SSEN Transmission Grant Launches IBT’s New Digital Heritage Initiative
The Islands Book Trust has been awarded a significant grant from the SSEN Transmission Regional Fund to launch a new shared Digital Hub and Scottish Islands Heritage & Skills Network, supporting heritage groups across Scotland’s islands, subject to the normal legalities.
As the Trust approaches its twenty-fifth year, the initiative builds on a quarter-century of publishing island books and delivering events across the islands. The new programme extends that work into the digital sphere, creating practical tools that will allow communities to document, preserve, and share their heritage in new ways, building on the strong local activity already taking place.
Over the next three years the programme will relaunch the Trust’s digital platform as a shared hub for island heritage publications and resources, establish Islands Voices as a growing video and audio archive, develop curriculum-linked Education Packs, and provide structured digital skills support for heritage volunteers across Scotland’s islands.
A central principle of the initiative is that communities retain control of their material. Ownership and credit for all recordings, publications, and digital resources will remain with the individuals and organisations who create them.
The programme aligns with SSEN Transmission’s commitment to delivering lasting benefits for communities across the north of Scotland. By strengthening digital skills, collaboration, and shared visibility across Scotland’s islands, the initiative aims to support heritage work that remains accessible, resilient, and firmly rooted in the communities themselves.
SSEN Transmission Regional Fund: https://www.ssen-transmission.co.uk/communitybenefit