Thirteen grants totalling just under £50,000 have been awarded by The National Archives to make community-led research by galleries, museums, libraries and archives more inclusive and relevant.
These are the first grants given from the three-year project Spaces, Places and Belonging: Community Hub, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Four of the awards are for skills development. One bursary went to photographer and researcher Lee Karen Stow for specialist archival training as she uncovers overlooked histories of 20th century women factory workers. Perry Wood Primary School in Worcester received another skills bursary to develop a school and community archiving model inspired by their 75th anniversary. Other Bursaries went to Scott L Pileckas for traditional leather working training and Sheffield Feminist Archive for website design training.
Seed Corn Grants have been also distributed to a wide variety of projects, including This New Ground, whose work encourages adults with a learning disability to produce their own oral testimonies with local archives in Portsmouth. In North Tyneside, the Remembering the Past project will use their grant to help different generations record their local heritage and memories.
Other Seed Corn Grants were received by: Proud Gypsy Traveller CIC; Inspiring Yarns, which works to reduce social isolation across Northern Ireland; the London-based racial equality charity Voyage; Newleaf Foundation for socially disadvantaged communities in Greater Manchester; Black Men Teach CIC, which promotes the voices of Black men in education; The Museum X, a museum celebrating Black British history; and Southend Museums.
The final round of Seed Corn Grants is currently open for applications and details of how to apply can be found on our website. They are available to community groups, galleries, libraries, museums and heritage partners for early-stage exploratory projects.
The programme’s most substantial funding stream, Project Grants of up to £30,000, opens its first round for applications on 1 April 2026. These are intended to support collaborative and community led research creating lasting resources and partnerships between communities and heritage organisations. A free introductory webinar for potential applicants will take place on 26 March at 1pm and can be booked through The National Archives’ Eventbrite page and through links on the Community Hub website.
These first awards are a great example of what this programme was created for - supporting bold ideas, building skills and empowering communities to explore and share their stories in meaningful ways.
Sophie Anstee de Mas, Community Hub Manager at The National Archives
It's thrilling to see the variety of projects we have been able to fund and to support such a rich and varied range of work in communities across the country. We're delighted to see the interest in these grants.
Jessamy Carlson, Principal Investigator for the Spaces, Places & Belonging grants