How to Apply - Portals

Timetable

The next round of Archives Revealed Consortium Grants will open for applications on 31st August.

Archives Revealed Consortium Grants will open for applications twice a year, usually in the autumn and spring. Future rounds of funding are scheduled to take place on the following timetable:

Round	Opens	Closes	Panel Meeting
2		4th April 2025	June 2025
3	1st September 2025	9th October 2025	January 2026
4	16th March 2026	30th April 2026	July 2026
5	31st August 2026	1st October 2026	December 2026

Eligibility

Archives Revealed provides funding to organisations with archival collections in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Projects in Wales must incorporate the Welsh language and demonstrate how they will promote and support the country’s bilingual nature. Funding is not available to the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, or to organisations whose collections are held outside of the UK.

Most organisations with an archival collection will be eligible, including those with deposited collections, provided that access to the collection is given to the UK public for at least ten years following the project’s completion.  Deposited collections require written support from the depositor confirming permission to work on the material and ensuring that it will not be withdrawn or sold within that period.

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.

We 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.

Consortia will need to select one organisation to be the ‘lead’: we envision that this will usually be an organisation holding a collection, but this is not mandatory. This organisation will hold the contract with Archives Revealed and will be responsible for ensuring project delivery and fulfilment of contractual requirements.

Organisations do not need to hold archive accreditation to apply. However, we encourage any archive to work towards Archives Service Accreditation, which will help demonstrate the strength of the archive service in an application.

You do not need to have completed a Scoping or Cataloguing Grant, to apply for a Consortium Grant. Institutions may apply to Archives Revealed if they already have funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, but should not apply directly to the Heritage Fund and to Archives Revealed with the same project.

There are no restrictions on past applicants on reapplying for the same project. Organisations can also apply multiple times for different projects or be part of multiple consortia.

Should you have any questions about the eligibility of your collection for an Archives Revealed Consortium Grant, please contact the team by email at: archivegrants@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Available Funds and Budget Restrictions

Applicants will be asked to submit a full budget for their project. The maximum award of funding for any grant will be £150,000. Archives Revealed can fund up to 100% of project costs, but applicants can contribute from their own resources or other funding sources to maximise the feasibility of their project. We reserve the right to offer conditional or partial funding of a project.

20% of the grant funding must be dedicated to engagement activities that that will bring the collection to life for audiences.

A comprehensive project budget must be submitted with each application. It should include all associated project costs, such as direct costs, on-costs and any in-kind contributions.

This should be broken down into:

Staff costs: funds can be used to recruit additional project staff, or to backfill existing staff allocated to the project. Archives are expected to follow the latest Archives and Records Association (ARA) salary recommendations for qualified archivists: ARA recommendations on professional salary levels. If your organisation’s pay scales differ, please contact the Archives Revealed Team before submitting your application.
Non-staff costs: funds can be used (for example) to purchase repackaging materials, fund public engagement activity, innovation or partnership working, pay for travel and subsistence where necessary for the project.

Funding Restrictions

Archives Revealed funding cannot be used for:

the conservation of archival collections
the cataloguing of non-archive collections
full economic cost recovery or overheads.
costs incurred prior to the grant being awarded and/or for the development of a funding application.
payments that support activity intended to influence Parliament, Government or political parties, or attempting to influence the awarding or renewal of contracts and grants or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action.

Assessment Process

Archives Revealed Cataloguing Grants follow a single-stage application process.

Applications are first reviewed by the Archives Revealed team, then assessed by an independent Expert Panel of experienced archive and heritage professionals. The Expert Panel represents a diverse range of organisations, backgrounds, subject specialisms and geographic areas. Profiles of the panel members can be viewed here Meet the Team – Portals

The panel members will score the application against each of the criteria listed below. The application will then be given an average weighted score for each criterion, and an overall average score to identify the top fundable projects.

Assessment Criteria and Weighting

Partnership (working and need) (20% of overall score)
Collection (significance and priority) (25% of overall score)
Discoverability (approach and improvements to access) (10% of overall score)
Engagement (audiences, activities and impact) (25% of overall score)
Feasibility (collaborative project management) (20% of overall score)

Scoring Scale

1 – Poor

2 – Low

3 – Good

4 – Excellent

5 – Outstanding

Application Criteria Guidance

The Archives Revealed application criteria are intentionally broad to allow archive services to highlight their own priorities.

