For whom
Heritage Innovation grants are for museums and cultural heritage institutions that manage collections with open public presentation objectives, including archives.
The Mondriaan Fund offers Heritage Innovation grants to stimulate museums and heritage institutions managing collections to develop innovative initiatives that result in transition, including research, new programming, exceptional thematic collaborations and redesigns that are relevant to society.
For what?
- Realising an initiative: Research or programmes focused on new forms for the presentationprogramming and initiatives or new designs or layouts for cultural heritage organizations. This could entail research into new ways of preserving and managing contemporary art or towards the development of new narratives that can be expressed through the collection.
- Collaborations between museums and other organizations that manage collections, either between themselves or together with other cultural parties in the field of research and scholarship, public reach or collection management.
- Conducting a feasibility study as part of the development process towards a programme or a thematic collaboration.
How much?
The amount of the stipend is separately determined for each individual application. The stipend for an innovative programme is a maximum of 40% of the flexible costs. The costs of the total programme must be over € 25,000. For a feasibility study, the amount can be no more than 70% of the costs, with a total maximum award of € 15,000.
When and how to apply
Applications for the Heritage Innovation grant can be submitted twice each year, using the Mondriaan Fund online application system. Deadlines for the submission in 2025 are 15 May and 9 October, 4 P.M. (Dutch time zone) / 10 A.M. (Caribbean time zone). You first apply through the website for an account with the Mondriaan Fund, which you need in order to apply. When determining your dates, keep in mind that the processing of your application will take 3 months after the deadline. A grant cannot be awarded retroactively.
The following is based on the deelregeling Erfgoed Innovatie (in Dutch), as published in the Staatscourant.
Conditions
- Cultural Heritage Innovation grants are available to museums and other collection-managing cultural heritage institutions with a public function that are primarily focused on presenting cultural heritage and/or visual arts in the Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.
- Higher art education institutions and sector institutes without collections may not apply.
- Activities that are already or will be financed through other Mondriaan Fund support, under the Regeling op het specifiek cultuurbeleid, or through any other provisions financed from public funds do not qualify.
- Cultural Heritage Innovation grants cannot be requested for fixed costs, for building or founding museums or for regular operations.
- The minimum budget of the project must exceed € 25,000. The maximum contribution from the Mondriaan Fund is 40% of the project costs.
- The maximum contribution for feasibility studies is € 15,000. For these studies, the maximum contribution of the Mondriaan Fund is 70% of the total project costs.
- The disposal of collections must be carried out in accordance with the Guide to the Disposal of Museum Objects and, where possible, in accordance with the valuation framework of the Cultural Heritage Agency.
- An application for a collaboration must be accompanied by a jointly reasoned plan that includes: an explanation of how the applicant will safeguard the knowledge and experience gained and share it with the museum field; a presentation plan; a budget with, where possible, price estimates and, if applicable, a statement of commitment from inviting or participating parties. For applications in the area of collection mobility, a collection plan from both the receiving and the relinquishing museum is required.
- If artists are involved in the programme, realistic remuneration for the artist is required. In the case of temporary exhibitions or presentations with no sales purpose, artists should be paid fairly. In the budget, use one of these two calculators for your fair fee calculations.
- Applicants subscribe to the Fair Practice Code (Dutch only), the Culture Governance Code (Dutch only) and the Diversity & Inclusion Code (Dutch only). Compliance with the Fair Practice Code automatically means that the institution implements the codes.
Assessment
Mondriaan Fund staff check the submitted applications and attachments to ensure that they are complete. Once an application is complete, it is submitted to the committee that advises on awarding a Heritage Innovation grant.
The committee will always assess whether the programme contributes to a high-quality offering. The committee uses an inclusive understanding of quality, taking into account the individual context within which each application is submitted or implemented. A Heritage Innovation grant can only be awarded if the committee advises to that effect.
Due to budgetary restrictions, we are unfortunately not always able to award grants to all applications that receive positive advisories from the committee. In this case, the Mondriaan Fund Board asks the advisory committee to prioritise the positive advisories. This means that an application may receive a positive advisory, but a grant is nevertheless not awarded.
The advisory committee assesses your application on the basis of:
- Your description of the mission, vision and profile of the institution or institutions.
- Your plan, consisting of a motivation and description of the programme, possible collaborations or development plan, including a communications plan explaining how the experience of this programme will connect with new target groups and how this audience can be reached, and your strategy of how this programme fits into local, national and international contexts.
- In the case of applications for research or collaboration, an explanation of how the added knowledge and experience will be permanently established and shared with the museum world.
- A budget with a financing plan.
The committee will always assess whether the plan contributes to a high-quality offering. The committee uses an inclusive understanding of quality, taking into account the individual context within which each application is submitted or implemented.
The advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:
Realisation of an initiative
When addressing applications for the realisation of an initiative, the advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:
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The vision, mission, and profile of the institution
- Does the institution have a clear vision, mission and profile?
- Which aims are outlined in the mission and is there a convincing plan to achieve these aims?
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The quality and significance of recent activities
- To what extent is the applicant’s recent role, position and working method relevant to the current context and/or the heritage field?
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The quality of activities in the plan and the innovative qualities
- Does the plan inspire confidence in remarkable, exemplary or distinctive activities within the context of heritage?
- Do the institution’s guiding principles correspond with the activities in the plan?
- Does the plan contribute to substantive innovation and development for the institution itself, society and/or the heritage sector?
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Public reach
- Do the plan and the communication strategy inspire confidence that the intended target groups will be reached?
- To what extent is the plan in line with a suitable audience?
