British Council Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) 2026 (Up To £500,000 Grant)

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Applications are open for British Council Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) 2026. Established in 2016, the Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) is led by the British Council in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). CPF’s role is to safeguard cultural heritage at risk primarily due to conflict and/or climate change and to contribute to sustainable social stability and economic prosperity.

The British Council is now accepting Expressions of Interest from organisations for grants of up to £500,000. Only selected applicants will be permitted to submit a full application.

British Council Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) Purpose

This funding round will support projects which will protect cultural heritage at risk, not merely to preserve the past.

Cultural heritage is everything we inherit from past generations that determines our traditions, rituals, and values and form our sense of place and identity. CPF perceives the most urgent threats to be related to:

Conflict: Cultural heritage is increasingly deliberately targeted during conflict including through destruction of sacred places, by removing people’s rights to their identity and traditions and through attempted suppression or erasure of narratives.
Climate change: Extreme weather and geological events can destroy buildings and sites; temperature spikes threaten ancient objects and records; scarcity of resources can force communities from where they live, restricting them from passing on skills, traditions, recipes and languages to the next generation.

Available Awards

While each application will be assessed on its own merit, although we have limited funding available and expect to make approximately:

7 awards for projects with grant values between £100,000 and £500,000; and
20 awards to projects with grant values under £100,000.

Who Can Apply for British Council Cultural Protection Fund (CPF)?

Registered organisations. Sole traders are not eligible to apply. All applicants will be required to submit evidence of legal status and supporting documentation in English.
Any kind of organisation can apply, public or private, as long as they are legally registered. Private organisations will not be permitted to make profit from a CPF project.
They encourage projects to work in partnership across organisations, and those partnerships should be formalised through signed agreements.
All projects must include protection of living heritage.
Organisations can be registered anywhere in the world, but if it is outside of the target country the project must include partners registered inside the target country. You must be able to demonstrate evidence of local demand and support for proposed activities.
Applications must be submitted by one lead applicant organisation who has overall legal and financial responsibility for managing the grant. If a grant is awarded, the lead organisation will be required to accept the terms and conditions of our Grant Agreement.

Funding Eligibility

They must meet the strategic objectives of fund which are:

Heritage – Cultural heritage will be in better condition, more prepared and better understood
Society – Societies will be stronger, more inclusive and more resilient
Economy – increased opportunities and benefit for people and places

Participating Countries

The program is looking for projects protecting cultural heritage at risk in: Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Yemen.

British Council Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) Application Timeline:

Applications open: Tuesday 23 June 2026
Expressions of interest deadline: Monday 20 July 2026, 23:59 BST.
Online information session: Monday 1 July, 10am – 11am BST.
Full application deadline: Friday 28 August 2026, 23:59 BST.
Projects start: December 2026.
Projects end by: 31 January 2029.

How To Apply for British Council Cultural Protection Fund (CPF)

You will need to create an account or log into an existing account to apply via Good Grants portal.

Expressions of Interest and applications must be submitted through Good Grants only. They recommend:

Using an up-to-date browser
Avoiding any setbacks by regularly pressing ‘save’ manually on completing a section
Keeping an offline copy of your application as a backup.

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Application Deadline: 20 July, 23:59 BST