Discontinued Grant Schemes

MLA (or its predecessor organisations) has operated a number of grant schemes in the past, which are shown below.

MLA was formed from the Museums & Galleries Commission (MGC) and the Library &Information Commission (LIC), both of which were grant-making bodies. Below is a list of schemes which were previously funded.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Gift

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation places a major focus on helping to improve people's lives through health and learning. MLA administered a grants budget of $4 million (c. £2.6m) on behalf of The Foundation to help provide ICT facilities in UK public libraries that are situated in areas of social deprivation. The Gift helped with the installation of ICT learning centres in public libraries by providing 55 main learning centres (of 7-12 terminals each) and 296 Branch learning centres (of 2-6 terminals each) across the UK. These learning centres provide public access to the Internet free of charge.

The Gift has been fully allocated. It was allocated to the Devolved Administrations along the same percentage lines as the New Opportunities Fund Call (People's Network) allocations.

Conservation Awards 2005

MLA was one of the sponsors of the 2005 Pilgrim Trust Conservation Awards. The awards are made for an exceptional conservation or preservation project and fall into the following categories:

• £15,000 for the Award of Conservation
• £10,000 for the new Award for Care of Collections
• £10,000 for the Student Conservator of the year and their training institution
• £5,000 for the Digital Preservation Award
• £2,000 for the Anna Plowden Trust Award for Research and Innovation

The awards were presented in November 2005.

Cultural Diversity Network

MLA allocated this £10k funding package across each Area Museum Council to encourage the development of innovative methods of reaching Ethnic Minority Groups. This grant award has been fully allocated and is not open for applications.

DCMS/Wolfson Public Libraries Challenge Fund

Between 1997 and 2002 MLA administered this scheme on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport ( DCMS ) and the Wolfson Foundation. The purpose of the scheme was to enhance the services of English public libraries for their users. £13 million funding was provided for 138 public library based projects. The scheme has now finished.

The scheme was a competitive grant scheme open to all English public library authorities, regional library systems or (for final two years) organisations involved in the development of reading. There was an invitation to bid once a year sent out by the DCMS. MLA then administered the selection process, monitored progress and organised payments. More details about the scheme are in the DCMS/Wolfson area of this website.

A showcase of the projects supported by the scheme is available on the DCMS/Wolfson section of this website.

Finding our Past: The Portable Antiquities Scheme

The Portable Antiquities Scheme was established to improve arrangements for recording all "portable antiquities" which fell outside the scope of the Treasure Act 1997. The aim of the scheme is to encourage the reporting of, and to record for the public benefit all archaeological objects found by members of the public.

Portable Antiquities pilot schemes have been in operation since 1997 and the current scheme is managed by MLA on behalf of the DCMS. An expanded Portable Antiquities Scheme across the whole of England and Wales with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund starts in April 2003 for a period of three years.

At the heart of the new Scheme is a network of regional Finds Liaison Officers and a team of Finds Advisers, overseen by a Central Co-ordinating Unit based at the British Museum.

For more information please visit the Portable Antiquities website.

Renaissance in the Regions Subject Specialist Network Development Grants 04/05

Working closely with the Museums Association (MA), MLA wishes to support and encourage the development of a framework of SSNs and has allocated £200,000 of 04/05 Renaissance Funding to be made available through grant funding to:

1) Enable museums to explore the establishment or further development of a Subject Specialist Network via Subject Specialist Network Exploratory Grants.

2) Enable existing Subject Specialist Networks to develop further and implement specific elements of their plans via Subject Specialist Network Implementation grants.

Share the Vision

MLA is working in Partnership with Share the Vision to allocate a £200,000 grant from DCMS to ensure that blind and visually impaired people benefit in a much wider way from access to library and information services.

The most substantial element of this programme of activities will be the development of the Reveal database, a collections register of alternative formats e.g. books in large print, audio and digital formats.

Share the Vision/Reveal is no longer open for applications.

Designation Challenge Fund

The Designation Challenge Fund is available to Museums with Designated Collections . We are currently inviting applications for 2006-07 and 2007-08 for the following two strands of work: "Opening Up Collections", and Data Collection.

For further information see the Designation Challenge Fund page on this website, which is part of a larger area on Renaissance . Please also see the Designation Scheme pages for information about the related Scheme which recognises pre-eminent collections in England's non-national institutions.

People's Network: Sense of Place

MLA is calling for expressions of interest from institutions in England interested in contributing digital content relating to a sense of place to the developing Discovery Service of the People's Network in England.

Many projects will already be able to enable access to their resources, but in addition, small grants of between £2,000 and £4,000 will be made available to support the necessary work to enable relevant projects to make data available to the Discovery Service of the People's Network in England. It is anticipated that 20 to 30 grants will be available.

Further information about People's Network: Sense of Place

British National Bibliography Research Fund (BNBRF)

The British National Bibliography Research Fund (BNBRF) supported small-scale projects in the book and information worlds, particularly in areas where the interests of different sectors (publishing, bookselling, libraries) interact. The Fund has now been discontinued and no further applications will be accepted.

IT Challenge Fund

The fund, administered by MLA on behalf of DCMS, provided £500,000 over 18 months to support innovative partnership projects using ICT in museums. The scheme has now closed.

Sharing Museum Skills Millennium Awards (SMSMA)

This scheme was administered by MLA on behalf of the Millennium Commission. The aim of the scheme was to improve the public's experience of Museums, Archives, Special Collections and allied heritage institutions by enabling staff and volunteers working within these organisations to share, learn and apply new skills through paid secondments. With a budget of £828,000 the scheme operated for three years with its final closing date for applications in September 2001.