Four Nations International Fund 2023

To be eligible, applicants must: 

• Be aged 18 or over
• Be based in one of the four nations of the UK – England, Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland
• Be a creative practitioner working in the arts and creative industries or an organisation working in the arts and creative industries
• Have a UK bank account in their name 

Applicants must have: 

• Confirmed commitment from at least one artistic or creative partner based in another of the four nations – England, Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland (this can be an individual or organisation) 
  and 
• Commitment from an international artistic or creative partner (this can be an individual or an organisation). This will fund will also prioritise international partnerships within Europe. 

For this fund, an international creative partner is  

• non-UK national resident in and engaged in creative practice in a non-UK country
• non-UK registered organisation based in and engaged in creative practice in a non-UK country

Artist Fees: 
We want to make sure that you’re paying yourself, and members of your project team properly. Your project should include fees to cover your/their time. Fees can be up to 100% of your project expenditure. Please give a breakdown of the fees in the project budget.  

Artistic activity costs: 
These can include costs such as travel, transport, accommodation, per diems, travel insurance, digital activity costs and the hire of rehearsal spaces and equipment. You may also include costs such as translation and documenting the project.  

Costs for making your activity more accessible: 
We expect you to make your activity accessible to disabled people if you are including other participants and/or audiences. You can include costs such as: audio description, BSL (British Sign Language) and other sign languages interpretation, surtitling and captioning.  

Monitoring and evaluation: 
Costs associated with monitoring your project at every key stage should be noted here along with any evaluation costs.  

Project specific administration and overhead costs: 
We can consider project specific administration and overheads if they are not paid for by other funding and that are clearly additional and you are not in receipt of regular funding from one of the arts councils. You must show us that the costs will be incurred for a time-limited period and are directly related to your project.  

Please refer to the fund guidelines for details of the costs we cannot support.

Access costs are non-artistic costs aimed at removing barriers to participation for yourself, someone you are working with or employing, or for participants or audiences engaging with your project or activity. We can help to cover access support costs for you, or anyone directly involved in developing and the delivery of your project creatively. These might include sign language interpreter costs, palantypist costs, support workers, specialist equipment or software.  

In your budget please give a breakdown of the access costs, for example: Support worker: £ per day, X days.  

This total is separate from the amount you are applying for to deliver the project. This total will be added to the total grant request. 

Other translation costs, for example from Welsh to English or English to German, should be included within the main project costs.  

Applications can be for in-person, digital or hybrid (a mix of both in-person and digital) activity. Activity can include exchanges, residencies, partnership development, co-creation and networking.  

Activity could include one or more of the following:  

• Development of artistic practice through working cross-UK and internationally  
• Collaboration with artists, creative practitioners and organisations cross-UK and internationally
• Development of early relationships with artists, creative practitioners and organisations with a longer-term view of developing cross-UK and international markets and audiences for work and building profile internationally  
• Exchange of key creative people to develop new concepts or relationships 

We can consider proposals from creative practitioners and organisations working across a range of different art forms including multi-disciplinary arts, children & young people focused projects and the following artforms, some suggested genres are supplied below: 

Literature

• Poetry
• Novels/Novellas
• Short Stories; Performance-based work;
• Scriptwriting
• Non-fiction (essays and criticism);
• Storytelling;
• Children’s books;
• Graphic novels.

Music

• Western classical/contemporary concert music
• Opera
• music theatre and musicals
• jazz and improvised music
• contemporary popular music
• traditional music
• world music
• community groups
• bands
• festivals.

Theatre

• Venues
• Venue-based companies
•  Independent production companies
• individual theatre practitioners – actors, technicians, directors, designers, producers and playwrights.

Dance

• Ballet
• Ballroom
• Contemporary
• Hip Hop
• Jazz
• Tap Dance
• Folk Dance
• Irish Dance
• Modern Dance
• Swing Dance

Visual Arts

• Painting
• Sculpture
• Printmaking
• Drawing
• Moving Image

Craft

• Textiles
• Furniture
• Book binding
• Mosaics
• Jewellery.

Please note that the above list is not definitive. If you have queries about your idea’s eligibility within this fund, please contact our enquiries team.

We can accept applications from formal and informal artist collectives and networks. For those that are not formally constituted, one artist or creative practitioner will need to act as the lead applicant who will take reporting and financial responsibility.

Officers from Creative Scotland, Arts Councils Northern Ireland and England and Arts Council of Wales’ international agency Wales Arts International will:  

• promote the programme to encourage diverse artists from a range of artforms, communities and geographical locations across the UK to apply
  and
• work closely together to evaluate the programme and build on its success. 

Your application will be scored by two assessors from a pool from Arts Council England, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts Council Wales (Wales Arts International) and Creative Scotland. Awards will then be decided based on the scorings by a panel of representatives from the four arts councils and agencies. The fund guidelines set out the criteria and how your application will be assessed.

You will be required to complete and end of project monitoring form, along with several short questions relating to your project to help us evaluate this pilot fund. 

This fund is a pilot. The reports received from each of project supported will form part of the evaluation by the four arts councils in the UK of the need for the fund and the learning and outcomes of supported activity. We will develop opportunities for sharing learning and the evaluation. 

The maximum award for project costs is £7,500. However, any access costs supported through this fund are in addition to this. 

An individual or organisation can only lead on one application, but is able to be named as a partner in other applications. 

The fund can support activity with any region or country outside of the UK; however, priority will be given to activity with a partner or partners in Europe. 

The fund cannot support general arts or creative activities in schools. Artist-led activity which is in addition to core curriculum delivery and demonstrates clear partnership working can be supported provided the application comes from an eligible arts organisation or freelancer and adds value to the learning experience.

It would be beneficial to see evidence of good practice i.e., being PVG (Protection of Vulnerable Groups)/Access NI/ DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checked, and that the applicant holds a Child Protection Policy that could be used within the project. You may find Creative Scotland’s Creating Safety document useful in creating a Child Protection Policy: https://www.creativescotland.com/resources-publications/guides-toolkits/creating-safety#:~:text=What%20is%20Creating%20Safety%3F,and%20young%20people%20in%20Scotland.

There’s likely to be significant competition for the available funds and we won’t be able to fund all of the eligible applications that we receive. You may be awarded a lower amount but we will take into consideration the viability of the project in any decision to award a lower amount. 

Once you’ve signed and returned your Award Acceptance and we’ve verified your details and any conditions of grant, we'll pay the award in full. You will be required to submit a report at the end of your project as a standard condition of the award. 

Because this project is a pilot, and the timescales for its delivery are short, then it isn’t possible for us to set up any simple mechanisms for applicants to find partners.  We therefore encourage people to use their existing contacts, links and networks to form a project idea for this fund. Generally in order for partnerships and collaborations to be successful, it is good if you and your potential partners have some kind of knowledge and understanding of each other beforehand, in order to put together an idea of a project that is of mutual benefit for all partners, but also which is likely to deliver what the project sets out to do. 

Yes, for the purposes of this fund, this is the case.

Yes. The Four Nations International Fund is an additional funding opportunity. However, you need to make sure that you are not requesting funding support for the same costs that have been supported through another funding award.

You can work with existing partners. However, you will need to explain how the proposed activity will be different to or will clearly extend your previous or current work together.

No match funding is not a requirement.