Through the research grant programme, we hope to help charities and organisations to make an immediate positive impact for disabled people, to develop, expand and improve transport related research for disabled people
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Maximum value:
£1,000,000
Objectives of Fund:
Through the research grant programme, we hope to help charities and organisations to make an immediate positive impact for disabled people, to develop, expand and improve transport related research for disabled people, and produce data and findings that can be freely accessed by all. Examples of areas where we are focussing our grant making include but are not limited to:
Grant funding for research into barriers and challenges faced by disabled people when accessing or using transport.
Grant funding for transport related research that identifies good practice and evaluates solutions.
Grant funding to conduct research to inform and improve new or existing transport related programmes and product design.
Charities and organisations can apply for grants from £50,000 to £1 million at any point over the next three years.
Disabled people make 38% fewer journeys than non-disabled people – a figure that hasn’t changed in the last decade. This “transport accessibility gap” tells us that there is much more that transport providers need to do to make sure that disabled people can travel across road, rail and air like non-disabled people, but to do it right, they need to know what disabled people want and need.
Investment in user-centred research and development can make a large impact for many disabled people, opening doors and making tangible differences to how they access transport in the UK. That is why Motability has identified research as a priority investment area.
Over the last year, Motability has grant funded a number of research related projects including user research carried out by disability charities to better understand the problems that disabled people face in the transport system - and how they can potentially be solved, and a PhD scholarship programme at Coventry University for disabled people and people with lived experience of disability.
From these projects we established that research is a key area in which Motability can help other charities and organisations to inform their work, be that to support a business or investment case for a new product or service for disabled people, or to influence business, decision makers and Government to do something differently.
Such is our commitment and belief in the power of quality, user centred research, Motability is also launching an Evidence Centre for inclusive transport with the aim of closing the transport accessibility gap. We believe that the scale of research, innovation and collaboration needed requires significant investment and are funding the Evidence Centre with £20 million over seven years. We are currently in the competition phase of a process to appoint a consortium of disability, transport and research experts to run the centre.
