Apply for funding

Applications for funding are invited from 1-30 June and 1-30 November.

*****UPDATE 6 February 2024*****

We have finished our review of the 270 short applications received in the December 2023 funding round, and have emailed all applicants regarding whether or not your application has been selected onto EOCA’s next funding stage. If you have not received an email, please first check your junk/spam folder before emailing us. We thank you all for your applications and patience while we have been reviewing your projects.

Our next funding round will be 1-30 June 2024 for a maximum of €30,000. The theme will be ‘restoration’ to tie in with the UN Decade of Restoration, with a particular emphasis on mountain restoration, but all types of habitats in need of restoration will be accepted.

Non-profit organisations can apply to EOCA for funding twice a year.  All projects go through a rigorous selection process, being assessed against EOCA’s numerous funding criteria to provide a shortlist.  These projects then receive an in-depth review by our panel of scientific advisers, resulting in the final project shortlist which is put forward for the public vote, followed by the Members’ vote.

Please read Who Can Apply and Funding Criteria before applying.

Our policy for projects applying for funding can be read here.

Our privacy policy for projects applying for funding can be found here.

There is an increasing urgency and awareness of the double threat that our world currently faces: the loss of biodiversity and climate change. These two issues are intrinsically linked, and both are of enormous importance to wildlife, nature, people and the future of the planet.

From the highest mountains and the valleys between them, to streams, lakes and oceans, within these varied landscapes are many different ecosystems, each vital for biodiversity, mitigating against climate change, and for communities.

These include alpine meadows, forests, peatlands, freshwater habitats, salt marshes, mangroves and seagrass meadows, to name but a few.

EOCA funds projects which benefit biodiversity in a wild landscape. Our definition of ‘landscape’ includes marine environments, and a broad range of wild, non-urban spaces. Projects must conserve, protect, enhance, restore, and/or reconnect habitats within a given landscape that are particularly important for the biodiversity there.

The biodiversity focus should also address the importance that EOCA places on the issue of climate change. Projects should ensure that the habitats being conserved are those that sequester carbon, reduce emissions, enable adaptations to climate change, and/or protect against further habitat and biodiversity loss.

It is also very important that the projects are beneficial to the local communities that live in, or near, these habitats. Projects should highlight how they encourage local stewardship of habitats, alleviate poverty, support local ecosystem services, while at the same time, having a link to outdoor enthusiasts who value these precious wild spaces.