EMKP Legacy Digitisation Grant Programme

Deadline: 07-Jan-2024

The Endangered Material Knowledge Programme (EMKP) has launched the Legacy Digitisation Grant to support the digitisation of ‘legacy’ material pertaining to material knowledge that is now endangered or was endangered at the time the research was taking place. This refers to collections and research records related to already concluded work on material knowledge (e.g., fieldnotes, photographs and negatives, videos/reels, audio recordings and objects) where the material knowledge under study was at the time endangered or is now endangered.

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

Scope

• The material to be digitised must focus on topics that have a strong material dimension, and crucially, must be clearly endangered, either now, or at the time of original documentation.
• They recognise that many types of cultural knowledge may be recorded in legacy documentation; however, endangered material knowledge must make up the majority 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 to receive donations of the collection to the British Museum.

Funding Information

• 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 that can provide ethical and budgetary oversight of the project. The Host Institution will be directly responsible for receiving and managing the funds and submitting 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 lacking the necessary infrastructure or facilities to digitise their collections. In this case, it will be the responsibility of the community or institution to designate a person as the Principal Applicant for overall project management and co-ordination, 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 get in touch with the EMKP team in advance and before submitting the application.
• There is no restriction on the nationality of the Principal Applicant, although they should show relevant experience. If an applicant is currently enrolled in a PhD, they must provide a letter of support from their supervisor to ensure the work is carried out according to the terms of the grant. They must also explain in their application how the proposed EMKP work fits into their PhD research/programme.
• They strongly encourage applications from members of communities whose material knowledge systems have been documented, or projects which show an emphasis on coproduction and ownership of knowledge.

Ineligibility Criteria

• They do not fund the following:
  • Documentation of personal archives. They do not support projects that are primarily focused on digitisation of personal or archival records and research notes/resources. Please ensure you have clearly shown how your proposed project differs from this, i.e., the material knowledge dimension and endangerment must be explicit.
  • Projects focused on ethno-medicine or medicinal knowledge.
  • Time-sensitive collections per se. The content of the documentation will be the driving factor rather than the age of the material. In this way, Legacy Digitisation Grant eligibility criteria will not be constrained to specific time-periods or ages.

For more information, visit EMKP.