Recordings at Risk Grant Program

The Recordings at Risk grant program, administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), supports institutions seeking to preserve rare or unique audio, moving image or audiovisual recordings by funding digital reformatting through qualified external service providers. The program responds to the pressing challenge that many recorded media—open‑reel audio tape, shellac or lacquer discs, wax cylinders, videotape, film, and other time‑based media—are fragile, obsolete, and at high risk of permanent loss. Through this regranting model, CLIR aims to enable collecting organizations with limited resources or technical capacity to undertake preservation reformatting projects, establish responsible vendor partnerships, and raise institutional awareness of best practices for long‐term stewardship of digitized content.   Eligible applicant organizations must be nonprofit academic, research or cultural heritage institutions located in the United States or Canada (or associated U.S./Canadian territories) that collect, preserve and share rare and unique materials with the general public. In the case of U.S. organizations, they must be tax‑exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) or Section 115 or Section 170(c)(1); Canadian organizations must be a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency or a designated educational institution eligible for student loans. Federal, state, provincial, territorial, municipal, tribal or Indigenous government units may also be eligible if cultural heritage is the primary function of the unit and funds will be used for charitable purposes, but they must first confirm eligibility with CLIR. Moreover, both the organization and the collections proposed must be located in the U.S., Canada or associated territories.   Applicants may request between USD 10,000 and USD 60,000 in funding for a project. Award funds may cover up to 100 % of the direct costs of audio or audiovisual digital reformatting services performed by an external service provider; in‐house digitization is explicitly ineligible. The project term must occur within a 12‑month grant period between September 1 of the start year and August 31 of the following year (for Cycle 13 the period is September 1 2026 through August 31 2027). The applicant may submit only one proposal per cycle, and no individual may serve as principal investigator (PI) on overlapping or concurrent Recordings at Risk projects. Awardees must agree to create appropriate descriptive and technical metadata for all reformatted content and dedicate that metadata to the public domain (with exceptions allowed only for culturally sensitive metadata).   The scope of eligible media includes—but is not limited to—open‑reel audio tape, compact cassette, shellac/vinyl/lacquer discs, wax cylinders, wire recordings, MiniDisc, digital audio tape (DAT); for moving image/video media, formats such as VHS, U‑Matic, 8 mm, Betamax, Betacam, Digital8, DV, MiniDV; and film formats such as 8 mm, 16 mm, 35 mm, Super 8. Because the program targets organizations without substantial in‑house digitization capacity, awardees must engage qualified external digitization providers with appropriate capacity to handle the media, transfer content, and advise on long‑term digital file stewardship. Applicants must describe their project plan, digital preservation plan, budget detail and narrative, and upload required supporting documents as part of the application process.   The evaluation of proposals is conducted by an independent review panel composed of domain and technical experts. The key assessment criteria include: the potential public and scholarly impact of the proposed project; the urgency of undertaking digitization due to risk of loss; the viability of the applicant’s plan for preservation and deliverables; and the applicant’s approach to legal, ethical, rights, access and reuse concerns. Award decisions are announced after review of submitted applications for each cycle. The program is generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and between 2017 and 2026 is projected to award USD 8.75 million.   Successful applicants must adhere to post‑award obligations including attending orientation webinars, submitting final (and if required, interim) project reports, submitting a file manifest and documentation of deliverables, and returning any unspent funds. Grant management functions such as changes to timeline, deliverables, budget or PIs require prior approval by CLIR. All recipients must ensure that metadata and digital copies created through the award are made available in accordance with the originally approved plan and under the conditions (or justified restrictions) described in the proposal.   The 13th application cycle opens November 3 2025 and closes February 24 2026 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. The project funding period for successful proposals begins September 1 2026 and continues through August 31 2027. For questions applicants may contact CLIR’s Grants Team at recordingsatrisk@clir.org   Overall, Recordings at Risk offers a focused, well‐structured opportunity for eligible organizations to preserve at‑risk audio and audiovisual heritage through external vendor partnerships and strong institutional planning, thereby safeguarding collections that might otherwise deteriorate and be lost, and enabling future public access, research, community engagement and historical understanding.

Applicants must ensure eligibility; proposals must cover digital preservation and metadata plans. No in-house digitization allowed.