Museum Futures programme
Scotland’s museums and galleries are invited to embark on a pioneering journey towards long-term sustainability with this partnership programme developed by Museums Galleries Scotland, Scottish Government, and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Introduction
The Museum Futures programme of essential support has been developed in direct response to the significant and ongoing financial and capacity challenges faced by the sector.
Scottish Government has invested £4 million to accelerate collaboration, innovation, and organisational sustainability within the sector. This investment aims to drive positive, strategic change, ensuring that museums and galleries can continue to enrich our local communities for generations to come.
By creating the right conditions for growth and resilience, Scotland’s museums will be able to learn, adapt, and thrive. Museum Futures will provide new pathways to transition the sector to a more sustainable position.
The Museum Futures programme offers a suite of funding and other support and services to both Accredited and non-Accredited museum organisations. As we introduce different elements of the programme, we will update this page with live links to funding and wraparound support.
How to get involved
The infographic below outlines the steps you’ll take from completing the Organisational Health Checker to accessing relevant training and/or funding as part of the Museum Futures programme specific to your organisation. You can find further information about the Organisational Health Checker as well as funding and training opportunities further down this page.
Museum Futures is supported by the Organisational Health Checker tool that has been developed specifically to help museum organisations identify their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. This tool will help you to confirm priorities and funding decisions, ensuring that investment in the programme will have the greatest possible impact on your organisation. It is designed to support as many museums as possible in engaging effectively with the programme. Our Museum Futures programme delivery team will be able to provide support with this.
We found the Organisational Health Checker really useful. Myself and two of the board members did it together. It was a useful exercise and really highlighted where our weaknesses and strengths were.
Museum Futures participant
Funding
The Unlocking Potential Fund and Innovation Fund will reopen in 2026/27 financial year. Please check back here for updates.
Wraparound support
A menu of wraparound support is available to equip organisations and individuals to engage in Museum Futures through expert advice, coaching, peer-to-peer learning, and skills development opportunities. You will find these opportunities below.
The wraparound support programme is also accompanied by responsive micro-grants that will be offered to address small-scale needs identified through the programme.
Pathfinder Pilots
Purpose
The Museum Futures programme pathfinder pilots are intended to test place-based or thematic approaches to collaboration that could be scaled or adopted across the sector. The goal is to explore ideas that could be transformative for the sector.
The approaches should directly address resilience challenges through collaboration. As pilots, the focus is on trying out new ways of working and exploring if and how they can be made sustainable.
We anticipate that in year one, we will work primarily with existing networks and forums that are already set up to work collaboratively. New partnerships will be welcomed where clear partnership agreements can be established.
Process
We will not be accepting unsolicited applications. Instead, we want to explore ideas with groups, anticipating that fully fledged proposals will emerge through a series of conversations. We will support applicants to broker relationships with potential partners. Once a proposal has reached a viable stage and there is mutual agreement that it meets the purpose of the pilot programme, we will invite an application.
The application process will be primarily about establishing the parameters of the funded activity, the support that is needed and ensuring that the plan is as robust as possible, as well as evidencing that it meets the purposes set out for the pilots.
Get in touch with the Museum Futures team to explore your ideas further, by emailing museumfutures@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk
Inception Report: sets out more detail on the proposed approach to the first phase of the Museum Futures evaluation.
Early Insights Report: provides an initial view of how Museum Futures is developing, the conditions shaping delivery, and the emerging patterns in engagement and organisational response.
Scotland’s museums are navigating one of the most challenging periods the sector has faced. Understanding how museums are faring – and what support makes a difference – matters now more than ever. We want to hear from every eligible museum, whether or not you’ve been involved in the programme. Your perspective is important either way.
Please complete our survey by 5pm on the 17th of April 2026.
Examples & Stories:
Find out more
Get in touch
Email the Museum Futures programme delivery team at MuseumFutures@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk
Frequently Asked Questions
There is the opportunity to be supported to take a risk, and try new ways of doing things, that will benefit your organisation in the longer term.
Museums will have the opportunity to make transformational decisions based on a clearer understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, having had the chance to focus on strategic development to an extent that has not been possible before.
The museums sector will be better connected and mutually supportive, demonstrating stronger, more collaborative and innovative leadership and business practice. They will be embedding sustainability at the heart of their organisations and increasing their practical understanding of the organisational behaviours and practices needed for the future.
More museums will have available capacity and support aiding the move towards new organisational models and the skills needed to develop their sustainability.
There will be access to additional funding and tailored training around identified business needs.
There are opportunities for both Accredited and non-Accredited museums and galleries in Scotland within the programme. We use the ICOM definition of a museum.
Non-Accredited museums that can demonstrate they meet certain criteria will be able to access some of the funding and support available.
Please contact us if you are unsure of your eligibility status or feel your status has changed since you last engaged with us.
Yes. However, limited exceptions to the requirement to pay the Real Living Wage may be applied where applicants can clearly demonstrate that the funding will support them to get to a position where they will be able to pay the Real Living Wage.
Entirely volunteer run organisations are exempt from this requirement.
An Organisational Health Checker is mandatory if you wish to access funding and some elements of our support programme.
The Checker will help you identify your organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities and will provide direction on how to best invest in the programme and get the most from it.
The Museum Futures programme delivery team can provide support with this.
Museums will be able to apply to the Heritage Fund for match funding for activity they want to undertake as part of the Programme. This will be useful where activity costs exceed the upper limits of the MGS grants programme. Museums will need to apply directly to the Heritage Fund and should discuss their approach with MGS and the Heritage Fund so that both organisations can support them to develop their applications appropriately.
Funding options and wraparound support will continue be rolled out throughout the life of the programme.
Through the Organisational Health Checker tool and subsequent discussions, we will also be able to gauge what other support would be necessary for the sector to work toward being more resilient organisations. A test and learn approach has be taken, with evaluation built in from the start so that the impact of the funding and support can be analysed and learning implemented quickly.
Unlocking Potential Fund – With grants of up to £100,000, the Unlocking Potential Fund can help prepare the way for strategic development of your museum by addressing issues that are currently preventing you from moving forward.
Innovation Fund – This will de-risk and incentivise museums to experiment with entrepreneurial activity. Museums in Scotland can apply for up to £250,000 to develop activity that will improve the financial position of the museum.
Wraparound programme of support
Our wraparound programme operates alongside the distribution of the funding. Its purpose is to ensure the most effective use of the distributed funding; address skills needs which are identified as funding activity progresses; capture and develop learning generated through the funded activity.
The wraparound support programme is accompanied by responsive micro-grants that are offered to address small-scale needs identified through the programme.
All funded activity is expected to commence within the current financial year. Funding awarded to support leadership capacity should be used primarily within this period. Other funded activity will be expected to be completed within one to two years of the award.
While the majority of training is expected to take place within this financial year, there is flexibility for some training to be undertaken within the first quarter of the next financial year.
If you can’t find an answer to your question above, please email the Museum Futures programme delivery team at MuseumFutures@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk
Programme partners
Museum Futures is a partnership programme developed by the Scottish Government, Museums Galleries Scotland and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
