It feels a little as though the stage 1 project has been all about today and hitting “submit” on the HLF portal!  There’s still the rest of June to tie-up the loose ends and final pieces of stage 1 work, project closure (and taking some leave!) – but the bid is in!

We’ll find out the outcome in September 2013.  If successful, the stage 2 project will create a beacon centre and Service through which the University’s heritage collections are accessible to everyone.  The collections reflect major social, cultural and political movements of national and international significance, with particular strengths in music and sport.

The project will secure the long term future of the collections through conservation and cataloguing and will enable new ways for audiences to learn from and engage with them.  Securing the future of the collections will mean we can develop new and wider ways to engage with our audiences and to interpret the collections.

The project will deliver:

• learning and activity programmes enabling people to enjoy and learn about the heritage collections.

• a range of participation opportunities for people to engage more directly with the preservation, interpretation, cataloguing and gathering of the collections.

• new dedicated specialist facilities for people to interact with the collections and one another in a wide range of ways.

• new means and information for collections access.

• conservation of collections through new specialist storage facilities and supporting preservation activities.

The application form is available here HG-11-07524 Application Form sections 2-4 for now, and I’ll be updating the blog over the coming weeks with more detailed information about what the project will do.