Active Travel Innovation Fund

Applicant Eligibility 

• Only UK registered organisations can apply for this funding; including sole traders, partnerships, Limited Liability Partnerships, companies (for-profit, not-for-profit, CIC), and charities.  

• Consortia, with all partners meeting the above criteria.  

• Consortia, including unincorporated organisations, in partnership with UK registered organisations. A registered organisation must act as the lead applicant, which includes responsibility for submitting the application and receiving any funding. 

• Lead organisations must fit the size profile of a Small / Medium Size enterprise, as set out in the Government Commercial Function’s Guidance (i.e. staff size limit of fewer than 250 people). 

Intervention Eligibility

• Interventions can be new ideas, approaches, or methods which meet the fund objectives. 

• Interventions must be fully delivered and deployed in England. While eligible applicants may be registered (or reside) in the UK, interventions must be delivered in England. 

• The fund is to be spent on active travel interventions, with a focus on engagement and behaviour change. This may include spend for materials and small items to support the development, delivery and/or scaling of interventions.  

• Substantive expenditure on capital assets, including infrastructure, technology, blue skies research, and product development (e.g. increasing Technology Readiness Levels – TRLs – towards the commercialisation of a product), will not be supported.  

• Interventions which propose to use funding to continue the day-to-day running of an existing service will clearly need to demonstrate how funding will add additional value – e.g. by reaching new users; by scaling the service; by delivering new/different outputs.  

• ATE will consider applicants who wish to use match funding to deliver their proposed intervention. For any applicants wanting to do this, they will need to clearly state this via the match funding questions in the application form. However, applicants must agree to meet the mandatory conditions as set out by ATE, which are consistent with the delivery of this grant funding.  

• Applicants will be expected to share details of their organisation, and of work previously delivered.   

ATE Due Diligence 

• ATE is committed to ensuring that any funding programme delivers public value for money. As part of the fund application process, applicants will be asked to agree to government checks. This includes ‘Spotlight’ the Government’s due-diligence tool, which is designed to quickly and accurately risk assess a supplier or grant applicant. 

Monitoring and Evaluation 

• Successful applicants will be expected to commit up to 10% of their total allocation for the purposes of undertaking intervention-level monitoring and evaluation.  

• This may include (but is not limited to), a monthly monitoring report; periodic progress meetings; a final project report; a case study; participation in an evaluation exercise. An intervention-level Theory of Change (logic model) will initially be requested once funding has been paid to successful applicants, with plans for establishing baseline and post hoc walking, wheeling and cycling levels

The Fund aims to:  

• Support applicants whose work aligns with ATE’s mission of enabling people to be more active, by increasing access to opportunities for safer walking, wheeling, and cycling.  

• Support applicants who are working to identify and address a need, gap, or opportunity in the sector, via an innovative solution or service (intervention), in partnership with local stakeholders.   

• Provide a platform for applicants to grow their impact by developing, delivering, and/or scaling innovative active travel interventions, which aim to achieve ATE’s mission.  

• Support applicants whose proposed interventions prioritise underrepresented groups in active travel, including (but not limited to) women and girls, ethnic minority groups, children, those less physically active, and disabled people.  

• Support applicants whose work aligns with wider Government objectives, such as those of the Health and Growth Missions; specifically reducing pressure on the NHS, creating safer streets, kickstarting economic growth, and supporting net zero. 

Note - Innovative interventions are defined in this context as 'new or significantly' improved ideas, processes, products, or services that deliver value.

The grant application window will run between 6th Oct to 14th November 2025 (applications close at Midday on 14th November 2025). 

ATE will host a webinar in October which will provide further details on the fund and application process (if you would like to request the details of this webinar, please email ATE-Innov-Fund@cabinetoffice.gov.uk). Applicants will be able to ask questions during the webinar, as well as via email during the application window. Questions should be issued to ATE-Innov-Fund@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. The mailbox will remain open until the fund officially closes however the deadline for clarification questions in relation to the fund e.g. regarding eligible organisations, will be 7th November 2025.

ATE will review and shortlist applications between mid-November and early December, with interviews for shortlisted applicants likely to be held the week commencing 15th December 2025.

Successful applicants will be notified of their funding in January 2026, with funding formally awarded in February 2026. The delivery of interventions should conclude by the end of March 2027, with a fund evaluation stage to commence thereafter.

Eligible applicants are invited to submit an application by selecting ‘Start new application’ on the Find a Grant platform. Please note that only one application per organisation will be accepted. You can begin your application and return to it at a later time through your 'Find and Apply for a Grant' account. 

Applicants may only submit one bid as the lead organisation via the online portal. However, applicants may participate in other bids as delivery partners. 

Accessibility and Reasonable adjustment: 

• ATE are committed to making the Innovation Fund application process accessible to all, in-line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. 

• This includes providing reasonable adjustment for anyone who requires it. Any applicants who require assistance in completing their application should contact the GGMS team (via ATE-Innov-Fund@cabinetoffice.gov.uk) to check what support is available.  

• If you require any reasonable adjustments, please notify the GGMS team as soon as possible (and by Friday 31st October, at the latest) to outline why.  

If applicants wish to view the questions asked as part of the application form for this funding, there is a word document template of the application form available within the Supporting Information section.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion 

• Promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is fundamental to how ATE operates, and is an integral part of the work we fund and deliver alongside our partners and stakeholder groups.  

• ATE encourages applicants to consider their own EDI practices, when developing their proposed intervention.  

• ATE encourages applicants to consider the needs of underrepresented groups when developing their proposed intervention.  

• ATE encourages applicants to consider working in partnership with local stakeholders when developing their proposed intervention.   

Intervention Budget 

• Applicants are requested to use the template provided below to set out their proposed intervention budget 

Application Form (text version) 

• We have provided a word version of the online application form to assist applicants with collating their responses offline prior to submission via Find and Apply for a Grant. Please note, applications using the word document will not be accepted and only submissions made via the Find and Apply a Grant platform will be considered by the GGMS team.