The guidance below outlines each assessment criterion and is intended as a reference to assist applicants in preparing strong proposals. The list is not exhaustive, nor will all points be relevant for all projects.

Partnership (Working and Need)

Consortium Grants are designed to bring organisations together, to create projects that are greater than the sum of their parts. We would like to understand:

The need for this consortium project, including how this need has been identified and evidenced.
Why this consortium project is needed now and what change will it bring to the member organisations and/or sector.
Why a consortium approach will be the most effective way to deliver your shared objectives.
The benefits—and any anticipated challenges—of collaborative delivery for the organisations involved, as well as for the wider archive and heritage sector.
How you will ensure the best possible outcomes for all consortium members and for the audiences who will engage with the project.

Consider:

Will the project increase capacities and/or create spaces for innovation and new thought?
Will you be sharing expertise about cataloguing, the collection(s) or good practice with each other and if so, how?
What does each partner in the proposal bring to the consortium that working alone wouldn’t offer?
How will equity and shared decision-making between different members of your consortium be established?
How will you best harness and use the experts within the different organisations and what benefits will collaboration bring, to enable the project to meet the goals of Archives Revealed?
How have you collectively identified this project as a shared priority?
Is the consortium based on an existing network or a new network of partners? What benefits and challenges could this bring? How will the network ensure its own stability and adaptiveness during the project?
Does working together bring practical benefits? Are you able to share resources between consortium members, reducing costs and increasing efficiencies?
Does cataloguing as a consortium allow for employment of specialist staff to benefit multiple institutions? What is the added value to having project staff working across organisations, if this is your model?
Will the consortium lead to benefits for members, such as professional development opportunities that wouldn’t exist otherwise?
What impacts could consortium working at this scale bring to participants and the wider archive sector? Are you trialling new or innovative ways of collaboration that could serve as role models for the sector?
How does the consortium align with members’ strategic goals and priorities? How will the consortium ensure that everyone’s needs and hopes are realised?
Will the consortium bring benefits to the project in terms of credibility and scope? Does the network of consortia partners strengthen the project’s reputation and viability, and if so, why?
How does consortium working impact your audiences? Will participants have access to each other’s networks and existing audiences? Are there examples of good practice within the organisation that others could learn from?
Will the consortium work together beyond the grant duration, and if so, how will you ensure the sustainability of the network and future outcomes?

Archives Revealed understands that each collection, archive and consortium will be unique, with different circumstances, needs and opportunities. Please do take the time to reflect on what potential benefits working together may have and what unique skills, experiences, knowledge and opportunities working in a consortium will bring, that wouldn’t or couldn’t happen if applying for funding independently.

Collections (significance and priority)

Archive collections have been kept for a reason; however, the stories they can tell are often hidden in the files, boxes and strong rooms that hold them. Making these archive collections accessible is at the heart of the Archives Revealed programme, and the consortium project should include at least one collection that represents the history, heritage and lives of people across the UK.

Focus on the collection’s strengths and clearly demonstrate why your consortium has identified this collection(s) for your project above others held by your organisations. Collection significance varies by audiences – consider who they are – academics, family historians, and community groups may value different aspects.

Consider:

Provenance: who and why was the collection created. Is anything significant about the collector, creator or the time-period it covers?
Rarity: almost all collections are described as unique or unusual, so consider what makes it stand apart from others of its type.
Condition and Completeness: what does the collection’s condition reveal about its history? How does the body of material demonstrate a complete record?
Historical, Cultural or Scientific Meaning: how does the collection illuminate people, groups, organisations, events, places, beliefs, or practices? Does it have special historic or cultural meaning for an audience, region or community? Does it fill gaps in existing collections or will it further research and knowledge?
Sensory and Emotional Impact: does the subject or materiality evoke strong personal or cultural feeling, or reflect a sense of creativity or move in innovation?
Marketing and Entrepreneurialism: could the collection support income generation or enhance your organisation’s or community’s profile?
Engagement, Access and Inclusion: will the collection enable the archive service to better serve their community or engage with wider or new audiences?

The existing and anticipated demand by users: this would ideally be complemented with some statistical evidence, for example number of enquiries you have received in the past or use of analogous collections. It would also be useful to consider whether the collection could attract new audiences and who you anticipate these could be.

If your organisation has a collections information policy, or guidance around accessions to your collection, this should be for your first point of reference in describing why you have prioritised the chosen collection.

