grants – Industrial Heritage Networks

AIA Grant & Award Deadlines for 2026

December 10, 2025December 8, 2025mikenevell

The Association for Industrial Archaeology have a variety of grants and awards for industrial archaeology and heritage available for 2026. These are to encourage improved standards of recording, research, conservation, and publication within the sector.

The grants support industrial heritage and archaeology conservation projects in the UK, and research projects on industrial archaeology. They are open to non-members as well as members of the Association.

The awards are presented to an individual or groups who have made a significant contribution to industrial archaeology, for example in research, publication, recording or conservation. The awards attract local and national publicity, and the recipients are encouraged to publish their projects. Most awards have cash prizes and are usually presented annually at the AIA Conference, at which winners will be encouraged to talk about their work and present posters or displays on it if appropriate.

The deadline for the following categories is 31st January 2026 (more details in the links):

The AIA also offer Restoration Grants of up to £20,000. The deadline for these is the 31st March. More details in the link below:

Restoration Grants of up to £20,000

Grants for Two Mining Industrial Heritage Sites

September 17, 2025mikenevell

Two mining industrial heriatge sites have recently received grants towards conservation and community engagement.

The headstocks at Woodhorn Museum, Ashington, has received extra money from Northumbrian County Council for the continuing conservation work at the industrial site. The £1.4m grant is in addition to earlier funds for the restoration of the site, including nearly £1m from the UK Government’s ‘Heritage at Risk’ support scheme. Further details can be found here: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/additional-14-million-agreed-save-32416167

The National Coal Mining Museum for England, Wakefield, has received a grant in the first round of the re-imagined Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund. £98,561 will be used to celebrate the role of Miners’ Welfare by bringing together heritage, community, health, academic partners, and people living with marginalisation, mental and physical ill-health. This fund supports projects using museum collections to improve inclusion and equitable working with community partners. Further details can be found here: https://www.ncm.org.uk/news/funding-miners-welfare/

*The headstocks at Woodhorn Museum. Image courtesy of North East Museums Development Trust.*

New ‘Spaces, Places and Belonging’ Community Hub Funding to Launch

September 2, 2025September 1, 2025mikenevell

The National Archives, in partnership with Leeds Museums & Galleries, The National Library of Wales, and the Community Archives & Heritage Group, is launching a new national grant progamme for libraries and museums called the ‘Spaces, Places and Belonging’ Community Hub.

Funded by the Arts & Humanites Research Council, the Community Hub will support inclusive, community-led, research across the UK’s galleries, libraries, archives, and museums and heritage sectors,so will be of interest to industrial heritage sites. There will be three grant schemes available, totalling £550,000 (click the blue links for more detail):

A programme of training, digital skills development, and network-building will run to support these grants. The Community Hub will also create a permanent digital platform to share resources, learning, and best practice.

Applications for Seed Corn Grants and Skills Bursaries open on the Monday 15 September 2025. There will be a launch webinar on Wednesday 17 September 2025 to take you through each grant scheme in detail, covering everything from eligibility, to assessment criteria, to budgets. There will also be a Q&A at the end to enable you to ask any extra questions you may have about this programme.

To book a place on the 17 September launch webinar follow this link to Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spaces-places-and-belonging-community-hub-launch-webinar-tickets-1524899849499

Heritage Open Days Micro-grants Opportunity for 2025

March 24, 2025mikenevell

The Heritage Open Days team are offering two new micro-grants to support heritage sites and/or groups for the 2025 Festival. These are for the creation of new events that share stories highlighting under-represented histories, and to encourage people from under-represented backgrounds to participate.

These micro-grants are worth £350 each and come with one-to-one support from the national team. So, if your industrial archaeology or heritage site or group are planning a Heritage Open Day event why not consider widening its appeal with these support grants.

Applications are open to existing organisers who have participated for the last three years in HoDs, and to new organisers from under-represented backgrounds participating in the festival for the first time. The deadline for the micro-gants is Friday 4th April.

