NCF Nature for Climate Peatland Discovery Grant Scheme Round 2

The Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme

The Government has committed more than £750 million for a Nature for Climate Fund, which includes programmes of peat restoration and tree planting. As part of this, Natural England is delivering a competitive grant scheme; the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme (NCPGS). The NCPGS will contribute to bringing landscape scale restorative action to degraded upland and lowland peatlands across England over four years, from 2021 to 2025.

There are two key targets for the NCPGS, which are linked directly to the delivery of the England Peat Action Plan. They are to:

• undertake restorative action on 35,000 ha of degraded peat in England by March 2025, putting the sites on a trajectory to recovery
• reduce emissions from peat by 9 Mt CO2e cumulatively by 2050

Through the NCPGS, the government intends to invest over £50 million in peat restoration by 2025. There are two separate grants in the NCPGS:

• Restoration Grants
• Discovery Grants

Restoration Grants fund capital works to restore peatland on a landscape scale. They can fund up to 75% of costs, and in exceptional cases up to 85%. The window for applications to the 2022 Restoration Grant is due to open in April and will run for 8 weeks.

You can find out more about the Restoration Grant in the ‘NCPGS Restoration Grant Guide for Applicants’, a copy of which is provided as an Annex of the Discovery Grant Invitation to Apply (ITA) pack. Final details of the 2023 Restoration Grant will be confirmed prior to the 2023 application window.

About Discovery Grants

Discovery Grants fund work to unlock barriers to peatland restoration and prepare projects to apply for Restoration Grants in future rounds. It is expected that if you receive a Discovery Grant, you will bid into the final Restoration Grant round in 2023. Discovery Grants can cover up to 100% of costs.

Peatland restoration includes works to raise the water table or reinstate peat-forming vegetation. Barriers to restoration may be from any aspect of a project, such as:

• the physical and historic nature of peatland sites
• partnership working
• development and securing of private finance

This may include, but is not limited to, funding to:

• build capacity and capability in new or nascent peat partnerships
• engage new partners or landowners
• explore opportunities for private investment funding
• develop site understanding, including baseline monitoring, hydrological and ecological surveys, or historic environment assessments.

Funding timeline

The second window for Discovery Grant applications is due to open in May and run for 8 weeks. Discovery Grants awarded in late summer 2022 will be offered until March 2023. This is to prepare projects for Restoration Grant applications in 2023.

There is no minimum or maximum limit to the size of projects: we anticipate applications of up to £100,000 and the amount bid for should be proportionate to the expected planning costs for a Restoration Grant project.

Eligibility

Who can apply

Applications are encouraged from partnerships or holdings with high potential for carbon capture. Partnerships will need to decide who will lead their application.

Applications are open to:

• environmental groups
• local authorities
• businesses
• commercial enterprises
• charities
• public bodies
• landowners
• other organisations

It is possible for you to have both a Discovery Grant and Restoration Grant at the same time, however these cannot both be active on the same area of land at the same time.

If you applied unsuccessfully in a previous year, you can apply again this year.

If you applied successfully in a previous year, you can apply for different sites this year.