GPF Grants and Application

The Ghar Parau Foundation (GPF) provides grant aid to assist British caving expeditions to all parts of the world. The fund focuses on those expeditions which include an element of innovative exploration or scientific study and has a close relationship with the British Cave Research Association (BCRA).

GPF are particularly keen to encourage young cavers into expedition caving (as well as sport caving) to maintain an active caving community in years to come.

A Cave link system partly funded by Ghar Parau is available for use by Ghar Parau Expeditions.

There are several ways individuals can apply and receive grants from the Ghar Parau Foundation:

Ghar Parau Foundation Expedition Grant Award

GPF Expedition Grant Award Criteria

  • An Exploration Expedition is classified as a trip involving 2 or more people for a period of 5 or more (in field) days to a caving area to undertake exploration caving and science outside the UK.
  • The expedition can be multi- national, but generally only Qualifying Participants will be considered for GPF Grant aid. There is proviso that up to 25% of non qualifying people may also be considered, if these are indigenous cavers from countries where their caving community is small and would benefit from participation in an international expedition. These indigenous cavers must be true expeditions participants, i.e. not guides, porters etc.
  • A Qualifying Participant must be any of the following:
    • a UK national;
    • a non-UK national in full time education in the UK;
    • a member of a UK based caving club or BCA who is resident in the UK.
  • The applicant (i.e. the leader of the expedition) has to be a Qualifying Participant. (N.B. In the case of a multi-national expedition involving Qualifying Participants where the leader is a non-qualifying, a Qualifying Participant can be designated as the leader of the UK contingent and thus apply for Grant aid).
  • The application process does not permit joint expeditions leaders, (a single individual must be designated the leader of the expedition).

Submission Rules for GPF Expedition Grant Award

The award process is broken down in to two applications periods in which the expedition must take place:

The Spring Round – From the beginning of April to the end of September (closing date 23:59 31st March), and
The Autumn Round – from the beginning of October to the end of March (closing date 23:59 31st August).

The GPF Committee meet a month or so after each deadline to allocate funds to the qualifying applications.

Important notes

  • If you also considering to apply for a Mount Everest Foundation grant, the criteria are different: see the MEF website for guidelines.
  • Expeditions must apply in the appropriate round that their expeditions falls into otherwise it will be rejected.
  • Applications MUST be received before these closing dates or the application will be rejected.

Criteria for Judging Expeditions

It is a regrettable fact that the committee only has limited resources at its disposal. In order to make the best and fairest use of funds, GPF have over the years developed a set of criteria which allow the committee to judge the merits of one expedition against another. Further details of these may be found in the application form and notes; in brief they may be summarised as:

  • potential for the discovery of new cave
  • the development of the sport as a whole
  • benefits to the individual team members
  • preparatory work and research
  • contacts with local groups
  • team size
  • effective use of funds
  • track record
  • other sources of income
  • young member participation
  • quality of application

A team which has relatively little experience but has shown a good deal of personal financial commitment allied to considerable preparatory homework will fare much better at the hands of the committee than an experienced group which is not attempting to reach a particularly new or exciting area.

The overall budget and cost to the individual is also taken into account, so that a small trip to Europe will probably receive a lower grant than a large scale trip to more remote objectives.

The Ghar parau committee also strongly recommend that you conduct a risk assessment for your expedition.

Alex Pitcher Awards

The Alex Pitcher Award is an award given to a young cavers participating in their first caving expedition outside the UK. The Ghar Parau Foundation want to encourage younger cavers to participate more in expeditions, and recognize the cost of acquiring the necessary caving equipment etc to be able to participate is a limiting factor to participation. This award (individually based) is to help these individuals off set these costs.

The award can only be made via a GPF Expedition Grant Application (i.e. Alex Pitcher Applicants have to be participating in a specified expedition) and they are nominated by the expedition leader. The rules for the application to qualify are as follows.

The nominated applicant must be (all apply):

  • a Qualifying Participant;
  • under 22 years of age or in full time education in the UK at the time of the expedition;
  •  on their first Exploration type expedition.

The application will be rejected if these rules are not adhered to. If under the age of 16, a letter of consent from parent would be necessary giving permission for them to partake in the expedition and apply for this award.

