The Road Safety Trust has announced the award of nearly £280,000 in grant funding for seven new projects designed to tackle a range of road safety issues in the UK.
The projects were selected following the Trust’s Autumn 2025 Small Grants funding round, which invited applications for research and practical interventions.
For the first time, the Trust implemented a new two-stage application process, which offered early feedback to applicants and guidance for those invited to submit full bids. This new approach appears to have been a success, with more applications and expressions of interest received than ever before.
A total of 88 Expressions of Interest (EOIs) were submitted, from an array of organisations, ranging from university research departments and police forces to charities and community interest companies.
Following a shortlisting exercise and a rigorous review by the Road Safety Initiatives Committee (RSIC) seven projects were approved by the Board of Trustees to receive funding, subject to completed paperwork. The successful projects are:
- Leaders Unlocked – The Young Drivers’ Commission: Empowering young people to reshape the way we educate, train, test and license
- Transport for All – Assessing gait speed of disabled people in the context of road crossings
- University of Leeds – Slowing down for safety: Where, when and why do drivers comply with 20 mph speed limits?
- Derbyshire Constabulary – National communications campaign to improve motorcycle safety
- The Open University (in partnership with Devon & Cornwall Police Driver Support Team) – A Focussed Response: Supporting police emergency drivers to recognise and manage cognitive distraction
- CVS Brent – Brent Streets Safe: Multi-Lingual Safety for Pedestrians and Cyclists
- Impact and Insight Ltd – Developing Behaviourally Informed Guidance for Using Virtual Reality (VR) in Road Safety Education
Ruth Purdie OBE, chief executive of The Road Safety Trust, said: “It was excellent to see such a high level of interest in this particular funding round, and such a broad range, both in terms of the scope of the bids and the applicants themselves.
“Death and serious injury on our roads remain unacceptably high and it’s clear that there are many aspects of road safety that still need to be addressed.
“I congratulate all those who were successful in their applications and I look forward to seeing how their projects can have a positive impact on the safety of our roads and on those who use them.”
The Road Safety Trust also recently launched its ‘Large Grants’ funding round with up to £200,000 available from a total funding pot of £750,000 for projects that focus on either preventing harm linked to drug-impaired driving and motorised riding, or safer vehicles. The window for submitting expressions of interest in this round closes on 5 May.
A full description of each project is provided as follows:
Leaders Unlocked – The Young Drivers’ Commission: Empowering young people to reshape the way we educate, train, test and license
Amount: £50,000
Young driver safety remains a major challenge, with nearly 5,000 people killed or seriously injured in 2024 in crashes involving at least one young driver. This pilot aims to unlock action by bringing young people and policymakers together in constructive dialogue. The Young Drivers’ Commission will support young people to explore the issues, engage with evidence, conduct peer research and present recommendations directly to decision-makers. Delivered with national and local partners, the pilot will establish three local Commissions and one national body focused on education, training, testing and licensing.
Transport for All – Assessing Gait Speed of Disabled People in the Context of Road Crossings
Amount: £49,700
This research will seek to address the safety gap between current UK signal timings and actual pedestrian mobility needs. By measuring the gait speeds of disabled participants, the project will provide new data to update national guidance for more inclusive crossings and provide the evidence base required to update national design guidance, ensuring signal timings reflect real-world needs and improve safety for all users.
University of Leeds – Slowing down for safety: Where, when and why do drivers comply with 20 mph speed limits?
Amount: £49,516
This project will take a human-centred approach to explore the factors affecting speed limit compliance in Leeds and provide an overview of best practices in the initial implementation of 20 mph speed zones, based on the research literature and lessons learned. It will produce guidance on meaningful changes that can push beyond the saturation point of existing interventions to help optimise the effectiveness of these speed zones.
Derbyshire Constabulary – National communications campaign to improve motorcycle safety
Amount: £37,485
This project aims to reduce motorcyclist deaths and serious injuries on UK roads through a behaviour change campaign. It builds on pilot research to create a unified, evidence-based campaign for 2026. Co-created with riders, the campaign will produce bold, consistent and research-backed materials available to all police forces via a shared toolkit, supporting the national BikeSafe programme and promoting safer motorcycling across the UK.
The Open University (in partnership with Devon & Cornwall Police Driver Support Team) – A Focussed Response: Supporting police emergency drivers to recognise and manage cognitive distraction
Amount: £37,369
This project will address the potential contributory factors behind fatalities and collisions involving police vehicles during emergency responses. By investigating cognitive distraction related road harm, the project will develop an evidence-based, interactive educational tool to improve officer decision-making, reduce road traffic incidents, and inform national police training and safety standards.
CVS Brent – Brent Streets Safe: Multi-Lingual Safety for Pedestrians and Cyclists
Amount: £24,000
This project will address the disproportionately high risk of casualties for non-English speakers. It will design culturally relevant safety content, run workshops to check content, produce 2,500 translated packs (with digital version) and provide a verified evidence base to Brent Council.
Impact and Insight Ltd – Developing Behaviourally Informed Guidance for Using Virtual Reality (VR) in Road Safety Education
Amount: £29,700
Virtual reality (VR) is becoming an increasingly popular tool for road safety education across the UK, particularly for engaging young and high-risk road users. However, practice varies widely and often relies on trauma-based content that research shows is unlikely to support meaningful behaviour change. There are currently no national standards guiding how VR should be designed, delivered, or evaluated. This project aims to fill that gap by developing the UK’s first national, evidence-based and behaviourally informed guidance for VR road safety interventions.
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