The Trustees have conducted a review of our grant-making in 2024 and decided once again to focus each of our three grants rounds in 2025 on a different category of music projects.

Round 1: 14 January – 15 April 2025

Local music festivals (children’s performances are excluded)

Round 2: 20 May – 19 August 2025

Early career musicians – programmes focusing on performances opportunities (applications from individuals are excluded)

Round 3: 9 September – 9 December 2025

Children’s and young people’s instrumental music education (choirs are excluded)

The final grants round for 2024 has now closed. All Stage 1 applicants were advised of the outcome of their application on 24 September. If you do not see an email from us, please check your spam / junk folder as sometimes our emails may arrive there, depending on your incoming mail settings.

The next grants round will open in January 2025 (exact date to be decided). Please visit our website later this year when we will anounce which areas of the performing arts the Trustees will be supporting in 2025.

We are currently inviting Stage 1 applications from instrumental or choral groups for adults, and as usual we welcome applications for children’s music education projects. The deadline is Tuesday 10 September at 5pm. We will only consider applications which have fully met our eligibility criteria so if your project is for neither category, you should not apply. Visit the ‘what we support‘ and ‘how to apply‘ webpages for more information.

Scops Arts Trust is not currently accepting applications. We will next invite applications for our final grants round of this year on 27 August. All applicants who recently submitted a Stage 1 application (May to July grants round) have now been advised of the outcome and all those invited to Stage 2 have been sent an application form.

We are currently inviting Stage 1 applications for music education projects for adults and again we are interested in applications for children’s music education projects. The deadline is Tuesday 28 May at 5pm. We will only consider applications which have fully met our eligibility criteria. Please visit the ‘what we support‘ and ‘how to apply‘ webpages for more information.

While the majority of organisations in receipt of grants from Scops Art Trust report to us on time, we are finding that an increasing number of organisations are not doing so. The reporting obligations are clearly set out in the grant conditions which we send with every grant award letter.

For organisations receiving a one-year grant, you should send us a final report within 3 months of the end of your project. If we do not receive this report, no future applications will be considered from your organisation.

For multi-year grants, we expect to receive an annual report from you before we will consider paying the next grant instalment. You should send this within 3 months of the end of each funded period (for our purposes, we consider a funded period to be 12 months following the payment of a grant). If you fail to report on time, the Trust will withdraw its grant offer and no further grant instalment payments will be made. Similarly, a prompt final report is a pre-requisite to any future application from your organisation.

We appreciate that the delivery schedule of your project may differ from our definition of a funded period, but in order for us to manage our grantmaking schedules and budgets, we have to operate on 12-month timescales. If you are unsure of when to send a report, please contact us and we would be happy to clarify when we expect to receive your report.

We are not currently accepting applications. Our next grants round opens on 14 May when our focus will be music education projects for adults and for children. Please visit the ‘what we support‘ and ‘how to apply‘ webpages for more information.

We are currently inviting Stage 1 applications for consideration at our Spring meeting in March. We are specifically seeking applications for music performances at local arts festivals and applications for children’s music education projects. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 23 January. Visit the ‘What we support’ webpage for more information and if you believe that your project and organisation fits with what the Trustees want to support in this grants round, then go to the ‘How to apply’ webpage to check your eligibility.

In 2024, the Trust will be adopting a new approach where we focus on a particular area(s) of the performing arts in each of the grants rounds. For further information, please visit the ‘What We Support‘ webpage.

Round 1: 9 January – 30 April

• Applications for music performances at local arts festivals, plus children’s music education.

Round 2: 14 May – 7 August

• Applications for adult music education, plus children’s music education.

Round 3: 27 August – 30 November

• Applications for instrumental and choral music groups, plus children’s music education.