Funding Archive
This section contains an archive of funding programmes previously offered by Creative Scotland, as well as funds and developmental programmes Creative Scotland has previously funded with other partners. Please note that all the funds contained within this section are no longer open to applications or supported by Creative Scotland. Visit the Funding Programmes page to see an up-to-date summary of programmes presently open to applications.
Funding awarded to Annual Clients, Foundation Organisations and Programme Organisations in 2014/15.
The 20 for 14 Fund was aimed at giving individual artists a voice and profile within the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme by supporting the development of new work responding to, or reflecting upon, the unique cultural, social, political and historical contexts of the Commonwealth and Glasgow’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
The purpose of the Artists' Bursaries programme was to provide artists and other creative professionals time and resources to develop their practice. It was open to individuals at any stage in their career.
The Audience Development Programme delivered by Film Hub Scotland supported members with projects that grew audiences and increased engagement with a diverse range of cinema. The last funding deadline was Feb 2016
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Creative Scotland has suspended its support for the National Lottery Awards for All Scotland fund in March 2020.
Between 2016-19 BellRock provided a practical programme giving filmmakers and screenwriters a chance to work with a team of established international industry mentors to develop original screenplays during a series of residencies and discussions.
A fund for those individual artists and freelancers who have lost income from their creative work and/or practice due to COVID-19. Requests to the fund are now closed.
This programme ran until 2020, reinvesting moneys reclaimed from criminal activity, into supporting projects which provided access to high quality experiences in all art forms for young people (0-25 years) in communities where there is an identified and demonstrated need.
Creative Futures supported the establishment of programmes of professional development activity that existed to benefit a number of people. This included activities like artist's residencies, exploratory investigations, inter-disciplinary exchanges, cross-sectorial collaborations and other developmental activity.
The Arts and Creative Industries Graduate Internships programme was created in partnership by Creative Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). This programme was designed to create and fund paid internships in third sector organisations and small businesses across the Scottish arts and creative industries.
As part of Time to Shine, this fund was administered by the Highland Youth Arts Hub to support youth arts projects taking place in the Highlands. Grants of up to £500 (for individuals) and £1000 (for groups) were available. The last deadline was in July 2016.
The Creative Place Awards ran between 2012 and 2015 and recognised local communities where people worked together to celebrate and promote their town, village or area through the arts and culture.
As part of the Creative Scotland Place Partnership with Aberdeen City, this fund supported the start-up of new production spaces for creative industries practitioners in Aberdeen.
A pilot mentoring and match-funding scheme for those looking to embark on a crowdfunding campaign. Deadline was 2 July 2018.
The Cultural Economy programme aimed to develop the cultural economy by building the long-term organisational resilience and financial sustainability of the cultural and creative sector in Scotland.
A fund to support a network of creative practitioners, organisations and communities.
The Equalities Go & See fund was administered by engage Scotland and supported by Creative Scotland. Go & See supported individuals working in creative organisations across the arts in Scotland to go and see good practice in delivering equality and diversity in the arts.
Feature Expanded was open to visual artists who were developing their first feature film project intended for theatrical distribution. Creative Scotland supported one bursary to a Scottish-based visual artist covering 100% of the fee and travel to take part in 2016.
The Gaelic Critics Mentoring Programme will offer three aspiring Gaelic-fluent writers the opportunity to respond to work presented in the language across artforms including literature, performance and music.
In the run-up to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, a total of £4million was made available for individual artists, community-led groups and arts organisations to apply for awards ranging from £20,000 - £300,000.
The purpose of the fund is to provide grassroots live music venues in Scotland with the funds to prevent closure and stabilise them.
Support for creative freelancers working in the arts and creative sector who are experiencing immediate financial hardship due to the loss of income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Honeycomb Honeypot was a £3.5m fund from Northern Ireland which supported Irish and west Scotland digital content production and projects. The last deadline for the fund was in 2014.
This is an opportunity for six individuals or representatives of performing arts organisations based in Scotland to attend IETM’s (International network for contemporary performing arts) Spring Plenary Meeting taking place in Hull, between 28-31 March 2019.
