WIREDGOV

Access to 15 archive collections is set to be transformed by a series of grants announced yesterday. The National Cataloguing Grants Programme 2013 has awarded £526,259 to archives across the UK to help make these vitally important collections fully accessible for the first time.

Access to documents

Managed by The National Archives, the grants programme helps archives to catalogue previously inaccessible collections. Cataloguing past collections has uncovered treasures, which have provided unique insight into our nation's history.

The programme is funded by a collective of charitable trusts and foundations including the Pilgrim Trust, the Foyle Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation and for the first time this year, the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

Projects and collections

Each individual grant can last for up to two years, enabling the archives to explore each collection fully. Among those funded this year are:

• Birmingham Library and Archives - the archive of the Central England Area Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (£24,808)

• Tyne & Wear Archives - 'The Workshop of the World': the records of Vickers Defence Systems, Vickers-Armstrong and predecessor companies, (£46,330)

• Archives and Record Council Wales - Archives of the Welsh steel industry (£56,017)

See full details of this year's grant winners on our Cataloguing Grants Programme page.