Available funding

The CoSTAR National Lab has opened a call for creative businesses developing inclusive multisensory experiences and events.

The call is intended to help businesses adapt existing projects and assess how sensory features affect audiences. These may include sound, smell or touch. Supported work must focus on adding, removing or augmenting one central multisensory element in an existing experience or event.

Support for Musical Projects in Deprived or Marginalised Areas Across the UK

Grants are available for schools, community groups, educational establishments, and other not-for-profit organisations across the UK to support initiatives that are seeking to bring music to their communities.

Arts Council England Publishes National Portfolio Investment 2028-33 Guidance

Arts Council England has announced details of its National Portfolio Investment Programme for 2028-33, which will provide multi-year support to arts organisations, museums and libraries.

The initiative is intended to help organisations plan ahead, improve resilience and deliver lasting cultural and community benefits. Supporting both operating costs and cultural activity, the investment will run from 1 April 2028 to 31 March 2033, with successful applicants becoming National Portfolio Organisations and receiving regular revenue payments.

National Archives Accepting UK Applications for Project Grants – mid November Deadline

Grants of up to £30,000 are available to support collaborative partnerships between GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), heritage organisations and community organisations to deliver co-designed and community-led projects and activities that create meaningful changes and strengthen the relationship between GLAM or heritage organisations and the communities they serve.

Blooming Genius Grants Support Neurodivergent Children Across the UK

Genius Within C.I.C. has established Blooming Genius as part of its social-impact work supporting neurodivergent children and young people.

The initiative aims to support grassroots organisations and communities working to improve access to information and support around neurodiversity.

Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund Reopens for UK Applications

The Museums Association, which runs the Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund, has announced the fund is now open for applications from across the UK.

Twice a year, the fund offers:

• Partnership project grants to museums and community organisations that work equitably together and share aims for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Proposals should have ambitious and compelling ideas for inclusive project work with collections, with a focus on how the work contributes to local community agendas and needs.
• Core grants to museums that have established strategic aims for DEI, and that are ready to use their collections and the funding to support social and climate justice in ways that are relevant to local contexts and relationships. The work needs to address organisational or systemic change with potential for strong legacy and future community partnership. Applicants should move away from a project output approach and focus more on the organisational or systemic change that they wish to influence through their work.

UK Music Creators Growth Fund Invites Applications

Arts Council England is accepting applications to the Music Creators Growth Fund, an investment programme established through the UK Government’s Music Growth Package, launched in 2026.

The grants are intended to strengthen creators’ skills, resources and professional development while supporting sustainable careers in a changing music industry. They can also support artistic development, innovation, wider access and opportunities for underrepresented creators.

Grants of up to £7,500 are available for not-for-profit theatres across the UK to deliver small essential works to improve a theatre’s resilience, sustainability or accessibility, or to improve the diversity of audiences.

The Theatre Trust, supported by the Lindury Trust, will support small capital improvements and repairs, such as:

• Improvements and repairs to building fabric.
• Purchase of key plant and machinery.
• Purchase of capital items that improve physical access and the audience/participant experience.
• Purchase of equipment to improve digital access.

Castle Studies Trust Accepting Applications for 2026 Funding Round

The Castle Studies Trust is offering grants of up to £15,000 to support the production of new and discrete pieces of research that enhance the understanding and knowledge of castles. Grants will focus on new work on castles, such as architectural and geophysical surveys, radiocarbon dating, or projects that enhance the general public’s understanding of castles.