Digitisation Grants

Digitisation Grants are specifically designed to help organisations make materials from their collections freely available for users online via digital methods. The grant may be used towards the practical costs of in-house digitisation (e.g. equipment and software), hiring an external digitisation service and personnel costs for cataloguing or research purposes.

Materials to be digitised could include:

• photographic collections
• archival collections of letters, index cards, notes etc.
• bound volumes (e.g. diaries, magazines, newspapers, albums, sketchbooks, published books etc.)
• objects, paintings or assets
• publications

This grant is not designed to support large-scale digitisation or online cataloguing projects; please see our Digital Project Grant if your project exceeds the scope of this award.

Please note that organisations can only apply for this award to digitise items in their own collections.

Digitisation Grants are offered up to a maximum of £5,000.

An organisation may apply for a Digitisation Grant to put towards practical costs of in-house digitisation (e.g. equipment and software), hiring an external digitisation service (a list of recommended companies is available on request) and personnel costs for cataloguing or research purposes.

The award will be paid to the organisation as a lump sum only.

Our funding programme supports research, educational activities and the dissemination of knowledge in the fields of British art and architectural history, from the medieval period to the present day and across the spectrum of relevant geographical and cultural contexts. Our remit is broadly defined and adapts as the interests of those working in our field change. It encompasses art made in Britain or by British artists, but is not solely limited to art made, or artists from, within the geographical boundaries of the British Isles. Rather we understand the field of British art studies to encompass a broad range of subjects and topics related to the artistic and cultural histories of Britain, past and present.

We do not offer grants and fellowships in field archaeology, the current practice of architecture or the performing arts. Applications in the fields of photography, performance, film and digital media will need to demonstrate their relevance to British art studies.

Applications are open to international as well as UK organisations.

For further questions on eligibility please contact the Grants & Fellowships Manager at [email protected].

The next round of Digitisation Grants will open for applications on Monday 4 August and close Tuesday 30 September.

To apply for a Digitisation Grant, you must use our online system at grants.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk. Once registered you will be able to fill out the online application form (an example of which can be downloaded below). Please note that referees are not required for this award.

• The organisation must provide a final report and link to the digitised asset once the project has concluded. Public access to digital reproductions produced through this grant funding must be provided without charge.
• Whenever feasible, it is expected that the digital reproductions will be released with licenses that allow for their reuse. These permissions should be clearly denoted through a Creative Commons license or a Rights Statement.
• The full terms and conditions of grant awards can be read here.