Call for proposals: 2026 small-grants for Arctic youth projects

Passionate about shaping the Arctic’s future through art, climate, or nature action? Youth Together for Arctic Futures invites you to apply for small-grants for youth-led projects for Arctic change. Application deadline is November 30, 2026.

The Youth Together for Arctic Futures is a 4-year project, co-funded by the European Union and Canada, aimed to support a critical mass of Arctic and European youth with knowledge, skills, and opportunities to work towards implementing good climate and nature policy for the Arctic.

These small-grants are co-funded by the EU and Canada. They aim to empower youth and youth-led organisations to create change and address pressing issues affecting their communities across the circumpolar Arctic. It is an opportunity for young people to pioneer innovative and locally driven solutions, with financial support and project guidance from Youth Together for Arctic Futures’ project team.

Two grants will be awarded in this call:

• Grant 1: Youth Realities & Identity in the Arctic: Cultural Expressions of Lived Experience.

This grant focuses on amplifying the creative and cultural expressions of youth, preserving and promoting Arctic cultural identity and ways of life, and fostering social inclusion by creating platforms for underrepresented youth to share their stories and realities.

This could be, for example, through short films, photo essays, murals or youth-led documentation of local languages, oral histories, or traditional knowledge.

• Grant 2: Youth Action for Arctic Futures: Youth Engagement in Policy Shaping for Climate and Nature.

For this grant, the focus is on supporting youth-led initiatives that address climate change, biodiversity, and environmental justice in Arctic communities. This ranges from enabling youth participation in regional policy processes, to promoting community-based solutions to environmental challenges or strengthening the role of youth as change agents in shaping sustainable Arctic futures.

Activities could include, for example, local nature conservation initiatives, advocacy campaigns, policy labs or trainings on public speaking or advocacy.

 

Learn more and apply

 

Grant details

Maximum grant amount: 25 000 EUR

Project length: 6-8 months

Application deadline: November 30, 2026.

If you need an extension, please contact: Sissa Palmquist, sissa.palmquist@wwf.se.

Contact and support

For questions, guidance, or support in preparing your application, please contact: Sissa Palmquist, sissa.palmquist@wwf.se.

Who can apply?

This call is for organisations based in, or actively working on issues relevant to the Arctic region. Eligible organisations may include:

• Local grassroots youth Civil Society Organisations or Community Based Organisations
• Student associations and debate clubs
• Volunteer and youth-led organisations
• Indigenous organisations promoting youth participation
• Cultural organisations involving youth
• NGOs with a focus on youth engagement
• Other organisations integrating youth perspectives into their work or strategies

Additionally, projects must be youth-led (age 18-35). This means that youth should be involved in the design, decision-making, and implementation of the project. Projects must also be implemented within the Arctic context, focusing on issues relevant to Arctic youth and communities.

All eligibility criteria can be found here.

Why we give grants for youth-led projects

Youth across the Arctic are at the forefront of cultural continuity, climate action, and community resilience. However, many young changemakers operate outside of large, well-resourced institutions. Instead, they are often part of grassroots community groups, student networks, Indigenous collectives, or informal youth-led initiatives — entities that frequently lack the administrative infrastructure or scale required to access traditional or larger funding mechanisms.

With this small-grant scheme, we aim to lower the threshold for participation and ensure more equitable access to resources. It offers a more flexible and inclusive funding approach, better tailored to the realities of local youth actors across the Arctic.

By doing so, this scheme seeks to recognize young people not merely as beneficiaries of development efforts, but as active agents of change — with the capacity to lead, influence policy, and create meaningful, locally rooted impact in their communities.

For questions, guidance, or support in preparing your application, please contact: Sissa Palmquist, sissa.palmquist@wwf.se.

Discover Youth Together for Arctic Futures.

This publication was funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the WWF Global Arctic Programme and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.