Imagining Natural Scotland was a major new interdisciplinary project for the Year of Natural Scotland 2013. Initiated by Creative Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the University of St Andrews, it explored the interplay between the natural world and its representation, and promoted deep collaboration and knowledge exchange between the creative and scientific sectors.
The Innovation Programme aimed to foster distinctive and engaging work which used digital technologies, where they interacted with music, film, publishing, visual arts or other creative industries.
The purpose of the International Programme was to enable high quality work from Scotland to be promoted and presented effectively overseas.
Large Capital funding supported organisations to improve, refurbish and/or develop cultural facilities which offered enhanced access to, or the presentation and enjoyment of, the arts and film. The programme also provided funding for the renewal and refreshment of equipment.
Between 2012-16, Creative Scotland have supported LGBT History Month Scotland to seek artists to carry out a commission relating to LGBT history.
Delivered by Hands Up for Trad in 2014/15, this competition awarded a singer or band support to travel to Liet International to represent Scotland and perform an original Gaelic or Scots composition at the event.
This fund, delivered on behalf of Creative Scotland by Regional Screen Scotland, supported the development of public film festivals in areas of cinema under-provision across Scotland.
This fund supported small volunteer-run exhibition organisations, such as film societies and community cinemas, to apply for small awards to enhance their programmes and develop new audiences. The last deadline for the fund was in 2015.
Creative Scotland supports the Momentum Music Fund to offers grants of £5k-£15k for artists/bands based in Scotland to break through to the next level of their careers. Activities eligible for support include recording, touring and marketing.
As part of the Moray Place Partnership (funded by Creative Scotland and Highlands & Islands Enterprise), this fund supports individuals working across the arts, screen and creative industries in Moray.
Endless Different Ways, the Muriel Spark Small Grants Fund, offered small funding awards to individual writers, artists and groups who were looking to celebrate the work, contribution or legacy of Muriel Spark in the year of the centenary of her birth.
The National Youth Arts Fund was established in late 2013 to support the development of a number of hubs to explore innovative models of youth arts provision across a range of art forms.
The Scottish Government Department of Culture made funding available to Arts & Business Scotland via Creative Scotland to encourage new business sponsorship of the arts within Scotland. This fund ended in 2017 and was replaced by the new Culture and Business Fund.
Open Project Funding was launched in 2014 and was updated with new guidance in 2015/16, and again in August 2019. This section contains access to the original guidance and help materials that covered the fund from launch until 2019.
This page contains details of the Open Project Fund, which was updated in August 2019 and which ran until March 2020 - when it was closed as a result of the COVID19 pandemic.
This is a programme to support proposals for strategic development activity across Edinburgh’s festivals, taking place over a three-five year timeframe.
This course is designed to equip early-career staff working in film and television – including juniors, runners or production assistants - with the skills to move their production career forward. Bursary support was provided by Creative Skillset and Creative Scotland in 2015/16.
The purpose of the Professional Development fund was to enable artists and other creative professionals to develop their skills and/or professional practice nationally and internationally.
This fund supported the initial research and scoping of a public art project. It recognised the diversity of public art and aimed to support projects across a range of media and disciplines.
The purpose of this fund was to enable the development and production of high quality public art projects that bring artists, people and places together.
The purpose of the Public Engagement programme was to address persistent inequalities in arts provision, to widen participation and address barriers to engagement in high quality arts.
The purpose of the Quality Production fund was to support the development and creation of high quality work that has a clearly described public outcome.
We invite representatives from the arts and creative industries to join us on a funded research trip to Birmingham in April 2019 to explore innovative solutions to flexible childcare.
The aim of Regular Funding is to provide three-year funding support for a range and breadth of organisations that make a vital contribution to the current health and future development of the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland.
In partnership with British Council Scotland, Creative Scotland supported this fund to invite proposals from the Scottish arts sector to undertake projects with European countries. Considering the changing context within the EU, the fund aimed to support the sector with strengthening or establishing new relationships and networks and enable a variety of activity.
