Support is available for digitising vulnerable archival material held outside Western Europe and North America.

The British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom, is inviting preliminary applications for Round 22 (2026/27) of its Endangered Archives Programme (EAP). The EAP supports the digitisation of archives worldwide that are at risk from destruction, neglect or physical deterioration. The work is supported through funding from Arcadia, a charitable foundation focused on preserving cultural heritage and promoting open access to knowledge.

The EAP supports projects that identify, digitise and make available online material on any theme or aspect of culture, provided the archives are located outside Western Europe and North America. Materials must date from before the middle of the twentieth century. Grants are offered on the condition that original material is not removed from its country of origin and that digital materials produced are held and maintained by local archival partners.

Applications may propose digitisation of rare printed sources, manuscripts in any language, visual materials, pre-existing audio recordings and other objects and artefacts where these are associated with a documentary archive. Proposals are expected to demonstrate the vulnerability of the material due to lack of resources or political and/or environmental threats, its rarity or uniqueness, cultural importance and potential value for future research.

Three grant types are available. Pilot project awards support surveys to assess suitability for a larger project or small-scale digitisation, for up to 12 months with budgets up to £15,000. Major project awards support digitisation and cataloguing for 12 to 24 months with budgets up to £60,000. Area awards are available only to applicants with a successful prior EAP project, require prior contact with the EAP office and support work for up to 24 months with budgets up to £150,000.

Eligible principal applicants include teaching or research faculty, registered postgraduate researchers and archivists or librarians responsible for special collections. Applications must be submitted by an individual principal applicant and administered by a recognised non-commercial host institution (educational/research establishment, archive, library or similar).