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Subject Specialist Networks

Subject Specialist Networks (SSNs) enable the sector to share knowledge, expertise and collections, with the aim of improving visitor experience. 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.

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
• Understanding British Portraiture

Click to download the SSN grant project summaries for 2007-08.

Finding a network

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