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People: Funding for Activities that Help People Understand and Champion the Historic Environment
Grants for activities that help people understand and champion the historic environment through, engagement, skills, training, education and heritage project-based posts.
What types of activity does Historic England fund?
We fund a range of activities.
For engagement projects, these include:
Engagement projects that help the heritage sector to understand and respond to the perspectives of diverse communities, ensuring greater inclusion and representation.
Projects which support individuals or community organisations to engage with heritage. We are especially interested in projects which effectively engage local people in the decisions that are being taken about their heritage and in community-led work.
Projects including those that reach schools and young people outside of formal education settings.
For skills and training, education and heritage project-based posts, these include:
Projects that support organisations and communities to champion and develop the conservation and enhancement of the historic environment.
This can include creating sustainable business models, adapting to change, and reducing dependence on a single funding source to enable long-term resilience.
Time limited roles focused on specific goals that support management and delivery in key areas. Examples include Network Support Officers, Place of Worship Support Officers, and Heritage at Risk roles. These are typically posts for a maximum of three years to provide new capacity to complement existing job roles. We would hope to see these posts evolve into permanent additional capacity where appropriate, funded by the grant recipient.
Development of historic environment conservation, heritage crafts, and partnerships with higher education institutions. This also includes building historic environment advice expertise, for example within local authorities.
Promoting best practices in conservation, documentation, interpretation, and sustainable management of resources. This may involve technical helplines, toolkits, learning, and conferences for ongoing professional development.
Are there any activities that Historic England does not fund?
Yes, for engagement projects we do not fund the following activities:
- Projects without a defined end date
- Engagement activity that is unrelated to a historic place or the heritage sector
- Projects focussed around creating museum exhibits or repairing, restoring or otherwise undertaking work on artefacts, chattels or mobile assets like steam engines, planes and boats
For skills and training, education and heritage project-based posts, we do not fund:
- Capacity maintenance, including posts or activities which are part of an organisation's core activity
- Non-heritage/generic skills (such as digital skills) where Historic England grants would not be impactful
- Projects without a defined end date
- Activities delivered by ministerial departments and Arm’s Length Bodies sponsored by DCMS
- PhD activities or students enrolled in, or intending to enrol in, higher education courses. Find information on our separate AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme
There are also other types of expenditure that we do not provide grants for. Read more about Ineligible Expenditure
Not all projects neatly fit into a category. So, if you are not completely sure if your project is a fit, submit an expression of interest (EOI) and we’ll let you know.
I meet all the eligibility criteria and additional criteria for the activity that I need funding for. Does that mean I will be successful and awarded a grant?
No, unfortunately we are unable to fund everyone who meets our criteria. We have a set amount of funding available each year and assess each application against how well it meets our grant priorities and Historic England’s wider corporate plan. Applying for a grant is a competitive process.
Ready to find out if a Historic England Grant might be suitable for your project?
Please complete an EOI form, for our grants team to assess.
Also of interest
