Deadline: 07-Jan-2024

The Endangered Materials Knowledge Programme (EMKP) has launched the Legacy Digitisation Grant to support the digitisation of "legacy" material relating to material knowledge that is now threatened or was threatened at the time the research was taking place. This refers to collections and research records related to work already completed on material knowledge (e.g. field notes, photographs and negatives, videos/vouchers, audio recordings and objects) in which the material knowledge under study was then threatened or is now threatened.

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The funding also considers the condition of the records at the time of application and their threatened condition (e.g. poor storage threatening their condition, uncertain storage future and likely disposal/destruction, lack of digitisation to enable long-term preservation and access). The result of the Legacy Digitisation Grant will be a highly valuable creation of publicly accessible historical collections of threatened material knowledge - some of which may already be extinct and will therefore be significant to source communities and researchers.

Scope

• The material to be digitised must focus on themes that have a strong material dimension and, crucially, must be clearly threatened, either now or at the time of the original documentation.
• They recognise that many types of cultural knowledge can be recorded in legacy documentation; however, endangered material knowledge should make up the bulk of the collection. Legacy Digitisation Grants can also include the digitisation and documentation of objects and artefacts, but please note that it is not EMKP procedure to acquire objects or receive donations from the collection to the British Museum.

Information on financing

• Legacy Digitisation Grants are awarded for up to 1 year with a maximum of £20,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• The EMKP Legacy Digitisation Grants welcome applications from:
  • Individuals affiliated with a Host Institution who can provide ethical and budgetary oversight of the project. The Host Institution will be directly responsible for receiving and managing the funds and sending the budget accounts to the EMKP team according to the reporting schedule. The original creator of the documentation can apply on behalf of their own work.
  • Host institutions or community organisations that do not have the necessary infrastructure or facilities to digitise their collections. In this case, it will be the responsibility of the community or institution to appoint a person as Lead Applicant for the overall management and coordination of the project, including reporting to EMKP.
  • In exceptional circumstances, Principal Applicants not affiliated with an institution as described above may apply independently. In such cases, the potential applicant should contact the EMKP team in advance and before submitting the application.
• There is no restriction on the nationality of the Principal Applicant, although they must demonstrate relevant experience. If an applicant is currently enrolled on a PhD, they must provide a letter of support from their supervisor to ensure that the work is carried out in accordance with the terms of the scholarship. They must also explain in their application how the proposed EMKP work fits into their doctoral research/programme.
• They strongly encourage applications from members of communities whose material knowledge systems have been documented, or projects that show an emphasis on co-production and ownership of knowledge.

Ineligibility criteria

• They don't finance the following:
  • Documentation of personal archives. They do not support projects that focus primarily on the digitisation of personal or archival records and research notes/resources. Please make sure you have clearly shown how your proposed project differs from this, i.e. the extent of material knowledge and danger must be explicit.
  • Projects focussed on ethnomedicine or medicinal knowledge.
  • Time-sensitive collections per se. The content of the documentation will be the determining factor, not the age of the material. Therefore, the eligibility criteria for the Legacy Digitisation Grant will not be limited to specific periods or ages.

For more information, visit EMKP.