UKC

Hi,
I'm 17 and going on a British Exploring trip to the Arctic Circle next July. The trip will involve glaciers, ice caps and crevasses, with a sciencey/geographical research theme, as well as mountaineering. However, its gonna cost about £3300...as a fulltime sixth former, this is a lot!
What sort of grants are out there? I'm not planning the exped, so I'm probs not eligible for most, but it would be so helpful to even find £100!

In reply to Emma Reynolds: Not much.. I did similar back in 97.. with yorkshire exploring..

Write to every company you can think of.. use any local link.. to be honest as a white, straight, middle class, christian, male I was ruled out of many grants..

But I earned £40 a week through bar work, plus occassional donations, fund raising walks etc, plus odd jobs and i raised it..

In reply to Emma Reynolds:
Hi Emma, in my experience most expedition grants are given to the expedition as a whole, rather than individual members. Furthermore, the chances of a getting a grant increase in direct proportion with how much the expedition is 'breaking new ground' i.e. doing something that nobody (or very few) people have done before.

Nonetheless, your best bet to find out more would be to email or telephone the BMC, they are very friendly and will no doubt have a list of grants, and be able to advise you on which would be the most suitable for you.

My niece is your age and went on an expedition to Africa last year, and had to raise a similar amount of money. It was daunting at first but she managed it in the end through a combination of a weekend job and finding other ways to scrape a few pounds here and there.

Best of luck and enjoy your trip!

In reply to Emma Reynolds: find out about things like local rotary clubs or other charities? Maybe even school have a development fund? If not it's fundraising, you just have to be imaginative! I went on a British Exploring (then BSES) trip in 2010 to India, I managed by doing a few sponsored events, combined with working a hell of a lot! They cost a lot but they are so worth it, I had an unforgettable time and learnt a hell of a lot!

In reply to Emma Reynolds:

It's a big place, who's part of it are you going to? Is it a BSES or ETE exped?


Is this true scientific research or will it be used purely for a 6th form project eg biology, geology, geography? I'm under the impression that's the aim of BSES trips.


Unfortunately these things do, but depending on your research there are plenty of grants available, though often only open to research institutions or those in higher education (read master, phD level) and the application deadlines are long gone.

You can try contacting the grant providers, often in the countries who's bit of the arctic you're going to, or companies who may be interested in your research result/data, but you will really have to sell it.

The local council/ education authority may have some funding, if your research is to be used for a school project, we got a little, they were stingy as hell but it helped, there's no harm in asking!

Alternatively there's always bag packing at Tesco, cake sales, bikini car wash... whatever, you're allowed to be as inventive as you like here, so go wild and have lots of fun!

In reply to Emma Reynolds:

Hi Emma,

I've been a YE (Young Explorer - don't know if they're still called that since the re-branding) and a leader on BSES (now British Exploring) trips and, as others have said, most of it will come from fundraising / sponsorship from friends and family etc and working.

When I went as an expedition member I did balloon races from each of the local schools. A local lab donated helium, I made some labels and paid for stamps and balloons, charged each child £1 to enter and the balloon that got furthest away was the winner (another local company donated the prize which was a trip in a hot air balloon). If you are a bit computer savvy you could modernise this somewhat by plotting all the returned labels on a map etc. After the trip I went back to the schools and gave a short presentation in their assemblies with lots of pictures. It went down well and raised about 60% of my contribution on its own.

There are grants available. If you PM me your email address I'll send you a list and details of how to apply.

In reply to Emma Reynolds: Thanks very much! Lots of ideas there

In reply to GrendeI: It's a BSES expedition, and as far as I know the research is assisting with university professors, but I'm not sure on that. It's definitely beyond A Level though.

In reply to Emma Reynolds: Try the Jeremry Willson Chairitable Trust.