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 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.

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 aims to help people overcome disadvantage and lack of opportunity, so that they can realise their potential and enjoy fulfilling and creative lives. The purpose of the Teacher Development Fund is to support delivery of effective arts-based teaching and learning opportunities in the primary classroom, and to embed learning through the arts in the curriculum. It aims to do this through supporting teachers and school leaders to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, confidence and experience.

The Film Festivals Fund aims to increase the range and diversity of films available to audiences in Scotland - projects supported through this fund should help to promote cinemagoing and cinemas in Scotland, and to raise the profile of film, especially specialised film.  Priority will be given to festivals that improve the diversity of film programmes and audiences, including socio-economic and geographic diversity as well as protected characteristics; and Screen Scotland will also prioritise support for projects that offer engagement with film in locations that have limited access to cinema.

The Distribution and Exhibition Fund aims to support the wider distribution of completed Scottish films across Scotland and internationally, and especially to increase access to Scottish films for as wide and diverse an audience as possible within Scotland.

The Broadcast Content Fund aims to help the sustainable growth of Scotland’s broadcast production sector, encouraging the development of new projects, the scaling up of already successful activities and the production of commissioned programmes. The Broadcast Content Fund accepts applications for all genres of broadcast content including factual and scripted programming where there is a clear and demonstrable need for public funding.

Creative Scotland’s Production Growth Fund aims to help grow Scotland’s screen production sector and deliver a direct and significant economic benefit to Scotland. It seeks to do this by attracting large scale productions into the country, and maximising spend in Scotland. Funding is available for live-action and animated features, and live-action and animated high-end television drama series that demonstrate the ability to create employment opportunities for crew, that utilise production facilities companies based in Scotland, provide co-production opportunities for producers based in Scotland and that deliver a direct and significant economic benefit to the screen production sector in Scotland

Screen Scotland’s Market and Festival Attendance Fund aims to support the continued development of a skilled and diverse screen workforce. Funding of between £500 and £1500 is available to fund attendance at UK and international festivals and markets for screenwriters, directors and producers based in Scotland, in order for them to meet potential partners, access global markets and promote completed projects. The funding can be used towards Registration for the event, economy travel, accommodation, subsistence (£30 per day maximum), reasonable ground transportation costs, promotional materials and childcare costs if required.

Creative Scotland’s film development and production fund aims to balance projects that have a strong cultural impact with those that have strong economic potential. Priority will be given to the development and production of projects by filmmakers based in Scotland, as well as projects which reflect or promote Scottish culture, creativity and diversity. Projects which offer significant opportunities to people currently under-represented in the sector will also be a priority. Funding will also be available for the production of projects in Scotland from international producers, but only when working with writing and directing talent based in Scotland.

The Shetland Charitable Trust supports through funding a number of charitable organisations and projects, where there is a clear benefit to the Shetland community. The Arts grants scheme is designed to support not for profit community groups and individuals to develop their art form and/or deliver arts related projects and events that meet local needs and make a lasting difference in the community. The scheme can support all forms of arts genres including visual arts, crafts, drama, dialect, film, literature, music, theatre and combined arts.

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.