NIMC: Museum Collections Capital Grant Programme

Overview

The Northern Ireland Museums Council’s (NIMC) Museum Collections Capital Grant Programme is funded through the Department for Communities and administered by NIMC. 

Thishis programme is a Capital fund. You can apply for any equipment and/or minor works to help care for collections or make them more accessible to the public. 

The programme is intended to provide maximum flexibility for eligible museums; however, we encourage applications which are aligned to Collections Care and Access. 

The entire NIMC Museum Collections Grants Programme budget will be available for allocation within the first application submission window. Subsequent application submission windows will only be used if budget remains un-committed. It is therefore advisable that eligible museums submit their applications by the 15 August 2025. 

The priorities of the scheme are to improve collections care and management standards including: 

• Security and protection of the collection 
• Storage equipment and materials
• Environmental conditions 
• Preventative conservation

Eligibility

The NIMC Museum Collections Capital Grant Programme is open to all UK Accreditation Scheme Accredited (Full or Provisional) non-National museums in Northern Ireland. 

NIMC supports non-Accredited museums and collections by providing training, advice and guidance. You should be a member to access these services. To join, please visit www.nimc.co.uk . 

Funding Levels & Notes

Eligible museums can apply for £500 - £5,000 per funding application.

• Please keep in mind that the amount of money available is limited and demand for funds is likely to be extremely high. It is not usually possible to fund all applications which simply meet the criteria or to fund the entirety of any given request. 
• You should be realistic in your expectations and budgets and bear in mind that NIMC may choose to fund specific elements of your proposal rather than the full request.

Match Funding -  10% of your overall cost is required. 

While it is preferred this funding is financial, other in-kind funding such as partnership funding or other resource contributions may be considered if detailed information is provided which shows it is demonstrably relevant to the proposed project. 

Eligible costs

 As this programme is a Capital fund, you can apply for any equipment and / or minor works to help adapt your venue or working practice. This could be, but is not limited to, the following:

• Environmental monitoring/environmental control 
• Stores furniture 
• Exhibition cases 
• Digitisation equipment 
• Conservation materials

Note: 

• It might be possible to pay for specialist/contractor time if the correlation between their contribution and the grant outcome taking place is clear. Please contact NIMC to discuss this or any other questions you may have before you send in your application. 
• NIMC will not pay VAT on any expenditure incurred by VAT registered organisations with the ability to reclaim VAT costs. 
• The grant will be paid retrospectively on production of project completion form and invoices/receipts. 
• The maximum amount NIMC will fund will not exceed £5,000. Once awarded, grants cannot be increased.