Evaluation of impact of Covid on the independent museum sector in Scotland and the impact of MGS Recovery and Resilience Funding

Tender description

The closure of Scotland’s museums and galleries during the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the sector. Many organisations saw their reserves depleted rapidly, with income streams being significantly reduced. In response, an emergency Recovery and Resilience Fund was launched by MGS in August 2020. The programme was targeted at organisations which were struggling to cover costs in the six-month period between October 2020 and March 2021, and assisted with the implementation of measures which would help them become more financially sustainable beyond that period. In January 2021, further funding was made available for a second round of awards, supporting Scotland’s museums and galleries through to June 2021. Unlike MGS’s regular grant programmes, organisations including non-Accredited museums were able to apply for funding to cover core costs and reserve top-ups. MGS now seeks to work with a contractor in analysing the impact of Covid-19 on the independent museums and galleries sector in Scotland, and in particular the impact of the Recovery and Resilience programme. This analysis will provide the framework for assessing what support and development the sector needs going forward. This project will build on quantitative evaluation data and outputs which are currently being produced by Horizons Research as part of a separate ongoing grants analysis project, details of which are set out in Appendix 1 of the tender brief. The new contractor appointed to deliver the Recovery and Resilience impact assessment will be expected to work in collaboration with Horizons Research in integrating the outputs from the existing project into their report. The successful contractor will review completion reports for all of the Recovery and Resilience grants distributed (approximately 150) to build up a picture of what difference the grants made, what worked, what did not work, and the financial position of grant recipients at the end of the funding period. They will also conduct interviews with a sample of grant recipients (approximately 30 - 40), focusing primarily on those that received funding to undertake business reviews and other resilience-building activity. Through this work the contractor will build further understanding of the impact of the funding. They will also provide MGS with a better idea of what follow-on activity is required in order to deliver recommendations and develop resilience in independent museums. The contractor should identify trends in successful and unsuccessful activity, as well as potential opportunities for shared learning and collaboration that could be supported by future funding. Tender proposals should outline how this work will be approached, and the rationale for the chosen methodology. Following the research period, the contractor will produce a written report outlining their findings.