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Collections Care and Conservation Grants
AIM is grateful to the Pilgrim Trust for funding the grant scheme for a further three years from 2023-2025. In 2025 funding for collections care and remedial conservation projects will be offered through the Museum Fundamentals grant.
Closing date: Spring round 5pm Friday 28 March 2025.
Eligibility: AIM members with fewer than 50,000 visitors a year – small and medium museums.
Grant award: £1,200 for a Collections Care Audit. In 2025 funding for collections care and remedial conservation projects will be offered through the Museum Fundamentals grant.
Closing date: Spring round: 5pm Friday 28 March 2025
Autumn round: 5pm Friday 26 September 2025
AIM members care for a significant range of historic objects and collections. The funding from the Pilgrim Trust supports 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 funding enables 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. In 2025 funding for collections care and remedial conservation projects will be offered through the Museum Fundamentals grant.
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.).
These grants, run in partnership with ICON, enable our smaller museum members to undertake a basic professional collections care audit which considers the ten agents of deterioration within the display and store environment. 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 for smaller museums to understand their collection care needs and to develop future grant applications based on the recommendations of a conservator.
In 2025 collections care funding will be offered through the Museum Fundamentals grant. The grant funding will continue to 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.
In 2025 remedial conservation funding will be offered through the Museum Fundamentals grant. 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.
Download and read the guidance notes and complete the application form for the Collection Care Audit. Submit as a PDF form to the AIM Programmes and Grants Officer, Fiona Woolley on [email protected]. You are welcome to submit supporting images with your application form.
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 Programmes and Grants Officer Fiona Woolley on [email protected] if you would like to discuss an application or access additional support.
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.
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.
Using 360Giving’s data standard, we have created spreadsheets to show all the grants awarded so far in 2024.
