Rural Communities Themed Round

Please note, this programme has now closed.

The Rural Communities Themed Round aims both to address barriers and create new opportunities for participation in sport in rural communities.

We want the programme to be as flexible as possible, and would therefore welcome applications either to modernise or enhance sporting facilities, or provide revenue funding for any aspect of sports development, or a combination of the two.

The total funding available is £10 million of National Lottery money.

Vision and aims of the programme

The overall aim of this investment programme is to develop projects that encourage people living in rural communities to participate and / or sustain their participation in sport, and help those with talent fulfil their potential.

Successful projects and bids will be directly linked to at least one of Sport England’s strategic aims:

• Grow: getting one million people doing more sport and working with the Youth Sport Trust to offer young people at least five hours of high quality sport a week
• Sustain: increasing participants’ satisfaction with their sporting experience, and reducing the number of young people aged 16-18 who drop out of sport
• Excel: improving talent development.

Stage two applications

Rural Communities applicants who are now developing their Stage 2 submission, can now access guidances notes and upload their submissions via our My Applications online portal.