DYCP - Am I ready to apply?
This short quiz will ask you a few questions about your project that relate to different parts of the Developing your Creative Practice application. It will help you to think about whether or not you are ready to apply.
Don’t worry if you haven’t thought about some of these yet, answering the quiz will take you to the right information to help you plan your project.
You can take the quiz as many times as you like and your answers won’t impact your ability to apply.
If you feel you’re ready, the How to Apply guidance will help you to answer the questions in the form.
If you still have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch
Does your activity focus on one of our supported artforms or disciplines?
We can support activities within the following disciplines: Dance, Literature, Music, Museums, Theatre, Libraries, Visual Arts & Combined Arts. We cannot support activities where the main discipline is fashion, film (such as cinema, as opposed to an artist using film or video to make or share their work), commercial graphic design or videogame design.
It sounds as though your project might not fit with DYCP.
We can only support activities within the following disciplines: Dance, Literature, Music, Museums, Theatre, Libraries, Visual Arts & Combined Arts.
We cannot support activities where the main discipline is fashion, film (such as cinema, as opposed to an artist using film or video to make or share their work), commercial graphic design or commercial videogame design.
If you’re not sure, we can discuss your project idea with you to determine whether it’s a good fit for any of our programmes.
Do you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how it will make you better at what you do? Could you write it in a sentence?
DYCP is a very competitive programme. Whilst some periods of development can have unclear outcomes, the strongest applications have been able to demonstrate a clear plan of who they want to work with, what they will do and how they will be significantly better at what they do by the end.
DYCP is about making the right intervention at the right time to make the most of an exciting opportunity.
If you’re not clear on how this is going to look, then you may not be ready to apply yet.
Read the guidance for details of open rounds and restrictions.
Does your project solely focus on the continuation of your practice, such as writing another book or play, or creating a new body of work?
It doesn’t sound as though your project fits with DYCP.
It may be more suited to our open funding programme, National Lottery Project Grants. Project Grants is focused on the development and delivery of new work and has a higher success rate.
We’d recommend reading the guidance of both programmes to determine which is a better fit.
Do you have a clear plan of what you will do, when you will do it and who you will work with?
One of the main weaknesses we’ve seen in past DYCP applications is an underdeveloped plan of activity.
We need to be confident that you are going to be able to achieve what you set out to do.
Our guidance and case studies can help you develop this part of your application.
Have you applied to DYCP before?
There’s restrictions on how many times you can apply
If you have recently made two unsuccessful or one successful application, you may not be eligible to apply.
We received over 19,000 applications in Rounds 8-15 of DYCP and we want to make sure everyone has a fair chance of success.
Do you have an applicant profile on Grantium, our online application system?
Before you apply, you need to set yourself up as an "applicant" on our application portal, Grantium.
Only do this if you intend to make an application.
It takes up to a maximum of 10 working days for us to validate your applicant profile. Once this has been done you can start filling in the application form.
Whilst you’re waiting, you should read the DYCP Guidance for applicants and start planning your application.
Great, if you've answered all the previous questions, it looks like you might be ready to apply.
Remember, DYCP is a highly competitive programme, and we can’t fund all the good applications we receive