TownsWeb Archiving is currently inviting applications from charitable organisations (see list of eligible organisations below) in the UK, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands to its Digitisation Funding Grant Programme.
3 grants of £3,000 and up to £1,000 in match funding for all other eligible applicants.
The deadline for applications is Friday 25th July 2025 at 11:59pm. Winners will be announced live at the ARA Annual Conference and via livestream on 28th August 2025. To receive access to the grant application form, click HERE and complete the short form. The grant application form will then be sent to you via the email address provided.
Stemming from a conversation around the impact of funding on the heritage sector, the grant has adapted and evolved over the years, responding directly to the real and current needs of the heritage organisations it seeks to support.
The following organisation types may apply:
o Public, private and charity archives.
o Business/corporate archives.
o Public and private libraries.
o Museums.
o Galleries.
o Institutions and organisations that have applied in previous years (even if the application is for the same collection/project).
Applying organisations must be based within:
o Great Britain.
o Northern Ireland.
o The Isle of Man.
o The Island of Jersey.
o The Island of Guernsey, or
o The Island of Alderney.
Funding covers the digitisation of:
1. Bound Volume Collections.
> Diaries and Minute Books.
> Journals and Magazines.
> Manuscripts.
> Newspapers.
> Photograph Albums and Scrapbooks.
> Published Books and Thesis, and/or
> Registers and Personal Records.
2. Archive Collections
> Index Cards.
> Reports and Letters (Loose Items), and/or
> Rolls and Parchment.
3. Photograph Collections
> 35mm Slides and Film Strips.
> Glass Plates and Lantern Slides.
> Negatives and Transparencies, and/or
> Photographs.
Part of the grant may be used to fund transcription of metadata or OCR (optical character recognition) data capture.
Applications will be judged against the following criteria:
o Heritage need: Heritage value, uniqueness, and importance of the collection.
o Social/community impact: How local people and communities will benefit from the collection.
o Research value: Whether academic, social historians, genealogists, or other researchers, and
o Improved accessibility: Such as platforms, preservation, and website access.
Funding is not available for:
o Archive website design/build.
o Setup of their digital collections management/publishing software.
o Projects that do not involve at least some element of image capture.
o On-site digitisation (i.e. digitisation at the client’s premises).
o Audio-visual digitisation projects.
o 3D digitisation projects.
o Cataloguing of entire collections.
o Pure digitisation training, or
o Salaries for project staff.
For further information about Townsweb Archiving’s Digitisation Funding Grant, please visit the Townsweb website.
