We strive to make Sail Britain’s programme as accessible as we can, however making it all possible and running an ocean-going yacht is a huge commitment and involves high costs on our side.
We have no external funding. Our programme is made possible by your trip contributions alone.
2025 Bursary for Residencies
Sail Britain has a small bursary fund to help those for whom the cost of an adventurous residency would be a struggle.
We are able to offer seven applicants across our summer residency programme £200 towards the cost of their place. Criteria for this bursary will be published here soon. Please indicate if you wish to apply for this with your application.
The bursary is open to applicants for the Wild Islands, Life of Islands, Creative Ecology, Between and and Sea, and Muir is Tir Residencies, so we are able to support one applicant for each week on average.
External funding applications
We encourage applicants to make external funding applications of their own, and we are happy to provide a letter of acceptance and support if this would be useful. However you must also consider how you will fund the residency should your applications not be successful, as we still need to cover the cost of the boat!
Successful approaches to funding
Arts bodies – for artists, there are numerous bodies which give funding for projects, Arts Council England and Creative Scotland being among the biggest, but there are many others. You probably know more than we do! The Arts Council also has a useful page with other sources of funding.
Crowdfunding – Participants have had considerable success with this approach. One photographer on the Muir Is Tir residency raised considerably more than his target on Crowdfunder, after a very well thought out campaign. There is nothing to lose with crowdfunding and we encourage everyone to give it a go!
Institutions – If you are affiliated with a university or other institution, there are often travel and project grants available to students and researchers. Some of these get fairly few applicants so why not give it a go? Again, many of our participants have been fully funded this way.
National bodies and Societies – There are many organisations which offer grants for projects which would fit very well with Sail Britain’s programme. For research and fieldwork projects, the Royal Geographical Society has a very good resource for grant funding, both offered by the RGS itself and other bodies.
Trusts and Foundations – Additionally there are many grant giving Trusts and Foundations who can be approached to fund projects. A quick online search will show up many. There are often requirements however in terms of subject matter or focus.
Sponsorship – this is another option for funding projects, however you will need to develop a win-win relationship with your sponsor and have a project in mind which they might be happy to be associated with. Sponsors vary enormously and can either be great to work with or a compete nightmare. Hopefully it’ll mostly be the former!
Ask all your friends! – Everyone loves a worthy project, so if you would like to develop something specific to come out of your voyage, a community art workshop or beach clean perhaps, then why not make the proposal and just get lots of people to chip in? Sometimes the simplest ways can be the most rewarding.
Whatever you choose to do, be imaginative, think outside the box and have fun to make it a rewarding part of the expedition!