35 people have been shortlisted for a Next Challenge Grant. The full list is published below.
Of the ~200 ideas submitted, 35 have been selected to complete a more detailed application form for the chance to win a grant and/or equipment for their trip. The winners will be announced in April.
For the many people that did not make it into the shortlist, I have emailed them to offer whatever non-financial help I can. I know from previous years that many such people still go on to complete their adventures regardless and I very much hope it is the same this year.
Thank you to everyone who donated to make this grant possible: from the 52 crowd-funders that raised nearly £500 (our largest sum and most generous year per individual so far) plus the dozen adventurers who each contributed £100 or more.
For a breakdown of applicants by age, income, education, nationality and other demographics, see my recent analysis: Who is Applying for The Next Challenge Grant?
For the shortlist of ideas, keep on reading…
2018 Next Challenge Grant Shortlist
As always, I would like to stress that I have boiled down each of the below ideas into a single, pithy sentence that does not do justice to the grand plans and stories behind them.
However, I hope these will give you a flavour of the wonderful adventures people are planning.
- Walking the worst selling Ordnance Survey map
- Running the Western Front
- Two filmmakers build their own bikes and cycle from the Arctic to the Baltic exploring ‘Every Man’s Right’ to camp
- Three Munros at three years old
- Cycling Kingston to Portland, Jamaica, and back (by a Jamaican)
- Dancing across the USA
- Father and son canoeing the Leeds-Liverpool canal
- Walking with camels through the Kaisut desert (by a Kenyan)
- Stand-up-paddleboarding the Tyne
- Coast-to-coast on inflatable kayak
- Skiing across frozen Lake Femund, Norway
- Teenage twins canoeing the River Spey
- Hiking Britain’s 1,600 mile watershed
- Running the Isle of Man ‘TT’ route
- Walking across Moldova
- Walking the Glyndwrs Way with three kids
- Cycling the Faroe Islands
- Walking 180 miles from Boston to the summit of Mount Washington
- Five women riding rescued horses to the Arctic Circle
- Slovakian student circumnavigating Gotland on foot
- Teenagers walking the Tour du Mont Blanc
- Completing an ‘Ironman’ triathlon on the Skyline Trail, Canada
- Bikepacking the Transcaucasian Trail
- Cycling between and climbing up every route in the ‘Classic Rock’ guide book
- Retracing a 120-mile girls’ Youth Hostelling Association route from 1945
- Cycling the five belts of the Paris suburbs
- Food technologist cycling the Netherlands to research foods of the future
- Tandem kayaking from England to the Black Sea
- Climbing Balaitous in a weekend
- Climbing Mount Cameroon (by a Cameroonian)
- Bikepacking across Luzon, the Philippines (by a Filipino)
- Walking Dartmoor’s tors in one go
- Bikepacking every county in Pennsylvania
- Kayaking the Drin River, Kosovo
- Walking the Via Dinarica trail across the Balkans
You can see previous years’ shortlists and all winners here.
