22 April 2026
Historic England – Funding that helps People Understand the Historic Environment
Grants are available for activities that help people understand and champion the historic environment through, engagement, skills, training, education and heritage project-based posts.
Grants are provided by Historic England the public body responsible for caring and protecting England’s historic environment. Historic England is funded largely by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Grants are available to support activities that help people understand and champion the historic environment, including skills and training, education, community engagement and outreach, and in some cases time-limited posts. The scheme is part of Historic England’s places and people funding.
To be eligible to apply for a grant activities need to meet one or more of Historic England’s four grant priorities:
- Help more people to connect with, enjoy and benefit from the historic environment.
- Use heritage to improve civic pride, prosperity and wellbeing.
- Achieve a positive change and sustainable future for historic places including buildings, landscapes, archaeological sites and marine assets.
- Ensure heritage plays an important role in the fight to limit and manage the effects of climate change.
The funder particularly invites applications that address these areas of focus:
- Need: projects to serve the most in need communities, using English indices of deprivation as a tool to identify that.
- Partnership: projects which support the resilience, innovation and growth of partners, building skills and confidence in communities.
- Growth: projects which support getting vacant sites back into use, securing existing beneficial uses and promoting positive change in places.
Applications are open to individuals and organisations, including registered charities, educational institutions, public bodies, and companies for projects based in England that meet one or more of Historic England’s grant priorities.
Expressions of interest can be submitted at any time.
Expressions of interest will be reviewed by the grant team within approximately six weeks and successful applicants will be invited to submit a full application.