In early 2015, the Scottish Government announced a new £1m Screen Skills Fund to supports programmes and initiatives, in partnership with industry and other public bodies, which directly addressed four priority areas across the screen sector, including development, production, exhibition, and distribution. The fund was administered by Creative Scotland during 2015.
Details of the five sector development bodies that currently receive Targeted Funding.
See Learn Share is a small fund to enable freelance artists or creative learning staff in arts organisations to spend time working with people from another sector, observing work and discussing, exploring or testing ideas.
Funded by Creative Scotland, and managed by the Scottish Documentary Institute, this opportunity allowed emerging documentary talent from Scotland to apply to be part of the Scottish Delegation at Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Small Capital funding supported organisations to improve, refurbish and/or develop cultural facilities which offered enhanced access to, or the presentation and enjoyment of, the arts and film.
SXSW is the largest music industry conference and festival in the world. This programme supported artists and music professionals to attend and perform as part of a Scottish showcase.
Starter for 6 is Scotland’s premier start-up and investment programme for creative industry entrepreneurs.Originated by Nesta, the programme has been produced and delivered by the Cultural Enterprise Office since 2009. It paused for applications in 2016.
Step Ahead was a bespoke mentoring programme, delivered by the Centre for the Moving Image in partnership with Film Hub Scotland and funded by Creative Scotland’s Screen Skills Fund to support film exhibition professionals in Scotland. The last deadline was in 2015.
The Talent Incubators fund supported organisations or consortia to offer business development support to creative practitioners - creating an environment for creative practitioners to develop their ideas and entrepreneurial potential.
Future Proofing aims to address personnel shortages in Scotland within creative production, stage management and technical skills - by inspiring a new generation at entry level onwards and supporting the continuing professional development of our experienced practitioners and educators.The project is a partnership between the Scottish Drama Training Network (SDTN) and the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) and is funded (...)
The purpose of the Touring, Festivals and Arts Programming Fund was to enable people across Scotland to have access to a wide range of high quality arts activities through regular programming, touring and festivals.
Traditional Arts Commissioning supported new commissions of Traditional Arts activity, of various scales and art forms (including film and digital platforms), and that could be performed and/or exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally.
In 2012/13, Creative Scotland supported specific activities to help strengthen and develop the traditional arts sector in Scotland – which led to the development of specific funding initiatives for the traditional arts such as the Small Traditional Arts Fund, the Traditional Arts Mentoring Fund, and Traditional Arts Commissioning Fund.
TTS.Digital was a fund to support projects which set out to inspire digital creativity in young people.
The purpose of the UK Tax Credit Advance Facility was to assist film producers to move their projects into production by securing this element of financing - enabling them to use a greater proportion of the UK Tax Credit on the creative realisation of their projects.
Unlimited is a scheme to fund art by disabled artists, and support the work so that is seen by diverse audiences.
To celebrate the Year of Creative Scotland 2012 we supported a programme of work to help show Scotland’s creativity at its best; contemporary, international and reflecting the joy that a vibrant cultural life brings to our communities.
In celebration of the Year of Natural Scotland a joint Creative Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage budget of £500,000 was made available for projects proposed by environmental or creative sector organisations.
Marking the Year of Young People, this fund supported organisations to host creative traineeships to give young people the opportunity to gain skills and experience that potential employers would value.
The £3.5million Youth Arts Hub Development Fund supported partnerships between national and regional youth arts and youth service providers, to deliver youth arts provision across a range of art forms.
In 2013/14 Creative Scotland supported The Princes Trust to deliver Youth Business Scotland - a programme to help young entrepreneurs who had business idea relating to the creative industries with start up loans and business support.
In 2014-15, Creative Scotland supported arts organisations to employ a 1-year, full-time traineeship. The Traineeship was aimed at 20-30 year olds who were finding barriers to developing a career in the arts though lack of opportunity.
We require certain personal information to assess your application and make decisions on the allocation of public funding. See details of how we will use this information.
A fund designed to support performing arts venues that cannot yet re-open due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Organisations that contribute to the rich and diverse cultural life of Scotland have been significantly impacted by COVID-19. This fund has been established by the Scottish Government to help address their needs.
