Major lottery grant award to strengthen the network of UNESCO Sites in the UK

The UK National Commission for UNESCO has received a further £250,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, to expand and evolve our innovative Local to Global programme.

The new phase of the programme is being titled 'Local to Global 2.0: From a resilient to an adaptive network' The new funding, covering 20 months to September 2026, will help further strengthen the UK network of UNESCO Sites including Biosphere Reserves, Creative Cities, Global Geoparks and World Heritage Sites.

In turn, the strengthened network will be able to work with, and support, local communities across the UK to make the most of their heritage and tackle shared challenges like the impacts of climate change. Planned activities using the funding include:

• Community Innovation Grants: Six £10,000 regional / national grants will support UNESCO Sites to test ideas and pilot solutions to shared challenges they, and their local communities, face.
• Skills and Partnerships Training: Ongoing support will help UNESCO Sites build fundraising expertise, entrepreneurship, and develop long-term partnerships.
• Measuring the value of UNESCO to the UK: A brand-new research study will measure the cultural, economic, and social value of UNESCO Sites as place-based partnerships within communities.

Starting in spring 2025 a series of Climate Change and Heritage Protection Workshops will bring UNESCO Sites together to assess and examine climate change impacts on their locales. The workshops will be held in partnership with the HM Treasury funded Climate Change and UNESCO Heritage Project.

Of the new funding, James Bridge, Chief Executive and Secretary-General of the UK National Commission for UNESCO, said

‘UNESCO Sites connect people and places, linking local action to global solutions. Thanks to National Lottery players, the new funding will enable even greater collaboration among Sites, to ensure that this unrivalled collective heritage is secured, and thrives, for generations to come.’

Stuart McLeod, Director of England - London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:

‘We are delighted to offer new support to the UK National Commission for UNESCO for its Local to Global programme. The first phase delivered a myriad benefits to support heritage in communities across the United Kingdom.

Thanks to National Lottery players the Commission will be able to build on this vital work and aid both the network of UNESCO sites, and the communities in which they are based, to celebrate heritage in all its forms and put in place solutions to tackle some of the most important challenges they face.’

Download the full press release