Criteria

To apply to the Digital Research & Development Fund for Arts and Culture, Scotland, you must be

1. An arts and cultural organisation in Scotland which is either predominately publically funded and/or is a registered charity and who wants to work with digital technologies to:

• expand its audience reach and engagement and/or 
• explore new business models
  

"Arts and cultural organisation", "audience reach" and "business model" are defined here. 

2. Your proposal must involve a collaborative partnership between yourself as an arts and cultural organisation and a technology provider (by which we mean any creative, media or technology company including other arts and cultural organisations with relevant technology know-how) that can provide technology services to arts and cultural organisations.

Please note, if you are an arts and cultural organisation with in-house technical expertise you can partner with either a technology company and/or collaborate with another arts and cultural organisation.

3. Your proposal must fall under one of the key themes - 1) expand audience reach and engagement; 2) explore new business models. We ran a Google Moderator poll and the following areas were highlighted of interest to the sector:

• Digital content distribution - delivering content in new ways
• Social media - using technology for interactive engagement
• Making the most of archives through digital technology
• Mobile and location-based services
• Fundraising - using technology to generate giving, sponsorship and membership
• Connecting thinkers with doers: methodologies for emergent collaboration

Your proposal doesn't need to fall exclusively into one of these categories; we will accept ideas which encompass reach and new business models. 

Selection criteria:

Each eligible application will be assessed on the following:

1. Proposition:

• How innovative is the digital proposition insofar as it relates to the programme's audience reach/engagement and new revenue objectives?
• How important is testing the digital proposition for the wider arts and cultural sector?

2. Project research and learning /Wider impact:

• How well suited is the project to testing the digital proposition?
• What potential does the project have to deliver data and research findings that are of relevance and value to the wider sector?
• What potential does the project have to deliver new products/services that can be shared and used by other arts and cultural organisations?
• How much potential does the project have for further research and development and innovation?

3. Collaboration:

• Technology provider - how well can the organisation identified as the technology provider deliver the work?
• Does the project involve collaborating with other arts and cultural organisations and, if so, what is the potential of the project to support innovation in these organisations?

4. Project delivery:

• How well does the applicant demonstrate their ability to deliver the project?
• Can the project be completed in the timeframe?
• Capacity to engage in the R&D - judge by marketing/sales capacity; buy-in from CEO/senior management
• How well does the project detail the resource requirements, including human resource, for the R&D project? The programme will not support the funding of capital costs and new permanent or existing core staff.

5. Finance:

• Does the project have a sound financial plan and does it represent good value for money?
• Is the project conditional on other sources of funding?

Once individual applications have been assessed the panel reserves the right to take a final view across all projects in order to select those that meet our preference for a spread of projects (mix of risky/less risky; large/small organisations; radical/incremental innovations; geographical spread and by type of idea).