Digital Humanities Research Grants

• Projects that employ digital humanities tools and methods to conduct original research related to the wealth of material pertaining to Jewish history, literature, and culture, which is found in European archives, libraries, and memory institutions.
• Projects that utilise established digital humanities approaches such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data visualisation, to research and analyse new questions regarding European Jewish heritage and culture.

They particularly welcome initiatives that incorporate Jewish heritage materials into more established projects. These established projects need not be exclusively focused on Jewish history, and successful proposals may concern the inclusion of Jewish heritage materials into broad disciplinary, national, or international Digital Humanities projects.

Level and Duration of Support

• Grants of up to £50,000 per annum for three years (maximum total of £150,000) are available to European institutions.
• They will fund up to 70% of the project budget and at least 30% of the cost of the project will need to come from other funding sources. They favour proposals that include co-funding from other organisations as well as clear evidence of financial commitments from your own institution (e.g., institutional reserves, money raised from ticket sales etc.) Of this 30%, up to half can be attributed to in-kind contributions or allocated costs (see below).
• Proposals are welcome where funds from other sources are allocated for the purpose of the long-term sustainability of the project.

Eligible Topics

• All Digital Humanities projects connected to the broad field of Jewish Studies are considered eligible. In principle, projects only tangentially related to Jewish Studies are unlikely to be successful, nor will projects devoted to an individual or individuals who happen to be Jewish, but whose historical importance is not significantly contingent on that biographical fact.
• Projects focused solely or primarily on digitisation are not eligible for funding within this category.

In-Kind Contributions and Allocated Costs

• In-kind contributions and allocated costs can make up a maximum of 15% of the total cost of your project. Please ensure you identify these on your Project Budget Form under Project Income and use the Budget Explanation section to provide further details, e.g., breakdown of salaries, volunteer time etc.
• In-kind contributions include any materials, goods, services or facilities that you would otherwise have to pay for but that are being provided free of charge or at a reduced rate. This may include:
  • volunteer time (i.e., how much would the time donated to the organisation cost if it had to be paid at an hourly rate in your country)
  • new equipment that is donated to be used by the project
  • dedicated space for the project that would otherwise have to be rented
• Allocated costs include expenditure which must be paid for at some point by your organisation and do not qualify as in-kind contributions. This may include:
  • services of an employee currently employed by your organisation for time spent on the project (e.g., staff costs, project management or supervision)
  • additional time spent on the project by existing employees, beyond their current contracted hours, e.g., a part-time staff member who takes on additional responsibilities for the duration of the project
  • supplies and material bought by your institutions which will be used on the project.

Eligible Costs

• Contribution toward salary of principle investigators, co-investigators and/or research associates
• Funding for associated graduate students
• Hiring of external IT specialists
• Equipment costs including the purchase of hardware and software (no more than 35% of the overall budget)
• Travel for research, meetings, and conferences

Eligibility Criteria

• Applying institutions must be based in Europe. They are currently not accepting applications from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

For more information, visit Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.