This year’s round of applications for CENL’s Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant, for Hidden Stories Fund and Covid-19 Support Fund closed on 25 March. In its meeting in April, the CENL Executive Committee reviewed all of the submissions and awarded one EKN grant, one Covid-19 Support Fund and two Hidden Stories Funds.

We are delighted to announce that the following applications were successful:

• Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant for the National Library of Estonia: As the National Library of Estonia is evolving into a competence centre and coordinator of the library network in the country, they will work closely with the National Library of Luxembourg, which serves as an excellent example for this model.
• Covid-19 Support Fund for the National Library of North Macedonia: The project aims to establish a virtual “Book Club” as a kind of digital replacement for the physical presence of the library halls, that have been left without readers during the COVID-19 crisis. The “Book Club” will enable the library’s members to interact with each other, to exchange recommendations, experiences, views on the library’s collections or books in general, to give their suggestions about the improvement of the existing services in the library, to propose new ones, etc.
• Hidden Stories Fund for the National Library of Scotland: This project will produce a series of short videos which highlight items in the library’s collection that capture the lives and stories of LGBT people throughout history. This project will focus on pre-1950s items allowing for the discovery of lesser known items and LGBT individuals and the selected stories will reflect this.
• Hidden Stories Fund for the British Library: A youth-led project with support from the Library, working closely with local youth group, KCBNA (Kings Cross Brunswick Neighbourhood Association. The Library will support local young people to develop research and interviewing skills exploring their own family histories with sensitivity. British Library curators will help the young people tell their stories through collections pertaining to specific areas of the world: Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh and India. The project will be filmed to document the process.

Reports from each project will be available on the CENL website after completion.