The Road Safety Trust (RST) has opened its latest grant programme, welcoming applications for the development of practical measures to enhance road safety through education, training, enforcement or research.
This is the fourth round of funding provided by the RST – with more than 80 applications received during the first three rounds.
Successful applicants from earlier rounds include:
- A new virtual reality app designed to teach children about road safety which is being developed by researchers at the University of South Wales (grant of £67,500)
- A pilot scheme to reduce tailgating by people driving at work, led by a team at TRL (grant of £98,000)
- An app to reinforce road safety messages developed by a team led by Warwickshire and West Mercia Road Safety Partnership (grant of £35,000)
- Development of a DVD training guide by researchers at Nottingham Trent University to improve safety for novice users of mobility scooters (grant of £98,604)
- Funding provided to PACTS to help improve the information base for road-related suicides (grant of £15,500)
Applications for funding will be accepted through the RST’s online submission process, with a deadline of 31 March 2018. Recommendations for support will then be considered by members of the Board of Trustees.
Rob Gifford, chief executive of the RST, said: “It was fascinating to see the levels of demand, and the rapidly rising standards of application we have received.
“There is clearly an appetite for both research-based and practical interventions – an appetite thus far unmet.
“We know that a project will not be able to guarantee a specific level of casualty reduction, but it is vital for applicants to think about the impact of their project and how they are going to measure whether that impact has been achieved.
“The Trust is aware that sometimes research doesn’t provide us with the answer we were looking for. We accept that this does happen from time to time, but we do expect applicants to show clearly how they will evaluate their work.
“Evaluation is not a nice to have add-on after the event. It is a critical part of the grant-making process.”
Full details of the grants policy and how to apply can be found on the RST website.
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