Scotland’s arts, culture and heritage organisations have received over £85,000 investment of National Lottery funds to capitalise on opportunities presented by digital technologies.

From a croft on the Isle of Uist to Scotland’s International Science Festival and a mobile cinema taking movies to the country’s most remote outposts, thirteen organisations have been successful in their applications for funding across four investment strands:

AmbITion Approach (up to £5,000) supports organisations during the early stages of their digital development by providing an external specialist to help them assess and develop a wide-reaching strategy for organisational change.  Successful applicants are Edinburgh International Science Festival, Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Uist Wool, Lung Ha's Theatre Company, National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS) and Cupar Arts.

Digital Content Development (£500-£10,000) gives organisations the opportunity to enhance their digital development activity through the creation, or better use of digital content.  Successful applicants are Archaeology Scotland, YDance and Scottish Music Centre.

Organisational Development (£500-£10,000) supports organisations to take advantage of digital technologies to grow their businesses, develop ideas and improve operational capacity. Successful applicants are Findhorn’s Bodysurf Scotland, Govan’s Plantation Productions and Glasgow’s GalGael Trust.

Sustainable AmbITion (£500 - £5,000) supports organisations to be carbon-aware and improve their environmental credentials through funding new digital technologies or approaches. Successful applicant is Regional Screen Scotland.

The investment has been made available through AmbITion Scotland’s new Make:IT:Happen fund which is part of Creative Scotland’s national digital development programme.

Hannah Rudman, Lead Consultant, AmbITion Scotland said: “The Make:IT:Happen fund has evolved out of the work that AmbITion Scotland has undertaken since its inception in 2009.  During that time, the programme has enabled many organisations, large and small, digitally sophisticated as well as digital newcomers, to develop their businesses for increased sustainability through opportunities offered by digital technologies.”

Julie Tait, Director, Culture Sparks said: “Make:IT:Happen funding can be used to support a project in its entirety or to augment a bigger digital ambition. Funds are available to not for profit arts, culture and heritage groups and organisations with relatively little or no digital knowledge or experience as well as well as to those that have some competence with digital projects, but limited resources.” 

The decision making process for three funds – Organisational Development, Sustainable AmbITion and AmbITion Approach – is carried out by a panel of individuals who have a wide range of expertise in digital developments within the arts, culture and heritage sector and will draw on the experience of individuals and advisors who have been instrumental to AmbITion Scotland’s work since 2009. 

AmbITion Scotland trialed a participatory Peer Review method of decision-making for applications to the Digital Content Development funding strand.

Iain Munro, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland, said: “It’s terrific to see such a diverse range of organisations capitalising on opportunities presented by digital technologies through Make:IT:Happen. We are delighted to partner with NESTA, AmbITion Scotland and Sync through our Cultural Economy programme to build a sustainable digital infrastructure for Scotland’s cultural sector.”

A further four application periods for the Make:IT:Happen fund are planned between October 2012 and September 2013 are:

• October – December 2012 (decisions by 31 January 2013)

• January – March 2013 (decisions by 30 April 2013)

• April – June 2013 (decisions by 31 July 2013)

• July – September 2013 (decisions by 30 October 2013)

Full Make:IT:Happen information, funding guidelines and application forms at Ambition Scotland website.

Funded by The National Lottery via Creative Scotland (as part of Creative Scotland’s Cultural Economy programme), the AmbITion Scotland programme and the Make:IT:Happen initiative are designed and delivered by Culture Sparks and Rudman Consulting.

For full summaries of each of the funded projects please visit the Ambition Scotland website.

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