You must use this guide to assist you in completing the online EOI form for grants above £250,000. If you do not submit an EOI you will not be invited to submit a full application.

Eligible individuals and organisations can submit a maximum of one EOI as the lead applicant. You may be involved in additional projects as a partner. 

You must submit your EOI before 12noon 24 July 2023.

Filling in this form

The Heritage Fund uses the same forms across a variety of programmes that we deliver. When completing your Expression of Interest form, you must follow the guidance below as some questions need to be answered differently for this programme. Do not use the help icons embedded in the online form as they do not relate to this funding.

If you decide to copy and paste text from a Word document directly into your EOI form, please review your form before submission and make changes where necessary to make sure you do not exceed the stated word count limits. You will be able to save this form as you work on it.

To help us identify that you would like to apply for the Species Survival Fund, you must start all project titles with the prefix #Species.

First steps 

If you are not already registered on our Get funding for a heritage project service, you will need to create a new account for yourself and the organisation you are applying for before submitting the form.

If you are unable to set up your account or have any technical difficulties, please contact investment-service-support@heritagefund.org.uk.

Once your account and organisation are set up, select ‘Start an Expression of Interest’ and complete a form for grants of £250,000 to £5million.

Questions

Have you spoken to anyone at the Heritage Fund about your idea?

If so, tell us their name.

If you have consulted with Natural England, the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission or Rural Payments Agency about your plans, please also give the name and position of the person you have spoken to.

Describe what you will do during the project

Tell us who you will work with and where. Summarise what management actions and capital works you will undertake.

Include any plans for community and volunteer engagement and proposals for skills development.

Tell us how many jobs you think the project will support.

You have 200 words.

Do you have a title for the project?

You must start all project titles with the prefix #Species. For example #Species Mayfly nature reserve improvements.

What outcomes do you want to achieve?

Explain how your project will work towards the target to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. Give estimates for the target outputs that you hope to achieve with the funding (for example, restoring 50ha of grassland, creating 10ha of grassland).

You have 200 words.

Tell us about the heritage of the project

For this programme, heritage refers to the landscape you propose working on, and the species you aim to support. Tell us if you propose working on any protected sites, what the current condition of sites is (where known), how the project will create more joined-up space for nature on land, how this will benefit species abundance and if you have a monitoring baseline for any species.

You have 100 words.

What is the need for this project?

What preparatory work have you done that shows the potential benefits of the project?

Tell us what you are doing to make sure the project links to local priorities for nature recovery.

You have 200 words.

How long do you think the project will take?

Your project should begin after 1 March 2024. It must be complete by 28 February 2026, including all financial reporting and evaluation.

You have 50 words.

How much is the project likely to cost?

If you know, give us a breakdown of the most important costs, split into capital and revenue. Tell us how much partnership funding you think you will be able to secure, indicating if any of this is from non-government sources.

These costs can be estimated.

You have 200 words.

How much funding are you planning to apply for from us?

£[enter amount]

You must apply for a grant above £250,000 and up to £3m.

When are you likely to submit a funding application, if asked to do so?

Please note that this fund is different to our standard grants, so we do not require separate development and delivery phase applications. If invited to apply, your full application must be submitted by 12noon 26 October 2023.

You have 50 words.

Freedom of information and data protection

We are committed to being as open as possible. This includes being clear about how we assess and make decisions on our grants and how we will use your application form and other documents you give us. As a public organisation we have to follow all data protection laws and regulations, to include European Parliament directives and regulations that are applicable and in force from time to time (the 'Data Protection legislation'). As defined by the Data Protection legislation, the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (who administer The National Lottery Heritage Fund) is a data controller.

As part of the application process we will collect your name and position at the organisation you represent. We may share this information with one of the consultants on our Register of Support Services if they are appointed to support you on your project. We do not transfer your data to any third parties based outside of the EU. Our Privacy Policy contains additional information including contact information for our Data Protection Officer.

When you complete the declaration at the end of the application form, you are confirming that you understand our legal responsibilities under Data Protection legislation and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and have no objection to us releasing the About your project and Support for your project sections of the application form to anyone who asks to see them once your application has completed the assessment process. If there is any information in these sections of the form that you don't want made publicly available, please explain your reasons below.

We will take these into account when we respond to any request for access to those sections. We may also be asked to release other information that you provide to us. We will respond to these requests after taking account of your rights and expectations under Data Protection legislation. In those cases, we will always consult you first. We will not be responsible for any loss or damage you suffer as a result of our meeting these responsibilities.

When you complete the declaration you also agree that we will use this application form and the other information you give us, including any personal information covered by the Data Protection Act 1998, for the following purposes:

• to decide whether to give you a grant
• to provide copies to other individuals or organisations who are helping us to assess, monitor and evaluate grants
• to share information with organisations and individuals working with us with a legitimate interest in National Lottery applications and grants or specific funding programmes
• to hold in a database and use for statistical purposes

If we offer you a grant, we will publish information about you relating to the activity we have funded, including the amount of the grant and the activity it was for. This information may appear in our press releases, in our print and online publications, and in the publications or websites of relevant government departments and any partner organisations who have funded the activity with us.

If we offer you a grant, you will support our work to demonstrate the value of heritage by contributing (when asked) to publicity activities during the period we provide funding for and participating in activities to share learning, for which we may put other grantees in contact with you.