Get funded for project diving

Jane Maddocks sets out financing opportunities for projects via the British Sub-Aqua Jubilee Trust...

I have been lucky enough to have been involved in some really great projects looking at wrecks and drowned land surfaces.

Projects can be very expensive – and this is where the British Sub-Aqua Jubilee Trust (BSAJT) can make a big difference.

If you have a project in mind where the results could be of benefit to the diving community, then read on.

According to the BSAJT, often divers, individually or in groups, have ideas for extending their activities beyond normal club diving but need funds to get started. Perhaps you want to dive, record and research Second World War wrecks. Maybe investigating marine life in some remote part of the world would be your goal, or surveying mermaid’s purses in your local area.

The grant is awarded to one person, and there are conditions attached – but the good news is that you, as project leader, can open your project to all your diving friends qualified to do the dives you are doing, irrespective of the diving organisation they belong to.

To be considered for a grant you need to be properly qualified for the diving you wish to do and have a clear idea of what you want to do with the project.

How to apply for a BSAJT grant

The project leader can have members from different diving organisations contributing to the project - but if you then want to enter for the Duke of Cambridge Scuba Prize then that is only open to you and the BSAC members of your team. You don’t have to be the recipient of a grant award to apply for the Duke of Cambridge Scuba Prize.

If your branch has completed a cracking project, with good scientific/recording credentials, just look at the Duke of Cambridge Scuba Prize entry from the BSAC website. If it feels right, then get applying. The presentation is always at one of the Royal Palaces, and Prince William presents the prize. The application deadline is not moveable - so make sure you have your entry ready to send before the closing date.

The Duke of Cambridge Scuba Prize

Pictured right, the Duke of Cambridge meets Rachel Bynoe, leader of a diving project on fossils in the North Sea that won the 2019 Duke of Cambridge Scuba Prize.

This  column was originally published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 117, August 2021. For more membership benefits, visit bsac.com/benefits.

Images in this online version may have been substituted from the original images in SCUBA magazine due to usage rights.