National — CLIR Recordings at Risk Cycle 14 Grants ($10,000–$60,000; February 23, 2027)

Funding$10,000–$60,000 per eligible applicant; up to 100% of qualifying direct external-reformatting service costs. No mandatory cost share.

DeadlineFebruary 23, 2027; application opened November 2, 2026. No closing hour or time zone published on reviewed CLIR official program pages.

Last verified2026-11-03

Required next actionRead CLIR Cycle 14 current application guidelines and FAQs; select qualified external reformatting service provider; obtain service estimates, budget detail/narrative, preservation and accessibility plans, institutional letters; submit at https://clir.smapply.io/ via CLIR application page before February 23, 2027. Confirm portal closing hour with CLIR.

U.S./eligible territories nonprofit cultural-heritage collecting organizations, 501(c)(3), IRC 115 or 170(c)(1), and qualified tribal/government collecting units; hold rare audio/audiovisual collections; external service reformatting only; one applicant organization per cycle.

Atlas Analysis

2026-11-03: Verified against CLIR official Cycle 14 application page https://grants.clir.org/recordings-at-risk/apply-for-an-award/ and CLIR November 2 launch release https://www.clir.org/2026/11/clir-now-accepting-applications-for-recordings-at-risk/. Confirmed 14th cycle open Nov 2 2026 to Feb 23 2027, individual $10k–$60k, eligible US collecting nonprofits and some governments/Tribes, external digitization required, no match, no indirect/subscription/in-house costs, 12-month Sep2027-Aug2028 project, one per org/cycle; official page does not state closing hour. WP title and meta duplicate checks across published/pending/trash were negative. CLIR Cycle 14 guidelines Google Doc was linked but not fully retrievable as plain text; preserve Pending Review until full governing guideline readback and protected approval authorized. Explicit prior safety denial on protected approval means no approval retry or bypass.

CLIR Recordings at Risk — Cycle 14 (2026–2027 application)

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), with support from the Mellon Foundation, is accepting applications for the fourteenth Recordings at Risk grant competition. This is applicant financial assistance for preserving rare and unique audio and audiovisual collections through professional digital reformatting, not a government procurement solicitation.

Applicant award and deadline

Eligible organizations may request $10,000–$60,000 per project. The application window opened November 2, 2026 and closes February 23, 2027. The official program pages reviewed do not specify a closing hour or time zone. Projects must run September 1, 2027 through August 31, 2028 (12 months).

Eligibility and geographic limits

Eligible U.S. nonprofit collecting institutions, including academic, community, independent, and cultural heritage organizations, must hold rare audio or audiovisual collections and make them accessible to the public. Qualified tax-exempt categories include 501(c)(3), 115, and 170(c)(1). Certain tribal, federal, state, territorial, and local government collecting units may apply when heritage preservation is part of their normal mission, with eligibility confirmation encouraged. Applicant organizations and collections must be based in the United States or specified U.S. territories.

Allowable costs and restrictions

Funds may cover up to 100% of eligible direct costs for digital reformatting by a qualified external service provider. No mandatory organizational cost-sharing is required. In-house digitization, indirect costs and overhead, software subscriptions, and general equipment purchases are not eligible. Proposals consisting exclusively of CD/DVD data recovery are not eligible, although up to half of an otherwise qualifying project can include optical media. Applicant organizations must own or hold the nominated recordings, make descriptive metadata freely available online, and ordinarily dedicate project metadata to the public domain, subject to cultural-sensitivity exceptions. One application per applicant organization per cycle.

How to apply

Read the current Cycle 14 Application Guidelines and FAQs available through the official application instructions. Prepare project narrative, justification of urgency and impact, provider estimates and budget documents, preservation and access plans, and required institutional support documents. Apply through the CLIR SurveyMonkey Apply portal linked from the official application page by February 23, 2027.

Official sources: CLIR application and eligibility requirements; CLIR November 2, 2026 launch notice. Research checked: November 3, 2026.

Source verificationReferenced source · grants.clir.orgAtlas last verified this record 2026-11-03. Always use the funder's current application materials, amendments and portal instructions as the controlling source.View source and application materials ↗