Open Call

Project Fund

To celebrate Milton Keynes’ 60th anniversary year, MK Council and MK Community Foundation welcome the opportunity to fund a diverse and exciting range of community-led projects across the city.

For those of you who submitted an Expression of Interest to Milton Keynes City Council, we now invite you to complete our full application for funding.

Download our grant form

Completed applications should reach us by 12pm on Friday 2 October 2026. Successful applicants will be contacted by 31 October 2026 with a funding allocation. All funding allocations are then subject to a Council Internal Board Approval that checks that projects are indeed compliant with funding restrictions. A final announcement of agreed funds and Award Letter will take place before 30 November 2026.

Please send your completed form to culture@milton-keynes.gov.uk

Scoring

Proposals will be assessed on answers given to Questions 1–7 in the form, equally with no weighting on the following basis:

Score	Description
5	Excellent response. Fully addresses the question with no significant weaknesses.
4	Good response. Addresses the question well with one minor omission or weakness.
3	Satisfactory response. Meets requirements but has more than one omission or weakness.
2	Poor response. Significant omissions or weaknesses reduce confidence in delivery.
1	Very poor response. Major omissions or weaknesses that raise concerns about funding.
0	No response provided.

Questions

Question 1: Project Description

Assess: Quality, creativity, partnerships, locations, outcomes and deliverability.

Question 2: MK60 Ambitions & Priorities

Assess: Alignment with at least one MK60 ambition and two priorities, and contribution to the wider MK60 programme.

Question 3: Delivery Plan & Funding

Assess: Realistic timeline, key milestones, partnerships and match funding strategy

Question 4: Evaluation & Impact

Assess: Clear outcomes, success measures and evaluation methods.

Question 5: Audience Engagement

Assess: Target audiences, engagement approach, inclusion, participation and audience growth.

Question 6: Attendance & Reach

Assess: Scale, realism and potential reach of participant and volunteer numbers.

Question 7: Risk Management

Assess: Risk planning, safeguarding, public safety, insurance and organisational capacity.

Milton Keynes City Council Disclaimer

Whilst every effort will be made to fund as many projects as possible our funding is limited and has geographic restrictions placed upon it. Please apply for funding based on the knowledge that 20% of the project’s funds must come from your own or other funding sources.

Unfortunately, our funding is for arts, heritage or cultural projects only – this means project funding for visual, performance and digital arts, museums, archives, historic environment, architecture, design heritage and film.

We are partnering with Milton Keynes Community Foundation on an MK60 funding programme who may be able to fund additional projects. To find out more about MKCF's grant programmes, please visit: https://www.mkcommunityfoundation.co.uk/apply-for-a-grant/ – Please note that MK Community Foundation funding also comes with its own criteria for eligibility for which Milton Keynes City Council is not responsible.

Watercolor and line drawing collage featuring a large pink Victorian-style building, a boy on a skateboard in orange, a girl with a hat and bag, a butterfly, a snail, abstract purple line figure, and three green trees including a weeping willow.

Open Call

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The Open Call for MK60 Ideas and Projects is now closed.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted project ideas.

We have now worked through these and will be in touch throughout September for next steps.