Introduction
With new funding provided by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England and the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) are commissioning a major new research project looking at museum finances over the last fifteen years and what this tells us about sector resilience.
Researchers will carry out a programme of data review and analysis, quantitative and qualitative research, and museum and policy consultation and engagement, synthesising this into a powerful report with policy recommendations with the potential to help shape sector and funding priorities for the coming years.
The Association of Independent Museums is a thriving UK museum membership organisation with over 1000 museum members, helping heritage organisations to operate as effective charitable businesses. We represent a wide range from some of the largest attractions in the country to small, grassroots heritage organisations across a huge range of subject areas and localities. AIM is funded by Arts Council England as an Investment Principles Support Organisation.
Arts Council England will convene a project reference group for the research. Arts Council England’s Strategic Framework 2026 replaces its previous strategy, Let’s Create. This practical, interim guide sets out how it will prioritise work, design services and make investment decisions while consulting on and developing a new strategy. Read more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/our-strategy/our-strategic-framework
AIM will convene a project advisory group comprising the major representative and policy sector bodies to ensure the project reaches across the sector and reflects the best past data and current trends and needs.
Purpose and scope of the research
The overarching research question is:
What are the factors that have affected the resilience, strategic capacity, and long-term sustainability of museums in England over the last fifteen years – and what interventions could best support these over the coming years?
The sector has undergone significant shifts over the past decade, including real decreases in local authority funding, rising costs, new governance models, organisational restructuring, and increased reliance on philanthropy and earned income. This research will provide an evidence base to inform future policy, investment, and support for the museum sector.
We want a deep financial analysis resulting in: a clear picture of funding and income patterns across the sector over the last fifteen years (e.g. regionally, by size, by governance type); a review of the impact of these patterns and trends on organisational sustainability; and a set of practical policy and funding recommendations aimed at stabilising the sector, giving us the language to talk about and advocate for the risk of loss, and producing a positive vision of security for the future.
Areas of interest include:
Public funding
- How have public funding sources changed since the Mendoza Review summarised public spending 2010-17, and how much has now been invested in the sector 2010-25?
- What is the picture of local authority funding over the period – not only direct funding to civic museums, but other support for example peppercorn rents for independent museums?
- What was the impact of different public funding decisions (e.g. the move into the Arts Council, Lottery funding, the introduction of new programmes like the tax relief and MEND, research and innovation funding)? How does public funding incentivise particular behaviours or trends within the sector?
- What governance models appear to support greater resilience, strategic capacity, sustainable collections care and public engagement outputs?
- What is the relationship between the financial picture 2010-25, 2026 sector, and methodologies for calculating return on investment including government programmes of impact and evaluation such as Culture and Heritage Capital? What does value for money look like for funding programmes such as the Arts Everywhere Fund?
Income
- What can be shown about macro trends for museum income and business models from reviewing individual museums’ positions?
- What was the role of philanthropic funding?
- What has happened to earned income across the sector in the period, particularly comparing pre- and post-covid, and how does this relate to visitor figures and/or audiences?
- What is the evidence of the use of endowments, innovative finance, loans etc in funding available to the sector? What could be their role in the future?
Museums at risk
- What are the recent and current pressures on museum finances and what are the potential central interventions that could make a difference?
- What risks and vulnerabilities now characterise the regional museum ecosystem?
- What is the role of collections issues in the financial precarity of museums – at an institutional, regional, national level? What is the role of acquisition, back of house collections work, and rationalisation?
- What does precarity and/or ‘at risk’ mean at an individual, regional, governance type, and sector level for museums? What does precarity mean for audiences and collections? What is the public response to museums at risk and public views on museum investment?
- What is the role of human resources issues in the financial precarity of museums – at an institutional, regional, national level? What is the role of low pay, volunteering, and burnout?
- How can we value the risk of lost collections, sites/buildings, and skills?
- What can be understood about investment at risk e.g. organisations that have received capital funding or Culture Recovery funding and have now closed or significantly reduced activity due to financial pressures? What is the impact of shocks (covid, cost of living crisis) especially on fixed costs?
- What proportion of the sector could be considered at risk over a 1-, 5-, and 10-year horizon and what support do they need to move out of this?
