MD North Grants
MD North Grants are a major part of the Museum Development North (MD North) programme using our core funding from Arts Council England (ACE). MD North has two grant schemes available to your museum:
- Open Grants
- CPD and Experimentation Grants
These grants are available to the following types of museums:
- Museums in the north of England which are Accredited, hold provisional status, or are formally Working Towards Accreditation
- Museums that are not Accredited, or not formally Working Towards it, can be part of a project involving a partnership of museums, but an Accredited museum must be the lead partner.
The following museums are not eligible to apply for Open Grants:
- National Portfolio Organisations and DCMS sponsored National Museums.
The following museums are not eligible to apply for CPD Bursaries:
- DCMS sponsored National Museums.
Open Grants
These grants are to support organisational development that helps museums to meet or go beyond the requirements of the Accreditation Standard.
By organisational development we mean interventions that might:
- build your museum’s capabilities and capacity to achieve your long-term goals
- improve performance of how you plan for and deliver some of your services
- support testing, trialling or changing approaches to the way you work
- enable your workforce to flourish, thrive and have meaning in their work
All projects must also demonstrate how they deliver against the Arts Council England’s Investment Principles:
- Ambition and Quality
- Dynamism
- Environmental Responsibility
- Inclusivity & Relevance
Open Grants Round 5 opens on 5 January 2026 and closes at 4pm on 17 April 2026.
The maximum amount an individual museum can apply for is £5,000. Multisite organisations, partnerships and consortiums can apply for £7,500 where the funding will benefit more than one Accredited museum, including those officially Working Towards Accreditation.
All project funds must be spent and completed with final reports and invoices submitted to MD North by 26 February 2027.
To find out more, and how to apply, click here.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Bursary
This grant stream is now closed and will re-open in April 2026. For more information visit here and full guidance notes visit here.
Future Preparedness Grants
The aim of the Future Preparedness Grants scheme is to support museums to be able to conduct and commission the necessary research, reports and surveys to inform action plans for future resilience, build evidence for advocacy, and support future planning and funding applications for capital development to improve the long-term sustainability and environmental resilience of existing museum buildings and collections.
The following museums are eligible to apply for a Future Preparedness Grant:
- Museums in the north of England which are Accredited, hold provisional status, or are formally Working Towards Accreditation.
The following museums are not eligible:
- National Portfolio Organisations and DCMS sponsored National Museums, English Heritage and National Trust sites, and unaccredited museums.
Individual organisations can apply for up to £10,000 for their project with a minimum of 10 grant awards expected. There is one round of funding with £100,000 available in this scheme. We expect most grant applications will be in the region of £5,000 to £10,000.
The Future Preparedness Grant scheme opens for application on 6 October 2025 and closes at 4pm on 6 February 2026. More information about the grants can be found here.
The Future Preparedness Grants are made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we are able to support museums in the north of England to respond to and prepare for climate disruptions through this funding opportunity.