Frequently Asked Questions
Information & contact
The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below are based on questions received during previous funding calls.
Landscape and seascape restoration is complex, so if you have further questions or require clarification, please contact the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme team at elsp@jbs.cam.ac.uk.
General information
Funding
All funding calls will be announced through our newsletter and published on our website. We recommend subscribing to our newsletter to receive updates directly, including funding announcements, project news, and upcoming opportunities.
No. The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme does not operate on a fixed schedule for funding calls. Each round is launched when new funding becomes available and when there is a clear strategic opportunity to expand our portfolio of restoration projects across Europe.
No. We do not accept unsolicited or speculative applications. All applications must be submitted through a funding call. Each call includes detailed eligibility criteria, guidance notes, and timelines outlining how and when organisations can apply.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme is generously funded by Arcadia, a charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge.
Geographic Coverage
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme uses the European Environment Agency’s map of Europe to define its geographic boundary and the eligible countries for landscape and seascape restoration grants. The list of eligible countries is included in the guidance note. The map used by the European Environment Agency can be viewed here.
In addition, countries with Mediterranean Sea coastal waters (in North Africa and the Middle East) are eligible for seascape restoration grants. Applications from countries currently subject to UK or EU sanctions will be considered only on an exceptional basis.
European and UK Overseas Countries and Territories, if not located within the defined geographic region, are not included in the list of eligible countries.
The Programme aims to build a portfolio of projects that demonstrates large-scale landscape and seascape restoration across Europe, addressing a range of restoration challenges in different ecosystems, geographies, and socio-economic contexts. It is particularly keen to support geographies or countries that are currently underrepresented in its portfolio.
At any one time, the Programme will support a maximum of two landscape and two seascape restoration projects, as well as planning grants, within the same country. The United Kingdom is considered as one country.
Landscapes & Seascapes
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme funds large-scale landscape and seascape restoration. There is no specific size requirement, but initiatives should be of sufficient scale and connectivity to support the recovery of natural processes, including providing space for the movement of wildlife. This is usually greater than 10,000 hectares. The Programme has approved projects ranging from around 33,000 hectares (Cumbria Connect) to approximately one million hectares (Polesia).
All terrestrial and marine habitats, including freshwater systems and karst underground cave networks, can be included, provided the initiative demonstrates that restoration will have an impact at the landscape or seascape scale.
No. The landscape or seascape does not need to be designated as an IUCN Category V protected area, or hold any other formal designation. However, applicants should outline the measures that will be put in place to ensure that project outcomes, including ecological recovery processes, are maintained in the long term.
Our approach includes:
- Establishing large-scale systems of continuous or ecologically connected habitat where natural processes are given increased freedom to function and which enhance ecosystem resilience to the impacts of climate change.
- Demonstrating a good understanding of the mechanism through which the initiative will help overcome one or more barriers to ecosystem recovery (be they ecological, legal, social, economic or political), enabling restoration processes to become self-sustaining.
- Restoring ecosystem processes at a landscape scale to address global, regional or national biodiversity conservation priorities.
- Restoration projects developed and delivered through a process that involves engagement or partnership with the main landowners and/or customary rights owners which can show they have support from key actors (state, private, NGOs, communities) within the project area, and which can demonstrate positive community impact.
- Project teams and partnerships that are committed to collaboration, have a strong and stable partnership, are already active in the project area, have members that have the skills and experience required for large-scale restoration, and have a commitment, capacity and strategy for long-term stewardship of the landscape or seascape.
- Using approaches and addressing issues that are of relevance to landscape restoration elsewhere and therefore have prospects for wider replication.
- Offering value for money and have identified opportunities to use a grant from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme to leverage additional funding.
A core principle of the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme is the restoration of functioning natural processes. By restoring at landscape scale the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme seeks to develop landscapes and seascapes so that they are less managed and less dependent on human intervention to create or maintain a diversity of species. Therefore, and in line with this principle, the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme does not usually support the reintroduction or revival of traditional management of land in situations where such management has been abandoned for economic or social reasons.
It is recognised; however, that many farmed species, especially large herbivores, can perform an important ecological function in situations where populations of wild ungulates are absent or low (and likely to remain that way in the medium term). A project might be eligible for Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme funding where traditional forms of land use (extensive, low input, nature-friendly) are in danger of being replaced by more intensively managed production methods, and where it can be shown that the land-use has potential to be economically viable in the medium- to long-term without the need for long-term philanthropic support.
Yes. We are seeking to support large-scale landscapes so that natural processes are given the space to function. Restoration work can focus on spatially separated sites within the landscape, but this would need to make sense from a landscape recovery perspective (e.g. in terms of the landscape’s ecological integrity, functioning ecosystem processes and spatial and functional connectivity).
