Rural grant funding: The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF)

There seem to be a plethora of government backed funds to help support the environment and combat climate change, and the latest one that has come to my attention is the “natural environment investment readiness fund” (NEIRF) which is designed to support the government’s goals set out in its 25-year environment plan, green finance strategy and 10 point plan for a green industrial revolution. 

The aim is to stimulate private investment and market-based mechanisms that improve and safeguard the natural environment in England by helping projects get ready for investment. 

What is available under The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF)? 

It is a competitive grant scheme providing grants of between £10,000 and £100,000 to support the development of environmental projects in England that: 

• Help achieve one or more natural environmental outcomes from the government’s 25 year environment plan,

• Have the ability to produce revenue from ecosystem services to attract and repay investment, 

• Produce an investment model that can be scaled up and reproduced. 

• Proposals should focus on generating revenue from ecosystem services, rather than goods or commodities. Examples of ecosystem services that could produce revenue include: 

• Selling carbon credits from woodland creation or peatland restoration, using the Woodland or Peatland Carbon Codes, 

• Selling biodiversity units from a habitat bank, using the biodiversity offsetting metric created by Natural England, 

• Selling ‘catchment services’, such as improved water quality and natural flood management benefits which will result in natural environment improvements 

The above are just examples of what may qualify but other proposals which consider interactions between ecosystem services or focus on more specific or complex elements of the government’s strategies to deliver on their environmental ambitions would be welcomed. 

The grants are to help you to: 

• Get support from professional advisors to develop your project, address barriers to investment and present an attractive case for potential investors, 

• Build capability to attract financial investment into natural environment projects, 

• Develop a market for ecosystem services such as investment or trading platforms and codes for verifying benefits.

Anyone who is successful in gaining grant aid will be expected to make the products and knowledge gained through the fund openly available for the benefit of others so as to help the development of the natural capital investment sector. 

The NEIRF grant is administered by the Environment Agency; the fund opened last month and closes on 3rd February 2022 and so if anyone has any good ideas, it may be worth checking out the government’s website.