Our vision for making grants to the archive sector

What we fund

The National Archives makes targeted, impactful investments to support the government’s vision for archives.

We have identified three focus areas for funding, in consultation with archives across the UK:

1. Risk and resilience: We want to develop archives that are more sustainable, secure and resilient, and to safeguard their long-term future as custodians of the physical and digital record. We will invest in the development of archives’ capabilities, strategies and skills; and where necessary, will step in to save collections that are at risk.
2. Access to the record: We want archival collections, both physical and digital, to be accessible and meaningful within the places and communities that create and preserve them. We will invest in the scoping and cataloguing of significant collections, to reveal the record to researchers and to the wider public.
3. Skills, innovation and engagement: We want to prepare the archive sector for the future, in an uncertain world. We will invest in the skills of the archive sector workforce; in research, to lead innovation in technology and archival practice; and in engagement, to connect archives with changing societies in places across England and Wales.

Our challenges are:

1. Digital: Continuing to build the skills, infrastructure and technology needed to accession, preserve and reveal the digital record.
2. The environment: Improving our ability to adapt to climate change, and reducing the environmental impact of the archive sector.
3. Diversity, equity and inclusion: Increasing representation in our workforce, in audiences and users, and in the collections which we collect, preserve and share.

Our grant programmes

Find details of the grants and bursaries we offer to archives, and galleries, libraries and museums too, and apply for funding.

How we work

We understand the capacity challenges which the archive sector faces, particularly in winning funding: our consultation in 2022 told us that 75% of archives have ten staff or fewer, and 83% make five or fewer grant applications per year.

We have a responsibility to deliver a programme that is clear, simple and accessible to the sector which we serve. The National Archives has set itself these five tests, to guide how we operate as a funder.

Need

We will provide funding which the archive sector needs, which may not be available elsewhere, and which supports our mission, vision and objectives. We have identified the sector’s priorities for funding, and want to spend every grant where it is most impactful.

Knowledge

We are a practising archive, as well as a funder. Wherever possible, we should share our knowledge and expertise with grantees, as well as providing funding. We will work with experts, within and outside of The National Archives, to provide feedback on every application, and to support grantees where we have expertise – and we will learn from grantees, when they have expertise to share with us.

Partnerships

We believe that archives work best when they work together. To derive greatest benefit from our funding, every one of our grants should build connections or facilitate knowledge exchange across the sector. We will fund consortia and networks, and work in partnership with other funders wherever we can.

Flexibility

Wherever possible, we should lower barriers to accessing funding, and make grants as accessible as we can. We will make applications short and simple; we will support applicants through webinars and the provision of guidance; we will not ask for information that we do not need; and we will answer questions, at every stage of the process.

Evidence

We want to make the case for further investment in the archive sector. We will collect data, create evaluable outputs and outcomes, amplify our grantees’ voices and celebrate their successes. We will fully realise the societal benefits of archives, and advocate for their future.

We will continue to award grant funding through open, competitive calls, assessed by panels of experts from within and outside of The National Archives.

We hope that your experience of applying to and winning funding from The National Archives will be as easy as possible. If you have any comments to share about our approach, please do get in touch.