Apply for a Consortium Grant

About Consortium Grants

Programme context

Archives Revealed is the only grant programme in the UK dedicated to the unlocking of archival collections. The programme is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives.

The Archives Revealed programme recognises both the significant challenges facing the heritage sector, and the successes which archives have had through collaborative working. We have introduced Consortium Grants to empower archives to work together and deliver impactful projects.

The Consortium Grants programme provides up to £150,000 to support the archive sector to work in partnership, on projects of up to two years in duration. We hope to see projects that will deliver lasting and meaningful change, to collections and the archive sector, and which will create opportunities for people to engage with significant histories and collections.

We welcome proposals that reflect the diverse nature of the archive sector, with its varying needs and ambitions.  A consortium may be linked by theme or geography, may focus on developing archival practice, or may explore new technologies and innovative approaches. Proposals will clearly identify challenges and present a practical solution to enhance access to important collections.

The goal of Archives Revealed is 'to ensure that significant archive collections, representing the lives and perspective of all people across the UK, are made accessible to the public for research and enjoyment.' Delivering on this goal, and making archive collections accessible, should be the main focus of your project.

We are interested in hearing how applicants might use partnership working, and archival collections to encourage the UK public’s enjoyment and participation in archives, heritage and our shared history. Projects will include approaches cataloguing, public engagement, and sector development through partnership working.

Applicants are required to allocate at least 20% of their total grant value to public engagement activities. This would be £30,000, if applying for the maximum grant of £150,000.

Further resources on access, participation and engagement can be found on The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s website – you may wish to consult guidance on interpretation, inclusion and the Heritage Fund’s investment principle on inclusion, access and participation.

• Archives Revealed Consortium Grants offer funding of up to £150,000.
• At least 20% of each grant is required to be spent on engagement activities with the public.
• The grant will fund projects lasting up to two years.
• There are two rounds of funding per year (Spring and Autumn).
• Funding is available for up to three Consortium Grants in each round.
• There is a single-stage application process.

The aims of the Consortium Grant programme are to:

• Increase access to previously unavailable archive material.
• Empower the archive sector to address larger-scale and shared challenges through increased funding.
• Develop existing relationships and create new opportunities for collaboration in the archive sector, building a community of good practice and fostering knowledge sharing.
• Increase engagement with archive collections by a wider audience.
• Enable deeper use of archive material to further understanding of collections.
• Increase the confidence and skills of archivists to enable them to sustainably build resilience and capacities.

Please ensure that you read the instructions below before applying for funding. Should you have any questions, then you can email the Archives Revealed team.

Funded Consortium Grants

Find out more about projects that have been awarded Consortium Grants.

How to apply

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 Grant 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.

What the programme can fund

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.
  • 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.

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.

Accessibility and reasonable adjustments

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes providing support, in the form of reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You must contact us as early as possible in the application process.

Application deadlines

Archives Revealed Consortium Grants are currently closed for applications.

Plan your application

While we ask that all applications be submitted via the online form, you can download a word document version of the form to help you prepare.

Submit your application

Assessment criteria

Scoring system

Each application will be scored numerically against a set of criteria, according to the following scale:

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.

Applications are assessed by an independent Expert Panel.

The criteria information provided below is not intended to be exhaustive. An outstanding answer may not cover all of the points mentioned, and/or may cover other points as appropriate to the applicant and their project.

1. 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.

2. 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:

1. Provenance: Who and why was the collection created. Is anything significant about the collector, creator or the time-period it covers?
2. Rarity: Almost all collections are described as unique or unusual, so consider what makes it stand apart from others of its type.
3. Condition and Completeness: What does the collection’s condition reveal about its history? How does the body of material demonstrate a complete record?
4. 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?
5. 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?
6. Marketing and Entrepreneurialism: Could the collection support income generation or enhance your organisation’s or community’s profile?
7. Engagement, Access and Inclusion: Will the collection enable the archive service to better serve their community or engage with wider or new audiences?
8. 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. One prioritisation methodology, Logjam, 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.

3. 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, eg the Digital Preservation Coalition's guidance on Born digital archive cataloguing and description.

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) and/or any other standards (both internal to your organisation and sectoral)?
• Systems: what system (eg 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. While this can be mentioned in an application, it should not be the only way in which you will make your collection accessible.

4. Engagement (audiences, activity, 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:

1. 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
2. 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.
3. 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 below). 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).
• 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.

Terms and conditions

Feedback and reapplication

Applications will be scored by the Archives Revealed team against the assessment criteria. The team will then prepare case papers summarising applications. The scores, case papers and applications will be considered by an independent Expert Panel who will make the final funding decisions.

