National Lottery Support for Individual Artists Programme – Project Funding (United Kingdom)

The aim of the overall Support for Individual Artists Programme (SIAP) is to support artists across all disciplines to create work and develop their practice.

What you can apply for?

• The minimum amount you can apply for is £3,000; the maximum request is £10,000. (NB: If you submit a project proposal requesting an amount less than £3,000 or greater than £10,000 your application will be ineligible.) Remember: If your project is successful, you may be offered only a contribution towards your total request amount.
• Art materials
• Costs of your own time in undertaking the proposed activity
• Residency costs, including travel costs and subsistence
• Artistic or technical fees including those towards production or post-production costs associated with presentation or exhibition of work
• Venue hire e.g. rehearsal space
• Travel costs, including mileage costs (@25.7p per mile) and air travel
• Subsistence costs @£25 per day
• Technical equipment related to the project/proposal (equipment requests cannot comprise more than 50% of the value of your request)
• IT Equipment: equipment requests cannot comprise more than 50% of the value of your request; a maximum contribution of £1,200 will be made towards laptops and pcs, and £500 towards tablet computers.

Are collaborative projects eligible? 

• Collaborative applications from individual artists working together in cross-discipline or single artform projects/activities are encouraged.
  • Only one application form should be used for the complete collaborative project.
  • You must provide information on the artistic practice of all artists that are involved in the project (if this is not supplied, your application will be ineligible).
  • Collaborative projects must have a lead applicant – that is, the applicant in whose name the application is submitted and who, in the event of an award, will be the individual responsible for managing the grant, and monitoring and reporting on the project and complying with any verification of the award.
  • The maximum PFI award remains the same even if it is a collaborative project.

Who can apply?

• Eligible applicants to SIAP are as follows:
  • Artists of all disciplines and in all types of working practice (including DJs) In a limited number of cases, individual technical staff/administrators of professional artistic companies may also be eligible.
  • Emerging Artists: The Arts Council particularly welcomes applications from emerging artists – an emerging artist is someone who is in the early stage of their career as a professional artist. They are developing their artist ‘voice’ and are in the process of establishing a reputation and recognition among critics, galleries, producers etc, and will have practised as a professional artist for less than 5 years.
  • Practicing artists who are also undergraduates, postgraduates and academics employed at 3rd level educational institutions are eligible to apply but – where their project proposal lies within the same artform area as their study or work – they must prove that the funds which they are seeking are for costs which are not properly the concern of their employer and/or are not related to their work or academic study. They must submit evidence of this in the form of a letter on headed paper from their Head of Department.
  • In the case of post-graduate students, the letter must clearly state the title of the student’s PhD thesis and include a declaration by the Head of Department. This declaration must state “The project for which funds are being sought does not form part of any academic work undertaken in relation to the above-titled PhD nor will it be assessed as part of any academic course”.
  • Applicants undertaking a Masters or a PhD must also include a separate statement which provides information on how the project applied for differs from their Masters or PhD work.
  • Please note: The Arts Council may use its own judgement in determining this matter.
• Eligible applicants must also:
  • Have made a contribution to artistic activities in Northern Ireland for a minimum period of 1 year within the last 5 years.
  • Live in Northern Ireland.
  • Be at least 18yrs old and not in secondary education.

Who cannot apply? 

• Applicants who have broken the conditions of any previous ACNI award and applicants who remain in breach of any previous letters of offer (regardless of the letter of offer date).
• Applicants who have received either a General Art Award or an Artists Career Enhancement Award in 2022/23 or 2023/24. (Why is ACNI applying this stricture? ACNI’s budgets are limited and subject to extremely high demand. By reducing the frequency with which successful awardees can re-apply they aim to widen the opportunities for those artists who have not yet received support.

For more information, visit Arts Council of Northern Ireland.