Terms and conditions

The competition

The Woodland Trust ('the Trust') is inviting proposals from people aged 16 to 25 for projects to help fight the climate crisis. This presents a wonderful opportunity for young people to directly contribute and put into practice an original project of their choosing. For the winning applications, the Trust will contribute up to £5,000 to put their idea into action.

The theme is open to your personal interpretation, but the Trust is inviting entries that are aligned with its strategy of 'inspiring, protecting and creating woodland for people and the planet'.

All entries will be judged against five key criteria:

• Innovation

• Impact - how your project links to the Woodland Trust strategy ('inspiring, protecting and creating woodland for people and the planet')

• Feasibility

• Research

• Commitment

See further details of each the five key criteria for judging on the Igniting Innovation webpage.

There are two categories for entry:

1. The 'Open to All: Hope' category is open to anyone living in UK, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, for any original idea that links to the Woodland Trust strategy.

2. The 'Future Farmers: Resilience' category is open to any young farmer or young person who is involved in farming/agroforestry. The idea must still link to the Woodland Trust strategy, and the applicant must be living in England or Wales. If you are unsure whether you come into either category, please contact the Woodland Trust for advice.

Both categories will be judged against the same five key criteria.

For both categories, the competition will involve an initial written or video submission.

Open to All: Hope category: nine applications will be shortlisted to stage two; six applications will be shortlisted to interview; there will be three winners.

Future Farmers: Resilience category: six applications shortlisted to stage two; four applications will be shortlisted to interview; there will be two winners.

The judges will be members of the Woodland Trust’s nature recovery directorate and youth reimaged team. The young farmers award may also invite Farming Advocates to assist.

The closing date for entries is  9am on Sunday 31 January 2027.

The prizes

Open to All: Hope category

Three winning applications will each be awarded £5,000 in order to put their idea into practice ('the Project'). The first instalment (50% of the overall prize fund) will be paid April/May 2027. The second instalment will be paid from June 2027.*

Future Farmers: Resilience category

Two winners will each be awarded £5,000 in order to put their idea into practice ('the Project'). The first instalment (50% of the overall prize fund) will be paid April/May 2027. The second instalment will be paid from June 2027.*

*Subsequent dates for payment of instalments of the prize money will depend upon the winning idea. More information can be found in Condition 5.2 below.

General competition rules

1. The Promoter

1.1. The promoter is: The Woodland Trust of Kempton Way, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 6LL ('the Trust').

2. How to enter

2.1. The competition will run from 5 October 2026 (the 'Opening Date') to 9am Sunday 31 January 2027 (the 'Closing Date') inclusive.

2.2. Entries can be submitted by individuals or as a joint entry by a team, which must have no more than four team members. All members of the team must be within the 16–25 age range and must live within the regions specified for that category.

2.3. To enter the competition, entries must be submitted using the official application form found on the Woodland Trust Igniting Innovation website. If an applicant is not confident to submit via the online form or has additional needs they can contact youth@woodlandtrust.org.uk to be offered other ways to apply, which may include a submission of a video entry. Video entries must not exceed five minutes in length or the video will be disregarded in assessing the entry.

2.4. Entrants must complete all sections of the online application forms or the application will not be considered.

2.5. All competition entries must be received by the Trust no later than 9am on the Closing Date. All competition entries received after the Closing Date will not be considered.

2.6. The Trust will not accept:

(a) responsibility for competition entries that are lost, mislaid, damaged or delayed in transit, regardless of cause, including, for example, as a result of any equipment failure, technical malfunction, systems, satellite, network, server, computer hardware or software failure of any kind; or

(b) proof of transmission as proof of receipt of entry to the competition.

2.7. By submitting a competition entry, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.

2.8. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted and no feedback on any entry will be provided.

3. Eligibility

3.1

(a) 'Open to All: Hope' category is open to any person aged 16–25 living in UK, including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

(b) The 'Future Farmers: Resilience' category is open to any young farmer or young person aged 16–25 who is involved in farming/agroforestry. The applicant must be living in England or Wales.

3.2 If you are unsure whether you come into either category, please contact the Woodland Trust for advice.

3.3. The competition is only open to persons aged between 16 years and 25 years on the Closing Date.

3.4 The competition is NOT open to:

(a) employees of the Trust or its subsidiary companies;

(b) employees of agents or suppliers of the Trust or its subsidiary companies, who are professionally connected with the competition or its administration; or

(c) members of the immediate families or households of (a) and (b) above.

3.5. In entering the competition, you confirm that your application is your own original work and content does not infringe any rights of third parties, including but not limited to copyright or use or reproduce any third-party trademarks without the necessary permissions and consents.

3.6. In entering the competition, you confirm that you are eligible to do so and eligible to claim any prize you may win. The Trust may require you to provide proof that you are eligible to enter the competition.

3.7. If you are under the age of 18, you must provide written parental or guardian consent to claim your prize. The Trust may ask the winners to provide proof of age.

3.8. By entering, entrants (or their parent/guardian as appropriate) will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by these competition terms and conditions and the Trust reserves the right to exclude any entry from the competition at any time and in its absolute discretion if the Trust has reason to believe that an entrant has breached these rules, acted fraudulently in any way or brings the Trust into disrepute. The Trust reserves all rights to disqualify you if your conduct is contrary to the spirit or intention of the prize competition.

