Collections Care and Conservation Grants

AIM is grateful to the Pilgrim Trust for funding the Audit, Collections Care and Remedial Conservation grant schemes.

Eligibility: AIM members with fewer than 50,000 visitors a year.
Grant award: £1,200 for an audit, up to £10,000 for a collections care or remedial conservation grant
Closing date: 5pm Friday 29 March 2024

AIM members care for a significant range of historic objects and collections. These grants support small to medium sized museums to care for those collections effectively and efficiently, and to meet the standards required for Accreditation.

Larger museums are encouraged to apply for funding to the Pilgrim Trust directly.

The grants enable museums to bring in conservation expertise to ensure that collections care and conservation meets professional standards, and has the most impact on the organisation, its collections, and their visitors.

Eligibility criteria:

AIM membership
UK registered charity or,
an organisation with exempt charitable status or,
a recognised public body i.e. Local Authority Museum
small or medium sized museum (fewer than 50,000 visitors p.a.)

Application deadlines

For all three schemes the application deadline will be 5pm on the last Friday in March for the Spring round and 5pm on the last Friday in September for the Autumn round.

Spring Round – 5pm Friday 29 March 2024
Autumn Round – 5pm Friday 27 September 2024

Collections Care Audits

These grants, run in partnership with ICON, enable our smaller museum members to undertake a basic professional collections care audit. Audits are undertaken by an accredited conservator (ACR) to help museums identify key collection care issues and priorities.

Grants of £1,200 plus travel and VAT (if applicable) are available to cover the cost of a fully accredited conservator undertaking a three-day audit. The grants are paid retrospectively.

These grants are a good starting point before making an application to the Collections Care or Remedial Conservation schemes if your museum has not previously received professional conservation advice.

Click here for the collections care audit applicant guidance notes>>

Click here for the collections care audit application form>>

Collections Care Scheme

These grants help small to medium AIM member museums develop a more sustainable approach to the conservation and management of collections through improvements to collections care. Grants of up to £10,000 are available to enable museums to receive tailored, specialist advice, purchase equipment, implement advice and train staff and volunteers.

We are looking for projects that enable a step-change in the quality of collections care that a museum can provide.

Click here for the collections care guidance notes>>

Click here for the collections care application form>>

Remedial Conservation Scheme

Grants of up to £10,000 are available to conserve objects that are part of a museum’s permanent collection. Conservation work should be carried out by an accredited conservator unless in exceptional circumstances.

We expect museums to have a conservation plan for selected objects but they need not be those at most risk in your collection.

Click here for the remedial conservation guidance notes>>

Click here for the remedial conservation application form>>

How to make an application

Download and complete the relevant application form and submit as a PDF to the AIM Grants Administrator Fiona Woolley on programmes@aim-museums.co.uk.

Help with your application.

The AIM programmes team are happy to advise on applications and we encourage applicants to discuss projects with us before applying for grants, either via email or a 1-2-1 session.

Contact the AIM Grants Administrator Fiona Woolley on programmes@aim-museums.co.uk if you would like to discuss an application or access additional support.

It may be useful for you to refer to the AIM Success Guides in Collections Care and Basic Interventive Conservation when preparing an application to the scheme.

Click here for Successful Collections Care>>

Click here for Successful Basic Interventive Conservation>>

You might also find it helpful to talk to your local Museum Development Officer (MDO) before making an application. They have considerable experience with grant applications and may be able to help with finding a suitable conservator or suggest how you might strengthen your application. We can advise on who best to contact for your area.

Can I apply multiple times?

Applicants may apply to the scheme more than once for different projects. We ask that previous projects are completed before applying for further funding from a future Pilgrim Trust grant round. If the grant scheme is oversubscribed, then priority is given to applicants that have not previously received funding.

360 Giving

AIM is committed to transparency and is proud to be working with 360 Giving to share information about our grant making so that funders and organisations across the UK can use data to improve grant-making practice. AIM works with 360 Giving to share open data about Pilgrim Trust grant recipients and their projects. Click here to find out more about 360 Giving>>