Grant Directories

The UK Games Fund (UKGF), run by the UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company, supports the UK’s early-stage games development and digital interactive business and creative ecosystem. Through the UKGF Prototype Fund, grants of up to £25,000 will be awarded to support early-stage video games development. The funding will help new and young games development businesses with fewer than 50 employees to create working prototype games. Applicants should already have completed some early concept work and have a proof-of-concept demo or other visual pre-production work.

The UK Games Fund (UKGF), run by the UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company, supports the UK’s early-stage games development and digital interactive business and creative ecosystem. Through the UKGF Content Fund, grants of between £50,000 and £150,000 will be awarded to creative developers and start-up studios to support games in development and ready them for market. The funding, which will be available over the next 18 months, will support the development of intellectual property, allowing companies to attract investment and reach their next stage of growth. Eligible costs include staff and contractor costs for hands-on development activity. A total of £5 million in funding is available. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. The fund may close periodically, therefore early applications are recommended.

The National Forest is 200 square miles of mixed habitat forest. It spans across parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire and aims to link the two ancient Forests of Charnwood and Needwood. The Arts Grants programme provides grants of up to £3,000 to support the National Forest creative community to develop and pilot new projects inspired by the National Forest and in response to one or more of the following themes - Nature, Health & Wellbeing, Sense of Place, Sustainability, Climate Action and Circular Economy. The scheme is open to any art form, including but not restricted to, visual arts, performing arts, crafts, lens-based media, digital arts and socially engaged practice. 

The Ragdoll Foundation was established in 2000. It has recently changed the focus of it's main grants programme and now provides funding to support gifted young women from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop their talents and skills in the arts and creative media, with a view to achieving their full potential. The programme aims to help disadvantaged young women between the ages of 14 and 25. Grants of up to £15,000 are available for pilot projects of one to two years

The Victoria Wood Foundation was set up after the death of Victoria Wood. It seeks to supports all aspects of the arts across the UK, particularly in and around London and the North of England. Arts organisations and groups are encouraged to apply for funding. The Foundation meets twice a year, in July and December to consider applications. Applications should be received at least two weeks before the following meeting.

Film London supports talent, develops creativity and promotes London as a global production hub - in film, television, animation, games and beyond. Through the Training, accommodation and travel bursaries programme support is available to assist staff and volunteers of Film Hub London members organisations to enhance their professionals development for the benefit of themselves and their organisations with the ultimate aim of boosting and diversifying audiences.

Film London supports talent, develops creativity and promotes London as a global production hub - in film, television, animation, games and beyond. Through the FLAMIN Fellowship programme Film London aims to support the most exciting, innovative and challenging moving image practices from filmmakers at the early stages of their careers, with development and funding for new work. Each year, The FLAMIN Fellowship supports six artists at the early stages of their career, each with projects that they would like to develop.

The BFI Network exists to support, develop and champion new filmmakers looking to kick-start their career. Through the Short Film Funding programme provides grants of up to £15,000 to support projects with directors based in England and is run in partnership with the BFI NETWORK Talent Executives who work with filmmakers on the delivery of funded projects. The fund is for fiction shorts, in both live action and animation. Support is available for short films that: bring exciting new voices and bold narratives to the screen;
provide space for experimentation and idea-testing; advance the careers of the filmmakers involved through showcasing their abilities to the industry and the public.

The Arts & Culture Impact Fund brings together public, private and charitable funding to provide affordable repayable finance to the UK’s arts, culture and heritage organisations able to demonstrate measurable positive social impact. The funding could be used, among other things, to acquire new assets, improve built infrastructure, develop new ventures or scale up existing revenue streams.

Connections Through Culture: UK-Southeast Asia aims to develop exciting cultural exchanges and collaborations between artists, arts professionals and arts organisations, and to support long-lasting relationships between people from East Asia and the UK.

