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FAQs for the Cultural Sector

Funding FAQs: cultural sector

Frequently asked questions about how to apply to the Collaborate Fund. These FAQs are for the cultural sector.

Who Are Ya? with Alex Fox at Tate Exchange: Photo David Owen

Frequently asked questions for the cultural sector

See below for frequently asked questions about the Collaborate fund. These FAQs are for the cultural sector. You can also find detailed information about the fund and how to apply in our guidance for cultural sector applicants

You can find our frequently asked questions for academics here.

Eligibility

To be eligible you must be based in the UK and currently working in arts, cultural, heritage or screen sectors.

This includes music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature, combined arts, festivals, circus, carnivals, accredited museums, screen, libraries (where there is an arts, culture, heritage focus), archives and heritage organisations.

You must also be one of the following types of organisation or individual(s):

  • A charitable or not for profit organisation, including social enterprises
  • A creative practitioner or independent artist (this includes freelance collectives or individual practitioners working together)
  • An arts and culture producing NPO (in England), RFO (in Scotland) Arts Portfolio Organisation (in Wales), or Arts Council NI AFP organisation (in Northern Ireland)
  • A local authority run art gallery, library or museum

If you are uncertain about the eligibility of your organisation, please contact ccv@leeds.ac.uk

Ineligible organisations include:

  • Organisations based outside of the UK
  • For-profit organisations
  • Non-accredited museums
  • Arts Council funded sector support organisations
  • Bridge organisations
  • Museum development providers
  • Umbrella and networking organisations*
  • Strategic library and museum partnership bodies
  • Other organisations that support the arts and cultural sector as their function as opposed to producing or delivering art and culture*.

If you are uncertain about the eligibility of your organisation please contact ccv@leeds.ac.uk

*Not for profit, unfunded sector support organisations, networks or umbrella organisations may support or work in partnership with eligible organisations/individuals to submit an expression of interest, but the eligible organisation must be the lead applicant.

Application process

Cultural sector applicants will submit an online expression of interest (EOI) between 17 October and 25 November 2022.

An assessment panel will then select up to 10 potential projects from the submitted EOIs. These will be advertised to academic researcher applicants.

If your potential project is selected, the panel will identify a shortlist of up to three academic research partners who could be a suitable match to work with you.

You will then have two weeks to meet with the shortlisted academic researchers and select your choice of partner. Once matched you will then be able to work with your partner to co-develop a research plan and full project funding application.

Expressions of Interest and project funding applications will be assessed against published criteria by a panel that includes Centre for Cultural Value staff, academic experts and cultural sector representatives. External assessment panel members will be recruited through a UK wide open call.

We will support projects that:

  • Investigate under-explored areas of cultural value

Covering topics that need further research to strengthen the evidence base and/or which seek to investigate perspectives on cultural value from individuals who are underrepresented in cultural value research. 

This includes but is not limited to people who:

      • experience racism (people from migrant communities, Black, Asian and minoritised backgrounds)
      • identify as D/deaf or disabled
      • are from socio-economic backgrounds and communities that are under-represented in the cultural and research sectors
  • Are rooted in the real-world questions of the cultural sector partner and have relevance to their practice
  • Have the potential to inform the practice of the wider cultural sector through their findings
  • Contribute to developing new and innovative research methodologies for exploring cultural value. This includes emerging research methodologies – not limited to the field of arts and humanities –  and /or the application of proven methodologies in new contexts.
  • Model collaborative and reflective research practice – demonstrating respect for each partner’s knowledge and skills and placing value on learning from the process, not just the findings.
  • Have the potential to form the basis of a longer-term partnership or programme of activity continuing to deliver value beyond the life of the project.

Please see our website for examples of the selected partnerships from the first round of Collaborate funding.

Activities that we cannot fund, include:

  • Evaluation of existing projects
  • Economic impact studies
  • Part-funding of an existing project
  • Building projects
  • Purchase of assets with no public benefit
  • Ongoing overheads
  • Projects already in receipt of funding
  • Training
  • Commissioning of art

If you are planning to apply and want to find out what research is already out there, read our ‘How to… search for relevant research’ resource.

There is no financial support available for developing an Expression of Interest. For this reason, we have purposely made this process light touch.

However, if a cultural sector applicant makes an expression of interest and their proposal is among the 10 shortlisted and matched with an academic to develop a full joint application, a bursary of up to £300 to contribute to development of the project funding application is available. This funding is available to all cultural sector applicants at this stage (1 award per Expression of Interest) and may be used for application development activity including, but not limited to:

  • development time for unsalaried/freelance applicants
  • travel, subsistence and other consumable costs
  • costs relating to development of the project funding application such as participant consultation

This programme is not designed to support existing research and already active partnerships.