The Mount Everest Foundation

The Mount Everest Foundation offer grants to expeditions of all disciplines going to remote areas doing original exploration (including cave exploration). (See http://www.mef.org.uk/support-for-expeditions/ for more information). An agreement between the Ghar Parau Foundation and the Mount Everest Foundation has allowed caving expeditions wanting to be also considered for MEF funding to use the GPF applications process and then be recommended to the MEF committee for funding by the Ghar Parau Committee, eliminating the need to fill out two separate application forms. A tick box in the GPF application form will ear mark the application for consideration for a MEF grant recommendation.

Important Closing Date Information: The closing dates for the MEF applications differ slightly from that of GPF applications (MEF closing dates are 31st January and 30th September as opposed to 1st March and 1st September). The GPF committee require approximately one month to consider the application and make recommendations to the MEF committee prior to the MEF application closing date.

Therefore, GPF Expedition Grant Applications that want also to be considered for MEF applications must be submitted to the GPF Website by:-

Spring Round Deadline: 23:59 31st December (ahead of the GPF deadline at 23:59 31st March)
Autumn Round Deadline: 23:59 31st August (The same as the GPF deadline)

Failure to do so (i.e. late submission) will prevent the GPF committee from being able to pass its recommendation on to MEF in the required time frame.

Online application form

GPF application

Since February 2014, a new application system has been in place for GPF funding. While a lot of time has been spent testing it out, please be aware that some unexpected bugs may arise. Problems or feedback can be sent to webmaster@gharparau.org.uk.

Click the clipboard (right) to login/register and start your application.

Close

Website Use

Terms of Use

Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the site. By using our site, you indicate that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please refrain from using our site.

Reliance of Information & Disclaimer

The materials contained on our site are provided for general information purposes only and do not claim to be or constitute legal or other professional advice and shall not be relied upon as such.

We do not accept any responsibility for any loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on the information on this site and to the fullest extent permitted by English law, we exclude all liability for loss or damages direct or indirect arising from use of this site.

Information About Us

The Ghar Parau Foundation is a 100% voluntary-based charity that manages an investment fund to provide grant aid to assist British caving expeditions to all parts of the world. The fund focuses on those expeditions which include an element of innovative exploration or scientific study. We are also particularly keen to encourage young cavers into expedition caving (as well as sport caving) to maintain an active caving community in years to come.

The Ghar Parau Foundation, a sub-charity of the British Cave Research Association, (267828-1) works by investing the capital within the fund and distributing the interest in the form of grants to caving expeditions who apply and fit the foundations criteria.

Accessing Our Site

Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site without notice (see below). We will not be liable if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

Intellectual Property Rights

You may print off copies, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to material posted on our site. Please credit The GPF as the source and any expedition whose detail or report you have downloaded. Expeditions and organisations may have additional copyright or restrictions as to using their data and reports and The GPF does not relieve you from any of those additional restrictions.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics without further permission.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on our site must always be acknowledged. You must not use any part of the materials on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining permission from GPF.

Our Site Changes Regularly

We aim to update our site regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

Our Liability

The material displayed on our site is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the extent permitted by law, we, and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude:


This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Information About You and Your Visits To Our Site

We process information about you in accordance with our privacy policy. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

Viruses, Hacking & Other Offences

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.

By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

Links from Our Site

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. When accessing a site via our website we advise you check their terms of use and privacy policies to ensure compliance and determine how they may use your information.

Jurisdiction & Applicable Law

The English courts will have non-exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to our site.

These terms of use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.

Variations

We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.

Your Concerns

If you have any concerns about material which appears on our site, please contact the committee. Thank you for visiting our site.

Close

Privacy Policy

Your data

We do publish grants awards and expedition information and pass information to the press about the expeditions we support and grants we make. We do publish the names of expedition members but we do not pass on personal details to any organisation outside the British Cave Research Association or British Caving Association, unless requested to do under the Law of the United Kingdom.

Close

Accessibility Policy

We endeavour to make our site as accessible as possible to people of all abilities. We test our site for compatibility with a range of browsers and permit those browsers to enable any accessibility preferences the user may choose to use. However, as volunteers, we cannot accept liability for any accessibility issues any user may have, though we shall be very willing to gain feedback and address any issues we can. Please use the site feedback facilities to do so. The GPF however, work strictly with the UK English language and, whilst this site should work, we do not design this website with features for use on mobile devices such as tablets and mobile phones.