Sir Halley Stewart Trust

The Sir Halley Stewart Trust has a Christian basis and is concerned with the development of body, mind and spirit, a just environment, and international goodwill. The Trust supports projects in religious, social, educational and medical fields.

Fund Priorities

The Trust emphasises prevention rather than alleviation of human suffering by addressing the following priorities:

Social: primarily for under-funded causes (rather than those with higher profiles that gain a lot of public attention and may find it easier to attract funding).
Medical: for projects that are practical and capable of clinical application within five to ten years, and may include a social or ethical element.
Religious: support for ground-breaking and inspirational Christian and multi-faith projects

Projects must address at least one of the following:

Innovative research projects i.e. those which explore and test new ideas, methods, approaches, interventions and/or devices.
Pioneering and/or ground-breaking development projects i.e. those which are original and represent the first of their kind and/or lay the foundations for further developments.

How Much Can I Apply for

The maximum grant available is £60,000 for one to three years.

There are two levels of funding:

Main Grants of between £5,000 and £60,000 (normally for salary costs) which can be spread across one to three years. The maximum annual allowance is £30,000. Grants up to £80,000 may be awarded under exceptional circumstances and on a case-by-case basis.
Small Grants of up to £5,000 for a one-off project.

Match Funding Restrictions

Trustees are unlikely to fund the completion of projects initiated by other bodies. Grants, on the whole, do not require match funding.

Who Can Apply

Registered UK charities or educational establishments can apply.

The Trustees prefer to support innovative and imaginative people, often early in their research career, with whom they can develop a relationship.
Applications should be submitted by those directly involved in the work, not development offices or paid fundraisers.
The Trust will consider applications to fund implementation projects that are innovative e.g. roll-outs of pioneering pilot work where significant further developments will take place as part of the implementation. However, an application for a straightforward scale-up and expansion of an existing proven model would be less likely to meet the Trust’s innovation focus.

Proposals should fulfil the following criteria:

Religious

Break down religious and secular divides.
Are untested and have the potential to be ‘game-changers’.
Involve the vocational development of key people within relevant fields.

Social

The beneficiaries to be involved in the design of projects and their continuing governance.
A positive impact that goes beyond the immediate beneficiaries of the project.
Sustainability plans to be in place to ensure that they will continue after a grant from the Trust has finished.
Applications must be from service-delivery charitable organisations (but could be in partnership with others, including academic organisations).
Groups with an annual income of up to £3 million.
Applications should demonstrate imaginative and wide-ranging dissemination of the results of the funded project that reaches beneficiaries, practitioners, policy makers and/or researchers.

Medical

Applications from UK medical institutions or university departments.
Be conducted within the UK or internationally.
All grants must be administered through UK-based charitable organisations.
Be written so non-medical trustees can understand and appreciate the value of the work.
Projects must have Ethics Committee approval where needed.

Restrictions

Grants are not usually made for the following:

Running costs of established organisations or ongoing projects.
Contributions towards the overall costs of a project.
Conference attendance.
Projects proposed indirectly through other 'umbrella' or large charities.
Projects from large, well-funded charities.
Personal education fees or fees for taught courses, unless the proposal comes from a senior researcher who is seeking funds for research which could be undertaken by post-graduate student.
Completion of a project or PhD initiated by other bodies.
Educational or 'gap-year' projects for young people.
Projects where the Trust would not be a major supporter (the Trust normally prefers to fund at least 50% of the total project costs).

Grants are never made for the following:

Donations to general appeals of any kind.
Directly to individuals.
The purchase, erection or conversion of buildings, or other capital costs.
University overhead charges.

Eligible Expenditure

Funding is available to support innovative and imaginative research projects, within the priority areas listed below. Projects which span across these disciplines are particularly welcomed.

Religious

The Trustees are particularly interested in innovative practical ecumenical projects in the UK; and also those in countries outside the UK where there is special and specific need. The Trustees seek to support groundbreaking projects proposed by inspirational individuals who have proven track records, or those evidencing energy, enthusiasm and imagination. Current priorities are as follows:

To encourage Christian people to uphold, engage and communicate their faith in the public domain.
To encourage dialogue between Christian faith and contemporary issues in a secular society.
To encourage closer working relationships between Christian denominations; and/or to improve inter-faith relationships by facilitating a better understanding between faiths. A particular area of interest is improving dialogue and mutual understanding between Christian and Muslim faiths.
To support and encourage the innovative education and communication of Christianity within the UK and also internationally.
To encourage specific groups of people to explore their experience of spirituality and their spiritual needs and strengths, and to help others to understand these.

Social

Trustees fund innovative social and educational projects that meet the foundation’s fundamental aims.

The Trust welcome proposals for projects in the UK which attempt to:

Prevent and resolve conflict, promote reconciliation, and/or encourage re-connection between family members.
Help people to 'move beyond disadvantage'.
Help people who may be vulnerable and/or have been exploited, particularly the elderly.
Such projects might be concerned with the family and social aspects of:

Unemployment.
Crime.
Imprisonment.
Homelessness.
Migration.
Mental health problems.

The Trust also funds a small number of education, water and healthcare projects in the poorest politically stable African countries. Such projects must be administered by UK-based charities with which the Trust has established partnerships, or similar organisations identified by the Trustees themselves.

Trustees have particular interests in funding such projects in their feasibility/piloting, and dissemination/practical implementation stages.

In relation to research projects, trustees expect findings to be disseminated to practitioners in a form which is likely to result in changes in their way of working.

Medical

Projects should be simple, not molecular, capable of clinical application within 5-10 years and they may include a social or ethical element. Projects may be of a type unlikely to receive support from Research Councils or large research-funding charities.

The Trustees welcome applications direct from researchers at medical institutions or university departments in the United Kingdom concerned with the following:

Improving the quality of life of the elderly suffering from physical or psychological disorders.
The prevention of disease and disability in children.
The prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tropical infectious and parasitic diseases.
Innovations, involving any discipline, which are likely to improve health care.
Innovations in medicine for caring for the needs of disadvantaged groups.

How To Apply

Small Grant applications are accepted any time.

Main Grant applications are considered three times a year and applications for the next meeting are currently accepted until 29 June 2026. However, meetings may close to submissions at the discretion of the Trust and without prior warning when the number of suitable applications received far exceeds the grant funds available for the next Trust Board meeting. Applicants are advised to check the website for Board meeting dates and application deadlines.

Applicants are advised to contact the grants manager using the online expression of interest form to discuss the suitability of the project before starting the application process.

Check eligibility and apply

There are three stages to the application process:

If you have read this website and think your project is a good fit for the Trust’s criteria, you must complete the Trust’s Eligibility Test.
If you pass this test, you can submit an Expression of Interest form (the form link will be provided to applicants that pass the Eligibility Test).
We will then advise you if your project is suitable to progress to a full application. Full applications are made via an online Application form (see here for a copy of the questions). The link to the Application form will be provided to suitable applicants following reviews of Expression of Interest forms.

Once you submit your Application form, you will receive confirmation via email that your proposal has been safely received. During the assessment process the Trust may be in touch to ask for further information.

For more information, visit: Sir Halley Stewart Trust Website

Contacts

For further information on how to obtain this fund, please contact the following:

Heidi Yorke
Grants Assessor
Sir Halley Stewart Trust
London
WC1N 3XX
Tel: 020 8144 0375
Email: email@sirhalleystewart.org.uk