Accredited Museums Grant Programme
GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS
Deadline for Submission
12.00pm (Noon), Wednesday, 19th November 2014
Applications received after this date will be deemed ineligible.
Your application must be sent by e-mail to info@nimc.co.uk
If you would like to discuss your application or have any queries about the
Programme, please contact Chris Bailey on 028 9055 0215
chris.bailey@nimc.co.uk
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GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS
The Northern Ireland Museum Council (NIMC) is funded by the Department of
Culture, Arts and Leisure to assist with the implementation of the Northern Ireland
Museums Policy.
NIMC is the Northern Ireland administrator for the Museum Accreditation Scheme
NIMC operates various grant schemes, with the associated application forms
available at www.nimc.co.uk
Am I Eligible?
To apply to the Accredited Museums Grant Programme scheme, you must be:
 An Accredited Museum in Northern Ireland
Does NIMC fund non-Accredited organisations?
No. NIMC Grants are restricted to Accredited Museums at present.
NIMC supports non-Accredited museums and collections in a variety of other ways
including through the provision of training, advice and guidance. You may also wish
to become a Member of NIMC to gain access to our services. Please visit our
website www.nimc.co.uk for further details.
The Grant Programme Will Not Pay For
 Projects that will not be completed, with all grants drawn down, by 31st March
2015
 Projects that have started before any grant offer has been made.
 Contributions to large capital projects
 Management or other time spent on the project by permanent museum staff
 Financial loans
 VAT, if the applicant is registered for VAT.
How Much Can I Apply For?
For this round of the Grant Programme you may apply for to 100% of the total project
costs. NIMC may also:
 offer less than the sum for which you have applied
 offer to fund a portion of the project for which you have applied.
Type of Project
This call for applications is being made late in the financial year and this timing may
impact upon the type of project for which you will be seeking support.
In the past we have been able to provide money towards the purchase of equipment
and materials towards the year-end. The sort of projects which you may wish to
consider could include – conservation storage materials (shelving, storage boxes,
acid-free materials, etc.), small items of equipment to do with operating your museum
(IT upgrades perhaps), equipment to enhance collections interpretation (such as
computers, tablets, web site enhancements, and associated software), or items for
the presentation of collections (display cases, lighting, framing, loan boxes, etc). It is
unlikely that we could accommodate bids for artefact conservation, as this may not
be able to be commissioned and completed within the timeframe, but we might be in
a position to consider artefact acquisition, again if the purchase could be done
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quickly. In a similar vein, it would be unlikely that fees or salaries could be funded,
and we would not be able to funds projects which will be delivered in the following
financial year.
How do I apply?
 You must complete the Accredited Museums Grant Programme Application Form
in full.
 We must have received it by email by 19th November 2014 by 12.00pm (Noon).
 Any applications received after this deadline are likely to be deemed
ineligible.
 You must send us a hard copy of the declaration on the application form signed
by the overall Manager of your museum and by your Museum Mentor (as
appropriate)
 The signed hard copy must be received by NIMC prior to any grant offer being
made.
What will happen next?
 We will acknowledge your application by e-mail within three working days.
 NIMC staff will write an Assessment of the application, based on the Grant
Programme Criteria.
 We may contact you to discuss the project in more detail during the course of our
assessment.
 The Assessment will be considered by the NIMC Grant Committee
 Grant Committee recommendations will be considered by the NIMC Board at its
meeting scheduled for 16th December 2014.
 We will tell you by letter of the decision as soon as possible after that Board
meeting.
 If a grant offer is made, you must return a signed Offer Acceptance within one
calendar month of the date of the offer.
 NIMC cannot guarantee to honour offers where your Acceptance has been
received after this date.
Grant Programme Criteria
Applications to the Accredited Museums Grant Programme will be assessed by the
NIMC Grant Committee in light of the following priorities:
 addressing equality of opportunity and/or social exclusion
 the protection of cultural assets held
 contributing to advancing the goals of the Northern Ireland
Museum Policy
 assisting the museum to renew or maintain Accredited status
and, the applicant has
 effectively and pragmatically planned and budgeted the project
 appropriate procurement procedures in place
 planned for or secured the necessary ‘match funding’ from noncentral Government funds (‘in kind’ support may be deemed
eligible, but applicants should check this with NIMC prior to
submitting your application).
It is recognised that projects will not meet these priorities in equal measure, but
preference will be given to those with multiple impacts. You should indicate how the
project advances the Museum Policy goals and possibly also addresses an ‘area of
improvement’ concerning Museum Accreditation.
