The University’s Sustainability Team and the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI) are pleased to announce the return of the Sustainability Fund (formerly known as the Green Fund).
The Sustainability Fund (formerly known as the Green Fund) provides Westminster students - regardless of their course degree or level - with the opportunity to carry out sustainability-related projects and interventions which are co-created, designed, and implemented by students and University colleagues working in partnership.
See last year’s successful projects here.
Applications for grants of up to £5,000 are invited for projects which help the University’s Schools, Departments, communities or partnerships innovatively address the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Read more about the 17 UN SDGs and the University’s commitment to embed the SDGs into our teaching, research, and operations.
Details
Funds will be distributed to projects through an annual grant competition, which takes place in December 2024 and January 2025 with project delivery by 6 June 2025. A Sustainability Fund panel - comprising University colleagues from the Sustainability Team, CETI, Estates Department and academic areas - reviews all proposals and approves expenditure for those selected.
It is essential that projects are formed on the basis of a partnership between students and University colleagues. Project teams must include at least one University colleague (academic, professional services, or Students’ Union) and 2-4 students drawn from any taught or research programme. There must be more students than staff members in each group. Therefore, any project team must include at least 2 students and 1 colleague.
Students who contribute to project teams will receive a bursary of £100 which recognises their efforts. The Sustainability Fund will also pay for equipment, consumables, and/or other expenses identified in the project plan.
Commitment
Project teams must complete the Sustainability Fund Application Form below during the application window before 12pm on Friday 6 December 2024. The application includes a series of questions to ascertain the feasibility of completing the project by June 2025, the project’s lasting impact, and the connection between the project and the UN SDGs. Applicants will be notified of their applications’ outcome via email by Monday 20 December 2024.
If successful, the project teams will start their work when students return to their studies in January 2025. Successful project teams – including and University colleagues associated with the projects – will be expected to participate in a compulsory workshop session with Sustainability Fund panel and fellow project teams. Teams will also be given a briefing pack which will also include information regarding how to run their Sustainability Fund project sustainably and efficiently, and University colleagues associated with the projects will be walked through the financial administration of the Sustainability Fund.
Project teams should meet regularly amongst themselves during the project. Additionally, they must commit to checking their email inbox regularly to maintain open channels of communication between themselves and the Sustainability Fund organisers within the Sustainability Team and CETI. The Fund organisers will also be on hand to respond to ad hoc queries as often as needed.
Mid-way through the project in April 2025, teams will present on their project’s progress to the Sustainability Fund panel and fellow project teams. Teams will make a final presentation and present a poster at a Sustainability Fund celebration event towards the mid-June 2025. All students and University colleagues are invited to attend this event along with guests.
The final presentation, poster, and a communication pack - comprising of an annotated deck of project images and an abstract with one key image – will be submitted by the day of this final event. At this point the Sustainability Fund project will be officially completed.
How to get involved
Colleagues from the Sustainability Team and CETI will host an online briefing session for all Westminster students and colleagues interested in the Fund on Thursday 28 November 2024, from 2-3pm. Prospective participants are very welcome to get in touch beforehand at [email protected].
To attend the online briefing session, please email [email protected] to receive a meeting invite or to request a recording of the session.
We are grateful for the support of Graham Hobson, Westminster alumnus and entrepreneur, for his generous funding of the Westminster Sustainability Fund for 2025.
Apply to the Sustainability Fund project by completing the form below:
