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The National Archives has been providing grants to the archives sector since 2006, and since 2011, has had leadership responsibility for archives in England. We work with all archives, including:

  • national institutions and local authorities
  • universities, libraries and museums
  • businesses and charities
  • private and specialist institutions

In doing so, we aim to deliver our vision for a strong, trusted and open archives sector, that enriches society and connects people with their history.

Between April 2017 and March 2023, we gave £2.93 million to the archives sector, in 233 grants to over 200 different institutions.

Our funding plays a crucial role in supporting archives and record-keeping institutions, working closely alongside our guidance, training and networks. Since 2017, we have:

  1. Sustained archives through the COVID-19 pandemic, with a £500,000 special fund to secure vulnerable records and archives, and supported services and collections at risk through our Records at Risk and Resilience programmes.
  2. Delivered over £1.5 million in grants for cataloguing, making significant collections, representing the lives and perspectives of people across the UK, accessible through our Archives Revealed programmes.
  3. Supported innovation and connection in the archives sector, with over £500,000 of funding from our Collaborate and Innovate programmes.

A pie chart with three segments, as follows: First segment: 'Collaboration, Innovation and Engagement - £544,498 - 19%', second segment: 'Risk, Resilience and Organisational Sustainability - £641, 021 - 22%', third segment: 'Access to Collections (Archives Revealed) - £1,746,480 - 59%'The impact of our funding is felt throughout the UK, with 75% of funding being spent outside of London and the South East.

Since 2017, we have disbursed over £1.1 million to other institutions within the public sector (including local authorities), but also have a significant role in supporting  records unprotected by legislation, with over £1.3 million disbursed to businesses, charities and other not-for-profit organisations. We have also disbursed over £400,000 to academic institutions and universities, and £175,000 to archives networks.

A map of the United Kingdom, divided into nine segments, showing how funding has been divided geographically - '1% - Northern Ireland', '6% - Wales', '7% - Scotland', '7% - Nouth West', '8% - South East', '15% - South West', '16% - Midlands', '17% - London', '23% - North East and Yorkshire'Looking Forward

In 2022, responsibility for our grant-making transferred to a new Grants and Funding Office at The National Archives. That year, we conducted a comprehensive consultation about our funding, including:

  1. A survey, with 125 institutional responses;
  2. 30 key stakeholder interviews and several workshop sessions, and;
  3. Analysis of our data and that of other grant-makers.

We asked about what we should fund, and how we should do it – so that we could be fully informed, when building a new approach to grant-making that will deliver the most impactful results for the sector, and attract further investment into archives.

You can find out more about that vision, including what we fund and how we work, on these pages.