New Funding Announced for UK Museums’ Digital Innovation and Engagement

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has just announced a grant to fund museums’ digital innovation and engagement initiatives, in association with Museums Association.

Quick Facts

  • Total Fund: £400,000
  • Maximum Award: £50,000
  • Closing Date: 21 December 2020 16:00 UK time
  • Final decisions about funding will be made in mid-March 2021.

Is this grant for you?

This funding is meant to help museums scale up innovative audience engagement strategies developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applicants must be accredited museums and institutional members of the Museums Association. More information about the grant is available here.

Resources for grant writing success

The resources below are built to support your grant writing and share insights from funding experts. Currently most of our grant resources are produced with a North American perspective, however the advice transcends geographical boundaries and can be applied to any application. We are actively working to expand this content into other regions. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter to get alerts when new content is published.

  • Tips for securing grant funding – We polled some of our active fundraising clients in North America to create a list of tips and tricks for granting success to help you in your fundraising journey
  • Grantsmanship Discussion Panel – Learn everything you need for successful grant writing from this webinar recording that is packed full with valuable grantsmanship advice
  • The Ultimate Museum Grant Guide – A comprehensive guide for cultural institutions looking to secure funding (currently from a North American perspective. UK version coming soon!)

How partnering with Axiell can help strengthen your UKRI application and drive digital audience engagement

Create a data-driven digital engagement strategy: Through our recent acquisition of the digital engagement platform, CultureConnect, Axiell customers can quickly and cost-effectively produce virtual programming and distanced learning experiences. These digital engagement programs help drive awareness of your collection, reach new audiences, raise your public profile, and encourage physical visits when possible.

Through digital channels, interact with and learn from a local and global community that can provide feedback on what is being shown in your gallery, help develop new exhibitions, and much more. The best part – you collect valuable engagement data to help inform and guide future initiatives. This data-driven strategy rewards you with a higher likelihood of engaging your community.

I am thrilled to see the integration between CultureConnect and our Axiell collections management system…we have big plans to showcase more of our collections than ever before by producing engaging and evolving digital experiences.” Angela K. Dietz, Director of Digital Initiatives, Missouri Historical Society

Adopt or enhance an Axiell CMS: Digital systems create the structure upon which digital innovation and audience engagement initiatives are built. An Axiell collections management system (CMS) allows several members of the team or entire departments to access a database and make contributions, changes, or updates. We can help ensure that your digital infrastructure is set up in a reliable and secure environment to enable future innovation and digitisation.

Use an existing collection to engage and inspire audiences through digitisation: Digitisation creates an openness that supports the entire institution from collections management through to marketing. Digitisation powers digital presentation and enables audiences to make connections and engage with the collection in a more meaningful way. Axiell offers a flexible CMS and associated products that support digitisation efforts and online content presentation for audience engagement and virtual programming.

Note for UKRI grant projects that include collections digitisation or digital upgrades: These activities are only eligible for funding when back-of-house work is required to prepare a museum collection for audience engagement. These activities can be included up to 20% of the total project costs.

Make your collection accessible to an underserved audience: Cultural institutions carry the vital responsibility of making knowledge accessible to the world, including those without easy internet access or with accessibility needs. Axiell’s web publishing tools, such as Axiell Internet Server and CalmView, are developed to create responsive and accessible online experiences that cater to a variety of audiences including researchers, students, and other members of the public. Our multilingual platforms foster diversity and inclusion.

Reach out to us to discuss how our technology suite can help enhance your UKRI grant application and audience engagement projects.

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