Creative Scotland has confirmed that its draft Grant-in-Aid budget from the Scottish Government for 2025-26 is £89 million, up from £66.5 million in the previous year.

“Included in this is an additional £20m, specifically for use in supporting the Multi-Year Funding programme, £3m extra for EXPO festival support, an additional £2m for Screen Scotland’s Production Growth Fund, £0.3m more for the Youth Music Initiative (YMI), and £4m for the Culture Collective initiative,” said Creative Scotland.

“This budget, coupled with the Scottish Government’s aim to provide a further additional £20m for Multi-Year Funding in 2026/27, as set out in the Cabinet Secretary’s recent letter to the Culture Committee, means that we will have £54m for the Multi-Year Funding programme funding in 2025/26, and £74m in 2026/27.

“Finally, we can also confirm that the Board of Creative Scotland will meet again in January to approve the final set of recommendations for the Multi-Year Funding programme and that all applicants will be informed of the outcome on 30 January.”

Creative Scotland CEO Iain Munro said: “The very positive outcome for Culture, and for Creative Scotland, as set out in the Scottish Government’s draft budget announcement, means that we can now move forward with confidence in concluding the Multi-Year Funding application process.

“The additional funding to be provided for this programme both next financial year and, significantly, in the year to follow, is very welcome and I am pleased we can now commit to announcing the outcome for all organisations that have applied to Stage 2 on 30 January.”