4. Judging process

4.1. The entries will be judged through the following process:

4.2. Stage one – assessment of entries. All entries will be assessed by a judging panel comprising members of the Woodland Trust’s youth reimagined team and nature recovery directorate (plus independent Farming Advocates for the 'Future Farmers: Resilience' prize). The judging panel will compile an initial shortlist of nine applications for the 'Open to All: Hope' category and six applications for the 'Future Farmers: Resilience' category. All shortlisted applicants will receive feedback on their applications. Each of the shortlisted entrants will be contacted by the Trust within three weeks of the Closing Date. If, after reasonable attempts, a shortlisted entrant cannot be contacted, the Trust reserves the right to offer the place on the shortlist to the next best entry.

4.3. Stage two – from the initial shortlists, six shortlisted applicants will be invited to an online interview for the 'Open to All: Hope' category and four for the 'Future Farmers: Resilience' category.

4.4 For both categories, applicants will be expected to have taken feedback into account in their interviews. The judging panel will then select the winning applications (three for the 'Open to All: Hope' category and two for the 'Future Farmers: Resilience' category), assessing each against the five key criteria set out above.

4.5 The decision of the panel of Judges will be final.

5. The prizes

5.1 'Open to All: Hope' category: three winners will each be awarded £5,000 and up to 12 months mentorship support. The first instalment (50% of the overall prize fund) will be paid in April/May 2027. The second instalment will be paid from June 2027 in accordance with condition 5.2 below.

'Future Farmers: Resilience': two winners will each be awarded £5,000 and up to 12 months mentorship support. The first instalment (50% of the overall prize fund) will be paid in April/May 2027. The second instalment will be paid from June 2027 in accordance with condition 5.2 below.

5.2. The financial award will be provided in the form of payment by instalments made to a nominated bank account. 50% of the award will be paid by April/May 2027. Subsequent payments and instalment amounts will be determined by the Trust in accordance with the proposed Project spend requirements agreed by the judges, who will use their expertise and experience to assess the Project’s financial needs. Payment of any future instalments will be subject to satisfactory evidence of proof of spending of any previous instalments. The winners will be required to enter into a legally binding agreement to commit that any funds will only be spent on their project and any funds not spent on the project will need to be repaid.

5.3. Each winner will need to commit to sharing quarterly updates regarding the project with the youth reimaged team, as well as submitting an end of project report. Winners will be supported by their allocated mentor and Woodland Trust staff in the management of the project throughout the mentorship period awarded to the project.

Winners of the 'Open to All: Hope' category will be expected to attend a mandatory induction training which will be held Saturday 3–Sunday 4 April 2027. Travel and accommodation and catering will be provided in order for participants to attend.

Winners of the 'Future Farmers: Resilience' category will be expected to provide the Woodland Trust youth reimaged team with three suitable dates in March/April 2027 where training can be provided. This will be done in whichever way is most appropriate for the winner – it could be online or in person with a member of the youth team traveling to meet the applicant. They agree to provide three dates in advance and commit to attending their individual induction.

5.4 The prize is not negotiable or transferable.

6. Winners

6.1. The decisions of the Judges are final and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into.

6.2. The Trust must either publish or make available information that indicates that a valid award took place. To comply with this obligation the Trust will publish your first name, age, city or county where you live and a description of your winning entry on the Woodland Trust website within 30 days of the prize award in February 2027. By participating in this competition, you give your implied consent for such publication. For applicants under 18, the Trust will seek the formal written consent of a parent/guardian before such publication.

6.3. The participants agree to co-operate with any reasonable requests by the Trust relating to any post-competition publicity.

6.4. If you object to any or all of your first name, age, and city or county where you live being published or made available or participating in the required publicity, please contact the Trust at youth@woodlandtrust.org.uk. In such circumstances, the Trust must still provide the information and winning entry to the Advertising Standards Authority on request.

7. Claiming the prize

7.1. The Trust will make all reasonable efforts to contact the winners to arrange the winners' claim of their prizes. If the winner cannot be contacted or is not available or has not claimed their prize within 30 days of the prize announcement date, the Trust reserves the right to offer the prize to the next eligible entrant selected from the correct entries that were received before the Closing Date.

7.2. The Trust does not accept any responsibility to entrants who are not able to take up the prize.

8. Limitation of liability

8.1. Insofar as is permitted by law, the Trust, its agents or distributors will not in any circumstances be responsible or liable to compensate any entrant or accept any liability for any loss, damage, personal injury or death occurring as a result of taking up the prize except where it is caused by the negligence of the Trust, its agents or distributors or that of their employees. Your statutory rights are not affected.

9. Ownership of competition entries and intellectual property rights

9.1. All competition entries and any accompanying material submitted to the Trust will remain the property of the entrants. However, the Trust accepts no responsibility for any materials submitted in support of an application and this will not be returned.

9.2. All intellectual property rights in a competition entry will remain with the applicant. Unless otherwise agreed with the Trust in writing, by submitting your competition entry and any accompanying material, you agree to grant the Trust a non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable licence, for the full period of any intellectual property rights in the competition entry and any accompanying materials, to use, display, publish, transmit, copy, edit, alter, store, re-format and sub-licence the intellectual property right in competition entry and any accompanying materials.

9.3. You agree that the Trust may, but is not required to, make your entry available on its website and any other media, whether now known or invented in the future, and in connection with any publicity of the competition.

10. Data protection and publicity

10.1. The Trust will only process your personal information as set out in the Privacy Policy. See also conditions 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4, with regard to the announcement of winners.

11. General

11.1. If there is any reason to believe that there has been a breach of these terms and conditions, the Trust may, at its sole discretion, reserve the right to exclude you from participating in the competition.

11.2. The Trust reserves the right at its sole discretion to hold void, suspend, cancel, or amend the prize competition where it becomes necessary to do so.

11.3. These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law, and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

These Terms and Conditions are valid as at 25 August 2026.