GrantRadar

The National Archives

Records at Risk Grants

The National Archives' Records at Risk Grants, delivered with the British Records Association and the Business Archives Council, give up to £5,000 for urgent interventions to save significant physical or digital records in the UK that face immediate peril, premature destruction or prolonged neglect. The focus is on records not protected by legislation, such as archives of businesses, charities and private individuals. The fund is rolling, with urgent cases assessed on receipt and others at a monthly expert panel.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
Up to £5,000
no fixed round
Deadline
Rolling
apply any time
Effort
Moderate
full application with documents

Who can apply

  • Eligible archives and heritage organisations in the United Kingdom: public sector bodies, not-for-profit organisations including registered charities, and for-profit organisations including business archives
  • Applicants must be a recognised archival custodian, for example an institutional or accredited archive service under the Archive Service Accreditation Scheme, or a member of a specialist group such as the Community Archives and Heritage Group; Accreditation itself is not required and the definition is broad
  • The applicant must employ or have access to professional support from an archivist or similarly qualified professional
  • In exceptional circumstances the records creator can receive funding, but must apply in partnership with a recognised archival custodian
  • Partnership and consortium applications are welcome

What it funds

Urgent interventions to save archive collections (analogue or digital, inside or outside the custody of the records creator or a collecting archive) that face substantial risk to their long-term survival. The records must pass four tests:

  • They face substantial risk through immediate risk, a prolonged period of neglect, or a lack of information to make informed decisions about their future management and retention
  • There is insufficient funding within the archives service to secure the collection
  • They have sufficient historic and research significance that their loss would harm future study of the record-creating organisation, the locality or the nation
  • They are held within the United Kingdom

All costs should relate directly to the urgent intervention, but most cost categories are eligible.

Any project duration is considered, though interventions would normally be completed within a year of the award.

What it will not fund

  • Overheads, full cost recovery or management fees
  • Collections acquisition
  • Costs incurred before the date of an award offer from The National Archives
  • Organisations based in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, or whose collections are held outside the United Kingdom
  • Repeat applications for the same collection without written permission from The National Archives' Grants and Funding Office

How to apply

  1. Check that your organisation and the records meet the eligibility rules and the four records tests
  2. Prepare your answers using the Word version of the application form, and a project budget using the costing template
  3. Submit the one-stage application through the online form (SmartSurvey) linked from the programme page
  4. Urgent applications are assessed on receipt; other applications must arrive two weeks before a monthly panel meeting, or they go to the following month's panel
  5. If successful, sign the Grant Funding Agreement sent by The National Archives' Grants and Funding team

Applications are scored 1-5 against Significance, Need, Impact, and Delivery and management by a panel including British Records Association and Business Archives Council representatives.

There is no appeal; unsuccessful applications are unlikely to succeed on reapplication, but feedback is available on request.

Contact archivegrants@nationalarchives.gov.uk as early as possible if you need reasonable adjustments to apply.

Have ready

  • Completed online application form
  • Project budget using The National Archives' costing template

Successful grantees later provide a final expenditure statement, an end-of-project report and benefit/KPI reporting.

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