Projects can be transboundary – involving two or more countries – providing they are working in continuous or ecologically connected habitats. If the areas of implementation are disparate sites without connectivity, and are clearly within separate social-ecological systems, that would then effectively be a regional project at two sites and therefore would be better suited to two applications.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme does not fund projects that seek to restore sites along a flyway. The restoration grants that we provide are for place-based work in large landscapes and seascapes. The landscapes and seascapes should cover large areas (e.g. whole river basins crossing several countries) and focus on interconnected habitats and ecosystem recovery at scale, rather than specific taxa or individual species (which is likely to be the case for flyway projects).
Partners
Applications are invited from partnerships that involve a range of collaborators, often with varying statuses. The lead partner submitting the application should, however, be a not-for-profit organisation and therefore must be legally established or registered as such. This is because they will take on the responsibility for contracting, project delivery, and reporting.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme does not fund governments and/or public bodies, but we do support collaborations where government agencies and/or public bodies are involved. We recommend having a look at our website to see the types of partnership that the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme has previously funded.
We don’t limit the number of partners. The key is to bring together organisations with the right knowledge and expertise to deliver restoration at scale. Please look at our projects for more information on the types of partnerships that we are supporting.
An organisation can submit a maximum of three applications as the lead partner.
At Stage 2 of the application process, we ask lead organisations to provide evidence of support for the project from private landowners and/or rights holders at sites within the landscape where interventions are planned, as well as the relevant government agencies or statutory bodies with jurisdiction in the project area.
Universities are not-for-profit organisations and as such are eligible to lead proposals. That said, we don’t fund standalone research. Any data gathering funded by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme must be linked to the restoration intervention – either to strengthen the intervention or understand the impacts of it. We would need to see that a university has well-established relationships with local organisations on the ground. In our current restoration grants many universities are partners, but they are not leads.
Project Selection Process
The Oversight & Selection Panel (OSP) of the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme assesses Expressions of Interest for funding against a set of criteria (please see the application guidance). Each proposal is usually reviewed and scored independently by three members of the panel.
This initial assessment provides a basis and starting point for discussion by the whole OSP. This ensures that the expertise, experience and geographic knowledge of all panel members contributes to decision-making. It is not unusual for projects to move up or down in the ranking as a result of this process.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme aims to develop a portfolio of projects that will act as a showcase of large-scale landscape and seascape restoration across Europe, addressing a range of restoration issues in different ecosystems, geographies and socio-economic contexts. Therefore, a final consideration for the panel is to select projects which represent this diversity.
No. Unsuccessful proposals are permitted to apply for future funding calls.
Types of Grants
The landscape/seascape restoration grants are targeted at established initiatives, to support the scaling up of ecological restoration on the ground. However, we recognise that the scoping, information gathering, mapping, partnership building and consultation required to develop landscape-scale projects takes time and resources and may present a barrier to new initiatives. We therefore offer Planning Grants to support landscape and seascape restoration initiatives through this development phase.
EoIs for each call are considered on their individual merit, and the selection considerations described above. A Planning Grant may assist a partnership in developing a landscape or seascape restoration initiative but doesn’t confer any direct advantage in terms of the selection process for Restoration Grants.
We run separate calls for seascape and landscape restoration grants. Please note that an application for a Seascape Restoration Grant cannot be re-submitted for a Landscape Restoration Grant and vice versa. Any such re-submissions will be rejected.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme recognises the interconnectedness of marine and terrestrial systems – both socially and ecologically. A coastal project will be accepted as a landscape project if the drivers of degradation, the proposed restoration activities, and the affected ecosystem and outcomes are land-based.
Budgets
All project payments will be made in US$.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme does not cover the staff costs of government and/or public administrations to do their jobs, but it can cover the costs of participating in project activities which are not part of their everyday responsibilities. For example, there may be a situation where a statutory agency, such as a state forestry agency, is a partner on the project. They have agreed to restore an area of land to enable the recovery of natural processes, but it is not included in their existing management plan. They don’t have the monitoring capacity so the project could support the state forestry agency to fund a member of staff to undertake this work.
Co-finance is not a requirement for Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme funding. That said, projects that have co-finance – or that have identified opportunities to leverage additional funding for restoration – will be looked on favourably by the OSP. If you have received and/or are expecting to raise co-funding then please include brief details in your application.
At Stage 2, we ask lead partners to submit independently audited accounts for the organisation for the previous two years. The annual submission of audited accounts is already a legal requirement for NGOs in most European countries so should not require additional work.
Although we only request an estimated budget at the EoI stage, we would not expect the total budget amount to change significantly at Stage 2. If significant budget changes are required, then strong justification must be provided.
Restoration Grants
Funding
We offer grants ranging from US$ 1.5 – 5 million over five years. To date most awards have been above US $3.5 million.
