Biodiversity

How might we protect and regenerate biodiversity at UAL through creative, place-based and systemic projects?

Nature is all around us, but it’s increasingly under pressure from man-made threats like climate change, habitat exploitation and urbanisation. Creative higher education has a vital role to play in imagining new approaches to biodiversity restoration and demonstrating how design, performance, art, architecture, fashion, media and curation can help regenerate ecosystems in urban contexts.

Our campuses and communities offer a unique testbed for this work. By enriching biodiversity at our campuses and combining creative practice with ecological knowledge, we can show what a regenerative and place-based approach to biodiversity looks like in the heart of a city.

The Biodiversity Challenge is organised by the Social Purpose Lab and Estates Sustainability team as part of the Social Purpose Innovation Fund. The total pot available for this challenge is £10,000. Staff and student projects may apply for up to a maximum of £5,000 and must be delivered between February and July 2026.

Funded project teams will also be offered opportunities to connect with other staff and students, training, and project mentorship from UAL experts.

Projects should aim to achieve 1 or both of the following objectives:

1: Enhance and protect biodiversity on UAL campuses:

• Develop and deliver projects that directly improve the quantity and quality of habitats, trees, and green spaces across UAL.
• This may include new planting, water features, pollinator-friendly areas, or the introduction of supporting structures such as bird boxes, bug hotels, and green roofs.

2: Connect people and place through creative approaches to nature:

• Use art, design, performance, digital media, and other creative disciplines to engage staff, students, and local communities with biodiversity.
• Explore new ways of experiencing, understanding, and regenerating nature in an urban campus environment.

1: Budget efficiently with an itemised breakdown of spend, naming the intended hiring manager for staffing contracts and the intended suppliers for materials or services – you’re strongly encouraged to use UAL suppliers.

2: Ask for no more than the maximum challenge allocation of £5000 and allocate no more than 50% of the proposed spend to staffing costs.

3: UAL staff: get approval from your line manager, dean or director and key project stakeholders.

4: UAL students: get approval from your course leader and key project stakeholders.

5: Deliver a clear output within the project period: February to July 2026.

6: Design and deliver collaboratively so that benefits extend beyond individual practice. Collaboration across UAL Colleges, disciplines, staff and student groups is highly encouraged.

7: Consider how you can involve students and positively impact the student journey, directly or indirectly. The fund can’t support students’ final projects.

8: If your project involves sensitive data or direct engagement with vulnerable or marginalised communities, set out how:

• data risks will be managed, including GDPR compliance
• participants will be safeguarded (for example: a named, qualified safeguarding lead or experienced project partner)
• appropriate support and signposting will be provided.

In some cases, submission to the UAL Ethics Committee may be required.

9: Represent genuinely new initiatives, or a new, distinct phase of existing work. We cannot fund ongoing initiatives that already have substantial funding. If an existing initiative does not have enough or sustainable funding, you’ll need to make a strong case for how your proposed phase clearly aligns with the challenge brief and brings something innovative. You cannot rely on the fund to extend current work.

1: Projects focused on maintaining existing outdoor gardens, or conducting biodiversity impact scoping or ecological baseline surveys on UAL sites will be considered ineligible. This is due to the prioritisation of innovative approaches and ongoing work in these areas.

2: Projects must demonstrate how they can achieve a direct or indirect ecological benefit in the context of UAL and surrounding areas.

3: Projects that are primarily developing individual creative practice and are not connected to a broader community or environmental impact are ineligible.

4: Proposals must consider the long-term management and maintenance of the project, especially for physical interventions.

In January 2026, proposals will be reviewed through a participatory grant-making process. This means that applicants and a group of UAL staff and students will come together in person and decide how to allocate the available funds.

It’s mandatory for a representative from each project to attend 2 half-day meetings on 16 and 28 January. At these sessions, applicants will pitch their proposals in a short presentation.

Attendees, including applicants, will then provide each project with a score based on 3 criteria:

1: Togetherness and co-creation

Does the project bring people together, involve diverse voices, and strengthen connections across communities?

2: Innovation and legacy

Does the project introduce new ideas or approaches that create lasting benefits, with outcomes and learning that continue to make a difference into the future?

3: Clarity and alignment

Is there a clear and realistic plan that aligns with the challenge brief objectives and can make the vision a reality?

• Information webinar (optional): 16 October
• Applications open: 20 October
• Biodiversity applicant drop-in session 1 (optional): 14 October
• Collaboration workshop (optional): 30 October
• Biodiversity applicant drop-in session 2 (optional): 11 November
• Application deadline: 5 December
• Half day 1 – feedback session: 16 January (mandatory)
• Half day 2 – decision session: 28 January (mandatory)
• Project delivery period: February to July 2026

Apply for the Social Purpose Innovation Fund.

Download the Social Purpose Innovation Fund application guide (Word 65KB).