From 2025, The Culture Investment Programme replaced the Council’s previous grant schemes for arts and culture.
The new programme provides more flexibility and entry points to funding based on organisations level of experience, capacity and capability. This is designed to give agency to culture organisations to access the right investment to enable them to deliver high quality activities for the people of Aberdeen.
We want Aberdeen to be a city in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where everyone, regardless of background, has access and opportunity to participate in a diverse range of high-quality culture experiences. We recognise that culture delivers a wide range of social, economic and cultural benefits and are integral to Aberdeen’s prosperity.
The Aberdeen Culture Investment Programme has been designed to support organisations that want to contribute to that goal by delivering sustained programmes of creative or culture activity which meet our outcome priorities.
Our Investment Principles
Ambition - Encourage creative ambition and excellence in delivery.
Public benefits - Ensure Council investment is used for public benefit, demonstrating impacts to evidence that investment is delivering on our priorities.
Local Impact - to support the local culture economy to develop capacity and capability to be more sustainable and successful.
Diversity - Reflect the growing diversity of the city and foster creativity in every community.
Collaboration - Encourage organisations to work mutually and in collaboration and to support grass roots organisations and individual practitioners, ensuring fair pay and opportunities to develop their activities and careers in Aberdeen.
Grow investment – To foster the conditions for the culture sector to maximise opportunity and grow inward investment for culture and creativity in Aberdeen.
Inclusive - Make funding guidance clear, easy to understand, accessible and inclusive. To make monitoring consistent and proportionate to the levels of investment.
Open - Make decisions based on open applications, share data on decisions openly and use monitoring data collected to inform future investment choices
There are four funding streams designed to enable creative and cultural activity in Aberdeen to flourish for the benefit of all who live, work, study and visit the city.
The programmes are as follows:
Acorn £500 - £2,500 – seed funding for pilots and small projects. CLOSED
Catalyst £5,000 -£15,000 – project and festival funding. OPEN
Cultivate £15,000- £100,000 – year-round programmes of cultural activity. CLOSED
Cornerstone £100,000 plus - Large scale Aberdeen based organisations delivering culture programmes. CLOSED
Catalyst – How to apply
The Culture Investment Programmes Acorn Funding is open to a wide range of Aberdeen based not for profit organisations and community groups, as well as festival and event organisers, to deliver high quality creative and cultural activity for the benefit of Aberdeen citizens. Grants of up to £15,000 are available to support eligible activities which include;
- New, one-off, large-scale ambitious non-profit cultural projects in Aberdeen.
- Testing new activity, including as part of recurring events (e.g. annual festivals).
- Encouraging and retaining Aberdeen-based artists, producers, promoters, and creative partners to deliver ambitious programmes.
- Piloting new projects and collaborations.
- Activities that reflect Aberdeen’s creative and cultural diversity, including work by, with, or for people with protected characteristics or those living in the city’s most disadvantaged areas.
Deadline for applications is Thursday 6th November 2025 at 12 noon.
Please download the Culture Investment Guidelines and Catalyst Application Form.
Please read the guidelines and general advice before completing your application form. If you require further support or translation of a document into Gaelic or another language or if you require BSL support. Please contact creativefunding@aberdeencity.gov.uk A translation would take 5 working days.
Catalyst Funding Information Session
This workshop will provide an overview of the funding stream launching on September 18th 2025, designed to support Aberdeen-based creative and cultural activities. Whether you are a well-established cultural organisation or newly founded community group, this session will help understand the application process and requirements for up to £15,000 in funding.
In this workshop, you'll:
- Learn about the new Catalyst funding opportunity and how it fits within the broader Culture Investment Programme
- Discover the eligibility criteria for organisations based in Aberdeen
- Understand what types of high-quality creative activities qualify for support
- Explore examples like new pilot projects, testing cultural activities, talent retention initiatives, and diverse cultural activities
- Have your questions answered by the team.
Suitable for Aberdeen based organisations looking to develop creative activities in the City who are not currently receiving other Cultural Investment support (Cornerstone, Cultivate or Acorn). The session will include time for questions and discussion.
To reserve your place, please book here
For individual support with applications, online sessions can also be arranged by emailing creativefunding@aberdeencity.gov.uk.
Date, Time, and Location:
Date: September 25th 2025
Time: 5:30 PM - 6:15 PM