Europeana Research Grants: the 2021 call is out!

About the Research Grants Programme

The Europeana Research Grants Programme began in 2016 as a way to support research projects led by early-career scholars making use of Europeana resources and tools.  In 2019, we decided to change its format to foster collaborations between cultural heritage professionals and researchers by supporting events that can bring them together. The response we received was very encouraging, and together with the institutions awarded a grant, we started putting in the pipeline a series of initiatives, but in a matter of months, the COVID 19 pandemic made in-person events simply unfeasible. We were delighted to see how the grant recipients were able to adapt their initial ideas, also to digital formats. At the same time, we had to wait, and wait again, before launching a new call. Now we feel it is the time to facilitate opportunities that help us look towards the future.

The 2021 call

This year’s call focuses on the theme Crowdsourcing and Research. The Europeana Strategy 2020 - 2025 foresees crowdsourcing as a way to improve metadata quality on Europeana. The aim of this call is to explore how the cultural heritage sector can make the best use of this participatory method with the collaboration of researchers and for the benefit of them. We have allocated a total budget of EUR 21,000 to assist cultural heritage or research institutions in the organisation of events adopting this perspective.

We welcome proposals for conferences, workshops, seminar series, summer/autumn/winter/spring schools or training activities. They can address the needs of a specific sector of cultural heritage or it in general, as well as the needs of specific academic disciplines that use digital cultural heritage as a resource for teaching, learning and research. 

We are particularly looking for events with outputs that can deliver value to a wider audience for the long term, in written or audiovisual form: from reports and whitepapers to training tutorials and video interviews. The grants are for physical events to be held between January and July 2022.

The special prizes 

We believe in the value of digital cultural heritage for teaching and learning at all levels. Europeana Research wants to do more for Higher Education. This year, part of the overall budget is allocated to two special prizes. They will be awarded to cultural heritage professionals, professors or researchers willing to design and make tutorials that can show the potential of digital cultural heritage and tools. The special prizes are response not only to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has obliged universities to move their courses online, but also to an increasing interest of professors and university students towards Europeana as a provider of resources, services and tools.   

Proposals that foresee the reuse of them are particularly welcome. The tutorials can be delivered between October 2021 and March 2022, also in a language other than English; in this case, the video must be accompanied by English subtitles.

Find out more and apply

The deadline for submissions is 31 May 2021 and the awarded proposals will be announced on Europeana Pro and social media by July 2021.

You apply for and can find out more about the research grants and the special prizes, including eligibility, terms and conditions and how to submit your proposals, through the link below.