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Official Development Assistance Update

In March, we explained that to fund a necessary increase in defence spending, the UK Government decided in the current fiscal and economic circumstances to reduce its Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget. Climate and nature remain top priorities for the UK’s ODA budget, alongside humanitarian and health, but as the overall aid budget reduces, we will need to achieve more with less by targeting our support where it has the most impact.  

What does this mean for the IWT Challenge Fund? 

The UK Government has now set budgets for Government Departments until March 2029, and Defra has confirmation of the funding available for a reduced number of Round 11 projects. We are in the process of conducting final checks before we award funding to successful projects. Applicants will be contacted directly over the next few weeks, but if you have any questions please get in touch with the IWT Challenge Fund team on BCF-IWTCF@niras.com. 

At this stage, we do not have any information on future funding rounds, however, we will share an update on this in November.