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The Heritage Council is inviting on-line applications from community groups in County Donegal under its Community Heritage Grant Scheme until 5 p.m. on Monday, March 25. Applications are sought for projects that apply good heritage practice to the management of places, collections, buildings or objects or are aimed at improving access and inclusion to heritage sites. The scheme also supports training events for traditional building skills, biodiversity and archaeology as well as the purchase of specialised equipment.
“There are over 250 community groups with a heritage remit in County Donegal so the Heritage Council’s Community Heritage Grants Scheme is an important source of funding for community heritage projects in the county” said Joseph Gallagher, County Donegal Heritage Officer. “Community groups can now apply for 100% funding for natural, built and cultural heritage projects. Grants of between €500 and €25,000 per project can be awarded. Although this countrywide scheme is very competitive, Donegal-based heritage groups secured over €207,550 in funding for thirteen heritage initiatives in County Donegal representing 13% of the funding available nationally last year. The community heritage initiatives funded under this scheme highlights the importance of our heritage to social, cultural, economic and tourism development and provides funding to support those working in the heritage sector in our county.”
Eligible projects include conservation works to buildings or stabilisation of ruins, access audits, improving physical or virtual access to heritage buildings or sites, purchase of equipment, traditional building skills training events or workshops, on-line exhibitions, the development of heritage databases or websites, podcasts, conservation reports or plans, biodiversity action plans, historic building surveys, heritage audits, graveyard surveys, oral history projects, control of invasive species, work on habitats and natural sites, citizen science projects and essential small-scale repairs to publicly-owned buildings, work to archaeological monuments, objects or collections and archival projects. The Community Heritage Grant Scheme does not support projects to carry out a public sector body’s statutory or core responsibilities, undergraduate or postgraduate projects, archaeological excavations, DNA analysis, signage, publications, leaflets, conferences, seminars, memorials, amenity landscaping works or primary schools projects.
The Heritage Council will host a grants information webinar at 12 noon on Monday, March 4 to provide general application advice to applicants followed by a questions-and-answers session. The event will be recorded and available afterwards on the Heritage Council website (www.heritagecouncil.ie/funding). Advice is also available from the County Donegal Heritage Office of Donegal County Council on (074) 917 2576 or by e-mail at [email protected]
