Archives Portal Europe (APE) offers a range of grant opportunities designed to support content providers, researchers, and creative practitioners in working with archival material and making cultural heritage more accessible and visible online. Through these grants, APE aims to strengthen metadata quality, foster archival research, and encourage creative engagement with archival sources.
The 2026 APE Grants are now open!
Below is an overview of the three different APE grant schemes.
APE Digitisation Grants
The APE Digitisation Grants are aimed at existing and prospective content providers who wish to prepare, create, or improve metadata for sharing archival collections via Archives Portal Europe.
These grants support the production of digital archival catalogues that can be ingested into APE, helping archives make their collections searchable and accessible to a wider audience. By improving metadata quality and availability, the grants contribute to increased visibility of archival holdings across Europe.
The deadline for the application is Friday, 20 February 2026.
APE Research Grants
The APE Research Grants support academic and independent researchers working with archival material held by one or more archives within the APE network.
These grants help cover research-related costs, including travel to archives and other expenses related to the use of primary sources. Each year, two research grants are awarded.
The deadline for applications is 27th February 2026.
APE Creative Grants
The APE Creative Grant is dedicated to creative practitioners and artistic projects from any field that are based on or inspired by archival material.
The grant encourages innovative and experimental approaches to archives, supporting projects that reinterpret archival sources and bring them into new creative, cultural, or public contexts.
The deadline for the creative grant is the 27th February 2026.