The Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP) Open Fund aims to encourage people to change their behaviours to drive less and to walk or cycle as part of their everyday short journeys or to use public transport for longer journeys.
The Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP) Open Fund aims to encourage people to change their everyday travel behaviours. Grants are available to encourage people to use public transport or other sustainable options such as buses and community car clubs for longer journeys; walking and cycling for short journeys, and home-working to replace daily commutes.
The Open Fund is available to support public, third and community sector organisations. The fund aims to help cut Scotland's carbon emissions and improve our air quality. It will also help reverse the trend towards sedentary lifestyles and will tackle health inequalities.
Grants available are between £5,000 and £100,000 and need to be match funded.
Over the previous five years the Open Fund awarded £14.3 million in grants for hundreds of different projects across Scotland. Our Smarter Choices, Smarter Places Annual Report 2021/22 is available to download which details the impact of our funding. A full list of projects funded in 2022/23 is available to download. There are some great examples of SCSP funded projects within our Success Stories.
Applications
Since the announcement of the discontinuation of the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme in December, the Open Fund is now winding down and the current funding round will be its last.
We have received a large influx of enquiries, Expressions of Interest (EOI), and applications. As a result, we anticipate being oversubscribed, and we will have to close the fund earlier than normal.
We would therefore advise that you submit your EOIs no later than Friday 26th January in order for it to be considered.
As with every funding round, there is no guarantee of funding, and we expect the process to be more competitive than previous rounds.
To make an application to the Open Fund, please read our guidance first. If you believe you have a project that we could fund the first step is to complete an Expression of Interest on our grant’s portal. If you are already registered, log in to our grants portal.