Facility for Investment Ready Nature in Scotland (FIRNS) - Update on our Round 3 Grants

FIRNS has always been a competitive fund, which has reflected the appetite for attracting private investment into nature projects that will scale up and progress its restoration. From the funder’s perspective, it is great to have a thriving and competitive fund, but it also presents a challenge as we receive applications from more good projects than we can fund. With so much ambition and so many innovative ideas, every decision we make is important.

This update is offered with sensitivity to all who have engaged with our process, both in the current funding round and in the past.

An area of interest

FIRNS Round 3 launched in February, with an application deadline of March. In this short timeframe interest in the programme was strong, evidenced by the 97 registered attendees for its the launch webinar. 

In previous rounds, approximately one third of applications didn’t make it past the Expression of Interest stage -primarily due to mismatches against the FIRNS outcomes. In this round, while we welcomed enquiries, we did not have this same opportunity to offer feedback and advice. We received 31 applications in total, and we know more applications were started or considered but not submitted within our timescales.

The Funding Gap

We acknowledge the time and effort that it takes to apply to FIRNS, particularly projects applying to both NatureScot and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. While the popularity of the scheme is wonderful, it brings with it a significant ask, with total project costs across the 31 applications of £5.4m, £3.1m of that requested of NatureScot, with the remainder coming from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and a range of other partnership funding. Against this backdrop, we can offer approximately £900,000 (with additional funding also coming through our partnership with the Heritage Fund) which is essential to enable projects to happen, but it cannot meet the demand.

Our grant values vary from around £40K up to £240K, and there is an impressive variety in the requests we receive. Given that we have prioritised projects with the greatest potential for impact on the aims of Scotland’s Natural Capital Market Framework through our larger Market and Investment Readiness grants, we hope to extend our support to as many organisations as we can taking into account the variety of project types, sizes and locations and we estimate that we will be able to support around 10 projects in Round 3. This gives us a highly competitive round, with an indicative success rate of approximately 30%. In the previous two rounds success rates were 65% and 53% respectively.

Progress to Date

We’ve completed our initial sift, and all 31 applications have progressed to the assessment stage, which the Funding team are now undertaking. These assessments will inform the deliberations of our grant-making panel later this month, where final decisions will be made.

The Scale of the Challenge

The nature sector in Scotland is facing unparalleled challenges in tackling the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, and we need to increase the pace and scale of nature recovery if we are to reach climate and biodiversity targets and wider land use ambitions. The dedication evident in each project proposal reflects the incredible work happening across Scotland to bring benefits for nature and for our communities through new funding models. Again, we want to acknowledge the time, energy and thought that has gone into each application.

This process reminds us of the immense resources needed to match the ambition and passion of our sector. While we continue to offer support for nature across all our grant programmes, those funds can only stretch so far. We are committed to being as transparent, fair, and impactful as possible through the projects we support.

A big thank you to all who applied, and we look forward to sharing updates on the outcomes of FIRNS Round 3 shortly. Together we can continue to shape and grow the use of private investment and market-based mechanisms to finance the restoration of Scotland’s nature for all.