Funding Opportunity

Creative Scotland's Open Fund for Individuals

The Open Fund for Individuals is one of Creative Scotland’s key funding programmes, supporting the wide range of activity initiated by artists, writers, producers and other creative practitioners in Scotland. The overall annual budget for this fund is £5 million.

What the fund supports

The fund is intended to support periods of research, development and/or delivery of creative activity, such as specific projects and productions for up to 24 months. It can support an individual’s time where this is related to specific creative outcomes. 

We will ask you to tell us the start and end date for this activity and to describe the outcomes, benefits and impacts that you wish to achieve.

Eligibility

Freelance and self-employed artists and creative practitioners living in Scotland who are at least 18 years old are eligible to apply. You must have a UK bank account in your name.

If you are not a self-employed individual or a sole trader, you may be eligible for the National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations.

Please read the guidance for full information on eligibility.

Funding amounts

You can apply for between £500 and £50,000.

Timescales

As standard, if your application request is between £500 and £20,000 you will hear the outcome in 10 weeks. If your application request is between £20,001 and £50,000 you will hear the outcome in 14 weeks.

Please see above for details of our 25/26 Christmas closure and the effects it will have on our processing timelines.

Requirements

Freelance and self-employed artists and creative practitioners living in Scotland who are at least 18 years old.

You must have a UK bank account in your legal name, which must be the same name you apply under. Please ensure the name on your funding application matches the name on your bank account, as we cannot pay into an account with a different name. Please visit our website for more details on this.

We recognise some applicants may use a different chosen name. We are working on updating our system to allow for chosen names and will update this guidance once changes are made.

If you are not a self-employed individual or a sole trader, you may be eligible for The National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations.

Full-time students cannot apply to this fund. Part-time students can apply but will need to prove their part-time status and that the activity they are applying for does not contribute to their academic studies.

If you need assistance from a friend, colleague or support worker to complete your application, you must create an online account with Creative Scotland. You can then grant them access to your funding application. Please visit our website for further information on how to do this.

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