The British Council

The British Council is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 209131).

The British Council exists to create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries, building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. It works in over 100 countries across arts and culture, English language, education and civil society, and reaches millions of people across the world. It supports specific programmes and activities by giving grant funding to individuals and organisations to take part in events, schemes or programmes set up to achieve its objectives, and its annual report records £59,016,000 awarded, of which £1,928,000 went to individuals.

Priority Areas

The British Council provides grants to individuals and organisations for participation in specific programmes, schemes and events that advance its charitable objectives. Those objectives include fostering cultural relationships between the UK and other countries, widening knowledge of English and encouraging educational co-operation and education. Its arts grants support artistic collaboration and exchange, protection of cultural heritage and responses to major challenges; opportunities are open to individuals and cultural organisations of all sizes across a range of disciplines. Its approach is to build connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.

Themes

• Cultural relations
• English language
• Education
• Artistic collaboration
• Cultural heritage

For Connections Through Culture, applicants submit their applications through Good Grants.

Deadlines: Each Connections Through Culture round has an application deadline.

Application windows:

• Connections Through Culture: Applications open in June and close in August.
• English Language Learning and Assessment Research Grants: The call for proposals runs from September to October.

Who can apply:

• Connections Through Culture
  • Applications must involve collaboration between at least one UK-based partner and at least one partner based in an eligible participating country. Each partner must be legally based in the country they are applying from at the time of application and throughout the project activity period.
  • Eligible applicants may include artists and creative practitioners; arts and cultural organisations; festivals and biennials; cultural professionals; creative hubs, networks and collectives; and organisations working across arts, culture and the creative sectors.
• Researcher Challenges Grants
  • Open to higher education institutions and not-for-profit research institutions, establishments and organisations.
  • Online applications can only be started and submitted by the lead UK institution.

What to send:

• Connections Through Culture
  • Complete and upload the Partnership Letter of Intent template, signed by all project partners, with the application.
  • Download and read the Applicant Guidance Toolkit in full before beginning the application.

What the charity says:

• The English Language Learning and Assessment Grants give priority to research teams with an excellent track record of meeting grant deadlines.
• The English Language Learning and Assessment Grants evaluate projects on value for money in context.
• Grant holders provide an annual project update report and presentation for internal colleagues.