Details

The Argyll and Bute Climate Action Network (ABCAN) Hub is supporting Argyll and Bute residents to face the challenge of climate change through seed funding. 

Climate change is a lived experience across our community. Argyll and Bute is the second largest local authority by land area in Scotland and includes 23 inhabited islands. Travel routes are long and public transport is poor. Our infrastructure is weak and is regularly disrupted by the weather. Our communities are already working to mitigate the effects of climate change. 

ABCAN exists to give a voice to community-led climate action, helps to coordinate activities, and supports our communities as we work towards a net zero Argyll and Bute.

ABCAN is funded by the Scottish Government and overseen by a collaboration between the Argyll Countryside Trust (ACT), Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface (TSI) and Time for Change Argyll and Bute.

The Argyll and Bute Climate Action Network seed fund, funded by Scottish Government, is offering seed funds of between £50 and £1000 to community groups or organisations whose projects / activity have one or more of the following aims:

• Making your community more aware of climate change and its effects
• Building climate-focused partnerships between community groups
• Helping your community come up with new ways of taking action on climate change
• Giving local people a stronger voice in calling for climate action
• Supporting your community in creating a fairer, more sustainable future.

We’re open to applications from community councils, trusts, organisations and groups, as well as charities and Community Interest Companies in the Argyll and Bute area.

We cannot accept applications for seed grants directly from schools. We would advise partnering with a community group or get in touch for more information to explore how this could be done.

You can apply online between 16th June until the 2nd August 2026. If you’ve got an idea, but you’re not sure where it fits or how to get started, get in touch. We can show you what’s possible and help you figure out what works best for you.

E-mail jo@act-now.org.uk for an informal conversation about planning your climate fund activity.

If you would like support in setting up your group in terms of governance, legal structures and finance please contact the Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface (TSI) at info@argylltsi.org.uk

Criteria

The intended outcome of the funds is to promote action, understanding and awareness about climate change and fund ways to tackle and mitigate against its impact on our communities and our environment.

In your application you will be asked to select which of the following outcomes are most pertinent to your project:-

• Widening participation by engaging new communities and strengthening existing activity.
• Increasing community led climate change mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity projects, driven by communities themselves, contributing to a fair and just transition to net zero.
• Increasing community resilience and knowledge of how to respond to climate change;
• Strengthening and increasing collaboration and knowledge sharing across and between community groups, public, private and charity partners leading to an acceleration in community action                           
• Supporting minority and disadvantaged communities to be visible, confident and active in taking part and leading climate action activities.
• Increasing community climate literacy, which leads to a reduction in participant’s carbon footprints.
• Increase in involvement in policy setting, decision making and local place planning with climate lens by communities.

Note:  Any applicant for this fund MUST be a member of the Argyll & Bute Climate Network (ABCAN).   If you are not currently a member, click here to sign up, it’s free. This membership site also has examples of previously funded projects.

We're keen for projects to share info, images, challenges and successes with others in our network, so we can be inspired and learn together. 

As part of the funding's criteria, we’ll ask each funded project to:

• fill in a simple survey to tell us how the network can be of most use to you
• complete a short questionnaire after the funded activity to tell us how your project went, share some images and your plans for next steps.