The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NMCT) was established in 1990 by the British Library and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, with funding from the Office of Arts and Libraries and from private donors

The NMCT is the only UK grant-giver that focuses solely on the care and conservation of manuscripts in the UK. We give grants to:

• record offices, archive services, libraries, museums and specialist collecting institutions in the UK;
• owners of manuscripts and archives resident in the UK where the collections are conditionally exempt from capital taxation or which are owned by a charitable trust.  In these cases adequate public access must be provided.

Our grants are towards the cost of repair, binding and conservation and preservation of manuscripts.  Our grants can cover the cost of, for example, new boxes and folders but not capital items (e.g. shelving, plan chests) or equipment.  Conservation projects can include digitisation (as a preservation method) but we cannot support projects that are solely digitisation.

Being a Trustee is a great honour working with many different specialists who contribute to assessing each application. We get to support some incredible projects that otherwise would not get funding. The thing I am most happy about is when the project funding will give a student their first job working with an experienced conservator.

We are living through difficult times with funding cuts across the board, but Trust like the NMCT continue to support the sector, and conservators continue to share their knowledge.