Lead organisations (the applicant) must show that within the last six years they have managed a grant with a value that is/was at least 60% of the total asked from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme. This should be through a grant that they have been directly awarded from a funder rather than sub-grants from a partner or other lead organisation on a project. It must be one project and not a combination of projects managed at the same time. The main purpose of this criterion is to ensure that organisations applying already have the experience and systems in place for managing large grants. If you can’t meet the threshold then we encourage you to seek and work with partners that do have the required experience (and which would then take the lead).
The main purpose of the 60% criteria is to ensure that the lead organisation has the financial systems in place for managing large grants. We can only work with one organisation for contracting and they would be accountable for the overall financial expenditure which means it is not possible to share the responsibility (and meet the 60% threshold) by working across 2-3 organisations.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme is not a research programme so does not fund standalone research projects. Any data gathering funded by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme must be linked to the restoration intervention and/or monitoring outcomes – either to strengthen the intervention or to understand the impacts of it. Costs are not eligible unless the research can be shown to be integral to the project.
The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme does not support capacity building projects per se. However, we are keen to encourage applications from underrepresented countries in the existing portfolio. We are aware that landscape-/seascape-scale restoration is complex and some underserved countries may not yet have organisations with all the skills, systems and experience required to deliver a landscape restoration project at scale. We strongly encourage such organisations to partner with NGOs (these could be based in another European country or regional organisations) that can provide support with institutional strengthening. To that end, landscape/seascape restoration projects can include up to an additional 10% in the budget (above the budget for restoration), as an integral part of the proposal, to cover the costs of institutional strengthening support where this is needed to ensure delivery of landscape restoration in the long term. This may include, for example, strengthening an institution in relation to financial administration, good governance, technical delivery, monitoring and communications.
If a partner is going to be providing another partner with institutional strengthening support, they must have the experience to deliver the areas for support identified in the application. Please show this in the section of the EoI form where you tell us about your partnership for delivery.
At Stage 2, proposals that have requested funds for a partner to support institutional strengthening will need to provide further justification on the needs and outline the approaches they will take to address the gaps so that the supported organisation is better equipped to deliver a landscape restoration initiative at scale by the end of the project.
Indirect costs/overheads are capped at 15% of the total budget. We expect these to be set at a level that reflects the wider context of activities and costs. We would expect this 15% to cover the costs of project administration, including financial administration such as: electricity bills, rent, heating, phone, postage, stationery, and costs of ‘core’ services including human resources, financial management, etc. If you have included the costs of a local (project) office as a direct cost in your budget, or are charging administrative/office/communications staff separately, then we would expect overall overheads to be lower. We will look for demonstration of value for money.
Indirect costs/overheads should be calculated as a percentage of your total direct costs, not as a percentage of your total grant amount.
For successful applicants the system of payments would be as follows. On signature of the contract the project would receive 60% of the year one budget. Then eight monthly advance payments are made on receipt and acceptance of six monthly interim and annual reports which are adjusted based on actual expenditure, forecast expenditure and cash in hand.
Planning Grants
Not necessarily. A Planning Grant can be used to develop partnerships and to determine the roles of different organisations, which might include coming to an agreement on who leads a restoration initiative or specific components of it. That said, the applicant organisation must have a demonstrable interest and stake in the landscape or seascape (i.e. they can’t just be ‘housing’ the proposal for another organisation).
An organisation can partner on a maximum of three Expressions of Interest per call (in addition to the maximum of three applications as lead applicant per organisation per Planning Grant call).
We welcome projects working across connected marine and terrestrial habitats. If you are unsure about whether your project is a landscape or seascape select ‘uncertain’ in the online form for your Expressions of Interest.
Yes, providing: i) the new area does not overlap with the existing project area and ii) that the Planning Grant would extend and diversify large-scale restoration efforts (e.g. inclusion of new habitats, new interventions, expanded partners) in a way that is additive and complimentary to the original grant. This could involve extending to a connected seascape from an existing landscape, or vice versa, to establish a coherent land-sea initiative.
Indirect costs/overheads are capped at 12% of the total budget. We expect these to be set at a level that reflects the wider context of activities and costs. We would expect this 12% to cover the costs of project administration, including financial administration such as: electricity bills, rent, heating, phone, postage, stationery, and costs of ‘core’ services including human resources, financial management, etc. If you have included the costs of a local (project) office as a direct cost in your budget, or are charging administrative/office/communications staff separately, then we would expect overall overheads to be lower. We will look for demonstration of value for money.
Indirect costs/overheads should be calculated as a percentage of your total direct costs, not as a percentage of your total grant amount.
For successful applicants the system of payments would be as follows: on signature of the contract the project would receive 80% of the total budget. The remaining 20% of the grant is paid at the end of the project when all the final documentation is approved.
