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The Scottish Government and NatureScot, working in partnership with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, have announced a grant scheme to support projects that shape and grow the use of private investment and market-based mechanisms to finance the restoration of Scotland’s nature. Through the Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS), grants will be offered to organisations and partnerships to help develop a viable business case and financial model, to attract investment in projects that can restore and improve the natural environment.

The Culture Collective Fund is a Scottish Government initiative which supports a network of creative practitioners, organisations and communities, working together to create a positive difference locally and nationally.The Fund will support activity developed collaboratively between artists, organisations, and communities. It aims to make a positive impact locally and nationally by funding community-engaged creative work, providing paid opportunities for creative practitioners, and actively engaging people in shaping the future cultural life of their community.The programme began as a COVID-19 response and now continues to address wider challenges such as the cost-of-living crisis, climate change, and social inequality. It encourages sustainable, creative community development, evolving in response to emerging community ideas and needs, and supports learning across a national network.The Culture Collective Fund supports the following goals:- Empower communities to shape their cultural life through creative collaboration. - Create paid roles for creative practitioners to work with communities. - Support skills development and build community capacity. - Establish a national network to share learning and explore models of community-engaged creative practice. - Evaluate impact to inform future cultural policy and funding.

Rosa’s Rise Fund provides organisational development funding for Black and racially minoritised-led women’s and girls’ organisations across the UK. The funding is for organisational development work relating to areas such as strategy, governance, leadership, alliances and partnerships, funding, demonstrating impact and systems and processes. Rise Fund aims to achieve the following outcomes: - Women and girls will be supported by women’s and girls’ organisations led by and for Black and racially minoritised women, ensuring women and girls can be safe, healthy and equal. - Women’s and girls’ organisations will be empowered and strengthened, meaning that they will be in a stronger position to survive, thrive and grow into the future. Organisations will be able to report one or more of these changes: - A clearer strategy - More effective governance - More effective leadership - Stronger alliances with other women’s organisations - More financial sustainability - More able to attract funding from other sources - More able to demonstrate the impact of your work - More effective systems and processes

The Local Employability Partnership (LEP), Employability Funding Midlothian is a Scottish Government fund delivered in partnership with Midlothian Council. It supports employability programmes that help Midlothian people overcome employment barriers.

CivTech is a Scottish Government programme that brings people from the public, private and third sectors together to build things that make the world a better place.The Round 11 Challenges are focused across a wide range of areas including education, the natural environments (land and marine), the economy and health, core government functions, the Gaelic language, and more. Individuals, teams, pre-starts, start-ups, early stage or established SMEs, and large companies are all welcome to apply. For more details on the process and to view all of the current challenges, visit the CivTech website.

Funding is intended to help to bring woodlands into management; promote the economic and sustainable production of timber and timber products; add value and jobs to local economies; and provide support to facilitate and enable diversification.It supports investments in three main areas:1. new specialised equipment which will increase the local small-scale harvesting and processing capacity2. new specialised equipment for forest tree nurseries, including tree seed supply businesses and equipment for afforestation ground preparation projects, including forestry fencing projects3. support for the mobile equipment to help forestry businesses or enterprises to adapt and recover from Covid-19

‘Ask and Act’ are new duties proposed in the Housing (Scotland) Bill that requires public bodies to ask about a person’s housing situation early—and take action to prevent homelessness before it happens. The Scottish Government’s Homelessness Prevention Pilot Fund (up to £4 million) supports a range of bodies including, local authorities, Health Boards, the police service, registered social landlords, prisons, along with 3rd Sector Organisations experienced in preventing homelessness. The pilots will develop, test, scale and cost the new prevention duties in real-world settings. The fund is being administered by Advice Direct Scotland. It is designed to help public bodies, alongside third sector organisations experienced in preventing homelessness, prepare for and test the practical application of the new prevention duties with a particular focus on how ‘Ask and Act’ can be effectively embedded in day-to-day practice. It will also help relevant bodies and others to scope out the groups most at risk of homelessness, identify resource requirements, and best practice approaches.Examples of the types of approaches the fund will support are:- Early intervention and targeted prevention activity.- Multi-agency approaches to support people navigating housing, healthand social care services.- Partnership models and processes that can be replicated and scaled.- Collaborations involving shared resources, data and transitional orreferred services.- Initiatives that centre people at risk of homelessness and/or people with direct experience of homelessness in the design and delivery of theservice.- Initiatives that target groups at risk of homelessness and critical points- in service pathways that have been identified as leading tohomelessness.

This fund supports community engagement activities that help shape Scotland's policies and strategies on:- infection prevention and control (IPC)- antimicrobial resistance (AMR).Successful organisations will recruit and host a community voice and engagement co-ordinator. The co-ordinator will work with communities to gather and share insights that support national health strategies, campaigns and action plans.A particular focus will be on engaging people and groups whose views are not often represented in policy development.You can use funding for: - staff costs- project delivery costs- reasonable participant incentives- equipment costs that support project deliveryProjects should start in August 2026, with all funding spent by March 2027.

Historic Environment Scotland’s Heritage & Place Programme is an area-based funding programme that aims to contribute to the development of vibrant and sustainable places in Scotland, through community-led regeneration of the historic environment. It supports the development and delivery of heritage focused schemes within conservation areas, or alternatively distinctive heritage areas with local authority recognition.Community participation is be integral to the design and delivery of the successful schemes your objectives should fit within the local authority's strategic framework for Place and Regeneration.To qualify for the H&PP, you will also need to demonstrate that your scheme meets the following criteria:- Enable communities to prioritise investment in local historic environment assets - Renew communities’ sense of place and appreciation of their local historic environment - Strengthen the resilience of local historic environment assets and build the capacity of communities to look after them - Build a sustainable base of traditional skills for the local area - Contribute to climate action outcomes for the historic environment - Result in sustainable and inclusive benefits for the local economy

Grants are available for repairs to traditional properties within the Stirling City boundary which are members of the Traditional Buildings Health Check. Grant funding is for traditional repairs such as slating, leadwork, repair of timber sash and case windows, cast iron guttering repairs and masonry repointing.