We have designed our grants in a way that allows us to make fair and unbiased decisions.

We will assess your application using the information in your proposal, application form and any other information we ask you to send. We also use the knowledge of our staff and comments from others, including local authorities who we consult about most applications.

How well your activity meets the assessment criteria is one of the important things we consider. Please see the Understanding the assessment criteria and overview section of the How to apply booklet.

Assessment criteria

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We assess and score each eligible application against our four assessment criteria, which are:

  • the quality of the activity and the quality of the effect the activity will have on the people experiencing it, or its ongoing effect on artistic practice (or all of these)
  • how the public will engage with the activity, immediately or in the long term
  • how the activity will be managed and its ongoing effect
  • how realistic the activity is financially, and its future effect

How we make a decision

We have a budget for Grants for the arts, which we manage carefully and flexibly so that we have money available throughout the year. As far as possible, we try to make sure that no-one is disadvantaged by the time of year they apply.

We want to fund a balanced range of applications. We do this by considering how well applications have met the assessment criteria and our priorities. Reports on our spending so far and future demand also influence the choices we make.

When we will reach a decision

If you provide all the information we have asked for, we aim to reach a decision within:

  • six working weeks (for applications for £10,000 or less), or
  • 12 working weeks (for applications for over £10,000)

Applications for buildings for arts use (including buying, refurbishing and improving them, feasibility studies and developing designs) often need specialist and more detailed assessment, so we may not be able to reach a decision within the times we have given.

We will let you know as soon as possible if your application is not eligible to be assessed.

If we are not able to reach a decision within our six or 12-week guideline decision time, we will notify you with a revised decision date.