Various methodologies exist for the prioritisation of uncatalogued archive materials. If you have an established prioritisation approach, please explain this. To learn more about one prioritisation methodology, Logjam, please visit: Logjam revisited (youtube.com) (The Logjam methodology was created in 2003. The National Archives is currently exploring its continued usability and refinement – applicants’ first port of call should be their own collections management processes, where these are already in place).

Keep your response focused on the collection you are applying for, rather than your archive as a whole.

If you want to find out more about significance statements, there is detailed guidance in this video: Archives Revealed: How to conduct a significance assessment and write a significance statement – YouTube.

Discoverability (approach and improvement to access)

Your project should demonstrate how, through partnership working, you will make the identified collection(s) accessible for public enjoyment and research.

You should clearly explain your approach and how it will impact the project’s delivery. Please do not use acronyms or abbreviated text. Please include information about your chosen methods of cataloguing, standards and best practice guidance being followed, cataloguing systems, work on sorting and arranging the collection, and your proposal for storage and packaging.

We have published guidance on technical good practice in our advice webpages: Cataloguing archive collections – Archives sector (nationalarchives.gov.uk). These may be helpful in preparing your response; there are also numerous other resources available online, including the Archives and Records Association’s best practice guidelines and toolkits. You may wish to make reference to further specific standards, if the collection is film/AV or born-digital, e.g.: Born Digitial Archive Cataloguing and Description – Digital Preservation Coalition.

Consider:

Any previous work to describe the collection, the state of existing description and what this has told you about what is required to create an effective full catalogue.
Method and Level of Description: are you adopting a particular methodology for cataloguing, and why have you chosen it? What level will you catalogue the collection to? Why is this level of description and method the right choice for your collection? Are you trying anything that is new or different compared to normal, and if so, why – and what impact do you think this will have?
Standards: what cataloguing, indexing or other standards you are adopting to undertake the cataloguing project? How will you ensure that these standards will be adhered to? For example, will your project be delivered in accord with ISAD (G) ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description – Second edition – ICA and/ or any other standards (both internal to your organisation and sectoral)?
Systems: what system (e.g. software system) are you using to catalogue your collection?
Sorting and arrangement: has the collection already been sorted and arranged? If not, please describe any necessary preparatory work.
Storage and Packaging: will there be any improvements to how the collection is packaged and stored? Will there be any location changes for the collection once catalogued, and why?
Access: how will you make the newly catalogued collection accessible? Will the project enable access that was previously not possible? Is there anything new and innovative that you will be doing to maximise access to the collection?
Digitised materials must be openly licensed in line with The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s digital good practice guidance.

All grantees are required to make their collection metadata available on The National Archives’ catalogue, Discovery; whilst this can be mentioned in an application, it should not be the only way in which you will make your collection accessible.

Engagement (audiences, activities and impact)

Your application should explore the ways in which your consortium project aims to improve access to a collection(s) and the outcomes or change it will bring for the archive services, member organisations, the users and communities it serves, as well as for the archive sector and for wider society. Produce an engagement plan that will have lasting benefits for your project’s audience community.

Impacts and engagement can take many different forms, and every project will have a different response: but a strong answer will always clearly outline what outcomes it is seeking to create, and how it plans to engage with beneficiaries and audiences, inside and outside of the archive service which is applying. It will be possible to know whether this has been successful by the end of the project’s activities.

This section is broken down into three sections:

Audiences: We want you to explain who your audiences are, and who they could be: explain the change you want to bring about, how existing users interact with your service and collections, and/or how you reach new audiences. You may wish to provide demographic or other data about your potential audiences in this section. What benefits or changes they will experience as a result of the project
Engagement activities: How will the ringfenced funding of at least 20% for engagement activities be used to support the consortium in ensuring that everyone has opportunities to learn, develop new skills and explore heritage, regardless of background or personal circumstance? The costs of staff can be included in this 20% ringfencing.
Impact – the demonstrable contribution that a project makes. What differences your project will make, what changes you anticipate happening and who will be affected? We want you to consider the anticipated short-, medium-, and long‑term outcomes of the project and whether the changes will be physical, procedural, or cultural.

Consider:

What and how do you propose to engage audiences with the consortium project and collection(s)? Archives Revealed understands that each organisation or consortium, and their respective audiences and circumstances, are different. We are seeking proposals that show a developed understanding of the audience for the collection and how best to encourage their participation, during and after the project.