The matchmaking process is an essential part of the programme, as we have to ensure that all participants (cultural sector and academic) meet the criteria for the fund.

However, if a cultural sector applicant makes an expression of interest and their proposal is among the 10 shortlisted for academics to express interest, they are free to encourage any eligible academic researcher(s) to submit an expression of interest to work with them.

Expressions of Interest are limited to one submission per cultural organisation, or individual if applying as an individual artist.

We expect organisations to co-ordinate their own submissions. If multiple submissions are made, however, they will be returned to the applicant and we will request that you select and resubmit only one.

For organisations operating across multiple sites e.g local authority museums service, we consider the parent organisation to be the applicant. You may not submit applications on behalf of multiple sites.

Eligible lead applicants may wish to work in partnership or with the support of other organisations or individuals as part of the proposed project. In this case, please complete the relevant section on the Expression of Interest form. There should also be an eligible single lead organisation or individual for information and communication purposes, and, if successful, be the accountable organisation for any funding.

Eligible creative practitioners or individual artists can also apply as freelance collectives or individual practitioners working together. Again, there must be a lead applicant contact identified for information and communication purposes during the process, and, if successful, be the accountable individual for any funding.

There are several resources available to assist you with your application to Collaborate:

Additionally, you can:

If you require any information in alternative formats, or there is anything more specific we could provide to make this accessible to you, please email ccv@leeds.ac.uk

Projects should be no less than 6 months and no more than 12 months.

Funding

You can apply for between £5K and £20K which can be used to cover all or part-costs of collaborative projects lasting between 6-12 months. Round two of Collaborate will launch in October 2022.

The funding can cover all or part-costs of the project activity including, but not limited to:

  • Cultural sector partner time
  • Research assistant time (e.g. PhD researchers or student interns supporting project activity)
  • Research participant costs (includes volunteers supporting project activity/events)
  • Project consumables
  • Venue and equipment hire
  • Travel and subsistence
  • Lead academic staff time
  • Building projects
  • Purchase of assets with no public benefit
  • Ongoing overheads
  • Duplication of funding
  • Training
  • Commissioning of art
  • Evaluation of existing projects
  • Economic impact studies
  • Part-funding of an existing project

Awarded project teams will be issued with contracts and payment schedules set against the milestones they provide in their joint project funding application. There can be no payment in advance of activity and payment will be subject to delivery of milestones and evidence of spending as appropriate. The funding shall be awarded to the cultural sector partner in the first instance, however a proportion of funding can be made directly to the academic research partner for eligible costs (e.g. research assistant time) if requested and as outlined within the joint project application. There is no requirement that any proportion of the funding will be ring-fenced for any specific activity. All awards are inclusive of any applicable VAT.

If the Collaborate funding is being used to part-fund the costs of a project, match funding would be any other source of funding supporting project activity. It can be made up of cash or in-kind support or a mixture of the two. In-kind support includes, but is not limited to, the contribution of organisational resources, staff time or reduced costs for services.

No, this is not a requirement, although we are supportive of applicants using the fund as an opportunity to attract funding from other sources to develop more ambitious projects.

There will be a requirement to submit a new budget for approval if project costs increase beyond 5% of the original award.

Definitions

The differences that arts, culture, heritage and screen engagement make to people’s lives and society.

Covering topics or issues that need further research to strengthen the evidence base and/or which seek to investigate perspectives on cultural value from individuals who are currently under-represented in cultural value research.

This includes but is not limited to people who:

  • experience racism (people from migrant communities, Black, Asian and minoritised backgrounds)
  • identify as D/deaf or disabled
  • are from socio-economic backgrounds and communities that are under-represented in the cultural and research sector

Demonstrating an openness to working together on an equal footing to co-create a shared, mutually beneficial research question and methodology.

Having respect for each partner’s knowledge and skills in a way that brings together theoretical knowledge and rigour with practice-based expertise.

We also welcome projects that seek to work with audiences and research participants in the co-creation of research activity and/or co-authoring of project outputs.

We are looking for projects where value is placed on learning from the process, not just the findings. The project approach should include opportunities for ongoing learning and reflection, and demonstrating a willingness to adjust and pivot where necessary.

We are looking for projects that help develop fresh understandings of cultural value by bringing together knowledge, data, methodologies or techniques from different bodies of specialised knowledge. We welcome approaches from academic researchers both within and outside of the arts and humanities who are seeking to develop new or emerging research methodologies and /or the application of proven methodologies in new contexts.

Musicians from the Manchester Camerata orchestra
Image: Manchester Camerata

Collaborate projects

Find out more about the projects that have been awarded funding from our Collaborate programme

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