Student Project Grant

A judging panel formed of staff from the University’s Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability and the Edinburgh University Students Association will assess your application. Several indicators will be assessed in evaluating applications, although they are by no means exhaustive or restrictive:

• Contribution to social responsibility and/or sustainability
• Motivation and enthusiasm
• Opportunities for collaboration offered to students, staff or members of the community
• Project feasibility within the selected timeframe
• Demonstration of understanding and approaching possible challenges to the project
• Demonstration of understanding of monitoring requirements

If you have any questions about the judging process, email SRS.Department@ed.ac.uk. The judging panel is an advocate for transparency and the minutes of the review process will be available upon request.

1. Complete the form: To apply, please fill out the MS Word application form above. Save the file under the following name: ‘Application –[name of project]’, e.g. ‘Application –Greener Spaces Edinburgh’. You do not need to export the file to another format, but if you are having trouble opening or editing it, please email SRS.Department@ed.ac.uk.
2. Email the form to us: Once you have filled out the application, please email it as an attachment to SRS.Department@ed.ac.uk, and with the subject title ‘Application –SRS Student Project Grant’. We will send you an email to confirm that your application has been received.
3. Find out if you have been successful: We will inform all applicants by email if they have been successful or not (date TBC).
4. Project inception meeting: Following notification, successful applicants will meet with staff from the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability, and the Edinburgh University Students’ Association as part of a project inception meeting.
5. Receive funds: If your application is successful, we will transfer the allocated funds to you via BACS to the society/individual bank account provided on the application form. We will also send you an expense form, which you must fill out and when reporting progress with implementing your project, alongside receipts for purchases you have made using the allocated funding. Please note that the Edinburgh University Students’ Association Finance procedures require that we evidence our expenses, and thus it is extremely important that you keep your receipts and send them to the Students’ Association.

The application form should be reviewed by other members of your participating team to ensure that you are happy with the content. We do not accept edits after the submission of the application.

Contact details

Please provide the contact details of your designated lead contact and secondary contact.  You do not need to be a student society to apply to this fund, however, each applicant group must consist of at least three University of Edinburgh students.

Project details

Tell us about your project, how and why it will have an impact, and how you will involve other staff, students and members of the community. This is an opportunity to demonstrate how passionate you are about your idea. Areas to explore may include:

• Why this issue is important to you?
• Ways the project will tackle specific issues?
• Who will benefit from your project?
• Does your project appeal to a wider group of people?
• What will be your project’s legacy?
• Will your project inspire others, and lead the way for future work?
• What impact will your project have?

This year the panel are particularly looking to fund projects that have a focus on at least one of the following areas:

• Climate change
• Circular economy and reuse
• Community
• Food and drink

It’s worth noting that the judging panel are keen to hear how your project will contribute to sustainability and social responsibility, rather than exactly how you will run it. Please note, there is a 200 word limit for each answer section in the application form.

We also ask that you provide us with a start date for your project. If you don’t have an exact start date, please provide the month and year of your planned project start.

For the purpose of this grant, we expect most projects to be completed within six months. Please provide an estimated end date for your project, bearing in mind any interference from holidays or exam sessions. The grant will not provide retrospective funds for projects that have already been completed.

Project finances

Successful applications will receive an award of £500.

Please provide a breakdown of the funds you are requesting. Where possible, provide pricing of items you will be purchasing (online or otherwise). We recommend allowing for a contingency of 10% of your total requested amount, in case you have to make emergency purchases or travel.

Please provide details of potential or secured additional sources of funding, and what proportion of your total project cost these represent.

Under no circumstances will we accept applications for projects which contravene the University of Edinburgh’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policies, or containing slanderous or inappropriate information about any individual.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policies

Under no circumstances will we accept applications for funding for the purpose of carrying out or encouraging unlawful activity.

Funding must be spent as detailed in the application and receipts must be produced when reporting progress in implementing the project. Excess funding after the project end date will be submitted for transfer back to the Department and ring-fenced for the next round of applications. You are responsible for contacting the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability should any circumstances of the funding change.

By submitting the application form you agree that you have provided information that is accurate to the best of your knowledge. The information you provide will only be used for the purposes of the Student Project Grant and will be held securely by the University’s Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability and Edinburgh University Students’ Association.

When you email us at one of our email addresses – such as SRS.Department@ed.ac.uk - we use a contact relationship management system to keep track of your communication with us. If we have an existing relationship, and your email is not confidential, we will automatically store the subject of the email and the name of the person in our department you were contacting.

This is done by the University and we do not give this data to any third parties or rely on any third-party data processors for this function.

We do this to make sure that we answer questions and support requests in a timely manner, and to ensure that we use resources in the most efficient and effective way. We also use this information to follow our data retention schedule.

Our Privacy Statement along with further information is available online.

Your data

The Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability, and Edinburgh University Students’ Association, reserve the right to withhold or withdraw funds in exceptional circumstances, where the team or any of its affiliates use the funds for purposes other than stated in the project proposal.

Please note that any images successful projects submit may be used for future promotion. Please ensure you have consent from anyone you photograph and include in your submissions.

Successful projects will be asked to provide brief updates at two points (date TBC).

Progress meeting

Students will meet with colleagues in (date TBC). These meetings will last one hour and will be an opportunity to discuss progress.

Updates should include information on implementing the project against objectives and a breakdown of financial spend. It’s also an opportunity to discuss any issues that have arisen.

Presentation at the SRS Student Project Grant Celebration and Review

Students are also required to attend an event (date TBC), to present back their project to an audience of staff and students, including other successful applicants.

Updates should include information on implementing the project against objectives and a breakdown of financial spend. It’s also an opportunity to discuss any issues that have arisen.

Evaluation report

Each group is required to submit a short evaluation report at the end of their project. Dates and reporting templates will be discussed and agreed upon during progress meetings.

Sustainability Awards Celebration

Successful applicants will be required to showcase their projects at the Sustainability Awards Celebration. This can be done via a poster or verbal presentation.