The National Archives: Records at Risk Grants

Overview

The Records at Risk Grant programme is delivered in collaboration with the British Records Association and the Business Archives Council, to provide support for urgent interventions to save significant physical and digital records facing immediate peril across the UK.

The programme will address and seek to safeguard at-risk collections for the nation. Its overall objective is to provide an additional mechanism to protect records of cultural and research value from premature destruction or prolonged neglect. Its focus will be on records and services that are not protected by legislation, such as archives of businesses, charities and private individuals.

This funding is a response to the increased risks of vulnerable collections being lost or dispersed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and builds on The National Archives’ experience of delivering the COVID-19 Archives Fund in 2020.

Grant Notes

The Records at Risk Grant programme is open to applications on a rolling basis, with funds available for rapid distribution.

The programme provides grants of up to £5,000.

The grant is designed to facilitate urgent intervention to save collections, and therefore we will consider applications with any project duration. However, it would be normal for any intervention to be completed within one year from the award of funding.

Eligibility

The Records at Risk grant programme is open to all eligible archives and heritage organisations in the United Kingdom. They cannot fund organisations based in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or whose collections are held outside of the United Kingdom.

The programme is open to all public sector bodies, not-for-profit organisations including registered charities, and for-profit organisations including business archives.

Applicants will need to be a recognised archival custodian. Examples of a recognised custodian include institutional or accredited archive services under the Archives Service Accreditation Scheme, or a member of an appropriate specialist group such as the Community Archives and Heritage Group. However, the applicant organisation does not need to be an Accredited Archive to receive funding; our definition is broader and includes many types of archival organisations.

In exceptional circumstances, the records creator will be able to receive funding; such organisations must apply in partnership with a recognised archival custodian.

Where appropriate, archives are encouraged to propose partnership projects and consortium applications are welcome.

The records themselves must pass the following four eligibility tests:

• The records face substantial risk concerning their long-term survival through immediate risk, or resulting from a prolonged period of neglect; or in the absence of sufficient information to make informed decisions about their future management and retention
• There is insufficient funding within the archives service to secure the collection
• The records have sufficient historic and research significance, and their loss would be detrimental to the future study of the activities of the record-creating organisation, of the locality, or nationally
• The records are currently held within the United Kingdom.

The records can be in analogue or digital formats and can be inside or outside of the custody of the records creator or a recognised collecting archive institution.

They use the definition of an archive collection as given within the Archive Service Accreditation Scheme:

“Materials created or received by a person, family or organisation, public or private, in the conduct of their affairs and preserved because of the enduring value contained in them or as evidence of the functions and responsibilities of their creator, especially those materials maintained using the principles of provenance, original order and collective control; permanent records.”

Society of American Archivists

The applicant must employ or have access to professional support from an archivist or similarly qualified professional.

Given the nature and purpose of the funding, we will not accept repeat applications, for the same collection, without the written permission of The National Archives’ Grants and Funding Office. There are no restrictions on institutions submitting an application for a different collection than was previously assessed.