About these grants

The Archives Revealed Scoping Grant programme is a grant programme providing grants for consultancy services, to enable the scoping of collections.

The aims of the Scoping Grant programme are:

• To enable grantees to develop a better understanding of the content of their collection
• To enable grantees to strategically prioritise the development of their collection
• To enable grantees to advocate for the development of their service
• To enable grantees to prepare an effective case for support when applying for funding.

A Scoping Grant will fund an external consultant to conduct a collection assessment report, which should be complete within a year from the grant award date.

The National Archives will maintain a list of consultants/experts, and successful applicants can choose to select their own from that list, based on geographical proximity, and matching skills and specialisms. If you would like to work with a consultant who is not on our list, that is possible, and you can contact the Archives Revealed team to discuss further: archivesgrants@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

The structure and content of the report will be focused on meeting the needs of the archive service which has been awarded a Scoping Grant, and will be at the discretion of the consultant appointed by that archive service. However, we expect that organisations applying for Scoping Grants are likely to require guidance and advice on a number of key areas, including for example:

Overview of collection: An overview of the collection in its existing state. This might cover extent (measured in cubic meters or GB/TB), storage, provenance, ownership, management, skills available in the organisation, and extent of commitment of financial resource to the collection in question. This could also cover the extent of appraisal and sorting that has taken place on the collection to date.

Condition: Top-level analysis of the condition of the collection, or more detailed analysis if a qualified conservator forms part of the scoping team.

Access: Analysis of the extent to which the collection is physically accessible, or digitally accessible.

Appraisal: Assessment of whether further appraisal needs to take place on the collection, to refine the content and streamline required storage.

Arrangement: Analysis of the arrangement of the collection and whether any re-arrangement is needed.

Documentation/cataloguing: Information about any listing, cataloguing, associated metadata or other documentation that is available, and an assessment of the standard of those lists, catalogues, metadata or documentation.

Use/potential research: An analysis of the significance of the content of the collection, and an analysis of the potential for use, research or engagement opportunities with the collections.

Next steps and recommendations: Recommendations detailing what might be an appropriate goal for the collection, and next steps for how an organisation might achieve that goal. This could also cover recommendations for other funding opportunities they can explore, to implement some of those recommendations – such as Archives Revealed Cataloguing Grants.

To apply for a Scoping Grant, please complete this online application form.

The programme is usually highly competitive, with less than 40% of applications receiving funding: we usually offer funding to three applicants per round (12 per year).