Sustainable Futures Launches Community Impact Fund to Strengthen University–Community Partnerships

The Sustainable Futures Community Impact Fund provides up to £3,000 to support community-based research and impact activity in environmental sustainability. The fund is designed to enable work at different stages of research development, including scoping new partnerships, expanding existing research to generate community impact, or supporting projects that are initiated or led by community partners.

Aligned with the University’s M2035 strategy and its core commitment to social responsibility, Sustainable Futures is launching this Community Impact Fund to strengthen the University’s role as a civic institution working in partnership with the communities of Greater Manchester and beyond. The fund supports collaborative, community-engaged research that integrates local knowledge and lived experience, builds trusted and reciprocal relationships, and generates context-specific, equitable and actionable solutions to environmental sustainability challenges. By investing in early-stage partnerships and community-led activity, Sustainable Futures aims to ensure that sustainability research is not only excellent, but rooted in place and responsive to the people it seeks to serve. 

The Sustainable Futures Community Impact Fund provides up to £3,000 to support community-based research and impact activity in environmental sustainability. The fund is designed to enable work at different stages of research development, including scoping new partnerships, expanding existing research to generate community impact, or supporting projects that are initiated or led by community partners. 

 All projects must demonstrate: 

• A specific research related objective. 

• A clear community impact objective. 

• At least one community partner, this can be an established relationship or a newly identified partner.  

• Be able to demonstrate how the proposed work fits with at least one or more of the Sustainable Futures themes: Equity, Resilience, Materials, Skills, Energy and Nature. 

Eligible Activities 

Indicative activities might include but are not necessarily limited to: 

1. Research support to scope out, initiate and/or develop a community-based research activity (e.g. casual research staff time). 
2. Activities that generate impact within a community where other funds are not available (e.g. this must be a new activity not covered by existing funding).  
3. Support for a community to undertake an activity that UoM researchers will subsequently study. 
4. Support for the development of community based/citizen-led researchers within a specific project. 
5. Development of events, impact materials, community activities (for example the Sustainable Threads Celebratory Lunch, Showcase and Repair Café). 

Outputs 

Awarded projects are expected to produce a short written summary of their project (1-2 pages), including any recorded impact or recommendations. This may be further developed into a public facing case study/blog/podcast in collaboration with the SF team.  

Funding 

Funding of up to £3k is available for each project; these funds must be spent by the end of July 2026.  

Eligible costs could include:  

• Research associate/assistant time  

• VCSFE partner costs 

• Community engagement, training & activities  

• Event costs, impact/marketing materials  

• Other costs subject to discussion with SF team 

 Ineligible costs:  

• Indirect costs  

• Estates  

• Conferences 

• Extending existing research projects/staff time without a clear community aim. 

 Who can apply:  

• Applications must be led by a University of Manchester researcher (PDRA level and above)  

Awarded projects will need to check that they meet with University ethics requirements and work with internal teams to establish UoM community engagement best practice for their projects. 

The deadline for applications is Sunday 29th March 2026, 11.59pm, with results expected to be announced mid-April.  

To submit your project proposal, please complete this application form.

If you have any questions or are unsure whether you are eligible to apply, please get in touch with us at sustainablefutures@manchester.ac.uk