Tag Archives: Commonwealth Grants

COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION OPEN CALL GRANTS FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS

Application Deadline:  23 October 2025 at 1pm BTS

LOCATION: United Kingdom

The Commonwealth Foundation open call grants seek to facilitate constructive engagement between civil society and decision-makers, including civil society participation in policy development and implementation. 

ELIGIBILITY:

Applications must address one or more of our three priority themes. All applications are required to demonstrate how they will integrate gender considerations into their project design and implementation. 

Before you apply, please check if you are eligible.

Only applications meeting the eligibility criteria will be considered.

The applicant must be a not-for-profit civil society organisation (CSO) registered in an eligible Commonwealth Foundation Member State.

The applicant organisation must have a minimum of three years’ demonstrable experience working on participatory governance and advocacy within the area/theme(s) of the proposed project. Organisations that have been registered and operating for less than three years are not eligible.

Applicant organisations that are currently implementing, or that have recently completed, a Commonwealth Foundation Grant but have not received their final payment, are not eligible to apply to this grant call.

The project must seek to facilitate change through constructive engagement between civil society and decision-makers, including civil society participation in policy development and decision-making, within one or more of the Foundation’s priority themes (see above).

Proposals must relate to projects that are expected to begin after the 1 August 2026 and before the end of September 2026.

To check your eligibility, please refer to the eligible countries map and complete the eligibility quiz.

BENEFIT:

 They offer grants of up to £60,000 to civil society organisations in the Commonwealth.

APPLY

ASSOCIATION OF COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITIES EARLY CAREER CONFERENCE GRANTS

Application Deadline:  26 June 2025, 15:00 UTC

LOCATION: United Kingdom

Early Career Conference Grants help to ensure that emerging researchers—and the universities that employ them—can benefit from the valuable opportunity of attending and taking part in in-person conferences in Commonwealth countries outside of their country of work. All awardees will be required to complete a report on completion of their award.  

ELIGIBILITY:

Be an early career researcher/academic at an ACU member university

Be within 7 years of the start of their academic (research/teaching) career, with the exception of those who have had career breaks. A career break is a period of time out from employment for personal or professional reasons, including to care for children. 

Identify a conference that they would like to attend in a Commonwealth country, taking place between August 2025 and 31 July 2026. 

Applicants need to be either chairing a session, presenting a paper, or presenting a poster as part of their conference attendance to be considered for a grant.

Review the application guidance and FAQs.

Submit an application through the online application form. 

If you already have a MyACU account, you can access the grant application form through this platform when applications open. 

If you do not already have a MyACU account, please ensure that you first register for an account here, then follow the instructions in the registration email to log in to the system before accessing the application form when applications open.

BENEFIT:

​Grants are a maximum of GBP 2,000, which can be used to cover: 

Conference registration fee 

Flights 

Accommodation 

Visa costs 

Travel and health insurance 

APPLY