Bursaries are available for CENL members to share skills and knowledge. They are up to the value of €1000 per application.
The bursary can relate to any aspect of skills and knowledge exchange such as:
There is no fixed deadline to apply for the Skills and Knowledge Exchange Bursary, applications are accepted year-round.
Create an account with us to benefit from the grant.
The Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant celebrates the enormous contribution Erland Kolding Nielsen has made to the development of European libraries throughout his long and distinguished career.
The Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant is a grant of up to €5.000, which is awarded to CENL member library projects that promote international collaboration and strengthen bonds between CENL libraries.
In 2017 CENL introduced a grant to celebrate the enormous contribution Erland Kolding Nielsen made to the development of European libraries throughout his long and distinguished career as Director General of the Royal Library, Denmark from 1986-2017.
The grant is based on proposals from either individual CENL member libraries or from a group of member libraries. The grant can focus on any aspect of international library collaboration including:
The 2021 Call for Applications has now closed.
The next call for applications will take place in early 2022.
Please contact cenl@bl.uk if you have any questions about the grant.
If you or your institution would like to donate to the CENL grant in honour of Erland, we would be very pleased to hear from you. Please contact cenl@bl.uk and we will send you details of how to donate.
The CENL Executive Committee is proud to announce a new round of our Covid-19 Support Fund. Despite the vaccine rollout, national Libraries are still badly affected by Covid-19 with the majority having had to close their doors again in 2021 for a long period of time or only partially open their reading rooms. These closures had major impacts on the finances of our CENL members and this fund is a solidary response to bring financial support to our most affected members and help them navigate the period ahead beyond reopening. This situation should also be an opportunity for new creative projects and ways to collaborate with each other, which this fund also wants to support.
Created in 2020, the Covid-19 Support Fund is a fund to respond and provide funding to help CENL members respond to immediate challenges connected to the Covid-19 crisis, and offer support to adapt and reimagine ways of working together for the longer-term future. For example, see how the National Library of Latvia and the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina used their grants in 2020. See their full reports in the members’ area here.
The maximum amount of €2,500 per grantee
Apply to cover extra costs connected to re-opening, such as staffing, equipment or training to prepare your reading rooms and buildings.
The maximum amount of €2,500 per grantee
Apply for new projects to explore working innovatively through digital methods to consider new and innovative ways to collaborate with CENL members or support your readers’ needs.
There is one round to apply for the Covid-19 Support Fund in 2021. Apply by Friday 13th August, 5pm GMT and we’ll aim to inform you of our decision by Friday 17th September.
Download the application form here and email it to cenl@bl.uk by Friday 13th August, 5pm GMT.
Your employer is a CENL member
Your application must be approved by the Director of your library.
Your national library is up to date with CENL membership fee payments
The €2,500 can be spent on additional costs connected to re-opening your reading rooms and buildings.
Eligible expenditure would therefore include:
The €2,500 can be spent on new projects to explore working innovatively through digital methods to consider new and innovative ways to collaborate with CENL members or support your readers’ needs.
Eligible expenditure would therefore include:
The CENL Secretariat will share eligible applications with the CENL Executive Committee who will score applications and make recommendations.
Successful applicants will be issued offer letters. Unsuccessful applicants will be informed by email.
All applications submitted by the deadline will be considered at the same time and against the same criteria.
A total of €5,000 is available to be distributed through this fund.
To reduce barriers, we will take requests for additional advice, video application options and a 6-day deadline extension before Thursday 19th August, 5pm GMT. Please contact cenl@bl.uk if your access requirements mean you need extra support.
Yes – if you’ve been an EKN or CENL Bursary grantee in 2020 or in the past, you can still apply.
If you are an existing member, please sign in to view supporting documents. If you do not have an account, please register.
In 2020, CENL supported IFLA’s dedication to inclusion, and to actively work against racial discrimination of all kinds. As national libraries, we need to ensure that our collections, events and exhibitions are genuinely inclusive and representative of and for all communities.
To address these needs, the CENL Executive Committee is proud to announce a new round of our ‘Hidden Stories Fund’. This fund aims to support projects to collect, preserve, research and highlight the stories from, by and related to underrepresented communities in our national collections.
The ‘Hidden Stories Fund’ is a fund to support CENL members who have new projects to collect, preserve, research and highlight the stories from, by and related to underrepresented communities in their national collections. This fund‘s aim is to encourage and support working with underrepresented communities to ensure that their stories are preserved for future generations.
Our definition of ‘underrepresented communities’ includes any voices who have not been offered the same platforms as dominant voices and include women, BAME and LGBTQ+ communities, people with disabilities, caring responsibilities, and those from socially or economically disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as any communities whose stories have been under-explored previously.
For example, last year, the National Library of Croatia received a Hidden Story grant to create a virtual multilingual exhibition that will take visitors on a journey through the history of the Rroma minority, their culture and tradition, and focus on minority issues and the position of the Rroma in the Republic of Croatia.
This year, we are increasing the amount of the grants and the fund will now offer grants of up to €5,000 for eligible projects.
There will be one round to apply for the ‘Hidden Stories Fund’ in 2021. Apply by Friday 13th August, 5pm GMT and we’ll aim to inform you of our decision by Friday 17th September.
Download the application form here and email it to cenl@bl.uk by Friday 13th August, 5pm GMT.
Your employer is a CENL member
Your application must be approved by the Director of your library.
Your national library is up to date with CENL membership fee payments
The grant must be spent on projects to collect, preserve, research and highlight the untold stories from and by underrepresented communities in our national collections.
Eligible expenditure would therefore include:
The CENL Secretariat will share eligible applications with the CENL Executive Committee who will score applications and make recommendations.
Successful applicants will be issued offer letters. Unsuccessful applicants will be informed by email.
This is not a ‘first-come-first-served’ relief fund so any application submitted will be considered at the same time and against the same criteria.
A total of €10,000 is available to be distributed through this fund.
To reduce barriers, we will take requests for additional advice, video application options and a 6-day deadline extension before Thursday 19th August, 5pm GMT. Please contact cenl@bl.uk if your access requirements mean you need extra support.
Yes – if you’ve been an EKN or CENL Bursary grantee in 2020 or in the past, you can still apply.
If you are an existing member, please sign in to view supporting documents. If you do not have an account, please register.