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Call for Applications
The UCLA Library Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) offers grants to support the documentation and digitization of at-risk global cultural heritage collections. Funded by Arcadia, MEAP has been awarding grants since 2019 to preserve and create access to endangered archival materials from the 20th and 21st Centuries, including print, photographic, film, video, audio, ephemeral, and born-digital objects.
MEAP invites applications for its eighth cohort of projects to document, digitize, and make accessible collections at risk from environmental conditions, political uncertainty, inherently unsustainable media, inappropriate storage, or communal and social change. All materials created with MEAP funding will be published on the open access UCLA Digital Library.
Download the 2025-26 Call for Applications in Arabic(opens in a new tab), English(opens in a new tab), French(opens in a new tab), Indonesian(opens in a new tab), Portuguese(opens in a new tab), Spanish(opens in a new tab), Swahili(opens in a new tab).
A Global Program for Modern Cultural Heritage Preservation
The UCLA Library Modern Endangered Archives Program supports the preservation and discovery of at-risk archival collections that invite a more expansive understanding of the world we live in.
Three Awards Available
PLANNING GRANTS offer up to $20,000 for up to one year of work to evaluate and prepare materials for digitization. Projects should focus on organizing and documenting existing archival materials through assessment, cataloging, survey, or inventory creation. Projects should also investigate and secure rights for future digitization.
PROJECT GRANTS offer up to $70,000 for up to two years of work to digitize and create robust, object-level metadata for cultural heritage materials. Projects should focus on digitization and metadata creation for an existing archival or born-digital collection.
REGIONAL GRANTS offer up to $100,000 for up to two years of work to create digital collections that include cultural heritage materials from three or more institutions, families, or archival repositories but relate to one theme, community, or historical event. Projects should focus on digitization and metadata creation that enables findability for materials that are not physically held in one location. (*Only past MEAP grantees are eligible to apply.
Application Cycle 2025-26
- All MEAP applications must be submitted online. The online application portal will open on September 16 at https://meap.smapply.io/.
- 2025 Application Webinar: October 9, 2025 at 8am Pacific Time | Registration Required(opens in a new tab)
- Preliminary Applications are due November 17, 2025.
- Detailed Applications are due for invited applicants on February 20, 2026.
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How to Apply
MEAP invites applications for its eight round of funding. Awards are available for Planing, Project, and Regional Grants. Preliminary Applications due November 17, 2025. - default
Preliminary Application Template 2025-26 (Cohort 8)
Template for Application Planning Purposes. Applications are due November 17, 2025 via the MEAP online application portal. *Note that the Preliminary Application has been edited for 2025-26. - default
Program Guidelines
These guidelines define the scope and eligibility requirements for the MEAP grant program.