Published: 03 Mar 2017
An update on Regular Funding 2018 – 2021
With one month to go until the deadline for submission of applications to the next round of Regular Funding 2018-21, I wanted to provide a short update for potential applicants.
Application guidance, forms and all supporting documentation for Regular Funding 2018-21 were published online on 2 November 2016 and we opened for receipt of applications from 16 January 2017. The closing date for receipt of applications is 3 April 2017.
Following the assessment and decision making process, detailed in our application guidance (PDF), we anticipate announcing the decisions on Regular Funding 2018-21 after October 2017. The exact timing of this will depend on the budget announcement from the Scottish Government, which we are advised will be in the Autumn of 2017.
As communicated in our previous statements - and at the well-attended information sessions that we held around Scotland in December and January – we expect that demand for Regular Funding will be extremely high and the process very competitive.
Pressure on Scottish Government budgets is expected to continue in the coming years. Separately to this, we have also seen a recent downturn in income from the National Lottery. This will undoubtedly impact on future budgets.
Overall, it's likely that the amount of funding we have available for Regular Funding in future will reduce, meaning we are likely to fund fewer organisations than at present, and be unable to support every application at the level requested. We would therefore ask all 2018-21 RFO applicants to budget realistically and focus on core need.
I would like to recognise the huge amount of time and effort being put into Regular Funding applications across Scotland’s cultural sector at this time.
Everyone at Creative Scotland understands what this work entails and also appreciates the value of the information, and inspiring plans, that all organisations set out in their applications. We take this information extremely seriously, treat it with respect, and it assists us greatly in making these critically important funding decisions. It also gives us powerful information in helping make the case for future funding from the Scottish Government and other partners.
As you are completing your applications over the coming few weeks, our Enquiries service is available to answer any queries on Regular Funding, or any other aspect of the support we provide, and we have also published a range of FAQs which I hope you find helpful.
With best wishes,
Iain Munro
Deputy Chief Executive, Creative Scotland
