The National Archives: Archives Revealed - Consortium Grant

Overview

Consortium Grant

Archives Revealed Consortium Grants offer funding of up to £150,000 for groups of organisations to deliver projects that will help the programme realise its goal of ensuring that significant archive collections, representing the lives and perspective of all people across the UK, are made accessible to the public for research and enjoyment. At least 20% of each grant is required to be spent on engagement activities with the public. The grant will fund projects lasting up to two years.

The aims of the Consortium Grant programme are to:

• Increase access to previously unavailable archive material.
• Empower the archive sector to address larger scale and shared challenges through increased funding.
• Develop existing relationships and create new opportunities for collaboration in the archive sector, building a community of good practice and fostering knowledge sharing.
• Increase engagement with archive collections by a wider audience.
• Enable deeper use of archive material to further understanding of collections.
• Increase confidence and skills of archivists to enable them to sustainably build resilience and capacities.

Eligibility

This programme can fund consortia with members that hold archival collection(s) including deposited collections, that are able to provide access to the collection for the public in the UK for at least ten years following the grant’s completion. Not all participants in the consortia have to hold their own collection(s); there may be members who are providing technical expertise or other inputs, without holding a collection. Consortia may have any number of members.

They recommend that organisations consult with qualified archivists when preparing their application, so that they are informed about the project and can provide informed answers to the questions. If awarded funding, grantees must have access to professional archival expertise from a qualified archivist or heritage professional with equivalent experience, to ensure adherence to archive professional standards and support recruited staff including newly-recruited archivists in the delivery and management of the project. Applications that are not able to clearly show the involvement of archive / heritage professionals are highly unlikely to receive funding and may be deemed ineligible.

Archives Revealed can fund any eligible organisations in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The funded collection must also be held in these countries. 

They welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making their application process accessible to everyone. 

Funding Level

Applicants will be asked to submit a full budget for their project. The maximum award of funding for any grant will be £150,000. At least 20% of your budget must be allocated to engagement activities with the catalogued collection(s).

Staffing - Archives Revealed will fund the additional staff costs required to deliver your project. This can include employing new project staff, or backfilling existing staff allocated to the project.

The project needs to be managed and substantially carried out by appropriately qualified staff. Volunteers, secondments, apprenticeships, internships and staff exchanges may be eligible to fulfil supporting roles, and we welcome e.g. volunteer- or community-led approaches to cataloguing – but we do not support projects that are managed and led solely by volunteers.

Non-staff costs - Complementary materials such as packaging costs, or complementary costs such as travel and subsistence, or materials for public engagement activities, can be included in your budget request.

Match Funding - The programme can supply up to 100% of project costs; however they strongly encourage applicants to contribute from their own resources or other funding sources (e.g. other grant funders). This could be in the form of a cash contribution, confirmed funding from external sources, or an in-kind contribution. Match funding can increase an application’s chances of funding success.