Grants awarded
You can search below for information about all grants we awarded. Our grants data is also available in csv format here.
We are committed to transparency, and believe that with better information, grant-makers can be more effective decision makers. In 2017 we started to work with 360Giving to publish information about Arcadia grants (last updated August 2026). Arcadia has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to Arcadia’s grant data, to the extent possible under law, by dedicating it to the public domain with the Creative Commons CC0 waiver. This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to use and share.
Digitization of manuscripts in the Middle East and Africa
To digitize endangered manuscripts in libraries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia and to make them freely available online.
$3,000,000
2011
5 years
Digitisation of historic aerial photographs from the Middle East and North Africa
To support the digitization of historic aerial photographs from the Middle East and North Africa to provide accurately geo-referenced mosaics of aerial photographic coverage, and to make the results freely available online.
$404,739.45
2026
1 year
Mosfell Archaeological Project
To excavate and research a Viking-age archaeological site in western Iceland, in partnership with UCLA and Vikingaminjar ehf.
$100,000
2011
3 years
3D-scanning of heritage sites in Syria and Iraq
To create 3D scans of monuments in Syria and to make the results freely available online.
$196,490
2016
1 year
Reforms to Deliver the Right to Culture, Learning and Research through Libraries
To promote copyright law reform and regulation at EU and national level to enable libraries to facilitate greater access to and use of copyrighted works for cultural, educational and research purposes.
$3,630,000
2020
3 years
The Knowledge Rights 21 Programme (phase II)
To promote copyright law reform and regulation at EU and national level to enable libraries to facilitate greater access to and use of copyrighted works for cultural, educational and research purposes.
$6,050,000
2024
5 years
Conservation of Freshwater Biodiversity in Key River Ecosystems
International Rivers
https://www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/734/protecting-freshwater-biodiversity-how-international-r
To support International Rivers’ work to influence how rivers are governed, protected in law and valued to help ensure our rivers continue to support diverse habitats and wildlife.
$1,250,000
2018
5 years
Global Urban Alliance
International Union for Conservation of Nature
https://iucn.org/news/secretariat/201809/iucn-launches-global-alliance-greener-cities
To establish a global alliance to develop and promote a standard set of indicators on urban ecosystem health that enable cities to identify the challenges of becoming greener environments and evaluate their efforts to do so.
$434,700
2020
3 years
Opening access to conservation knowledge
To increase the online accessibility of conservation research publications.
$442,800
2021
3 years
Advancing Open Access
To promote open access to scholarly and cultural materials.
$250,000
2022
1 year
Digitizing MIT Press backlist titles
To digitize 1,500 MIT Press titles and make them freely available online.
$50,000
2017
1 year
Enhancing Unlocked University Press Books
To create high quality EPUB files of scanned university press books, to enhance the reader experience.
$2,000,000
2018
2 years
Improving digital preservation
To improve and promote best practices for the long-term preservation of materials stored on tape and disk.
$250,000
2011
2 years
Turning Wikipedia references blue
To digitize and make available online 100,000 books that are cited in Wikipedia.
$2,000,000
2019
1 year
Unlocking University Press Books
To digitize more than 15,000 volumes of published monographs from university libraries and make them available via Internet Archive’s controlled digital lending platform.
$1,003,300
2018
4 years
Earth Journalism Network
To support local journalists to investigate and report worldwide on the threats to biodiversity and nature-based solutions.
$450,000
2015
4 years
Earth Journalism Network - Biodiversity Media Initiative
To support local journalists to investigate and report worldwide on the threats to biodiversity and nature-based solutions.
$750,000
2020
3 years
Dead Sea Scrolls online database
To develop resources related to the Dead Sea Scrolls and make them freely available online.
$1,000,000
2010
4 years
Universal Library Project
To research the feasibility of developing a universal digital library.
$50,000
2007
1 year
Arches Endowment
To support the Arches open-source software platform, including the software’s maintenance and technology upgrades, ongoing enhancements, and advancing the capacity of the world-wide open-source community to implement Arches.
$1,500,000
2025
1 year