National Lottery Heritage Fund reopens for applications
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has announced that applications have reopened for project grants from £3,000 to £5m.
The fund closed its doors in March 2020 to new projects while all efforts switched to supporting heritage across the UK to survive and recover from the impact of Covid-19.
In November, applications for projects between £3,000 to £100,000 reopened and from today (8 February), applications are once again open for funding awards from £3,000 up to £5m.
Another critical change is that – between April 2021 and March 2022 – when making funding decisions, priority will be given to heritage projects that deliver at least one of the following outcomes:
- boosting local economies, including job creation
- improving people’s wellbeing
- making local areas better place to live, work and visit
- developing skills, including creating training opportunities
- improving the resilience of organisations we fund
These priority outcomes will ensure that the funding provided by National Lottery players will support the wider UK economic and social recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another requirement for every project is that ‘a wider range of people will be involved in heritage’.
‘Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, creating economic prosperity and supporting personal wellbeing. All of these are going to be vitally important as we build back from the current pandemic,’ said fund chief executive, Ros Kerslake.
‘During 2020 we focused on supporting heritage across the UK to adapt and respond to the immediate impact of the Covid-19 crisis. By the end of this financial year, we will have supported more than 1,500 organisations across the heritage sector with over £500m of National Lottery and government funding.
‘Our focus now is to support the heritage sector to strengthen its recovery and to build back for positive change – reopening applications for heritage projects is key to the success of this.’
Photo Credit – Pixabay
