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Creative Scotland has launched two new funds, a refreshed National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations and a National Lottery Extended Programme Fund, after its government funding was slashed last year.
The Open Fund for Organisations offers funding of between £1,000 and £100,000 for projects or programmes of activity lasting up to 18 months, and applications can be made at any time with no deadlines, while the Extended Programme Fund offers between £100,000 and £200,000 for programmes of creative activity lasting between 18 and 24 months.
Applications for the Extended Programme Fund can be made at any time, right up until the deadline for the fund in November 2023. Both funds are designed for organisations that are not currently in receipt of regular funding.
Creative Scotland said the two funds form “part of our ongoing work to reshape our funding approach”.
This comes after Creative Scotland’s Grant in Aid budget for 2023/24 was decreased by around £7m (a reduction of around 10%), from £63m in 2022/23, following the Scottish government’s draft budget announcement.
After the announcement, Creative Scotland revealed plans to use a portion of its National Lottery reserves to maintain funding for its Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs), including the likes of Edinburgh International Book Festival and Publishing Scotland. It warned at the time, however, that this was only a measure for the short term.
Iain Munro, c.e.o. of Creative Scotland commented: “It’s thanks to National Lottery players that we can launch these two new funds, enabling cultural and creative organisations to deliver their work across Scotland. Offering funding for a broad range of projects in terms of scale and duration these new funds will enable longer term planning of creative programmes. These funds mark an important step in the delivery of our new approach to funding for organisations, as part of the roll-out of our revised funding framework.”
The news comes after Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she will resign, after more than eight years leading the Scottish government.