Records at Risk Grants funded in 2026
Here are the projects that were awarded Records at Risk Grants in 2026, to save significant physical and digital records across the UK facing immediate peril.
Polonia Northern England
This funding will enable Polonia Northern England (PNE) to preserve vulnerable archival materials, enhance their long-term accessibility, and ensure that these important records remain available for researchers, scholars, the wider public and future generations. PNE Archives includes a wide range of primary source materials, such as personal papers, organisational records, event programmes, photographs, press publications, and audio-visual recordings. Together, these records document the lives and experiences of individuals and communities deported by war, the development of cultural and social institutions in exile, and the enduring efforts to preserve Polish identity and heritage while Poland remained behind the Iron Curtain.
We are deeply grateful to The National Archives for this award. Our collections preserve the experiences of the post-war Polish diaspora in Britain and of the generations that followed, who worked tirelessly to maintain their culture, language, and identity in exile. These records provide a unique insight into a community shaped by deportation, military service and bravery as well as cultural continuity and resilience in exile, forming an important part of Polish-British history.
Bernadette Drozd, Chair
Polonia Northern England
Liverpool Hope University
Liverpool Hope University have been awarded a Records at Risk grant to support the Merseyside Dance Initiative (MDI) Archive, titled ‘MDI Living Archive: Moving Dance Forward on Merseyside.’ This will enable them to digitise over 100 VHS recordings of dance works created by MDI across four decades in Liverpool and the wider Merseyside region. MDI was established in 1993 to provide a focus for dance development, working in partnership with artists, promoters and other organisations. They deliver workshops, led by professional artists, for local groups of all ages and abilities.
This project marks an important milestone for the archive, safeguarding and revitalising invaluable footage that documents both professional and community dance practice in the region. By rescuing these recordings from obsolete formats, this funding ensures that Merseyside’s rich dance heritage will be preserved and made accessible for future generations of artists, students, researchers, and the public.
Dr Sarah Black-Frizzell, Senior Lecturer in Dance
Preserving the videos digitally, in a readable format, is essential to ensure the longevity of this unique footage. We also hope that, by improving accessibility, the archive will attract new audiences to dance.
Karen Backhouse, Special Collections Librarian
Liverpool Hope University
North East Museums
North East Museums is a regional museum, art gallery and archives service that manages twelve museums and galleries across North East England. Included in this is Tyne & Wear Archives which has secured funding to receive and catalogue their first living artist’s archive. This will feature the artistic outputs, influences and early life story of South Tyneside’s Sheila Graber. The archive will hold Graber’s sketches, storyboards, animation cels, bar/exposure sheets, her Mondrian animation for Tate, the work she contributed to Paddington Bear and her Just So Stories. It will reflect her training as an art teacher and her belief that “everyone is an artist in their own way”.
Sheila Graber’s influence and significance lies not just in trailblazing hand drawn animation but in her impact on those she taught and inspired over the decades. She’s a tour de force, who’s cherished deeply in her own artistic, teaching and geographical communities. Tyne & Wear Archives is most certainly the most appropriate custodian for her personal archives and we’re delighted she’s entrusting us with her life’s work.
Lizzy Baker, Archives Lead
Legasee Educational Trust
Legasee Educational Trust has been awarded a Records at Risk grant from The National Archives to support the recovery and stabilisation of its digital oral history archive. The project will focus on restoring content held on legacy LTO tapes and rebuilding a clear, usable digital asset register, ensuring long-term access to more than a decade of filmed testimony.
This grant allows us to address a very real point of risk in our archive. Much of our early material was recorded at a time when long-term digital preservation was less well understood, and this support gives us the opportunity to recover, verify and properly catalogue those assets. The impact is both practical and cultural – safeguarding voices that would otherwise be at risk of being lost, and strengthening the resilience of the archive for future generations.
Martin Bisiker, Founder