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Public Policy Priorities
Equality and Social Exclusion
In light of the stress placed upon tackling inequalities across the Programme for
Government, and the thrust of the Northern Ireland Museums Policy to strengthen
economic, social and cultural development, the Minister and Department of Culture,
Arts and Leisure have pointed to the prioritisation of resources towards three
specified areas – Promoting Equality and Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion.
Northern Ireland Museums Policy
NIMC assists with the delivery of the Northern Ireland Museums Policy and to this
end we give preference to applications for grant assistance for projects that
contribute to the strategic priorities of the Policy, all of which are complimentary to
Accreditation:
 Developing Audiences
 Education and Learning
 Collections Development, Care, Management and Use
 Infrastructure, Investment and Resources
Accreditation
NIMC supports all Accredited Museums to renew and maintain their Accredited
status. The Accredited Museums Grant Programme may assist you to meet the
requirements of this standard.
You may wish to read the Accreditation Standard to enable you to complete the
Accreditation section of the Application Form. No Accreditation paperwork is needed
to support the application.
Offer Letter
Should NIMC agree to provide grant assistance in support of your project, we will
send you an offer letter. This will set out the elements of the project we will support,
the amount of grant that will be provided and the conditions upon which the grant is
being offered. The conditions will most likely include the requirement that NIMC’s
support is acknowledged, that you involve us in all press and media coverage
relating to the project as well as will all associated launches or events, and that you
provide us with material which can be included in writing up case studies. The letter
will also set out the details of how and when you can claim you grant.
Drawing Down Your Grant
After you have completed your project you can claim your grant from NIMC by
submitting:
 A completed Accredited Museums Grant Programme Monitoring Form.
 All receipts and invoices relating to expenditure on the project.
 An invoice for the amount being claimed.
In order that we may comply with the requirement that all grant aided projects are
completed and associated payments completed by the end of March 2015, we
require you to submit all grant claims as soon as possible, but no later than by
9th March 2015. NIMC reserves the right to revise or withdraw its offer where this
deadline is not met. Grants where complete paperwork is submitted after 31st March
2015 may not be paid.
Depending upon the nature and scale of the project, we may be able to pay you the
grant instalments. Please contact us directly if you feel this will be necessary.
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Verification
As part of its monitoring procedures, NIMC undertakes verification visits to a
proportion of museums and grant aided projects each year. Consequently, we may
be in touch to arrange a mutually convenient time to come to your museum when you
are delivering your project, or shortly after its completion.
Monitoring Information
NIMC may write up your project as a Case Study which we would place on NIMC’s
website and/or in other published media to promote the work of your museum and
the sector overall.
We may wish to use the monitoring information as the basis of a press release for
contacting the media. If this is the case we will contact you first.
For these reasons, we would ask you to:
 Write up the project in the Monitoring Form in the format in which you would
wish it to appear online as a Case Study. You will be given the opportunity to
check the content of any case studies we are using but NIMC will have final
signoff of these.
 Take good quality, high resolution images, of 1MB or above, during the
course of your project and which you would be happy for NIMC to freely use.
 Provide an up to date contact name, telephone number and email address for
someone who can talk about the project that NIMC is permitted to use
within press releases (these contact details will not appear within the Case
Studies).
 Provide web or social media links if available.
Data Protection Act 1998 and Freedom of Information Act 2000
NIMC values the right to personal privacy. We collect and hold personal data in order
to successfully deliver our business and in order to comply with our statutory
obligations. The personal data you provide on this form may be held by us
electronically and in hard copy, but will only be used in accordance with the Council’s
Data Protection Policy and the Data Protection Act 1998.
This information may be subject to release to others in accordance with the Freedom
of Information Act 2000. However, certain exemptions from release do exist,
including where the information provided is protected under the Data Protection Act
1998.
Reports and summary information from the information you supply and from
comments made on your application by staff members are likely to be held on both
our paper and electronic systems, and will be made available to those deciding upon
this and any other grant applications you make.
By submitting your application you waive any right to raise any type of proceedings
against the Northern Ireland Museums Council as a consequence of, or in
contemplation of, any disclosure of the contents of your application in response to an
information request made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We view your signature on your application form as acceptance of the use of your
data as outlined above.
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Information on NIMC’s policy on data protection, its Publication Scheme, and on how
to access information held by the Council is available through www.nimc.co.uk, or by
contacting us directly.
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