The Arts Council has identified the following as strategic priorities for support through this award:

Projects that focus on the following areas:

• Public engagement – e.g. arts and health, communities of interest or place, arts and disability, cultural diversity, older people, youth arts, arts and education, hard to access communities. Artists-focused programmes – e.g. arts and disability, international commissioning, supports for artists locally and nationally, arts residency programmes.
• Policy development – e.g. audience development, economic impact, quality-of-life impact, local authority arts services development, best practice models for arts offices and venues, models of regional approaches to collaboration, and new investment models for supporting the arts.

Projects that involve two or more local authority arts services.

Projects focusing on the development of models of practice and/or action research that can inform and shape future local, regional and national policy development.

Research and Development Phase: up to a maximum of €20,000

Project Implementation Phase: up to a maximum of €75,000

The level of cash and/or in-kind investment by the supporting partner(s). This must be a minimum of twenty-five per cent of the value of the grant request