The British Library's Endangered Archives Programme offers approximately 30 grants each year to enable researchers to locate vulnerable archival collections, arrange their transfer wherever possible to a suitable local archival home, and deliver digital copies into the international research domain via the British Library. These grants are the primary means by which charitable fund Arcadia contributes to the urgent task of identifying, preserving and making accessible such archival collections before they are lost forever. Over the years, the programme has provided support to over 400 projects in 90 countries worldwide, in over 100 languages and scripts. Over 7 million images and 25.000 sound tracks have been digitised. The 2019 call of the programme is now open, offering three types of grant:

• Pilot project grants can either involve investigating the potential for a major project through a survey, or they may be small digitisation projects. These projects should last for no more than 12 months and have a budget limit of £15,000.
• Major project grants are intended for digitisation and cataloguing of a collection or collections. This type of grant may involve preservation necessary for digitisation, and may also relocate the material to a more secure location/institution within the country. These projects can last for up to 24 months and have a budget limit of £60,000.
• Area grants are similar to a major grant, but larger in scale and ambition. Applicants must demonstrate an outstanding track record of archival preservation work and be associated with an institution that has the capacity to facilitate a large-scale project. The Programme will award a maximum of two area grants in each funding round. They can last for up to 24 months and have a budget limit of £150,000. Potential applicants must contact the EAP office before submitting an application for this type of grant.

A fourth type of grant, the Rapid Response grants, will be introduced in late 2019. The Endangered Archives Programme welcomes applications for project funding to investigate, digitize and preserve the content of archives. Organisers expect projects to enhance local capability to manage and preserve these collections into the future. Therefore all applications for funding must involve at least one archival partner in the country where the material is based, training should be provided for local staff, and digitisation equipment must remain in the country. Applications are normally made via a host institution, such as a university, library or government archive which administers the award. The host institution can be based anywhere in the world, though applications from those based in the project country are particularly welcomed.

Applications and further information

The 2019 call for grants is open for preliminary applications until 11 November. Following an initial assessment, a subset of applications will be invited to the second stage of the selection process. For additional information about the call, please visit https://eap.bl.uk/grants