The Petplan Charitable Trust offers two grant rounds each year – welfare and scientific.
They award around £850,000 in grants annually to animal welfare charities and institutions both in the UK and abroad.
You must be a charity or scientific institution to apply.
Applications for each grant type are open once a year. Links are only available when applications are open.
Welfare Grants
Open in Autumn
Scientific Grants
These are for the scientific study of dogs, cats, horses and rabbits.
There are two categories: Pump Primer and Initial Scientific
- Pump Primer is for pilot studies. These usually run for 1 year. It is envisaged that some of these pilot studies will lead to larger research projects. They have increased the Pump Primer grant to £12,500. The latest deadline for these is 24 March 2025.
- Initial Scientific are for larger studies that may run for 1 to 3 years. They require an initial application form. Successful initial applications will lead to full application and interview.
Applicants in private practice must provide ethical approval for the proposed study from the RCVS.
All scientific applicants must comply fully with the Trust's ethics policy as follows:
The Petplan Charitable Trust will support studies on natural disease conditions in companion animals, to prevent their occurrence, provide a cure or eliminate suffering.
Its support is limited exclusively to subjects of accepted clinical importance and of concern to the general public and studies must be of a non-invasive nature.
The Trust will under no circumstances make grants for studies that use experimental animals.