Who are your audiences, both existing and new? Do you have any data to support this for example, statistics on current users of the archives or demographic data on underrepresented users of your archive that you would like to engage with? Are your proposed activities appropriate for these audiences and how can you evidence that they are?
Is there the potential to involve users in a cataloguing process, for example, are there volunteering opportunities? If the project will have a steering group, who will be represented on it and how will they reflect the users of the archive?
Is your proposal inclusive, and have you considered accessibility of your archive when planning? Will all people be able to interact and benefit from the project or are there physical or other barriers to engagement that you will need to plan for? Alternatively, if the collection is not appropriate for all audiences, for example, if it contains upsetting or graphic materials not suitable for younger audiences, how will you manage this and ensure the well-being of your communities?
How is the collection best presented and shared with audiences? There is a huge benefit to being able to physically engage with records, but this also brings challenges.
The programme defines engagement activities as anything that will enable the public to engage with the collection. This can include digitisation; however, you will need to be clear in your application how digitisation will be used to enable access and participation. Digitised materials must be openly licensed in line with The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s digital good practice guidance.

Impact may be felt at multiple levels. Individually, project teams can develop new skills and adopt new practices. Institutionally, consortium projects may improve ways of working or the strengthen the archive service. More broadly, better access to previously “hidden” knowledge can support societal learning, foster innovation, and create benefits that extend beyond the organisations involved.

What benefit does consortium working bring; will working together offer opportunities for participants to introduce collections to new audiences and/or amplify engagement opportunities?
What has worked for others? Are there other comparable archives and/ or heritage services that have done successful engagement activities that you could learn from?
What’s the most memorable interaction you’ve ever had with heritage and how can you replicate that for others? Sometimes they can be unexpected, and this can require creative thinking.
How the legacy of the consortium project can be sustained over time and beyond the project’s own duration. What is the consortium’s long-term strategic plan, and how does it align with its members’ future direction and other activities?
While a new website or a one-off display may have many merits in attracting audiences, how do you plan to maintain that in the future without Archives Revealed funding?

5. Feasibility, project management and staffing

When awarding a grant, we need to be confident that you are able to deliver every aspect of your project, that you have the correct infrastructure, approach to project management and that your consortium members have considered, planned and resourced the project.

Consortium projects will need specific arrangements and agreements across the partnership to work well. In this section, you must explain:

How you intend to manage and facilitate a cohesive consortium project, at all levels.
How will the relationship between the partners be managed and governed, and how will the work be divided and structured.
Who will lead and guide the consortium and project’s strategic direction.
Who will ensure that administration of a large grant is conducted correctly.
Who will oversee the work and be responsible for the management of the project?

You should also use this section to fully explain how you intend to carry out the project’s activities, spend its budget and achieve its delivery milestones. You will be asked to submit a full project budget as part of your submission (see template). We would also like to see that you have considered the environment and the impacts of your project.

Please do refer to the guidance section on eligible and ineligible costs, as well as matched funding recommendations above, when putting together your budget and workplan. Proposals including ineligible costs may be rejected from consideration. We require that 20% of the grant’s value be allocated to public engagement activities. The National Archives reserves the right to offer conditional or partial funding of a project.

Consider:

What you are proposing to do, who will deliver the project, what skills they have and why these are appropriate.
Who has overall responsibility for the project, and who else is involved.
How will you engage professional archival expertise.
What types of posts do you need, how are they paid and contracted? (We ask that salaries are budgeted with reference to the Archive and Records association salary guidance: Salary Recommendations from our Pay Review Group — Archives & Records Association).
Are new staff being hired, or are you using existing staff; if so, how are their existing responsibilities being covered?
Are you using volunteers, and how will they be managed and supported? What role(s) will the volunteers have on the project, for example will they be assisting the cataloguer or guiding the project by membership of a leadership or steering group?

Please provide a rationale for any non-staff expenditure that you need to deliver your project, and how you plan to procure any resources you need, if you don’t have access to them already. Please ensure that your costings are as accurate as possible; if helpful you can include quotes and other evidence of costing as supporting documents.

Tell us how you are going to manage your project, to ensure that it keeps on track – you may wish to attach a Gantt Chart or similar project planning tool, particularly for larger projects. We will ask you to outline at least three key milestones that need to be achieved to ensure your project’s success.

Finally, you will want to think about the risks that your project faces, and what mitigations you will be putting in place to address them.

Timetable

Eligibility

Budgets and Restrictions

Assessment Process

Timetable