# Ambition for Excellence Evaluation

> A sourced UK public sector contract award published by The Arts Council England.

## Key facts

- Buyer: [The Arts Council England](/buyers/the-arts-council-england/contract-awards)
- Supplier: Applied Market Solutions Ltd
- Award value: £38,788
- Tender value: £41,666
- Award date: 3 March 2020
- Published: 6 April 2020
- Contract start: 6 March 2020
- Contract end: 31 October 2020
- Stage: awarded
- Procurement category: services
- Notice ID: 590b6cb5-4734-4fd4-bfb7-c03cc113ffd3-353258
- OCID: ocds-b5fd17-65b828b1-4776-431b-a39e-f77443232fa3

## Description

Ambition for Excellence focuses on stimulating and supporting significant ambition and excellence across the arts sector in England\. The fund opened in May 2015 and Arts Council invested £36m into the programme funding 68 projects\. The last awards were made at the end of February 2018 and projects run for no longer than 3-years in length with all activity due to end no later than April 2021\. The Ambition for Excellence programme aims to: - contribute to the development of strong cultural places - grow and develop talent and leadership in the regions and across artforms - give an international dimension to excellent work - create the highest quality new work, including for outdoor and festival contexts Ambition for Excellence focuses on funding large scale practice\(s\) and/or projects for creative and artistic development opportunities that will support a step change in practice within and beyond the organisations funded\. Arts Council England requires a programme-level evaluation of Ambition for Excellence to understand the impact, legacy successes and challenges for the programme\. The evaluation should bring together secondary and primary research providing a programme-level evidence of the programme's contribution and impact against the over-arching programme aims\. We would like the evaluation to highlight key findings and learnings that can be shared more widely within the sector and inform future investment funds relating to this area of work and review the delivery of the programme by Arts Council\. The evaluation should additionally, bear in mind what contribution, nuance and understanding these learnings can provide for ACE into its next 10 Year Strategy\.

## Related contract awards

- [Multifunctional Devices and Services, Managed Print Services and Print Audit Services](/contracts/ocds-b5fd17-3cc17673-723b-4dbd-bec0-431c8bf93061) — The Arts Council England
- [The impact of libraries on employment](/contracts/ocds-b5fd17-937f0b6d-70a3-4ec9-a3bd-272dfa77a0c5) — The Arts Council England
- [Guidance on restitution and repatriation for UK museums](/contracts/ocds-b5fd17-8346fde8-9bb3-46aa-a67f-e2a11cde845f) — The Arts Council England
- [Research for the long-term storage and curation of archaeological archives\.](/contracts/ocds-b5fd17-209f7778-ec0b-4c94-93f0-dc4a1f68e8d4) — The Arts Council England
- [Taxi and MPV \(1-8 seats\) Passenger Assistant - Taxi and MPV \(1-8 seats\) Passenger Assistant](/contracts/ocds-b5fd17-72db28b1-c882-4e40-8470-acd916a51a98) — East Sussex County Council
- [QLT354 2026-08-26 \(0900\) Leiston - Roman Hill Primary School, Lowestoft \(4 seats and a PA\) - AWARD](/contracts/ocds-b5fd17-3418d9ed-524a-41de-8487-25e33a827cf8) — Suffolk County Council Passenger Transport
- [QBR087 2026-08-26 \(0900\) Lowestoft / Worlingham - The Woodview Project, Worlingham \(6 seats and a PA\) - AWARD](/contracts/ocds-b5fd17-75a81455-cf68-41f3-8b47-ece5ddb308f0) — Suffolk County Council Passenger Transport
- [QOC940 2026-08-25 \(0900\) Lowestoft - Ness Point School, Gt Yarmouth \(4 seats\) - AWARD](/contracts/ocds-b5fd17-4dc15fef-5535-4fdf-b910-40ae6110e71d) — Suffolk County Council Passenger Transport

## Source

[View the original notice on Contracts Finder](https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/590b6cb5-4734-4fd4-bfb7-c03cc113ffd3-353258)