Maritime Connected funding offer

Lloyds Register Foundation launched its new strategy for 2024 – 2029 focusing resources across three interconnected priority areas: Safer Maritime Systems; Skilled People for Safer Engineering; and Safer, Sustainable Infrastructure. The Foundation has been working globally to engineer a safer world for many years, building on the legacy of Lloyds Register, dating back to 1760 as a maritime classification society.

Our experience of supporting diverse projects to improve safety at sea suggests a growing need to connect and strengthen the various industries and organisations, including voices from emerging economies that work across the maritime system. We see a gap which, if not addressed, could lead to unintended and potentially catastrophic consequences. For example, if two different projects in different parts of the world are looking at similar aspects of maritime safety, it would make sense for them to work together, to make sure that they are neither duplicating work nor missing some vital issue. In addressing this gap, the Foundation invites applications that will contribute to ocean stakeholders and partners working together to share safety challenges and co-create interventions that improve safety and reduce risk to people and infrastructure across the whole of maritime.

The Maritime Connected initiative looks to support organisations in the maritime community to connect parts of the maritime system in relation to current or future safety challenges, with preference given to safety challenges relating to decarbonisation, digitalisation, the impacts of climate and safety at sea. It will enable us to understand better, current and future maritime challenges while providing insights and interventions that keep people safer.

This initiative contributes to the Lloyds Register and Lloyds Register Foundation’s study of the Global Maritime Trends 2050 report which analyses future likely emerging threats, risks and opportunities and global collaboration.

In line with our Grant Eligibility and Grant Funding Guidelines, this initiative is open primarily to the following category of organisations across the maritime systems.

• Registered Charities: Non-profit organisations with a clear public benefit focus, registered with appropriate charity regulators.
• Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs): Independent organisations that operate internationally or locally to promote social or environmental causes.
• Academic Institutions: Universities and research centres engaging in education, research, or public engagement activities aligned with Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s goals.
• Non-Profit Organisations: Organisations that reinvest profits into their operations to advance their mission, without distributing earnings to stakeholders.
• Social Enterprises: For-profit businesses with a clear social or environmental purpose, where profit is reinvested into achieving that purpose. 

The Foundation adheres to the following principles when granting funds to non-charitable organisations in line with government guidelines:

• Lloyd’s Register Foundation grants must only fund activities, services, or outcomes aligned with its charitable mission
• Grant terms require recipients to adhere to purpose-related restrictions.
• Grants must not provide personal benefit to individuals involved.
• Lloyd’s Register Foundation and its Trustees must justify each funding decision as serving the Foundation’s best interests.
• Recipients must use funds for the stated purpose, ensuring public or organisational benefit, not profit.
• These principles ensure that all grants to non-charitable organisations remain aligned with Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s mission and are compliant with relevant regulatory standards.

We are looking for proposals that align with the principles underpinning the Foundation's approach to the safety of maritime systems 

• Inclusion. Improving ocean safety and sustainability requires multiple perspectives (beyond shipping and engineering), especially from underrepresented voices and people who are not always involved in decision making in developing countries. All voices have equal importance.  
• Visibility. For ocean activities to comprise a safe and sustainable system, we need better visibility and understanding of different ocean activities and how they interact and intersect and where the gaps may be.    
• Collaboration and co-operation. We strive to bring a diverse mix of stakeholders from across the ocean community together to share work and solve collective challenges. Deep and decisive thinking, planning, and action is key.   
• Local perspectives on global challenges. We draw on and respond to local insight, especially from the Foundation’s emerging hubs in key maritime-focussed states in emerging economies where the 7 ocean centres are located.
• Evidence-based. We are led by the best available evidence and generate new evidence where needed. We seek advice widely, not only from within the shipping industry.    
• Long-view. Effective solutions to safety challenges require an understanding of broader context. We seek to enable the ocean community to better understand significant global trends and how they impact on safety, both now and in the future.   
• Lasting change. We strive to identify and address underpinning causes of safety challenges, to achieve lasting change.     
• Outward focussed. We draw on and share ideas and learning from across the ocean space. The ocean is not just about shipping but the wider economy and the supply chains that serves it. 
• Reflection and learning. We also make sure there is always opportunity to feedback to us with points for reflection and learning into our work, to continuously improve.   

