The Road Safety Trust has announced its priority themes for 2019 and 2020 applications.

Following consultation with the sector, the theme chosen for this year is ‘innovative traffic calming and provision for vulnerable road users’.

For 2020 the theme will be ‘how technology can be used to reduce criminality and unsafe driving’.

An additional funding opportunity, the ‘Small Grants Programme’, will be open from September until the end of December this year and in subsequent years.

It is expected that awards through the Small Grants Programme will be between £10,000 and £30,000 per project.

Road Safety Trust chief executive Sally Lines explained that the Trust was committed to making the UK’s roads safer and achieving impact through the funding of practical measures, research, dissemination and education. “To be as effective as possible in our grant-making, we will aim to get every project ‘from left to right’; in other words, not just research but each one a journey to making a tangible difference on the roads.”

“We have decided to announce next year’s theme (on reducing crimilality and unsafe driving) now in order to give applicants as much notice as possible. This should increase the quality of applications for the topic that came out top in terms of its ‘crucial’ rating in an online consultation which took place in 2018.”

Full details of eligibility and how to apply will be made available before the 2019 funding application window opens on Monday 18 March. Applications must be received by Friday 21 June.For more details about how to apply, as well as general information on the Road Safety Trust, please visit www.roadsafetytrust.org.ukThe Road Safety Trust is a registered charity. It is governed by a board of 11 trustees, who are allowed to serve for a maximum of two terms (each up to three years in length).Of these 11 trustees, one will always be the National Police Chiefs’ Council Roads Policing lead. This is because the 43 members of the Trust are the police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Another trustee is nominated by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.The other trustees have been brought together to represent the research community, local authorities and the private sector. They are all specialists in governance. Because the Road Safety Trust is a charity, it quite rightly has a level of public accountability and scrutiny. It is also obliged to publish annual accounts. Furthermore, trustees themselves have the legal responsibility to ensure the Trust is meeting its charitable objectives, which are:

• to fund road safety research and practical interventions;
• to reduce death and injury on the roads;
• to disseminate the findings of the projects it supports.