About the Archive Testbed Fund
The archives sector employs a wide range of skilled and experienced people who have the capacity and talent to formulate new and innovative ideas for projects, systems, processes, and methods that, if developed, could have a transformative impact on the work of archives in the UK.
The Archives Testbed funding scheme provides grants of up to £5,000 (and provided up to £10,000 in round 6) for archives who would like to test, explore, or evolve a new idea that has the potential to lead to positive change or improvement to the way we keep, preserve, promote and enable access to archives. The purpose of the fund is to encourage services to trial new approaches, provide them with room to experiment even if the initiative might ultimately fail, and enable the results and learning outcomes of our support to be shared with the wider archive sector.
Please feel free to contact us at candi@nationalarchives.gov.uk to discuss your Archive Testbed idea.
Previous additional funding awarded
For the 2020-21 financial year, we also increased the programme's funding to further support the sector during the pandemic. This meant that Collaborate and Innovate was able to award £65,000 in Archive Testbed grants and £60,000 in Networks for Change grants before 30 March 2021. Before this, over rounds 2 and 3, the Archive Testbed Fund awarded £60,000 more than usual to projects that focused on digital engagement. This funding was made available as part of our Plugged In Powered Up strategy to build digital capacity across the sector.