- What is the current maintenance backlog (after five rounds of MEND) and current annual operating cost across the sector?
Looking forward
- What is the sector preparing for to serve future generations of museum visitors?
- What is the potential impact on council funding to museums of local government reorganisation? What are the opportunities and practical considerations?
- What are the potentially sector-level costs, efficiencies, economies of scale, and/or investments/invest to save propositions for museums? e.g. storage
- What does it cost to support an asset-based cultural sector at a) minimum level b) steady state (precarity) c) strategic level?
- What does the optimal resource provision look like for the museums sector, and from what sources?
- What future scenarios or policy reforms could strengthen the sector’s resilience?
This list of questions is not intended to be exhaustive or exclusive but are presented as a starting point for proposals and discussions. The final research questions/areas of focus will be agreed between the project reference group, AIM, and the researchers.
We are principally interested in Accredited museums in England. Although this study is not intended to focus on national museums (i.e. those directly sponsored by DCMS) an overview of their financial position is required to provide a comprehensive picture of the whole museum ecology. In this context, the Financial Resilience in National Museums report published in March by the National Audit Office is useful reading.
Work of the contractor
We are seeking contractors to undertake this research.
While final decisions on what the project will look like will be made by AIM and the project reference group in conjunction with the successful bidder, and we will welcome innovative ideas for how to carry out the research, it is likely to include:
Research and analysis
Significant levels of quantitative (financial and economic) research utilising existing and new datasets at sector level, governance type level, and individual institution level. In some respects this will extend or expand on existing reports e.g. those done for the Mendoza Review and for ACE on civic museums funding, and draw on major data sources such as the Annual Museums Survey, Accreditation returns, and NPO data returns. We would also expect a robust literature review on the qualitative elements of museum resilience drawing on research from AIM (emotions research, operating models research) as well as academic research and policy reports from across and beyond museums and culture.
The primary research stakeholder engagement and sector consultation processes outlined below will also produce data and information to be analysed, reviewed, and utilised for findings and recommendations – it should include a minimum of 50 semi-structured interviews.
Stakeholder engagement
The research team identifying and engaging with stakeholders to gather data and ideas and test proposals – museum leaders, sector organisations not represented on the advisory group, policy stakeholders including local government bodies, and stakeholders with relevant views from wider heritage and culture sectors.
Sector consultation
There should also be engagement with the sector, both to gather data and to consult on future plans. We will seek proposals for how to do this and it is likely to be an extensive exercise comprising both broad and targeted methods e.g. surveys, in-person events, interviews, roundtables/workshops and cover groups e.g. local authority museums, small museums, military museums. We would wish to see activity e.g. events and/or visits across the five ACE areas and an appropriate sample of museums.
Reporting interim findings and developing recommendations: analysis, synthesis and scenario modelling
A summary of the themes, tensions, opportunities, and structural risks emerging from the quantitative and qualitative research which is shared with the project reference group, project advisory group, and any other appropriate stakeholders to enable discussion and setting direction for the final stage of the research, after which a drafting period will take place to create the final report. This could be through workshops or other mechanisms.
The annual AIM conference takes place during the synthesis and recommendations drafting period 9 and 10 June 2027 and we can discuss presence of the project and research team there to engage with approx. 250 museum professionals, volunteers, trustees and sector bodies. There may be opportunities to attend other sector events as well for the purposes of consultation.
The researchers will develop a set of practical and policy recommendations that encompass both achievable, politically astute, and realistic interventions, and an ambitious future vision for the sector.
Outputs
A main research report with aggregated and anonymised data and including a narrative that is intelligible to a non-specialist audience and detailed analytical content. These should support a set of conclusions on the financial situation of the sector 2010-2025 and what this means for museums in and beyond 2027 and include minimum 10 case studies that illuminate the impacts of governance and financial reform.
We do not expect the research to result in toolkits or resources for individual museums to use to improve their financial resilience, although we would wish to discuss any potential around this with the research team.
Other outputs supporting the report to include:
- A high-level summary report providing an accessible overview of findings for all stakeholders.
- A slide deck for dissemination events.
