The PCAN Fund is an integral part of the Place-Based Climate Action Network. The aim of the Fund is to stimulate engagement in place-based action beyond the five platforms. It provides small grants to researchers and research users, thus opening the Network to a wider community.

A description of the PCAN Fund is set out below. Please note that the Fund has now completed all its awards and there will be no further rounds.

The fund

The main features of the PCAN Fund are:

•  total budget of £400,000 over five years.
• an aspiration to award 20-30 grants in total, implying an average grant size of £20,000. The maximum grant size is £35,000.
• grants will be awarded under open calls (that is, any proposals that are relevant to the objectives of PCAN) but there will also be some directed calls (that is, proposals on specific topics identified by PCAN stakeholders).

Applications can be made under five headings:

• impact grants (e.g., co-production of decision-relevant knowledge)
• engagement grants (e.g., events, secondments, campaigns)
• research grants (aimed preferentially at early career researchers)
• training grants (e.g. skill development)
• innovation grants (e.g. seed-funding for new initiatives or products)

A new PCAN Fellowship for early career researchers was added in April 2020 as another element of the funding call.

Funding rounds

There were three funding rounds (previously four; two were amalgamated). The first  two rounds were for £105,000 (in 2019; five awards) and £160,000 (in 2020; six awards) respectively. The third and final round was in 2021 and made a total award of £110,945 (four awards). 

Award recipients

Information about the projects and Fellowships awarded can be found in the table in the downloads. News stories about each of the funding rounds are linked to below.

• First PCAN Fund winners announced  (see also a list of the successful projects is in the downloads below).
• PCAN Fund 2020 awards announced 
• Final PCAN Fund awards announced
• PCAN Fellows for 2020-2021 can be found on the Associates and Fellows page

Research dissemination

Community Municipal Investments

This PCAN-funded project was carried out in partnership with Abundance Investment and found that residents want local authorities to act on climate change and are attracted by the prospect of being part of a collective solution.

Climate Resilience, Social Justice and COVID-19 Recovery in Preston

This PCAN-funded project explored, both conceptually and with stakeholders from Preston’s anchor institutions and diverse communities, how disruption from one threat might galvanise momentum to address another.

Planning Decisions, Adaptive Capacity & Insurability

This PCAN-funded project aimed to understand the capacity of Local Authority Planning Departments to manage the long term impacts from climate change on flooding.