Deadline: November 3, 2026
Applications are invited for the ACLS Digital Justice Seed and Development Grants 2026-2027. Generously funded by the Mellon Foundation, this program supports digital projects across the humanities and social sciences that critically engage with the interests and histories of people of color and other historically marginalized communities through the ethical use of digital tools and methods.
The program seeks to address the inequities in the distribution of access to tools and support for digital work among scholars across various fields, those working with under-utilized or understudied source materials, and those in institutions with less support for digital projects. It promotes inclusion and sustainability by extending the opportunity to participate in the digital transformation of humanistic inquiry to a greater number of humanities scholars and projects. Additionally, all grant recipients can receive general financial planning coaching from the Nonprofit Finance Fund to plan for the long-term stewardship and sustainability of their projects.
Grant
The program offers two kinds of grants:
- Digital Justice Seed Grants for start-up projects, ranging from $10,000-$25,000
- Digital Justice Development Grants, ranging from $50,000-$100,000, for projects that have advanced beyond the proof-of-concept phase
Eligibility
Project’s principal investigator must be a scholar in the humanities and/or the interpretative social sciences.
- Projects must be made as widely available as intellectual property constraints allow, ideally with the most liberal open-source and Creative Commons license that is appropriate for the underlying content.
- An institution of higher education in the United States must administer any awarded grant funds.
- For Seed Grants: Project must be within the start-up or prototyping phase of development.
- For Development Grants: Projects must demonstrate evidence of significant preliminary work as well as a record of engagement and impact with scholarly and/or public audiences.
Application
Completed applications must be submitted no later than 5:00 PM EST on November 3, 2026.
For more information, visit ACLS Digital Justice Seed and Development Grants.