Full details and eligibility criteria can be found on the Heriotage open days website here

Small Grants Available in 2025 for Industrial Heritage Museums & Sites

January 14, 2025mikenevell

The dealines for several grant streams suitable for Industrial Heritage museums and sites occur in early 2025. To catch up with what is available for industrial heritage sites and museums explore the following websites.

Foyle Foundation Small Grants The Small Grants Scheme is provided by the Foyle Foundation to support smaller, grass-roots, and local charities in the UK with projects that have the potential to make a significant difference to their work. Grants range from £2k to £10k and the closing date for applications is 31 January. Find outr mor eby followign this link: https://foylefoundation.org.uk/how-to-apply/small-grants-scheme-guidelines/

The Heritage Alliance, whilst not a funding body in itself, co-manages the Heritage Funding Directory  with the Architectural Heritage Fund. This free resource for the sector includes a directory listing funding sources for heritage projects across the UK (and internationally), and includes some helpful guidance on fundraising. It is regularly updated, so its worth visiting regularly.

Finally, the Association for Industrial Archaeology runs several annual grant and award schemes specifically for industrial archaeology and heritage, with closing dates at the end of January and the end of March. Follow this link for further details: https://industrial-archaeology.org/aia-awards/

Foyle Foundation Small Grants Deadline 31 January 2025

December 20, 2024December 19, 2024mikenevell

The Small Grants Scheme is provided by the Foyle Foundation to support smaller, grass-roots, and local charities in the UK with projects that have the potential to make a significant difference to their work. In the last three years recipients have included the Science Museum, the Mills Archive Trust, the Hull Maritime Foundation, and the Black Country Living Museum.

The Foyle Foundation was formed to implement the will of the late Christina Foyle. She was the daughter of William Foyle who, with his brother, founded the former family owned bookshop Foyles in Charing Cross Road, London. The Foyle Foundation will complete its grant giving programme in 2025, marking 25 years of giving to the fields of the Arts, Learning, Community Small Grants, State Schools Libraries and formerly Health. The Foundation awards funding in two main areas:

ARTS and LEARNING charities predominantly via the Main Grants Scheme

SMALL CHARITIES of all descriptions (with a turnover of less than £150K per annum) via the Small Grants Scheme (grants between £2K and £10K)

The deadline for the final round of grants is 31st January 2025. Guidelines and application form here can be found here: https://foylefoundation.org.uk/how-to-apply/small-grants-scheme-guidelines/

Peak District Mining Museum, Museum of Rail Travel & Port Sunlight Receive AIM Funding

December 6, 2024December 5, 2024mikenevell

AIM (the Association of Independent Museums) has announced (December 2024) the latest recipients of their collections care and conservation grants, funded by the Pilgrim Trust. 20 organisations were offered grant funding totalling £63,750.50.

The Peak District Mining Museum has been offered funding for a conservator-led collections care audit to provide a report on the display and store environment and offer recommendations on how to improve collections care.

The Museum of Rail Travel/ Vintage Carriages Trust has been awarded £3,000.00 for conserving and making publicly accessible the Bradshaw map, whilst the Port Sunlight Village Trust has been awarded a grant of £7,325 for the Conservation of the Gladstone Theatre Plaque.

In 2025 AIM will be offering a new grant called ‘Museum Fundamentals’, combining the familiar conservator support offered by the Pilgrim Trust funded grants, with new funding to support back of house activity and mentoring for larger projects. To hear about the forthcoming AIM Museum Fundamentals grant application process, and news on all other AIM activity, sign up for their newsletter here: weekly eNews.

AIA Restoration, Research, & Awards Grants for 2025

December 2, 2024mikenevell

Applications are now open for the Association for Industrial Archaeology’s 2025 round of restoration, research, and other awards (including community, dissertaton, publication, and travel bursary). The deadline for most of these awards is the 31st Janaury 2025, although the deadline for the Restoration Grants is the 31st March 2025. Details and links can be found below.

