NIMC Acquisition Fund
GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS
Application and Monitoring Forms are available at www.nimc.co.uk
Please email completed applications to info@nimc.co.uk
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GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS
The Northern Ireland Museums Council Acquisitions Fund will support museums in
acquiring objects, within the scope of their Collections Development Plans or
Acquisition Policies, that will be accessioned within their permanent collections.
The Fund aims to support the Collections Management requirements of the
Accreditation Standard, and the Strategic Priority within the Northern Ireland
Museums Policy relating to Collections Care, Development, Management and Use
Deadlines
The Acquisition Fund is a rolling programme; you can apply throughout the year.
We cannot guarantee to assess applications received less than five working days
prior to the date of sale.
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 always honour offers where
your Acceptance has been received after this date.
The purchase must be completed, and all paperwork, monitoring and grant
drawdown finalised, by 3rd March 2017. The grant may be withdrawn after this date.
Am I Eligible?
The Acquisitions Fund is open to all Accredited non-National museums in Northern
Ireland.
NIMC supports non-Accredited museums and collections by providing training,
advice and guidance. You should be a Member to access these services. To join,
please visit www.nimc.co.uk.
The Acquisition Fund Will Not Pay For
Items that will not be accessioned as part of the Museum’s permanent collection:
 Delivery expenses
 Equipment
 Framing or mounting
 Loans
 Museum time or administration costs
 Purchases started or made prior to an NIMC grant offer.
 Reproductions or facsimiles
 Valuations
How Much Can I Apply For?
NIMC will fund up to 50% of the purchase price.
Auction Sales – where an item is to be purchased at auction, NIMC may offer support
toward both the cost price, and the auctioneer’s commission, excluding VAT if you
are VAT-registered.
NIMC may offer less than the amount for which you have applied; or offer to fund
specific items, within a group acquisition.
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How do I apply?
Complete the NIMC Acquisitions Fund Application Form in full.
Your application should include at least one good quality colour image of the item.
Email the application and all attachments to info@nimc.co.uk
Send a hard copy, signed by the overall Manager of your museum or by your
Museum Mentor, within five working days of the email copy.
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 Acquisition Fund
Criteria.
We may contact you to discuss the acquisition in more detail during the course of our
assessment.
The Assessment will be authorised by the Chairman of the NIMC Board.
We will tell you by letter of the decision as soon as possible thereafter.
Assessment Criteria
The Assessment Criteria are:
 The acquisition is covered by the Museum’s Collections Development Policy.
 The item will be accessioned as part of the Museum’s permanent collection.
 The Museum has appropriate arrangements in place to document, store,
conserve, and provide public access to the item.
 The budget is clear, realistic and appropriately itemised.
 Appropriate match funding from non-central Government funds has been
planned or secured.
What information will I need to submit to claim the grant?
The grant will only be paid against actual expenditure on the acquisition of object(s)
described and itemised within the application.
The grant will only be paid once we have received:
 Invoice from your governing body to NIMC for the correct amount. The figure
on this should be 50% of the actual expenditure or the total amount NIMC has
offered, whichever is the lower amount.
 Receipts for expenditure from the vendor.
 Proof that you have paid for the item. Acceptable proof of payment will be
bank or credit card statements, proof of online banking transfer, BACS
payment records, and copies of cheques.
 Monitoring and Acknowledgement information – see below.
The financial paperwork should be sent to info@nimc.co.uk / Northern Ireland
Museums Council, 153 Bangor Road, Holywood, Co Down BT18 0EU
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Monitoring
Monitoring is a condition to the offer of a grant and is required prior to payment. This
will include:
 Completion of the NIMC Acquisition Fund Monitoring Form.
 Provision of at least one good quality image of 1MB or above that NIMC can
use for publicity purposes and on www.nimc.co.uk Useful images may be, for
example, of people looking at or working with the funded item, or photographs
of the object within an exhibition.
Please send the completed Monitoring Form, by email to info@nimc.co.uk.
NIMC will also undertake a verification visit to your museum see the object, and
discuss with you how it is being documented, researched, stored, conserved,
exhibited etc.
NIMC would also welcome electronic copies of articles, exhibitions, invitations, press
releases, publications etc. in which the object features. We will not share these with
third parties without your prior permission.
Acquisition Case Studies
We may use your Acquisition as a Case Study on our website to publicise your
museum, NIMC and the sector overall. You should therefore write the Monitoring
Form in the format in which you would wish the acquisition to appear online. We will
send you the content of any case studies for checking, but NIMC will retain the final
signoff.
Acknowledgement
NIMC expects that its support towards the acquisition is acknowledged through the
incorporation of the Council’s logo on the label and/or interpretation panel associated
with the purchased object.
If an image of the item is included in publications or websites produced by the
Museum, it must be accompanied by the phrase Purchased with assistance from the
NIMC Acquisition Fund, and the Council’s logo, where possible.
Can the Museum sell or otherwise dispose of the item?
NIMC must be consulted prior to the disposal of any item purchased with the help of
the Acquisitions Fund. This condition applies irrespective of the date when such a
disposal is being considered. NIMC reserves the right to claw back the full value of
the grant provided in such cases.
Tax Incentives
There are currently two schemes offering tax incentives in connection with cultural
property. These include:
Acceptance in Lieu, which enables taxpayers to transfer important works of art and
other important heritage objects into public ownership while paying Inheritance Tax,
or one of its earlier forms. The taxpayer is given the full open market value of the
item, which then becomes the property of a public museum, archive or library. AIL is
administered through a panel within Arts Council England.
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Private Treaty Sales, involving the purchase by a public museum or gallery in the
United Kingdom and Northern Ireland of an item that has been granted Conditional
Exemption from Inheritance Tax, at a price that is beneficial to both public purchaser
and private vendor.
For further details visit the Arts Council England website.
Cultural Gifts Scheme - Through Clause 49 and Schedule 14 of the Finance Act
2012 the Cultural Gifts Scheme will come into being shortly. This new scheme will
give a tax reduction to people who donate a culturally pre-eminent work of art or
object to the nation during their lifetime. The Scheme will be administered by the AIL
panel in Arts Council England, with items of interest to Northern Ireland being
referred to the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure. Further information will be
available on the ACE website soon.
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.
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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