We are delighted to announce our funding focus round for 2026. As with our 2025 giving, we will only consider applications that are specific to each round and are entered into our Grants System by 5pm on the deadline day, there are no exceptions to this rule. If you are considering making an application to us, please make sure that you read our grant guidelines and FAQs so that you understand our exclusions, staged approach and time-frames for making awards. The Stage 1 application form becomes available on the day the grant round opens.

Round 1 – Stage 1 will open on 13 January and close on 27 January

Focus: Music festivals (children’s performances excluded as are festivals where music is not the focus)

We are particularly interested in festivals that are designed to support cultural provision in areas where this may otherwise lack.  As an arts funder, we are interested in supporting performers and performance aspects of your music festival rather than overall festival production costs and overheads. We will also consider the artistic quality of the proposed music programme and performers involved in our decision making.  

Round 2 – Stage 1 will open on Tuesday 12 May and close on 26 May

Focus: Early-career artists performance programmes focussing on performance opportunities

We are looking for high quality programmes offering early career artists opportunities to advance their training and development towards performance.  We will consider applications for Dance, Drama and Music. We define early career as those at the early stages of a professional art-related career, who have already demonstrated a clear commitment to pursuing their practice beyond an amateur or hobby level.

Round 3 – Stage 1 will open on Tuesday 1 September and close on 15 September

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

We are interested in programmes which give children and young people opportunities to Learn, Create, Experience and Progress. We have a particular interest in applications which concentrate on teaching instrumental playing.

Round 3, our last round of 2025 is now closed and we are not accepting applications until 2026. We will be publishing our focussed themes and dates for 2026 rounds later this year on our website.

Our round 2 grants round is now closed and we are not currently accepting applications. We will next invite applications for our final grants round of this year on 9 September which has a focus of – Children’s and young people’s instrumental music education (choirs are excluded).

We are currently inviting Stage 1 applications for Early career musicians – programmes focused on performance opportunities (applications from individuals are excluded). The deadline for applications is 5pm on Tuesday 3 June. Please visit the ‘How to apply’ page on our website for further information on how to check your eligibility and how to submit a Stage 1 application. It is important that you read our grant guidelines first of all. 

Please note that we use Google reCAPTCHA to protect our website from spam applications, so you must complete this check to enable the ‘submit’ button, otherwise you will not be able to send us your application. In previous grants rounds, we have received a number of enquiries from applicants who cannot see the Google reCAPTCHA box after they have filled in the online form; our advice is always the same – Google reCAPTCHA is compatible with all of the usual browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc), but if for any reason you cannot see it at the end of our online application form, please try an alternative browser or another device.

The first grants round of 2025 has now closed and currently we are not accepting any applications. We have now emailed all Stage 1 applicants to advise them of the outcome of their application. If you have not received an email from us, please do check your spam folder as we are aware that sometimes, due to incoming mail settings, our emails may arrive there.

The next grants round opens on 20 May, when we will be inviting applications for projects supporting performance opportunities for early career musicians. We do not accept applications from individuals. Grant awards for the second grants round this year will be made in August 2025.

Scops Arts Trust is currently inviting applications for local music festivals. Children’s performances at festivals will not be considered in this grants round. The deadline for applications is 5pm on Tuesday 28 January. Visit the ‘How to apply’ page on our website for further information on how to check your eligibility and how to submit a Stage 1 application. It is important that you read our grant guidelines first of all.

Please note that we use Google reCAPTCHA to protect our website from spam applications, so you must complete this check to enable the ‘submit’ button, otherwise you will not be able to send us your application. In previous grants rounds, we have received a number of enquiries from applicants who cannot see the Google reCAPTCHA box after they have filled in the online form; our advice is always the same – Google reCAPTCHA is compatible with all of the usual browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc), but if for any reason you cannot see it at the end of our online application form, please try an alternative browser or another device.

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.