Our research and evaluation helps us to understand our past work, and use that to inform how we work going forward.
Research helps us to understand the value and role of heritage in modern life, as well as exploring and testing ideas for future funding.
While we undertake evaluation to understand the outcomes and impacts of our past investment. It helps us to learn and improve.
Our interim evaluation report explores findings from the programme’s first year of delivery, creating and restoring habitats that reverse the decline of species. (Evaluation, Insight : )
Explore the progress we’ve made and what we’ve learned during the first year of our strategic initiative. (Research, Insight : )
This report brings together key lessons from our five Areas of Focus evaluation reports and provides recommendations for future place-based work. (Evaluation, Insight : )
We’ve explored the latest impacts of our targeted funding for under-served places across the UK, what’s working and where there’s room for improvement. (Evaluation, Insight : )
Our new historic ships research is helping us understand the condition and challenges of vessels on the National Historic Fleet and how to effectively target our funding and strategic support. (Research, Insight : )
This report reviews the Heritage Fund’s grant portfolio carbon footprint and recommends an approach to minimise the environmental impacts of our funding. (Research : )
Our £10million pilot programme to make heritage relevant to people aged 11-25 has concluded after six years of achievements and learning. (Evaluation, Targeted programmes, Insight : )
We commissioned Dr Andrea Wallace and Michael Weinberg from The GLAM-E Lab to produce a snapshot on open licensing across the UK heritage sector – its benefits, opportunities and risks. (Research, Insight : )
The end of programme evaluation reveals thousands of people and organisations took part in and benefitted from our investment and includes recommendations for the future. (Evaluation, Targeted programmes, Insight : )
In the fourth year of our Areas of Focus initiative, we examine how our support is benefiting communities and their heritage in our 13 target areas. (Evaluation : )
These reports examine the delivery of the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, presenting findings on the impact of its funded projects. (Evaluation : )
We commissioned Dr Mathilde Pavis to produce a snapshot of what innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) looks like across the UK heritage sector. It can help you decide whether to, how and when to use AI. (Research : )
How we’ve used data about heritage, society and investment levels, alongside local insight, to select an initial nine locations across the UK for strategic investment. (Research, Strategic planning research : )
We take a look at the progress we’ve made through our Areas of Focus programme three years in, and what we still need to do to meet future goals. (Evaluation : )
We take a look at the ongoing impact of our Great Place Scheme in England, a year on from our original end of project evaluation. (Evaluation : )
In summer 2022 we invited heritage organisations and members of the public to share their ideas and experiences to help shape our new strategy and the future of the UK heritage sector. (Research, Strategic planning research, Insight : )
Insights into heritage sector priorities and wider public attitudes have helped shape our strategy for supporting the UK’s heritage. (Research, Strategic planning research : )
The final evaluation of Heritage Endowments shows how endowment schemes can help protect heritage and strengthen organisational resilience. (Evaluation : )
Our guide will help you learn more about cohort working and when to use it as part of your delivery programme. (Research : )
In this report we summarise – for each of our four EDI workstreams – our progress during 2021–2021 and our ambitions for the rest of 2022–2023. (Research : )
Explore the evaluation of our three-year initiative to help towns and cities across the UK transform their use and management of green space. (Evaluation : )
We surveyed organisations that manage and support all types of heritage across the UK. Explore what their responses reveal about current attitudes in our sector. (Heritage Pulse, Research : )
Explore the findings from our independent research examining perspectives on heritage, inclusion and barriers to accessing our funding. (Research : )
We compare the findings of our two £22m Great Place Schemes to learn how culture and heritage can drive positive change locally. (Evaluation : )
Exploring new approaches to investment in natural heritage and support for nature’s recovery. (Research : )
An evaluation of sixty projects from the Grants for Places of Worship programme demonstrates the role these buildings continue to play in the daily lives of their communities. (Evaluation : )
We investigate the impact of our funding for placemaking and explore how our we can better support people and places to thrive across the UK. (Research : )
Understanding the impact of our Collecting Cultures programme, and a look ahead to our new campaign, Dynamic Collections. (Evaluation : )
The second Digital Attitudes and Skills for Heritage (DASH) survey report offers a unique insight into how the UK heritage sector's use of digital has evolved during the pandemic. (Research : )
Researcher and evaluator Henrietta Hopkins, Director of Hopkins Van Mil, introduces a new report which finds that heritage endowments are a cornerstone of resilience in challenging times. (Evaluation : )
We commissioned independent research to understand perceptions of our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion, and barriers to accessing our funding. (Research : )
In this report we summarise – for each of the four workstreams – what we learned over the past 12 months, what we have already achieved, and set out key actions we will take throughout 2021-2022. (Research : )
We look at the key learnings and recommendations from the first 24 months of our Areas of Focus initiative. (Evaluation : )
