About This Opportunity

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.

**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.

What You'll Get

Rewards Details

Types: FUNDING

**You can apply for between £500 and £50,000.** 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. To accommodate the office closure over the Christmas and New Year periods: * Applicants applying for over £20,000 will have an additional 2 weeks added on to the turnaround period. * From 23 October 2024 onward, applicants applying for under £20,000 will have an additional 2 weeks added on to the turnaround period.

Application Requirements

APPLICATION_FORMS
There are no hard deadlines for this fund, allowing you to apply at any time throughout the year, subject to available budget allocations and taking into account the holiday period at the end of each year. Please check our website to ensure that you are using the most up-to-date version of the funding guidance. You can only have one application in the assessment process at any time. The assessment process means the period from submitting an application to the point when the funding decision is communicated to you. 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.

Eligibility

Geographic Requirements

Scotland, Scotland, GB

Other 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.

Open Fund for Individuals