- To what extent does the plan contribute to broadening public reach?
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Local, regional, national and international embedment
- Does the plan add to the existing cultural infrastructure (local, regional, national and/or international)?
Collaboration
When addressing applications for the realisation of collaborative initiatives, the advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:
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The vision, mission, and profile of the involved institutions
- Do the involved institutions have a clear vision, mission and profile?
- Which aims are outlined in the mission and is there a convincing plan to achieve these aims?
- Do the vision, mission and profile correspond with the envisaged thematic collaboration?
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The quality and significance of recent activities
- To what extent are the institutions’ recent roles, positions and working methods relevant to the current context and/or the heritage field?
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The quality of activities in the thematic collaboration plan and the innovative qualities
- Does the plan inspire confidence in remarkable, exemplary or distinctive activities within the context of heritage?
- Does the plan contribute to substantive innovation and development for the institution itself, society and/or the heritage sector?
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Added value for the museum field
- Will the collaboration lead to an enduring end result?
- Can the results also be applied at other institutions in the heritage sector?
- To what extent will the collaboration generate added value and knowledge that benefits the museum field and/or heritage sector?
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Public reach
- Does the plan inspire confidence that the envisaged target groups will be reached?
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Local, regional, national and international embedment
- Does the plan add to the existing cultural infrastructure (local, regional, national and/or international)?
Feasibility (development grant)
When addressing applications for feasibility studies, the advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:
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The vision, mission, and profile of the institution
- Does the institution have a clear vision, mission and profile?
- Which aims are outlined in the mission and is there a convincing plan to achieve these aims?
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The quality and significance of recent activities
- To what extent is the applicant’s recent role, position and working method relevant to the current context and/or the heritage field?
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The quality of the activities in the plan
- Does the plan for the feasibility study inspire confidence in remarkable, exemplary or distinctive activities within the context of heritage?
- Do the institution’s guiding principles correspond with the activities in the feasibility plan?
- Does the plan for the feasibility study potentially contribute to substantive innovation and development for the institution itself, society and/or the heritage sector?
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Public reach
- To what extent does the envisaged plan correspond with the intended target groups or plans regarding public reach?
- To what extent does the envisaged plan correspond with an appropriate audience?
- To what extent does the envisaged plan contribute to broadening public reach?
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Local, regional, national and international embedment
- To what extent is it likely that the envisaged plan will add to the existing cultural infrastructure (local, regional, national and/or international)?
Checklist
To process your application, the Mondriaan Fund needs information. All of this information can be submitted in the application form itself, together with documentation that you can upload. Here below is a checklist that follows the layout of the application form and contains all the information required.
Tip: collect all your information before you start filling out the online application form. Your attachments should be uploaded as PDFs. Please note: make sure that your documents meet the stated conditions. Otherwise, we will unfortunately not be able to process your request. Do not exceed the number of pages where a maximum is indicated.
Checklist
Recent (less than 1 year old) and valid registration excerpt from the Kamer van Koophandel (KvK- Chamber of Commerce)
Factual information about the institution or institutions (4 pages maximum)
Describe the activities of the last 3 years on the parts of all participating institutions or organizations, as well as those of collaborating partners, including objectives, target groups and the public reach of those activities.
Plan
In the case of:
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Programme (max. 20 pages)
Mention the title of the programme, starting date, location(s), expected number of participants/visitors and how the institution wants to achieve this, as well as the substantive and organisational responsibility for the project, if any. Describe the substantive motivation and the activities to be organised. If there are artists involved in the program, please explain the choice of these artists. Describe to which area the plan applies, for example: broadening the public reach by addressing more or new audiences; greater visibility of the collection; shared and/or documentedmuseum knowledge.
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Collaboration (max. 20 pages)
State the title of the plan, starting date, content of the collaboration, location(s), expected number of participants/visitors and how these will be achieved. Describe the substantive motivation, planning, and activities to be organised. Also provide an explanation of how the collaboration is organised, who is responsible for what, how the collaboration produces a sustainable result and how the knowledge gained benefits the heritage sector. If there is collaboration with artists, explain the choice for these artists. If there is collection mobility, upload a collection plan from both the receiving and rejecting museums.
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Feasibility study (max. 10 pages)
State the title of the feasibility study, the starting date, contents of the plan for the feasibility study, any collaborations and the substantive motivation.
Applying codes
It is expected of all cultural institutions that they follow the Dutch Fair Practice Code, the Governance Code for Culture and the Code Diversiteit & Inclusie (Code for Diversity & Inclusion). Compliance with the Fair Practice Code automatically means that the organization implement the codes.
Specified budget with financing plan
See an explanation of budgets for institutions. This concerns the complete budget and financing plan, not just the segment for which assistance is being requested from the Mondriaan Fund. Where there are questions about any given budget entry, the Mondriaan Fund can request relevant documents, such as price estimates.
Letters of confirmation of contributions from all participating institutions
All of these letters should be included in a single PDF document.
Approved Annual Statement of Accounts for the previous calendar year
Where applicable:
Bank details
If your application is approved, we need your bank account number in order to transfer funds. If the organisation has not previously submitted an application to the Mondriaan Fund or if the account number has changed since the previous application, please upload a recent bank statement clearly stating the name of the account holder and IBAN/bank account number of the applying institution. Applicants established in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom can provide a bank statement or other document from the bank stating the name of the account holder and bank account number.
Permission statements from participating institutions
If the other participating organizations are not submitting applications of their own, we request that you provide statements of permission for your application from the partner organizations. Include all of these declarations in a single PDF document.