MD North Grants

MD North has three distinct grant schemes available to your museum:

• Open Grants
• CPD Bursary
• Strategic 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:

• National Portfolio Organisations and DCMS sponsored National Museums.

Open Grants 

Your museum is invited to apply for grants of up to £5,000 for projects that help your organisation meet or go beyond the requirements of the Accreditation Standard and deliver against the Arts Council England’s Investment Principles:

1. Ambition and Quality
2. Dynamism
3. Environmental Responsibility
4. Inclusivity & Relevance

There are three rounds of grants planned for 2024-2026:

• Round 1 opens in April and closes in June 2024
• Round 2 opens in June and closes in September 2024
• Round 3 opens in January and closes in April 2025

This grant scheme has been made possible by monies from Arts Council England and the Art Fund.

CPD Bursary 

Thanks to funding from Arts Council England and with support from Art Fund, MD North can offer CPD bursaries for individuals, organisations and networks in the North of England that represent or work with Accredited museums and museums officially Working Towards Accreditation.

Grants are available up to £500 for individual CPD and £2,000 for organisational wide initiatives.

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis until 6th December 2024.  Please note the CPD Bursary will close earlier if all funds have been allocated.

The scheme opens on 14 June 2024.  For more information and guidance notes visit here.

Strategic Grants

This fund is specifically designed to support organisations to deliver on actions arising from your previous work with Museum Development North East, North West or Yorkshire.

For 2024-25, we will support projects that directly respond to the Investment Principles of Environmental Responsibility and Inclusivity & Relevance.

There is one round of strategic grants for 2024-2025 with a total fund of £30,000.  The maximum amount an individual museum can apply for is £1,500. Multisite organisations, partnerships and consortiums can apply for £2,000 where the funding will benefit more than one Accredited museum.

All projects funds must be spent and completed with final reports and invoices submitted to MD North by November 2025.

For more information and guidance notes visit here