ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grants 2026/27
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
USD 10,000–25,000 for early-stage digital humanities projects grounded in justice — administered through a US university.
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At a glance
- Funding
- USD 10,000–25,000
- Format
- Hybrid · United States (administering institution), US
- Application fee
- No application fee
- Deadline
- Closes 3 Nov 2026, 17:00 New York time
- Language
- English
Seed grants fund projects in the start-up or prototyping phase. Grant terms begin between 1 July and 31 December 2027 and run 12 to 18 months. Institutional indirect costs are not covered, and outputs must be released under an open-source or Creative Commons licence.
Who can apply
- Graduates
- English
You will need
- Project proposal
- Budget
- A humanities or interpretative social science PI
- A US institution to administer the funds
About this opportunity
ACLS funds digital projects in the humanities that take justice seriously — community archives, counter-mapping, language preservation, tools built with the people they are about rather than for them. Seed grants are for work still at the start-up or prototyping stage.
Value. Between USD 10,000 and 25,000. Grant terms start between 1 July and 31 December 2027 and run 12 to 18 months. Institutional indirect costs are not covered.
The structural requirement. At least one principal investigator must be a scholar in the humanities or interpretative social sciences, and a higher-education institution in the United States must administer the funds. ACLS states no citizenship or residency rule — so a researcher outside the US can be part of this, but only through a US partner institution that agrees to hold the money. Sort that out before anything else.
Open by default. Project outputs have to be made widely available under an open-source or Creative Commons licence.
Deadline. 3 November 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern — 11:00 p.m. in Cameroon. Applications go through the ACLS online fellowship and grant administration portal.
There is a companion Development Grant for projects past the prototype stage, with the same deadline, listed on the ACLS site.
Topics
Bookmarking and application reminders live in the Togeva app.