Area of investment and support

Area of investment and support: Museum, galleries and collections fund

The Museum, Galleries and Collections Fund provides funding support to higher education museums, galleries and collections so they can meet the costs of serving the wider research community beyond their own institutions.

Budget:
£11 million a year.
Partners involved:
Research England

The scope and what we're doing

Research England funding supports infrastructure on which research and scholarship depends. This includes support for university museums, galleries and collections.

We currently provide over £11 million a year to 33 higher education museums, galleries and collections across 19 higher education providers.

Why we're doing it

Our funding helps museums, galleries and collections to serve the wider research community, where this costs them significantly more than meeting the needs of their own researchers and students.

Governance, management and panels

In 2016 the former Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) completed a review of its funding in this area. An independent panel of experts, led by Diane Lees CBE, Director-General of the Imperial War Museums, considered how far the submissions demonstrated activity which met the HEFCE policy aims. It made funding recommendations on this basis. The current list of HE museums, galleries and collections that Research England fund are informed by the 2016 review.

This funding will be reviewed by Research England in 2023 to inform funding allocations from academic year 2024 to 2025. The call for submissions opened on 3 May 2023 and closes on 14 September 2023.

The submissions will be considered by an expert review panel chaired by Dr Nick Merriman, Chief Executive and Content Director at the Horniman Museum and Gardens.

Panel members

  • Professor Dinah Birch, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Cultural Engagement, University of Liverpool
  • Dr Valerie Johnson, Director of Research and Collections, The National Archives
  • Dr Catherine Eagleton, Director of Libraries and Museums, University of St Andrews
  • Professor Jane Henderson, Professor of Conservation, Cardiff University
  • Dr Alice Stevenson, Associate Professor of Museum Studies, University College London
  • Professor Anthony Musson, Head of Research, Historic Royal Palaces

Read the impact assessment for the review of Research England’s Museums, Galleries and Collections Fund.

Last updated: 20 July 2023

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