This report presents insights from local authorities to help deliver resilient heritage and long-term improvements to places and communities. (Research : )
This report evaluates how heritage organisations across the UK used the emergency funding which The National Lottery Heritage Fund provided at speed in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the positive impact which it has had on the sector. (Evaluation : )
Evidence from the Parks for People programme and six case studies uncovers the importance of our parks and how we can support them in future. (Evaluation : )
Between December 2017 and March 2018, The Fund awarded through Great Place Scheme Nations (GPS Nations), grants ranging between £150,000 to £500,000 to 18 places in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. (Evaluation : )
‘Let young people shine’ was the theme of Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018, and shine they did, our evaluation report found. (Evaluation : )
The Digital Attitudes and Skills for Heritage (DASH) survey report offers vital insight into how heritage leaders can support their staff, trustees and volunteers. (Research : )
To discover if our funding enabled grantees to increase their organisational resilience, increase their capacity or achieve significant strategic change. (Programme evaluation, Evaluation, Targeted programmes, Insight : )
Between 20 and 24 March 2020, Wildlife and Countryside Link (Link) worked with, NI Environment Link, Scot Link and Wales Environment Link and our members to conduct a UK-wide survey of the impact of the coronavirus on the environment sector. (Research : )
This briefing summarises The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s evidence of the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on heritage UK wide. (Research : )
This is the second interim report from our evaluation of the Heritage Endowments Programme. The findings in this report are divided into two sections: early findings and interim findings. (Evaluation, Insight : )
A rapid evidence review of the benefits parks and green spaces have for people and communities. (Research : )
BOP Consulting evaluation of the Great Place Scheme, an initiative which is piloting new approaches to putting culture at the heart of communities and local policy-making. (Evaluation, Insight : )
Our research highlights opportunities and barriers involved in international working. (Research : )
An executive summary of the report into HLF's role prior to the launch of the Strategic Funding Framework in January 2019. (Research : )
This research was commissioned to provide an updated understanding of public perception of heritage and how it is valued. (Research : )
From April 2010 to March 2018, HLF awarded over £94 million to more than 1,900 First World War projects. (Evaluation, Insight : )
Our ambitious £10million Kick the Dust (KtD) programme is transforming how heritage organisations engage with young people. (Evaluation : )
This research looks at the impact that our investment has had since 1994 on landscapes, nature and the organisations that champion nature. (Research : )
To help us plan for the future, we have been finding out what National Lottery players see as priorities for our funding. (Research, Insight : )
Research from Esme Ward, Clore Fellow, into how to best support communities in creating new heritage activity. (Research, Insight : )
Research examining how National Lottery funding has provided for projects that enable, support or follow a community asset transfer. (Research, Insight : )
This report shows that there is a growing deficit between the rising use of parks and the declining resources available to manage them. (Research, Insight : )
A match-funding initiative offering heritage organisations in the UK the opportunity to create an endowment and bring additional private money into the heritage sector. (Evaluation, Insight : )
Our latest report on the economic impact of heritage-based tourism in the UK. (Research, Insight : )
Research into the heritage sector's interest in non-grant sources of finance, and the attitudes of social investors to heritage organisations. (Research, Insight : )
A study into the condition, quality and resourcing of the UK’s public parks. (Research : )
This programme aims to regenerate public parks and cemeteries of national, regional or local heritage value for the enjoyment and recreation of local people. (Evaluation, Insight : )
This research follows the progress of the 22 Collecting Cultures projects we have funded over the last four years. (Evaluation, Insight : )
The evaluation of the THI programme covers 17 case studies, across a wide mix of towns and cities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (Evaluation, Insight : )
Review of HLF's investment in oral history projects, including how this investment helped to deliver HLF's 2002-2013 strategic aims. (Evaluation, Insight : )
Research into how commercial businesses based in the historic buildings can be more successful than other commercial businesses. (Research, Insight : )
An evaluation of the Young Roots programme. (Evaluation, Insight : )
Research to examine whether social enterprise can effectively assist the sustainability of rural places of worship. (Research : )
We have looked at the social benefits of involvement in HLF projects through two different pieces of research. (Evaluation : )
This report, produced by the Centre for European Protected Area Research at London University Birkbeck, presents an evaluation of HLF’s Landscape Partnership programme, together with a review of the participative approach to evaluation which informed this work. (Evaluation : )
These reports present the results of case studies that look at the economic impacts of tourism that HLF investment has had. (Evaluation, Insight : )
In 2004 Demos produced a report looking at the ‘cultural value’ of heritage. The authors distinguished between the intrinsic, instrumental and institutional impacts of heritage, and recommended that HLF needed to take each into account when making grant awards. (Research : )