Category: Next Challenge Grant
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Meet the Winners of the 2024 Next Challenge Grant
I am delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 Next Challenge Grant. A wonderful spread of walking, running, cycling, climbing, swimming and skiing. Some in far flung places like Guam and Armenia, and others all done on by bus and train. And all uplifting to read about. Here they are in their own words……
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Crossing the Alps on foot
In their application, Next Challenge Grant winners and Zoe and Juliette described themselves as “passionate about hiking as well as sheep”. They were agricultural engineering students and decided to use their grant money for a 1,000 mile walk across the European alps, interviewing shepherds and shepherdesses on their way. The Next Challenge Grant is an…
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Microplastic Microexpedition on the River Severn
A-level student Alex was originally awarded a Next Challenge Grant in 2020 to walk the Cornish coastline, to raise awareness of the need to reduce our dependency on single-use plastics. The Covid pandemic intervened and the plan changed: instead of the Plastic Plod, Alex proposed a Plastic Paddle. With three friends, he paddled 120 miles…
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Walking the Lycian Way
Jes and Pete won a Next Challenge Grant in 2022 to walk the Lycian Way in southern Turkey. This is the report from their adventure (caution: may provoke severe wanderlust). The Next Challenge Grant is a crowd-funded adventure grant which has supported over 70 adventures since it was founded in 2015. Applications for 2023 are…
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Walking Orkney’s Trails
Rhonda Muir won a Next Challenge Grant in 2020 with her proposal to walk all 300+ miles of Orkney’s trails. Together with her husband, she’s building a website dedicated to preserving Orkney’s folk tales and history, as well as showing both locals and visitors the best off-the-beaten-path places to explore. By embracing what she calls…
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Walking the Staffordshire Way with a toddler
Marjorie Armijos won a Next Challenge Grant back in 2019. Originally from Ecuador, she moved to the UK a couple of years ago and applied for the grant as an excuse to explore her new local area of Staffordshire, planning to walk all 99 miles of the Staffordshire Way with her two year old daughter,…
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Meet the Winners of the 2023 Next Challenge Grant
Following a Bulgarian narrow gauge railway. Walking from one white horse to another. A triathlon across Wales. A swim the length of Cumbria. A cycle through the Great Sambisa Forest. A cycle to every settlement on the Isle of Wight. These brilliant ideas and more from the 13 wonderful winners of the 2023 Next Challenge…
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Traversing Mount Tantalus
Athlyn Cathcart-Keays won a Next Challenge Grant in 2022 to traverse Mount Tantalus, near her home in Canada. Starting from her home at sea level, she crossed the range over two days, encountering everything from sunshine, snow and storms. This is her trip report. The Next Challenge Grant is a crowd-funded adventure grant which has supported over…
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Running across every UK national park
Mike Creighton won a Next Challenge Grant in 2019 to run across all the national parks in the UK. Health issues means he still has one park left to go, but in the meantime here is his story. The Next Challenge Grant is a crowd-funded adventure grant which has supported over 70 adventures since it was founded…
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Bikepacking Scotland coast to coast (and back again)
Kay Emmerson won a Next Challenge Grant in 2022 to bike across Scotland and back. It was exactly the sort of low key, low cost adventure we love to support. This is her trip report. The Next Challenge Grant is a crowd-funded adventure grant which has supported over 70 adventures since it was founded in 2015. Applications…
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Walking the Bob Graham Round
Colin Foord won a Next Challenge Grant in 2022 to walk the iconic Bob Graham Round. Aged 17, he completed the route over 3 days, covering over 100km with 8,200 metres of climbing. The Next Challenge Grant is a crowd-funded adventure grant which has supported over 70 adventures since it was founded in 2015. Applications for 2023…
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2023 Grant Winners
Here is a sneak preview of the winning ideas from the 2023 Next Challenge Grant. I will upload details once I’ve heard back from all the winners with their responses and some photographs. As ever, the headline ideas rarely do justice to how good these applications are but they should give you a sense of…