Eastern Green Link 1

About this fund

The Eastern Green Link 1, or EGL1, is a major electricity transmission development that will transport renewable energy via a subsea cable from East Lothian to County Durham.  The project is a joint venture with National Grid Electricity Transmission who are responsible for the section in England with SP Energy Networks (SPEN) responsible for the section in Scotland. You can read more about the transmission project here.

The ‘local grants’ scheme from the EGL1 Community Benefit Fund Scotland is being administered by Foundation Scotland and is provided by SP Energy Networks.  

This fund supports projects located within or directly benefiting West Barns, Dunbar and East Lammermuir Community Council areas in East Lothian, and the Cockburnspath & Cove Community Council area in the Borders.  

Around £800,000 will be made available through this fund with £720,000 available in this round. A further round of funding is planned to open in late January 2027. Please check back for dates.

You can apply for grants between £20,001 and £500,000 and multi-year awards of up to two years are available.  

If you want to apply for a grant of £1,000 to £20,000, you can access the Grassroots Grants scheme administered by LocalGiving here.

Purpose of this fund

The fund supports projects located within or directly benefiting people in East Lammermuir, West Barns, Dunbar and Cockburnspath & Cove, geographically defined by community council boundaries.

The Community Benefit Fund will support local communities to deliver social, environmental and economic benefits by funding projects aligned with the following themes:

• Financial resilience and educational inclusion
• Employability support and skills development
• Social and digital inclusion, health and wellbeing, and active lifestyles
• Community facilities, spaces and buildings
• Green spaces and access to the natural environment
• Sustainable and inclusive transport 

These themes will be considered alongside locally identified priorities. 

Additional criteria

The fund can support 100% of eligible project costs. All costs, other than staffing costs, will require three quotes to be submitted with your application. A wide range of costs can be supported, but please note the following:

• Projects must be ready to start: costs confirmed, plans and designs finalised, permissions in place and be able to start within six months of a grant offer.
• Staffing and volunteer where these are attributable, proportionate and appropriately apportioned, and directly relate to community benefit
• Core costs, such as rent, utility bills, IT and HR support, can be pro-rated to project delivery time but cannot be standalone applications.

If you are not sure about whether your project is eligible for support, please contact Foundation Scotland for advice. 

Who can apply?

Your project must provide benefit in one or more of the West Barns, Dunbar, East Lammermuir or Cockburnspath & Cove Community Council areas, and your group/organisation must meet these standard eligibility criteria. 

Please make sure you read the eligibility criteria before applying.

In addition to these standard criteria, this fund can support further education colleges and universities, where they are applying for an eligible community benefit project and not acting as a statutory body. Local authorities can be named partners, but not applicants.

What can’t be funded?

Information on what the fund cannot support is provided in our What we can't fund page.  

In addition, this specific fund is unable to support:

• VAT your organisation can claim back  
• Your group's normal running costs, if they are not part of the project
• Research projects and studies
• Feasibility studies
• Legal representation or reviews
• One-off celebratory or seasonal events (summer fetes, fireworks displays, Christmas light switch-ons etc.) where there is no impact beyond the event
• Planning costs or other statutory costs
• Payments to SP Energy Networks, including DNO connection costs 

How are decisions made?

SP Energy Networks (SPEN) is establishing a local community panel that will make decisions on awards. Its purpose is to represent local views, define area priorities, and make independent decisions on grant awards. The panel for EGL1 will be composed of local community members from impacted areas.  

Foundation Scotland assesses each application. The community panel then considers your application against the Fund’s themes and locally identified priorities; how well it will be managed and delivered; whether it is good value for money, and what difference it will make.  

If your application is unsuccessful, we will tell you why. You usually can apply to the Fund again – we will tell you if you cannot.