PRS Foundation: Talent Development Network

Overview

What is the Talent Development Network?

The Talent Development Network (TDN) is PRS Foundation’s new approach to funding organisations, consolidating existing support into one holistic programme for organisations working at the frontline of talent development. We’ve listened to the sector and TDN offers:

• Up to 3 consecutive years of grant support providing organisations the opportunity to plan longer term initiatives.
• Between £10,000 and £25,000 each year to organisations to provide crucial, transformative, and impactful support to the UK’s most talented music creators to develop their careers.
• Access to a network of pioneering talent development organisations across the UK where organisations can share and learn from each other.

Eligibility

The Talent Development Network is available to not-for-profit organisations, with a track record of transformational talent development of at least 18 months, based in the UK with an eligible programme of activity.

This includes:

• Talent development-specialist development organisations
• Festivals
• Venues
• Promoters
• Commissioning organisations
• Orchestras and large ensembles (Large performance groups would include orchestras, choirs, jazz bands or folk groups with 12 or more performers)
• Curators
• Organisations that are limited by guarantee and/or a registered Charity.
• CIC organisations
• Collectives including creator-led collectives.
• non-music organisations including local authorities, museums, etc. where they are responsible for the management and delivery of music creator development-focussed activities.

See Guidance Notes for further information regarding for-profits and collectives. If you are unsure whether you are an eligible collective, please contact info@prsfoundation.com.

PRS Foundation's Funding priorities:

• To support the creation, performance and promotion of outstanding new music in any genre

They are particularly interested in the quality of the music

• To enable the UK’s most talented music creators to realise their potential

They are interested in how your programme will develop the music creators involved. You will need to tell them why this particular activity is so crucial and transformative to their creative, career and professional development. They are committed to supporting UK based songwriters, producers and composers of all backgrounds

• To reach audiences

You will be asked to outline who you are actively reaching and how this will benefit the music creators in your application. This can include audiences at a local, regional, national or international level.

Funding Level

Organisations can apply for grant support between £10,000 – £25,000.

Applicants are encouraged to thoughtfully assess their project requirements and propose funding amounts that accurately reflect the essential costs for their talent development programmes, please note that our budget allows for an average grant of £15,000.

They do not 100% fund programmes and expect that a certain proportion of your income will come from sources other than PRS Foundation’s Talent Development Network. They expect organisations to contribute at least 10% cash income towards the funded programme, with more established organisations with multiple income streams and partners, expected to contribute significantly more.

What can be funded

TDN support will help to fund talent development programmes involving the creation, performance and promotion of new music by living, UK-based music creators, with a particular focus on creative and career development (e.g. a commission, residency, education project or tour).

Eligible activities will include:

• The creation of new music, including:
  • Composition and songwriting activities
  • Commissioning of UK-based composers and music creators
  • Recording (including production, mixing, mastering and related costs)
  • Creative collaboration
• The programming and performance of new music, including:
• Touring or a series of live events featuring outstanding new music
• Gigs, concerts, premieres or release launches
• Festivals (where there is a focus on new music programming and wraparound support)
• Installations
• Other live activities and promotion of live events which feature a significant programme of new UK music
• Music creator/composer/songwriter/producer/talent development programmes
• Administrative costs relating to TDN-supported delivery which are not already covered by core organisational funding (e.g. staff time spent organising and delivering funded activities). Please note that these costs cannot exceed 20% of your grant request
• Development time (e.g. the time it will take the music creator to work on the new material)
• Workshops, masterclasses and similar capacity building costs of delivering career development support
• Fees and other costs relating to talent development expertise (e.g. mentoring or coaching fees, producer fees, advisor costs)
• Costs relating to recruiting or selecting talent for funded programmes
• Promotional activities/PR costs relating directly to the development of music creators and funded programmes
• Website creation (only if crucial to the promotion of the programme)
• The creation of music videos or other content when crucial to the development of creators involved in funded programmes
• Music creator fees and musician fees (we will not fund programmes if you do not pay your musicians fairly)
• Bursaries – where a programme supports creators and offers bursaries to contribute towards costs
• Equipment/rehearsal space hire if it is an essential part of the project
• Contingency (up to 10% of the total project budget)

They are likely to prioritise UK based activities but welcome international activity in the context of music creator development where an organisation has expertise and a track record of meaningful impact outside the UK.

They support high quality new music projects and programmes and therefore cannot support core organisational costs, salary costs or living costs. They can fund administration costs relating to the delivery of funded activities at a maximum of 20% of the grant request.