About the fund and who can apply
The Small Scale Accessible and Sustainable Capital Fund is a new grant funding programme financed through Edinburgh’s Visitor Levy as part of the Culture Heritage and Events Investment Programme.
We want to invest in Edinburgh’s cultural and heritage buildings and secure their futures as high quality, green, creative and well maintained visitor destinations.
We’ve established the fund to support improvements to cultural and heritage buildings across the city. The fund is open to cultural and heritage organisations of all sizes, from community heritage buildings to larger institutions.
Through the fund, we’re supporting projects that that sensitively upgrade buildings through approaches like
- retrofitting
- upgrading structures and systems
- improving access for all
- and introducing low carbon technologies.
Project requirements
The building or venue must be
- a cultural or heritage organisation,
- or a historic building used for cultural purposes (theatres, museums, galleries, community heritage buildings, historic houses with public access) that is open to visitors (paid or free).
The applicant should be
- the building owner,
- a leaseholder with landlord consent and any required planning or listed building consents,
- or a formal managing organisation with authority to undertake the works.
The works must take place
- on an existing building (retrofit or upgrade),
- be located within the funding territory,
- and be completed by March 2029.
The project should demonstrate clear benefits to
- physical and/or digital accessibility, so venues become inclusive for a wider range of users,
- climate resilience, through futureproofing for climate change through upgrades that meet conservation best practice,
- and/or reduce carbon emissions and energy demand with a clear plan toward Net Zero.
The project must meet a minimum cost of £10,000 and a maximum grant request of £500,000. For requests over £50,000, the applicant should demonstrate at least 20% match funding, which can include 10% in-kind contribution.
The applicant organisation should be in good standing with no outstanding major statutory breaches (e.g. building safety) or unresolved planning enforcement action.