What is the value of the grant funding?
We aim to award approximately £500,000, providing £25,000 - £50,000 per project.
- £25,000 project: for individual organisations aiming to scale skills and safety initiatives and collaborations. Matched funding is not mandatory but encouraged to demonstrate contribution and leveraged investment from other sources.
- £50,000 projects (Consortia): organisations working in partnership can apply for £50k to deliver projects with greater scope that could lead to potential systematic changes across the ecosystem. Matched funding of up to 20% of the total project budget is required. For example, a project that costs £60,000 total would need £10,000 of matched funding support to attract a £50,000 grant.
What costs are eligible, and which costs are not?
Eligible expenses include the following:
- Events - Workshops, meetings, or other convening, training or dissemination activities organised by the project partners (including cost of facilities, personnel support, materials, catering, speakers etc.)
- Communications - including website, social media or advertising, translating materials
- Salary/staff costs - for lead applicants and co-applicants
- Small stipends - Typically not exceeding 5% of the total grant, can cover expenses that enable people to engage in the project. This might include, for example, local community groups, indigenous people, women, young people, or students. It should not usually cover costs for project team members, which should be included as staff costs.
- Travel and subsistence - Subsistence costs should reflect the normal rates applied at the host institution/s. All other costs should be based on the best value option.
- Consumables & equipment - project-specific costs of small equipment, computer software licenses or publication costs. No single item may cost more than 10% of the grant funding requested.
- Other costs - which may include conference and seminar fees, project related software subscriptions or IT services.
- Administrative costs - The host organisation can include up to 5% of the grant as a contribution to administrative and other running costs directly related to the project.
The award funds can be dispersed to different project partners as appropriate for the project activities.
The following costs are not eligible:
- Funding any activities, items or equipment that are not included in the approved project plan and budget.
- Loans, further grants or revolving funds.
- Infrastructure or individual pieces of equipment over 10% of the grant funding requested.
- This grant does not cover indirect or overhead expenses not specific to the project such as utilities, rent, general administration staff salaries and office supplies.
Please note: At the end of the project, any unspent funds must be returned to the Academy. If necessary, please reach out to our team for instructions.
Which countries are eligible for funding?
Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Türkiye, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe
What is the duration of the grant funding?
Projects may last for a maximum of 15 months, commencing in December 2026 and ending no later than 28 February 2028. Please note that no extension will be considered, as the funding will end in March 2028.
Who can apply?
Organisations based in one of the Skills for Safety eligible countries for funding, can apply for funding. For details, please refer to applicant guidance notes page 11.
What is the application process?
To apply for the grant, all applications must be submitted via the Academy’s online Grant Management System (GMS). The lead applicant must first register with GMS.
After logging in to the GMS via the Academy’s website and selecting the Skills for Safety Open Grant Call, you should be presented with the “Instructions” screen where you will see some general instructions on how to use the system.
The application includes 6 sections and should take approximately 3-4 hours to complete, assuming your answers have already been drafted. You must ensure to include all necessary documentation, such as CVs and letters of support.
Optional: Up to three co-applicants can be invited by the lead to help complete the grant application form.
What is the applications assessment process?
Applications will be assessed and reviewed by the Skills for Safety board, and panel of Academy Fellows and wider networks with expertise spanning the breadth of engineering.
There are three stages of assessment:
- Eligibility and security checking: The Skills for Safety programme team and Academy compliance team will do the eligibility and required national security checks as outlined in in this document. Successful applications will progress to review stage, and the unsuccessful applications will be closed.
- Review and evaluation: Each application will be reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers, one of who will have expertise in the broad area of the project, and one may be a non-expert. Reviewers will score applications and provide recommendations whether or not to award the grant. For details, please refer to applicant guidance notes page 30.
- Funding award decision session: After the checking and reviews are completed, a specially convened panel will decide on the awards based on the review criteria and recommendations made by reviewers. Successful applications will receive a grant offer and progress to contracting and unsuccessful applications will be closed.
How will my application be scored by reviewers?
All applications will be assessed against the following criteria:
- The project quality and feasibility: clarity, quality and feasibility of the project including realistic delivery plan and approach to scaling, and monitoring and evaluation.
- Impact and sustainability: likelihood of achieving meaningful and measurable outcomes and the potential to be sustained beyond the lifetime of the grant.
- Value for money: Realistic, clear, and well-justified project budget that demonstrates efficient use of funding and alignment with project objectives and funding requirements.
- Alignment with grant objectives: Strength and relevance of the project’s contribution to the grant objectives and expected outcomes, and if relevant, strength of the collaboration.
- Diversity and inclusion: Assessment as to whether the applicants are representing women and other groups who are currently underrepresented across engineering.
What do we mean by a lead applicant, co-applicant, and collaborator?
Project role types:
- Lead applicant: the lead applicant is responsible for managing the project and budget and must be based at an organisation in an eligible country for funding. The lead applicant is responsible for submitting the application form on our Grant Management System.
- Co-applicants: co-applicants work with the lead and may also receive funding as part of the project. Co-applicants may be based at the lead applicant’s institution or at a different organisation(s) in an eligible country.
- Collaborator: collaborators may provide advice or other support to the project but will not receive funding. Collaborators could be government ministries and departments, any other relevant organisation, or individual experts not representing any organisation across the world, including from non-eligible countries. You may have multiple collaborators on your project.
We encourage the inclusion of government and civil society representatives; however, government ministries and departments and NGOs are not eligible for funding so must be considered ‘collaborators’ in their projects.
What are the key dates to remember?
Grant information sessions
If you have any questions about the grant, or would like support in finding a potential partner, please register to attend one of the grant information and matchmaking sessions on:
- Thursday 20 August at 12pm BST. Please RSVP here by 18 August 2026.
- Tuesday 4 September at 12pm BST. Please RSVP here by 28 August 2026.
Applications submission deadline: 14 September 2026, 11.00AM (BST)
Notification of results: w/c 2 November 2026
Project start: December 2026
Project end: no later than 28 February 2028
What is Engineering X?
Engineering X is a growing collaboration, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, that brings together some of the world’s leading problem-solvers to address the greatest safety and sustainability challenges of our time. We currently work on five programmes spanning three themes: the energy transition, waste management, and skills.