We have made some improvements to the Grants for the arts application process. These include enhancing the way you can apply and establishing a central team with responsibility for assessment and monitoring.

There are no changes to our eligibility criteria or to our assessment criteria for Grants for the arts.

The key points to note are:

• you are able to submit your application online. The online process gives support so that you can make sure your application is complete and eligible before you submit it. For example, the online system will check if your budget is balanced. The online application process will also allow us to make savings on our administration costs that can be reinvested into arts activity
• we will aim to assess more applications within six weeks. All applications for £10,000 or less will have a decision within six weeks. Applications for more than £10,000 will have a decision within 12 weeks
• applications will be assessed by a new Grants for the arts centre based in Manchester. This highly experienced team will use their art form expertise and comments from regional Arts Council colleagues and local authorities to assess applications. Final decisions on applications will continue to be made by local teams. Applications will continue to be assessed against the same eligibility and assessment criteria as they were before
• awarded grants will be monitored by our Grants for the arts centre. If you already have a grant with us, we will notify you of any changes to your Arts Council lead officer
• for advice you should contact our enquiries team. We will offer clear and consistent information on what support we can provide to applicants before they submit applications