of coastal change and support the resilient management of coastal communities, seas and the natural capital that sustains them.
Join the Coast-R Network to hear about future opportunities, events and activities and help shape research, innovation and action to benefit current and future coastal communities.
