The two main funding bodies for museums in England, Arts Council England (ACE) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), signed a memorandum of understanding last month to take a more joined-up approach to the museum sector, as recommended by last year's Mendoza Review of museums in England.
As well as making it easier for museums to work with the two bodies and providing greater clarity on which one to approach for a particular requirement, one of the stated aims is to align the organisations' funding processes and programmes "wherever possible".
Asked about what the implications might be for the two bodies' grant schemes, an arts council spokeswoman said: "ACE and the HLF will work together to review how we support English museums - including how we run our grants programmes, what information is required and how we monitor them - to see whether we can adjust our practice to make the application, delivery and monitoring processes more efficient."
Discussions will take place this autumn and more details will be shared in the spring. The organisations have already jointly invested in several funding programmes, including the Catalyst capacity-building programmes and the Great Place Scheme.
