Friends of the Lake District

Friends of the Lake District Students' Grants

Every year we award grants of up to £300 for research projects which provide new and valuable information on Cumbria for use in our campaigning and policy work, or by others involved in research. This work helps us develop greater understanding of how we can best protect the environment and manage the demands placed upon it.

If you are considering conducting research on an environmental topic in the Lake District or Cumbria, you may be eligible for an FLD grant. FLD offers grants for environmental research into issues such as:

  • Design & local distinctiveness
  • Tourism & leisure
  • Agriculture
  • Planning
  • Mining & quarrying
  • Forestry & woodlands
  • Local housing
  • Renewable energy
  • Roads & traffic Water resources
    and many more...

Your research could have a real practical use in furthering the protection of the Lake District and Cumbria. Applicants are welcome to submit their own ideas or chat with us about possibilities, but the following topics provide guidance on the type of projects considered. These are particular areas where we would like more research to help in our campaigning work. We may consider a higher level of grant for these topics, but we would also expect a stronger input into the research.

  • Tourism related employment in Cumbria
  • Perceptions of military low flying in the Lake District
  • Rural employment generation and impacts
  • The application of Cumbrian coastal management strategies
  • Defining local housing need and use of housing needs surveys
  • Features of local distinctiveness in Cumbria
  • Use of Registered Commons and Village Greens in Cumbria
  • Good & bad local building design, & design guidance
  • The effectiveness of Section 106 Agreements
  • Surveys of notable landscape features, e.g. powerlines, field boundaries, native woodlands, commons, orchards
  • The establishment of new native woodland on open land in Cumbria over the past 100 years.
  • Countryside Commission's Countryside Character Maps & English Nature's
  • Natural Areas Maps : implications for change
  • Surveys of sheepfolds, pinfolds and washfolds in Cumbria
  • Enclosure Awards for Cumbria : implications for the present landscape
  • Thirlmere: history & progress of lakeshore native woods
  • Economics & potential of electric boating on Windermere 

We do not usually fund projects concerned with nature conservation or ecological issues.

Applicants should submit proposals, consisting of  about 500 words, detailing the subject area to be covered, the aims of and reasons behind the project and methods of research. Successful applicants will be encouraged to discuss their proposals before beginning research. There is no deadline for the submission of applications.

We have an extensive archive of student reports, some of which have received FLD funding.
Browse our research reports archive to see some of  the kind of projects that we have supported in the past.

To find out more about our student grant scheme or for general information about the Lake District for research purposes send us an e-mail

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