Marine Fund Scotland 2026-27: general guidance notes

Outcomes for the Marine Fund Scotland 2026-27

This section sets out the outcomes that the Marine Fund Scotland 2026-27 aims to support through grant offers. Each outcome is made up of a series of criteria. This section should be read in conjunction with Annex A, the Marine Fund Scotland 2026-27 outcomes and criteria.

The outcomes are:

Outcome 1: Established and emerging marine sectors are innovative, entrepreneurial, productive and internationally competitive.

Outcome 2: Scotland is a global leader in healthy, quality, sustainably-harvested and farmed Blue Foods, for our own population and beyond.

Outcome 3: Scotland’s Blue Economy is resilient to climate change, contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, with marine sectors decarbonised, resource efficient and supporting Scotland’s Net Zero commitments.

Outcome 4: Thriving, resilient, regenerated, healthy communities have more equal access to the benefits that ocean resources provide.

Outcome 5: Projects funded by the Marine Fund Scotland 2026-27 represent value for money, are delivered successfully, show clearly how they have met their outcomes, and share lessons so that projects can develop and improve in the future.

Projects applying to the Fund must meet at least one of the first four outcomes, and must also meet outcome 5, in order to be eligible to be considered. Further details of the outcomes and examples of types of activity under each of the outcomes are at Annex A. The examples given are not exhaustive and if an activity is included as an example, this does not guarantee an offer of grant funding.

Assuming you are eligible to apply to the Fund, your application will be assessed on the basis of how well it meets these outcomes. Projects do not have to meet all of the outcomes to be considered for a grant offer. More detail on how projects will be assessed is set out in the ‘How will applications to the Marine Fund Scotland 2026-27 be assessed?’ section of these General Guidance notes.

Applications for projects that demonstrate wider collective benefit (e.g. positive outcomes for communities) over and above, or at least in addition to, benefits for an individual organisation, business or person, are more likely to be successful.

Any offer of grant funding through the Marine Fund Scotland 2026-27 by the Scottish Ministers is discretionary as well as dependent upon the legislative grant-making powers that are being relied upon. “Discretionary” means that the Scottish Ministers are free to decide whether to offer grant funding or not and are not obliged to offer grant funding in relation to any application or project, even if an application meets all of the eligibility criteria. Therefore, there is no automatic entitlement to any grant funds.