We support work that makes a real difference, is clearly linked to maritime systems, and demonstrate potential to leverage funding from other sources. Applications from under-represented groups including seafarers, coastal communities, women, and maritime educators from emerging economies are encouraged to apply demonstrating strong collaborations to improve safety, identify skills gaps and exchange knowledge leading to sustainable outcomes in the maritime industry. These could include: 

• multi-stakeholder workshops or other forms of convening that address safety issues along a design or supply chain
• running a collaborative inquiry, where stakeholders can work together or engage to innovatively identify or solve a maritime related issue running a call for evidence from maritime experts in under-represented groups that can contribute to engineer a safer world
• Qualitative research methods such as ethnographic research or other forms of deep engagement that uncover relevant but under-represented perspectives on a safety challenge (including learning from the past via archival research),
• travel to key events with priority for those from underrepresented communities who require financial support to participate in policy discussions that have safety implications and a voice in international agenda
• Collaborations such as joint advocacy and campaigns to increase public awareness on maritime safety initiatives
• A project to link up voices and perspectives along the supply or design chain, including the end-user, to make the system safer

Applications will be considered as out of scope and will not be considered under any of these criteria;

• Work that doesn’t help different parts of the maritime world work together or together coming up with better ways of doing things.
• Works not aligned with the Foundation’s charitable strategy
• Works which excludes unheard voices and underrepresented groups affected by maritime challenges
• Individuals, where activities only directly benefit the applicant
• Construction or refurbishment projects—for example, buildings or facilities
• School, college or university fees
• Retrospective funding
• Lobbying and campaigning
• Business / first-class travel 
• General hardware or IT equipment for organisations where it is not specific to the proposed project. However, equipment that is specialist in nature and demonstrably essential to the delivery of the proposed project may be considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to clear justification.

Funding support 

•  Funding from £2,000 to support activities such as meetings and convenings to build skills and knowledge or up to £60,000 for bigger projects that bring parts of the maritime sector together.

Support for Dissemination and Publicity

• Successful applicants will be supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation in promoting the project outputs and outcomes to key stakeholders and decision-makers, ensuring that your work reaches the right audiences to drive change.

Please apply via the Lloyd’s Registers Foundation online grant application system Flexigrant portal on the homepage.

To begin your application, you will need to create an account on Flexigrant. Once registered, you will receive an email to verify your account. Please ensure all organisational and contact details are accurate when creating your account.

Upcoming Maritime Connected Rounds

• Tuesday, 19th August 2025 – 6th February 2026

Webinar for Applicants – 3rd September 2025 

We encourage all potential applicants to attend an informational webinar on 3rd September 2025 where we will provide an overview of the call, eligibility criteria, and application process, followed by a Q&A session. Details on how to register will be available on our website. 

The Foundation team will review all the submitted proposals and decide on the proposals we will take forward to contract at its sole discretion.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, smaller grants within the funding scale may be able to be processed more quickly. 

Please note grants are not normally awarded consecutively and can be no more than 12 months long. 

Assessment Criteria:

• Alignment to the maritime connected initiative
• Potential for significant real-world impact
• Evidenced need

Inclusion of unheard voices and underrepresented communities in the maritime industry in emerging economies.

This is the first pilot of this Maritime Connected call. We want to explore, with you, how different size small to medium grants can make a difference in making the maritime system more connected, to achieve a safer maritime system for all. This, therefore, is a trial, to see how we can best do this: the original call will be open for 6 months, then depending on the initial results of this period, successive, perhaps slightly amended calls may follow. 

Should you have any further questions, please contact: maritimeconnected@lrfoundation.org.uk