Subject Specialist Networks

Subject Specialist Networks (SSNs) were a key element of the original Renaissance in the Regions report and over £500,000 of Renaissance funding has been invested in them. This page gives you information about the networks that Renaissance has funded and explains how you can find a network.

SSNs are important as they are a way for the sector to share knowledge, expertise and collections, with the aim of improving visitors’ experience. They bring together the wider museums community, with expertise and experience from archive and library professionals. They strengthen the sector’s capacity to understand existing collections and they extend the benefits to related collections outside of the networks themselves.

Grant funding

Over £500,000 of Renaissance funding has been invested in Subject Specialist Networks. New and existing networks have benefited from two rounds of grants.

In April 2007, Renaissance announced the names of 14 networks that were to receive funding in the latest round of implementation grants. Over £250,000 was available for projects running until March 2008.

The networks that received funding were:

• Social History Curators Group (SHCG); 
• Fraternal and Friendly Societies and Associations; 
• Archives in Museums; 
• the British Aviation Preservation Council; 
• the British Cartoon Forum; 
• the Dress and Textiles Specialists (DATS); 
• Fire Heritage Network UK; 
• Medical and Healthcare; 
• the Rural Museums Network; 
• Plastics; 
• Screen Heritage; 
• the Association of Curators for Collections from Egypt and Sudan (ACCES); 
• the Theatre Information Group; and
• Understanding British Portraiture.

Further details about this latest round of implementation projects supported by Renaissance are available below.

Subject Specialist Network implementation grant project summaries 2007-08 (PDF 63KB)

Further details about the first round of implementation projects supported by Renaissance are available below.

Subject Specialist Network Implementation Grant 2005-06 Project Summaries (PDF 498KB)

Finding a network

To find out more information about existing SSNs log onto www.collectionslink.org.uk and click on ‘find a network’.