Short filmmakers and filmmakers producing virtual reality / immersive storytelling experiences and installations can apply for travel grants to attend international film festivals and events where their work is being screened.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation aims to improve the quality of life for people and communities throughout the UK. The Foundation does this by funding the charitable work of organisations that are building an inclusive, creative and sustainable society.  Through the Arts programme the Foundation wants to support projects that use the power of culture to bring communities together and give opportunity and visibility to people who may otherwise be marginalised.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation's Teacher Development Fund (TDF) supports arts-based learning projects that help primary school teachers develop their skills to deliver effective arts education. The fund prioritises professional development projects focused on creating sustained arts engagement, especially for disadvantaged children. Schools and not-for-profit organisations can apply, with a focus on partnerships between teachers and arts practitioners.

Arts Council England champion, develop and invest in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. The National Lottery Project Grants scheme is an open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects, the fund will support thousands of individual artists, community and cultural organisations and aims to create and sustain quality work and help people across England to engage with arts and culture. Grants of between £1,000 and £100,000 are available to projects lasting up to three years that are focused on the following artforms and disciplines: Music, Theatre, Dance, Visual arts, Literature, Combined arts and Museum practice. The programme supports development by allowing artists, cultural practitioners and organisations to work in new ways and to get their work out to new audiences. Applications must meet the programme’s four criteria: Quality, Public engagement, Finance and Management.

The Creative England Production Fund supports the production of feature films of all genres (including documentaries). Creative England is particularly interested in projects from regionally-based directors - both first/second time feature directors and more established directors looking to experiment with new approaches. At the time of application a project will need to be ready for packaging and have a budget, financing plan and outline sales/distribution strategy in place. Applicants must also own or have under option the relevant rights in the project.

The Foyle Foundation is an independent grantmaking trust that distributes grants to UK charities. It provides grants primarily in the areas of Arts and Learning. The Main Grants Scheme - Arts programme aims to help charities with projects that make a strong artistic case for support in either the performing or visual arts, it has a twofold purpose; to help sustain the arts and to support projects that help to deliver artistic vision. Typical areas that are supported by this funding include: helping to make the arts more accessible by developing new audiences, supporting tours, festivals and arts educational projects; supporting young and emerging artists; building projects to improve or re-equip existing arts venues; projects that encourage sustainability. The majority of grants will be in the range of £10,000 to £50,000

The British Film Institute (BFI) exists to promote greater understanding and appreciation of, and access to, film and moving image culture in the UK. The Audience Fund, is an open access, flexible fund which is designed to support a range of audience-facing activities (such as film festivals, distribution releases, multiplatform distribution proposals, touring film programmes, large scale and ambitious film programmes) with £5.6m available annually. The objectives of the Audience Fund are to: grow the diversity of audiences engaging with film; develop the 16- to 30-year-old audience for film; increase access to independent British and international film for audiences, especially those outside London; enhance confidence, best practice and capability of the sector; increase access to the UK’s screen heritage via the BFI’s National Archive of film and TV, and those of the regions and nations; increase engagement with BFI-supported activities and cultural programmes across the UK,...

Administered through WorldView, bursaries of up to £10,000 are available to spend up to three months researching stories and programme/content ideas in the developing world. Applicants may find new stories while ‘in field’ but are expected to have already identified multiple story ideas that would be of interest to a diverse range of UK media outlets, prior to contacting WorldView. Applicants are expected to demonstrate significant research into the area they are proposing to visit and must also indicate a range of potential story ideas suitable for multimedia outlets in the UK, eg. local newspaper coverage, online, magazine features etc. Where possible, grantees will be expected to network with broadcast professionals in the countries they are visiting.

WorldView is a project of the Public Media Alliance. It aims to improve understanding and awareness of the wider world among a global audience via mainstream broadcast and digital media. Funding is available for projects that aim to promote better understanding of the developing world; highlighting the challenges and importance for both developed and developing countries of reducing poverty. Currently only established programme makers/media producers may apply. Individual producers are not excluded from applying to the fund, but are encouraged to approach established production companies to oversee their projects. Preference will be given to projects that aim to extend audience reach.