Restoration Grants

The first of these grants were made in 2009, and from the initial modest beginnings we have, by 2024, been able to allocate nearly £1,500,000 since the scheme began. The industrial heritage sector, despite difficulties with volunteer projects during the Pandemic, has continued to be increasingly appreciative of this source of aid. A source which is entirely thanks to the continuing support of our anonymous donors. A brief history of the scheme and details of many of those projects can be found below. Regular updates on progress with these projects appear in I A News, our quarterly bulletin. From 2020 onwards the available Grants pot is divided into two categories:

Major projects where the maximum grant that can be awarded is £30,000. The grant from the AIA must be a significant part of the total project cost, not just a small contribution to a very large project, so that the AIA grant has real impact. The AIA would not normally fund projects where their grant represents less than 20% of the total project costs. Small projects where the grant limit is £10,000, for which the total cost of the project, excluding the value of volunteer labour, must not exceed £12,500.

Download the Criteria and Guidance and a Restoration Grant Application Form

Research Grants

The AIA research grant scheme underpins the study aim of the Association. It does that by:

Encouraging individual researchers to study industrial archaeology subjects
Encouraging the development of industrial archaeology skills within commercial units, the main repository of professional skills in the subject
Supporting local industrial archaeology and industrial heritage societies in exploring and understanding their local areas
Helping to develop the next generation of industrial archaeologists

The total fund available in any single year is £1,500 and multiple grants may be given up to this maximum in a single year. The AIA may consider part-funding a wider grant application or project as long as the AIA grant is a significant part of the larger application / project.

Click to download full details and an application form: (.pdf) (.docx)

If you have any further questions please contact the coordinator: research-grants@industrial-archaeology.org

Other Awards

A link to the other awads can be found here: https://industrial-archaeology.org/aia-awards/

*In 2024 Claymills Pumping Station received a major grant for the restoration of boiler No 1 to fully working condition. Image courtesy of Claymills Pumping Station Trust.*

Catalyst Science Discovery Centre & Museum Awarded £1 Million NLHF Grant

November 25, 2024mikenevell

The Catalyst Science Discovery Centre and Museum in Widnes has been awarded a £1 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. This is to help it educate and excite an even wider audience about the relevance of chemistry, the town’s chemical heritage, and how this has shaped modern life today.

Delegates catching up at the North West IHN, October 2024. Copyright: Dr Michael Nevell

Half of the £1,009,930 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant will be used to refurbish two floors of the museum in order to showcase the history and heritage of the chemical industry from the 1800s to the present in a fresher, more engaging, and more accessible way. This includes the top floor Observation Gallery with its 360° views of the surrounding area including the River Mersey and two Halton bridges, which will be revamped with brand new interactive exhibitsd and audio handsets.

A proportion of the grant will be used to digitise the museum’s nationally important, and extensive, archive to both protect and make it more widely available. The remainder of the grant has been earmarked for an extensive activity plan including workshops, events, open days, and resources aimed at connecting audiences to the chemical industry in a new and meaningful way.

The Catalyst charity was launched in 1987. It celebrates the local chemical industry heritage and its influence at home and around the world with unique initiatives, hands-on experiences, and rich industrial heritage archives. The Discovery Centre and Museum welcomes visitors from the local area and beyond, with special events for schools, families, and SEN groups all year round. The museum hosted the North West Industrial Heritage Network meeting in October 2024.

For further details follow this link: https://www.catalyst.org.uk/catalyst-lottery-fund-win/

*The Catalayst Science Discovery Centre andMseum, November 2024. Copyright: Dr Michael Nevell.*

Museum Development North Open Grants

April 24, 2024April 23, 2024mikenevell

MD North has three grant schemes available for museums. The Open Grant programme is now open until 7 June. The grant is available to the following types of museums: museums in the north of England which are Accredited, hold provisional status, or are formally Working Towards Accreditation; museums that are not Accredited, or not formally Working Towards it, can be part of a project involving a partnership of museums, but an Accredited museum must be the lead partner.

Museum are invited to apply for grants of up to £5,000 for projects that help your organisation meet or go beyond the requirements of the Accreditation Standard and deliver against the Arts Council England’s Investment Principles:

Ambition and Quality
Dynamism
Environmental Responsibility
Inclusivity & Relevance

For details on how to apply for this grant and for other MD North grants follow this link: Open Grant

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