TWA Digitisation Grant 2019: Judges tips to gaining funding for your digitisation project

As you know, we are fast approaching the deadline for the 2019 TWA digitisation grant (28th of July), and it looks set to be a great year, with a fantastic range of applications so far!

To be in with a chance of gaining funding for your digitisation project, it all rests on creating a compelling application that demonstrates its heritage need, social/community impact and research impact to our experienced judges. But, of course, each judge has their own personal thoughts about what makes a great project in their eyes. Take a look below at some of our judge's tips for creating the best application and maximising your chance of gaining funding for your digitisation project.

Claire’s top tips:

In a winning project there are a number of things that always stand out to me:

• I love a good story! If you can get me hooked on the story of the material to be digitised I am far more likely to fall for your project.
• The project needs to be grounded in reality – a project that is about local history is unlikely to attract world-wide attention. So be realistic about who will find your material interesting and then maximise the story (see the comment above!)
• A project plan that is based on need – why do you want to do this project? Can you show that the community (in whatever form) needs the project to happen?
• An engagement strategy that includes interesting ways to use the material that is being digitised. I want to know who will be involved in the project and how you will be engaging with them? And what impact this can have on them.
• By the way, did I say that I love a good story? I want to be excited to see the material in the images or on the website – I want to want to know more.

Paul’s top tips:

Need and impact form the basis of a good application, however, in my eyes what has set some projects apart from others in past years has been:

• Telling personal and engaging stories that people can relate to and would want to share.
• A wide appeal that may also be relevant to a current or upcoming event.
• Content that has been ‘hidden away’ for a long period of time, or very rarely seen.
• A long-standing ambition to do something with the content (proved, perhaps, by showing a long-standing fund-raising campaign, for example).
• A plan (or aspiration) to open up access to the material – and preferably in an engaging, immersive or interactive way.

Also, whilst the above has definitely been a persuading factor for me, an application that has been written with a true sense of passion often shines through and could be a deciding factor.

It's not too late to apply!

Download your application here. For any grant and digitisation questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to help.

Returning your completed application

Remember, simply email your completed application to digitisationgrant@townswebarchiving.com by the 28th July 2019 at 11.59pm to be considered. The winners will be announced via Facebook Live from the ARA annual conference and on the TWA blog on 29th August.

Good luck!