- Participation in up to at least two events to share findings with ACE and partners.
- An AIM Bulletin article.
- Anonymised published data sets, under a Non-Commercial Creative Commons license, designed for future research use.
The report and recommendations will be subject to approvals before publication. AIM will be responsible for design and communications.
Contractor brief
This project is wide-ranging and requires a significant amount of work across different domains (quantitative research, qualitative, literature and existing dataset review and analysis, stakeholder engagement) and we welcome proposals from organisations working in partnership or consortia. Bidders will need to show they have the expertise, skills, experience, capacity, and resilience to provide the in-depth data gathering, analysis, consultation, and policy development required.
AIM will create a project secretariat including some freelance resource to manage the project overall i.e. liaising between the different governance and advisory groups and stakeholders and the day-to-day relationship with researchers, but the overall project plan will be managed by the researchers.
The final report and other outputs will be published or otherwise made available to the sector under a Non-Commercial Creative Commons licence.
Budget and timings
The budget available for this work is £232,600 inclusive of VAT. The indicative budget split we have outlined is approx. £11k on project management and administration, £165,600 on research, analysis and drafting, and £56,000 on engagement and consultation – however, we are open to other proposals. Travel and expenses will need to be included.
We expect to kick off the project in September 2026, with data gathering and analysis as well as stakeholder engagement late autumn 2026 to late spring 2027, with an interim report in early summer 2027 followed by developing recommendations and the final report for publication in late autumn 2027. The final timings will be agreed with the researcher.
Tendering for the research
The proposal should answer the following questions:
- Describe your understanding of the museums sector both recent historic and current in England, and explain how this understanding will inform your proposed approach to the project and recommendation of final research questions.
- Based on your sector expertise and understanding of the brief, what datasets would you want access to in order to carry out this project? Where do you see data gaps and how would you propose to fill them?
- Outline your approach to stakeholder engagement and to sector consultation. Who is important to engage, consult, or secure buy-in from and for what purpose, and how would you do this with each group?
- Given the resource need of this project we are expecting many bidders will be consortia or partnerships, or involve sub-contracting. If so please set out how these would be managed to ensure seamless delivery.
And provide:
- Evidence of relevant experience of your company and of the key researchers
- A high-level timeline
- Detailed costings shown inclusive of VAT, including day rates where applicable and number of days both by individual or grade and in total across the project, and indicative expenses.
The substance of the proposal should be no more than 12 sides. CVs and case studies from relevant experience may be annexed additional to this.
Proposals will be scored on:
- Understanding of the issues 20%
- The extent to which the methodology will reach the desired objectives 50%
- Experience of researchers 20%
- Value for money 10%
Bidders should note that to score well on understanding of the issues they should bring original insight and ideas in the proposal and not rehash the ITT.
Interviews
We expect to invite a shortlist of researchers to discuss with AIM and some or all of the project reference group. These are currently planned for w/c 31 August and 7 September and researchers will need to make the appropriate person or people available then.
Data considerations
Personal data and data sharing
The researcher will be required to share their data security policy or policies and confirm that data gathered for the purposes the project 1) will be held with appropriate security and access considerations and 2) will not be shared outside the UK.
AIM is entering into a data sharing agreement with ACE for access to their datasets. The contractor will be added into this data sharing agreement and need to be comfortable with it.
The researcher will agree to transfer all raw data gathered for the purposes of the project to AIM at the end of the project. AIM will retain it for no longer than five years.
Artificial Intelligence
Contractors should be clear about any intention to utilise Artificial Intelligence in the project. We appreciate it can have significant benefits for data analysis but significant use of generative AI for drafting or developing recommendations is unlikely to be appropriate. Contractors must guarantee that any AI-produced material will undergo thorough human review and quality assurance.
How to apply
Proposals should be sent to [email protected] by 12noon on Wednesday 12 August. This is an absolute deadline and no extensions will be offered for any reason, in order to preserve fairness.
To preserve fairness we will not be offering informal conversations about this project. Queries and clarification questions can be addressed to [email protected] by 5pm Friday 31 July and we will publish the responses to all received on the AIM website on or by 5 August so all potential bidders have access to the same information.