February 12, 2026

The BEARR Trust’s Small Grants Scheme supports small, community-based civil society organisations (CSOs) across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Through the Scheme, BEARR aims to encourage cooperation and partnership, strengthen organisational capacity, and support practical, locally driven initiatives that respond to local needs.

While much of BEARR’s recent work has focused on responding to the consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, this round of the Small Grants Scheme is open only to organisations working in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Later rounds of the Scheme this year are planned to be open to organisations working in Ukraine and Moldova.

For the first 2026 round, BEARR invited applications for projects in Central Asia and the South Caucasus addressing the theme “Violence against women and girls”. This call was open to CSOs based in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. All applications were required to be a joint application from two or more partner organisations. Priority will be given to new partnerships or pre-existing partnerships showing clear signs of development.

We especially encouraged applications focused on the prevention of violence towards women and girls. Projects may target women and girls directly or work with other groups, including men and boys, to address underlying causes and contribute to meaningful prevention.

Response

Applications for this 2026 Small Grants Scheme round closed on 13 March. We were delighted to receive 47 applications from 7 countries.

The highest-rated projects will be shortlisted and considered by the Board of Trustees at their meeting in April 2026, where the successful applicants will be selected. Once the grants have been accepted by the successful organisations, we expect the projects to start in June 2026.