Feedback on your application will be communicated to you upon request following the funding decision, and there may be the opportunity to discuss your application with a member of the Archives Revealed team and/or other experts at The National Archives.

Archives Revealed’s decision regarding any application is final, and no appeal process is in place: it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure that all of the information provided in the application is correct, their proposal meets the eligibility criteria, and all sections of the application are complete. Any points you wish to make should be made clearly and concisely in the application form.

There are no restrictions on past applicants applying, however our data shows that reapplications are no more likely to receive funding than first-time applications. Before asking the panel to consider a collection for the second time, you should discuss your proposed project with the Archives Revealed team.

If you are awarded funding, the Archives Revealed team will contact you with a Grant Funding Agreement, which should be signed by an appropriate member of your organisation. In general, 50% of the grant’s value will be paid to you up front, with the remaining 50% being paid upon approval of the final report, except in circumstances where the Archives Revealed team, in consultation with the grantee, deems that an alternative payment structure is necessary for the successful delivery of the funded activities.

All payments will be made to the lead organisation – it is then the lead organisation’s responsibility to pass funding onto any partner organisations.

Grant conditions

All grantees will be required to comply with the Code of Conduct for Recipients of Government General Grants and all relevant legislation, as well as the monitoring and evaluation conditions outlined above. Further conditions may be outlined within the Grant Funding Agreement.

Your organisation must agree to follow a whistleblowing process to report if the dignity, safety, security and well-being of end users is not met.

All grantees are also required to behave ethically, following GOV.UK's Seven Principles of Public Life and making sustainable choices to reduce your project’s impact on the environment.

All grantees will be required to make their catalogues available through The National Archives online catalogue, Discovery. Guidance and training will be provided by the Archives Revealed team on how and when to do so during your project.

As a partnership programme supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, grantees will also be required to follow the Heritage Fund’s acknowledgement guidance, procurement good practice guidance, and digital good practice guidance. Further information on how to acknowledge Archives Revealed and its four funders will be provided to grantees when a grant offer is made.

Reporting, evaluation and knowledge dissemination

Archives Revealed Consortium Grants require reporting on progress for the full project duration and, in order to understand the impact of projects, for three years following the grant’s completion. This means you will be required to submit reports for five years (up to two years during project delivery and three years following completion). Applicants should be aware of and able to commit to this timeframe before submitting an application.

It is the lead organisation in the consortium’s responsibility to ensure that reporting is accurate and timely, and that downstream partners contribute as required to the project.

Every applicant will be required to provide a project budget and a minimum of five delivery milestones, within their application. If funded, every project every project must provide The National Archives with a progress update on these delivery milestones, including an indication of any delivery risks or issues. Grantees will be expected to report at six monthly intervals during the project’s implementation, then annually for three years following the award.

Grantees will be expected to take steps to address delivery issues or delays if they arise and to inform The National Archives as part of their regular reporting. It is possible that the Archives Revealed team may visit your project, during or after your grant (we will not visit applicants as part of the assessment process).

Grantees will also be required to provide an end-of-project report, summarising progress made against delivery milestones and a final project expenditure statement, based on actual expenditure. If final expenditure falls below the amount agreed in the Grant Funding Agreement, Archives Revealed may ask grantees to return any unspent funds at the end of the project. All grantees must ensure accurate financial accounting: spot checks and audits may be required of grantees. Archives Revealed will not cover the cost of any project spend above what has been agreed in the Grant Funding Agreement.

Grantees will also be required to demonstrate the benefits and key performance indicators (KPIs) that the programme is seeking to realise. Successful applicants will be required to provide evidence against these measures. While benefit and KPI reporting is compulsory for all applicants, performance against these indicators is for the purpose of measuring the impact of the funding programme only, and does not affect eligibility for the grant.

Evaluation of Archives Revealed will be carried out by an independent evaluator contracted by the programme team, who will be responsible for defining, assessing and (where appropriate) gathering data on behalf of the programme. Grantees should be prepared to engage regularly with and provide information to the evaluation team, as they build this evidence base – which we envision will also be useful for grantees’ own advocacy.

Archives Revealed seeks to build the skills and capacities of the whole of the archive sector, and to learn from the experiences of our grantees. Funded projects will be encouraged to contribute to knowledge creation and dissemination activities, including potentially writing case studies, participating in impact seminars and supporting the archive community through knowledge sharing and mentoring.

Our approach to monitoring and evaluation is informed by our vision: through our grant-making, we want to build evidence for investment in archives, celebrate grantees’ success, and advocate for the archives sector, while keeping our reporting requirements as flexible and accessible as possible.

Contact us

Should you have any questions about applying for a Consortium Grant, including about eligibility and reasonable adjustments, please email the Archives Revealed team.