Live service status

Timetables

Wightlink in the Community: Fund

  1. Home
  2. Wightlink in the Community

  3. Wightlink in the Community: Fund

Wightlink Green Fund for Schools

The Wightlink in the Community: Fund is dedicated to bringing lasting benefit to communities on the Isle of Wight by helping people live in a more sustainable way now and in the future.

Our 2023 Fund – The Wightlink Green Fund for Schools – invited secondary schools and colleges on the Island to apply for grants to undertake their own environmental projects. The scheme is now closed, with all the funds having been awarded.

The project is part our commitment to running a sustainable business and working closely with the local community as part of our Wightlink in the Community programme.

About Wightlink

Wightlink is the leading cross-Solent ferry operator, carrying 4.6 million passengers to and from the Isle of Wight every year. With the introduction of England’s first hybrid ferry in 2018, Wightlink has been leading the way in sustainable travel.

Our Green Solent Project outlines our wide-ranging initiatives to protect the sea, land and air that surround us. We already support communities in a number of ways under our Wightlink in the Community: Sponsorship scheme, giving travel support to over 150 local organisations every year. We launched the Green Fund for Schools in 2022 to help schools and colleges bring their sustainability projects to life.

Available Grants

The Wightlink Green Fund for Schools 2023 awarded grants to eligible projects from secondary schools and colleges that have long lasting environmental benefits to the school or to the community, from a total fund of up to £10,000.

Projects had the following themes:

  • Saving energy

  • Reducing carbon

  • Reducing waste

  • Recycling more

  • Enhancing biodiversity

  • Conserving nature

  • Reducing plastic

  • Conserving water

School children on an environmental field trip holding a beaker and testing strips

Is my project eligible?

In order to determine whether your project is eligible for a Wightlink Green Fund for Schools grant, take a look at the following questions:

1. Is your project at a secondary school or college on the Isle of Wight?
2. Does your project fit into one of the themes outlined above?
3. Does your project have a lasting benefit to the school or community?
4. Is your application for something other than the purchase of land, buildings or building maintenance, general administration, running costs or wages?

Application form

The 2023 scheme is now closed. We will be launching the 2024 scheme later this year.

A man with a dark blue shirt completing an application form on a computer

Your application

The following information will help you complete a successful application.

  • Projects that are geared towards reducing or removing carbon will be looked upon favourably.
  • The judging panel would like to see projects that leave a legacy, provide ongoing education or continue past the funding year.
  • Ongoing maintenance may be required for projects which involve the creation of a physical asset, and this is expected to be covered by the school.
  • Wightlink’s judging panel may wish to visit your project before a decision is taken on your application.
  • Wightlink’s judging panel reserve the right to request a visit to any project in receipt of a grant at a mutually agreeable time, for promotional purposes, e.g. photographs, press releases, social media.
  • Details of successful applications, including photographs, may be used in promotional material by Wightlink.
  • Grants will not be awarded for projects which have already been carried out and paid for.
  • The Fund can offer full funding of a project or part-funding towards a specific element or item of a project.

If you have any queries regarding the scheme, please email:
[email protected]

Key dates

1 November 2022Scheme opens
20 January 2023Applications close
5 - 23 December 2022Judging takes place
January 2023Announce successful projects
Two schoolchildren gardening at Brighstone School, Isle of Wight

We launched the Green Fund for Schools in 2022 and fifteen Isle of Wight primaries received a share of the £10,000 fund to support local environmental projects. Here you can meet the primary school pupils and teachers and learn more about their projects, keeping an eye on how they progress.

  • Primary School Projects