Apply for National Lottery Major Individuals Awards (United Kingdom)

Costs can be for specific projects, specialised research, personal artistic development and materials/ equipment.

Award Information

• Four awards for £15,000 are available.
• No partnership funding is required, but if your proposal cost is greater than the award value you must detail the total cost of your project and all other sources of funding in your application.

What you can apply for?

• Eligible costs for Major Individual Awards may include:
  • Art materials
  • Costs of your own time in undertaking the proposed activity
  • Residency costs, including travel costs and subsistence (NB: if you are applying for a residency you must provide evidence of an invitation or support from the host organization.)
  • 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
  • Project-related 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: A maximum contribution of £1,200 will be made towards laptops and pcs, and £500 towards tablet computers.

Who can apply?

• Eligible applicants to the Major Individual Awards scheme are as follows:
  • Artists of all disciplines and in all types of working practice who have not previously received a major award and who have achieved national or international recognition.
  • Please note: You must contact the relevant artform officer and discuss your proposal with them prior to submission of any application to the Major Individuals Awards and by close of play on 30 August at the latest. Applications submitted to the Major Individual Awards programme with no prior contact with the relevant art form officer will be ineligible for consideration.
  • 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 3 years 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).
• Previous recipients of a Major Individual Artist Award.

For more information, visit Arts Council of Northern Ireland.