UK Museum Accreditation Scheme
The nationally agreed standards to ensure all museums are sustainable, focused and trusted, inspiring the confidence of the public and funding and governing bodies. Delivered in partnership across the UK.
Apply for museum accreditation
Apply for Museum Accreditation
The Accreditation Scheme is the UK industry standard for museums and galleries.
It helps everyone involved with a museum to do the right things, helping people to access and engage with collections, and protect them for future generations.
The Accreditation Scheme does this by making sure museums manage their collections properly, engage with visitors, and are governed appropriately by encouraging all museums and galleries to meet an agreed standard in:
- how they’re run
- how they manage their collections
- how they engage with their users
Take a look at our guidance on how to apply for Accreditation for the first time, as well as how to complete an Accreditation Return, and a Provisional Review.
The Return Schedule – find out when to submit your return.
The Return Schedule – find out when to submit your return.
An award of Full Accreditation is valid for approximately five years, at which point your museum will be invited to provide a Return to demonstrate continuing compliance with the Accreditation Standard.
Please note that due to the pause of the scheme during the Covid-19 pandemic some museums have had their Accreditation award extended for longer than five years.
We are pleased to share the Return schedule for those fully Accredited Museums that are due to submit Returns in 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
We’ll publish a further Return schedule phase later in 2024.
Find out more about the Return schedule and maintaining the Accreditation Standard between Returns.
Covid-19 update
The UK Accreditation Partnership
The UK Accreditation Partnership
We want all museums to be sustainable, focused and trusted organisations, which offer their visitors a great experience. The Accreditation Scheme sets out nationally-agreed standards, which inspire the confidence of the public and funding and governing bodies.
The scheme is managed as a UK Partnership between Arts Council England, the Welsh Government, Museums Galleries Scotland and Northern Ireland Museums Council. It is run for museums and galleries of all sizes and types across the UK.
The online application portal is hosted and managed by Arts Council England on behalf of the UK Accreditation Partners.
Get started
Get started
Whether you’re applying to Accreditation for the first time or making a regular return application you’ll need to use our application portal, Grantium. This is for all Accredited museums and galleries across the United Kingdom. You’ll also use this if you are already confirmed as eligible as Working Towards Accreditation and about to make your first application.
Help using Grantium
Help using Grantium
Before you can start your online submission, you need to create a user account and an applicant profile, if you don’t have one already.
You can’t start an application until we’ve validated your applicant profile, which may take up to 10 working days. Once you’ve had notification your applicant profile is validated you’ll be able to apply using the online portal.
Ready to start your online submission on Grantium? You’ll find it helpful to read our step by step guidance for the online system as it’s tailored for Accreditation. This includes frequently asked questions.
Recently Accredited?
Recently Accredited?
Your museum and its collections are the best advertisement for Accreditation there is. We’ve created a template press release, social media toolkit and some logo and branding guidelines to help you share the good news about your recent Accreditation.
Already Accredited
Already Accredited?
Support is available to museums that are already members of the scheme, to help them maintain the national standard.
Accreditation Guidance review
Accreditation Guidance review
The Accreditation Guidance will be reviewed and refreshed from Spring 2023-2024 with a new version due to be published in mid-2024.
The aim is to make the guidance clearer, more accessible and relevant to the current needs of museums. Overall, we are aiming to create an update that is straightforward for applicants and assessors to use, with clear read-across between the standard, guidance and application form.
There will be some limited and targeted consultation during the review and refresh process which will be overseen by the UK Accreditation Partners.
Any participants or new applicants who are preparing an Accreditation submission using the current guidance should carry on. The refreshed guidance won’t be ready until 2024 and we will build in some flex while the new version of the guidance beds in.
The current Accreditation Standard (2018), which is the industry standard for UK museums, has no plans at this time to review it.
Contact us
Contact us
All UK museums and galleries applying to or in the Scheme can access technical support on using Grantium from our Customer Services team. We’re available by email 10am-5pm, Monday to Friday.