Research Tips for ACE Funding

"I never make predictions, especially about the future..." 

At 14:01 on January 30th 2019, a message appeared from the Arts Council of England (ACE) giving me the all clear. I’d passed all their eligibility checks and was all set to go.

The date wasn’t insignificant either. I recognized the huge potential of DYCP in 2018 and was allowed to apply from January 2019 onwards but deferred my submission for nearly two years until November 2020 – until it was 100% complete. Their offer letter, when it finally arrived just in time for Christmas that year, only confirmed what I’d long suspected: my proposal was as close to being a certainty as possible. Revenge, so they say, is a dish best eaten cold; so (for that matter) is success: in this respect, timing is everything.

Before going into further detail about the process of how to apply for a bursary, it’s worth making a few general observations about emerging as a writer. Most aspiring authors try a number of ways to move their careers forward: some may contact agents or publishers directly, others send their work out on spec to magazines or journals, and some may even apply for a grant to support them for a fixed period. Whichever path you decide to take, each will nevertheless require you to follow a process, such as following agency guidelines, adhering to independent publisher’s open submission policies, response times and feedback.

Wherever you cast your net and however wide, it’s necessary to understand the rules because you don’t want to spend weeks, if not months, producing submissions that will not be accepted.

And if you want to hook ACE funding, then failure to follow their guidance will mean more of the same.

Here are some tips on the initial research stage:

• Navigate the Arts Council of England website to get a sense of their messaging, how they communicate and function.

• Seek out the Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) programme for information sheets, case studies, FAQs, which are all well worth reading and can be found at:  Developing your Creative Practice | Arts Council England

• Download or print a copy of the guidance notes. The 2022-26 version is expected soon: this is where the real analysis begins.

Although the guidance notes contain all the questions but none of the answers, their pages contain much food for thought. For now, just consider this one: when you read through the questions, always have your current practice as the main focal point in your head – it’s the source your future project will eventually flow from…

• Bed Time Reading (BTR) is a must. Absorb the documents, leave copies lying around for those quieter moments.

• Key features of the programme will follow in future blogs, but the more you can search out for yourself the better. It’s habit forming; after all, teach someone to fish... But here as an aperitif is the overview:

“DYCP supports the development of independent cultural and creative practitioners… gives individuals the opportunity to apply for £2,000 to £10,000, to take a dedicated period of time to focus on their own cultural and creative development, and take them to the next stage in their practice. This could be for a period of research, time to create new work, travel, training, developing future ideas, networking or mentoring …it encourages people to innovate and take creative risks, work in new ways and to eventually reach new audiences…”

However, we should we never lose sight of the predicament facing ACE: when resources are by definition limited, an eternal truth comes to mind: ‘Demand will always outstrip supply.’

Therefore in addition to patience and careful planning, we must add a degree of ingenuity to our list of desirable attributes; close attention to this blog and all subsequent ones on the W&A website is no bad place to look either. 

Just a quick word about the quotation at the start of the blog which some of you may have heard before - apparently it’s an old Danish proverb. Over the years it’s been attributed to many people from Nostradamus to Hollywood’s Samuel Goldwyn and Groucho Marx, even to Margaret Thatcher herself. It’s as unwise to make predictions about the future as it is to expect any of them to come true, especially in dealing with the Arts Council. But remember, the better prepared you are, the greater your chances of a successful outcome.

Next up: I will analyze the latest results from Round 12 and start to decode the inner workings of their application process…

Michael Hobbs has always been an avid reader of fiction and has written some occasional pieces – some published & on-line – having spent nearly twenty years in the creative sector in and around the North West. However, it was his recent experience with Penguin Books that gave him the confidence to pursue his work more actively. In late 2020, he was shortlisted for the WriteNow programme for new and aspiring writers after sending them an extract from a novel in progress. Although he didn’t make the final list, their feedback encouraged Michael to apply successfully for an Arts Council England programme in 2021. This year his plan is to further develop his writing career.