THE NATIONAL LOTTERY HERITAGE FUND HERITAGE INNOVATION FUND (EXPLORE PHASE)

Grants of up to £25,000 are available for UK heritage organisations to explore, test and develop the new ways of working needed to support the future of a diverse and varied heritage sector.

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o Application deadline: TUESDAY 27th SEPTEMBER 2022. An Application Webinar has been scheduled for Thursday 21st July 2022 at 11am (registration LINK below), while 3 workshops have been arranged for August and September to help applicants hone their project proposals.

o Funder: The National Lottery Heritage Fund (The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund, distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom).

o Who can apply: any size or type of organisation across the UK involved in heritage. This could include, for example, not-for-profit organisations, local authorities, public sector organisations or private owners of heritage with a workforce.

o Key words: Heritage, Innovation, Pioneering New Ways of Working, Learning, Experimenting, United Kingdom.

If you can answer ‘yes’ to the following questions, the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Heritage Innovation Fund may be worth a closer look:

o Do you currently work within heritage as a not-for-profit or public sector organisation or as a private owner of heritage?
o Are you excited by the opportunity to pioneer new ways of working?
o Do you have a compelling challenge connected to the future of the heritage workforce?
o Are you interested in exploring potential solutions alongside other people from all types of heritage organisations across the UK?
o Could specialist innovation support, working alongside a cohort of supportive peers and a grant of up to £25,000, help you to explore potential solutions to the challenges of tomorrow

The Heritage Innovation Fund is a pilot initiative for experimenters, collaborators and learners from all areas of heritage, across the UK. The Fund is designed to support people and organisations who want to play a leading role in pioneering solutions for making the heritage workforce fit for the future by enabling them to explore, test and grow new ways of working needed to support the future of a diverse and varied heritage sector.

The funding can be used to support organisations to explore and pilot practical solutions that will help them and also be shared across the sector. Applicants must be:

o Committed to the innovation process
o Prepared to learn and experience, 
and
o Willing to share their failures as well as their successes

The Fund  involves three phases:

o Phase 1: Explore - for organisations at the early ideas stage.
Phase 2: Test - will offer support to put promising prototypes and ideas into practice to gather evidence of what works.
Phase 3: Grow - will offer support to implement findings more widely and share good practice the sector.

Please note that applications are currently being accepted for the Explore phase only.

The Explore phase is for organizations at the early ideas stage. This phase will focus on defining a clear problem statement and helping applicants develop potential solutions for testing in practice.

This phase will provide access to:  

o Grants of up to £25,000 to cover an applicant’s time and activities during this phase (six months). Grants can be used to cover the salaries of key staff members or backfill costs, travel and subsistence costs associated with attending in-person events or delivering activities as part of the programme.10% of funding can be used for costs of essential materials and equipment needed while researching the project.
o Expertise applicants develop their ideas and skills through a structured package of support 
o Peer learning and exchange in a cohort, 
and
o Subject to Board approval, further grants from the Heritage Innovation Fund may be available to support the following steps in the innovation process.

Explore phase application should clearly set out:

o How the applicant will explore and define your idea and problem statement.  
o How the applicant’s work will focus on the further strategic development, governance and financial planning connected to their idea and how it will engage and involve relevant groups, and
o How National Lottery funding, expert advice and being connected to a group of peers with a common goal will strengthen the applying organization over the longer term.

Applicants should consider the following questions when preparing their application:

o What is the workforce challenge that you want to focus on?
o What are the different elements of the challenge, and why have they not been tackled before?
o What are the short, medium and longer-term results of not solving this challenge?
o Who needs to be involved (internally and/or externally)? How might you find out more about their perspectives?
o How will this exploration relate to ongoing work in your organization?
o What support do you have, and will you need, for the early discovery work to be effective? This could be from your organization, the Heritage Fund, and/or other organizations or people.

Funding is not available for:

o Commercial organisations, or
o For- profit organisations.

Further information, guidance and an online application form is available on the National Lottery Heritage Fund website.

A free Application Webinar to introduce the Fund has been scheduled for Thursday 21st July 2022 at 11am. Registration can be made at this LINK.

In addition to the introductory webinar, 3 workshops to support potential applicants to develop their ideas have been scheduled for :

o Thursday 4th August 2022.
o Wednesday 24th August 2022, 
and
o Tuesday 13th September 2022.

The deadline for applications is Tuesday 27th September 2022, with successful applicants invited for an interview with representatives of the National lottery Heritage Fund between Wednesday 16th November and Thursday 1st December 2022. Final decisions of funding are expected to be announced in December 2022.

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