The Sunday Times has teamed up with Land Rover and the Royal Geographical Society with IBG (RGS-IBG) to offer readers the chance to win funding for an expedition to adventure.

The winners will receive a £10,000 grant provided by the RGS-IBG, the use of aLand Rover 110 Defender and, if their trip is exciting enough, the chance to tell the story of their adventure in the pages of this newspaper.

The expedition might be a trip to the Scottish Highlands to look at the impact of the shifting Gulf Stream on wildlife; a voyage to the Arctic to assess the impact of ice roads; or a trip over the Alps in the Defender, retracing Hannibal’s route more than 2,000 years ago. The key condition is that it must start and finish in Britain.

Land Rover and the RGS-IBG have worked together for conducting scientific expeditions across the world. One trip during a previous collaboration made by Richard Washington from Oxford University involved driving a Land Rover to the dustiest place on earth the Bodélé depression of northern Chad to assess the impact of dust on the climate.

However, the key point is that the expedition takes the applicants out of their comfort zone and results in a greater understanding of the environment we live in.

The rules of engagement are simple: it is open to anyone over the age of 18 with a clean driving licence, and applications must be received by midnight on December 3. Teams must comprise between two and six people and the proposed journey must take place between March and October 2008. Participants undertake the trip at their own risk.

How do you enter? Explain your trip, where you want to do it and why, in no more than 450 words, then send it to both the e-mail addresses below.

Applications will be judged by the RGS bursary panel together with Nicholas Rufford, assistant editor of The Sunday Times; Ben Fogle, the TV presenter; and John Edwards, managing director of Land Rover UK.

Five shortlisted entries will be chosen and asked to attend a day interview with the judges. The winner will be announced in The Sunday Times early in the new year. If the winning entry leads to the kind of groundbreaking journey we are hoping for, we will run progress updates of the expedition team in The Sunday Times during 2008, and maybe post a blog and video footage on the www.timesonline.co.uk website.

Only apply if you are serious. You must read the bursary guidelines, which include the full application details and conditions of acceptance for the Land Rover 'Go Beyond' Bursary (this link will take you to an external site). You must simultaneously e-mail your application to two addresses: grants@rgs.org and ingear@sunday-times.co.uk. Good luck.