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Yesterday was the second Innovations in Climate Tech event. People from councils and organisations came along and discussed all kinds of projects and ideas.
The key question? What they might do with a small injection of money designed to kickstart digitally based, local climate related projects.
If you’re ready to go ahead with your application, start here. Otherwise, read on.
Projects beginning to form
You can see all the ideas that were floated in our first meetup on our Padlet, but here are a few of the projects that emerged and appeared to be gaining the most momentum yesterday.
- A national knowledge sharing tool This project would seek to create a comprehensive list of what has been done digitally around Climate Adaptation, showcasing lessons learned, successes and failures. The instigators could also develop playbooks, open source tools and a knowledge sharing forum for councils and citizens. Notes here.
- Community resilience to extreme weather events A plan to bring people together to embed community resilience, sharing information about flood risk, how to make your home more able to cope with the effect of climate change and extreme weather events. There was also a suggestion of broadening the existing community warden role to encompass community resilience issues. Notes here.
- Adaptation gardens Showing people how they could garden in a different way to adapt to a changing climate: eg with drought resistant plants, water conservation methods, pollinator friendly plants and other eco-friendly methods. Notes here.
- Digital toolkit for events Putting together a digital toolkit that people can use for climate-related community events, ensuring it’s accessible and reusable in lots of different situations. Notes here.
Seen a project that you’d like to try too?
Maybe you’re a council officer who thinks one of the ideas above would fit well within your constituency.
Or maybe you’re a community group that could help shape the project and replicate it in your area.
There may be an opportunity to join up with other folks working on the idea, and perhaps expanding their plans into more than one region.
Feel free to fill in our form and indicate that you are open to working with others on one of the existing ideas.
What you should know about the grants
- You do not have to have attended either of the prior sessions to bid, but please do give consideration to what we are looking for: small, locally-based trials of projects that work with a local council at the intersection of democracy (broadly defined) and climate. A local authority must be involved in the project.
- Need to find a partner council? Let us know and we’ll shout out on Twitter for you.
- This is seed funding, designed to allow for testing, planning and trying new approaches; things that aren’t possible with restricted grants. So don’t worry about having a detailed plan — your application can be short and simple.
- Applications close at 23:59 on Monday 31st October 2022. We aim to have made our decisions and awarded the grants by Monday 7th November 2022.
- Funding will cover the period until March 31 2023 — though your project may continue onwards for as long as you like. We’ll hold a wrap-up event in spring showcasing the work to date.
Apply now
Ready to bid? Apply here.
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Are you thinking of setting up a site using one of these codebases?
If so, you should know that you can apply for our help with development, hosting, and support. Hurry, though: the cut-off date for the next round of applications is 31 January.
Due to our own limited resources, we can’t offer help to every potential project — but if you can show that your planned project will be useful, viable, and resourced for the long term, you’ll stand a very good chance.
Start by reading more about what partnership with mySociety means, and then, if that sounds right for you, you can fill in the application form here.
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Image: Dominic Alves (CC)
