Resilience Grants funded in 2025
Here are the proposals that were awarded Resilience Grants in 2025, to enable change and develop organisational resilience in the archive sector.
Grants awarded in September 2025
The National Museum of the Royal Navy
The National Museum of the Royal Navy will use their resilience funding to help restore and transform its digital infrastructure following a cyber-attack in December 2024. This vital investment will not only accelerate the recovery of public access to the Museum’s world-class online collection but also power the introduction of cutting-edge AI search tools and the launch of an immersive 3D viewing feature. It will also support the recovery of unique digital audio archives, including oral histories. All of this forms part of an ambitious two-year programme to future-proof the Museum’s digital systems and enhance the experience for users worldwide.
This vital funding allows us to rebuild stronger and deliver a more secure, engaging, and accessible Collection for everyone.
Louisa Blight, Head of Collections and Research
University of Bristol – Special Collections
Special Collections has been part of the University of Bristol Library for around 100 years. Many of their collections were deposited before the advent of professional standards for accessioning and providing appropriate access to archives. This has left them with a sizeable legacy of collections that lack donation or loan agreements, some of which carry additional non-statutory access restrictions. This grant will enable them to take a systematic look at their holdings and retrospectively implement accession paperwork wherever possible. With permissions in place, they can also remove unnecessary barriers to access. This will enable them to improve their collections information and deliver on their collections development, user satisfaction and audience engagement aspirations. They will also share their methodology widely within the sector, to help other repositories facing similar issues.
We are very grateful for this grant which will enable the team to roll out the same standards of good governance in managing our historic collections as those applied to collections that have come in more recently.
Jo Elsworth, Associate Director, Culture and Collections
Croydon Archives
This project will support the preservation and accessibility of Croydon’s collections, raising the number of appropriately housed holdings from 39% to 75%, making the collection more accessible for the public and researchers. The funding will enable essential cataloguing, conservation checks and repackaging, accelerating work that would otherwise take years and protecting the archives for future generations.
Croydon Council is delighted to be receiving a Resilience Grant from The National Archives to support the preparation, and relocation of archival records onsite. New stores are currently being upgraded to meet these professional standards through Community Infrastructure Levy funding.
Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon
Grants awarded in March 2025
People's Heritage Cooperative
People’s Heritage Co-operative will use this resilience grant to support their partner, Friction Arts, to act as a collecting institution for Friction Archives. This is a publicly available digital and repository collection linked to Birmingham Archives & Heritage Collections that tells the story of Birmingham through the diverse voices of Birmingham’s people.
This project will ensure Friction Archive's long-term sustainability by improving organisational stability, enhancing staffing, strengthening networks, promoting inclusivity, and working towards Archive Service Accreditation. As Friction Arts moves into its refurbished venue 'The Edge' this summer, both the archive and Friction’s weekly work with a ‘Young Artivists’ group will be central to their operations. The project ultimately aims to ensure the archive’s valuable historical records are preserved and accessible for future generations.
This funding will ensure the preservation and accessibility of our collection. We are committed to work with People’s Heritage Co-operative to build on our collection, documenting our work with diverse and working class communities which have been historically under-represented in our City records.
Sandra Hall, Friction Arts
Sandwell Archives
Forging Forwards for the Future of Sandwell’s Archive Service is a one-year project that will see a consultant recruited to produce a new business strategy and plan of action so the service can become more sustainable and financially stable. The project will also see staff empowered to lead a resilience service in the future.
The funding will support staff to seek sector advice, attend a series of training opportunities, an away day and two knowledge exchange visits with local archive services. They will also share sector knowledge through a “Let’s Talk about Organisational Resilience” workshop and share their project’s progress with the public through a “Secrets of the Archives” event.
Sandwell Archives has operated as the Public Record Office for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council based within Smethwick Library since 1992. Sandwell Archives has recognised that a review of its organisational health and resilience is time critical.
This vital funding will empower our team to foster a stronger archives service for the future of Sandwell’s people and places. It will see us address our current state and knowledge gaps, help us gain professional advice and create a new business strategy with an action plan for change. We are very grateful to The National Archives as this will have a long-lasting impact on our service moving forward. We look forward to sharing our progress and learning with our peers across the Archives sector, especially in the West Midlands.
Andrew Wade, Business Manager for Libraries, Archives and Museums
Gloucestershire Archives
Gloucestershire Archives applied for a resilience grant on behalf of all local authority record offices in the South West of England. Their project, “Skilling Up the South West”, aims to increase staff and service resilience by investing in the development of skills and expertise through in-person training, as well as opportunities for mentoring, shadowing and collaborating.
By asking staff from across the nine repositories, including archive assistants and other support staff, to submit bids on how they would spend a bursary on developing skills and sharing expertise, the project will encourage staff to create their own opportunities, and to encourage the sharing of experiences to improve learning. By investing in the whole region to share ideas and develop new forms of training, the project aims to enhance the resilience of individual staff and nine archives services, through creativity and collaboration, and to eventually share lessons learnt with the wider archives sector.
