NbSI receives RCA grant to work on nature reconnection

On World Environment Day, we’re delighted to share that we’ve been awarded funding from the Royal College of Art’s Ecological Citizens programme to support an exciting new collaboration with nature-connection non-profit I Stand Beside. June 5, 2025
Hand touching small plant
Our goal is to explore new ways of sparking a nature-positive culture.

We’re delighted to share that we’ve been awarded funding from the Royal College of Art’s Ecological Citizens programme to support an exciting new collaboration with nature-connection non-profit I Stand Beside.

Together, we’ll be developing and piloting an innovative digital platform that invites people to “stand beside” a species of their choosing. By combining ecological insight with artistic expression and creative advocacy, the platform aims to help nurture emotional and informed relationships with the natural world.

It will be designed to be both scientifically robust and deeply engaging, and will offer users personalised content, artistic prompts, and opportunities to champion their chosen species—individually and collectively. NbSI will lead on ensuring ecological integrity, data collection and analysis, and evaluating how well the platform supports nature connection and encourages nature-positive behaviours.

As part of the project, we’ll also be co-designing and piloting a series of Interspecies Assemblies. Inspired by Joanna Macy’s Council of All Beings and grounded in Indigenous and other relational practices, these creative public gatherings invite participants to speak on behalf of non-human beings through story, ritual, and dialogue. They offer an embodied, communal counterpart to the digital platform, and help to root ecological citizenship in shared imagination and experience.

This collaboration brings together NbSI’s strengths in biodiversity and nature-based solutions with I Stand Beside’s creative approach to ecological advocacy and community engagement. Our goal is to explore new ways of inspiring meaningful environmental action and reimagining what ecological responsibility can look like in a time of planetary crisis.

We’re incredibly grateful to the Ecological Citizens programme for supporting this work and look forward to sharing more as the project unfolds.