In many cases, the substance of historical writings, records, and books in archives and libraries is acutely threatened by acid erosion, moisture, and mold. The Special Programme for the Preservation of Written Cultural Heritage provides financial support for your activities to preserve written material.

You can receive funding of between EUR 5,000 and EUR 200,000 if

• You are planning a single, definable project,
• within the framework of the project you want to carry out a quantity procedure for the deacidification, packaging, dry cleaning or restoration of writings, documents or books, or you want to record damage to them,
• the substance of the fonts is acutely endangered,
• the documents are actively used, e.g. for scientific research, educational purposes or to establish legal security, and
• they are historically or scientifically significant writings in the original. These include:
  • holdings of high cultural and historical value,
  • deposit copies,
  • closed collections,
  • special collections,
  • special collections,
  • holdings of supra-regional importance,
  • holdings with high usage and high multi-perspective or comparative evaluation potential,
  • valuable unique works and rare books with intrinsic value, and
  • holdings that are indispensable for safeguarding teaching, research and administration in the long term.

No funding is available for:

• Projects for the preservation of graphic works of art and paintings and other works of visual art.
• Projects that have already been started or completed before you submit the application.
• Projects for which you have already applied for funding under other federal programs with the same funding purpose.
• Quantity procedures that cannot be assigned to a definable project.

The decision to fund your project will be based on the following criteria:

• endangerment of the written cultural property
• historical or scientific significance of the written cultural property
• Use of the written cultural heritage

The amount of funding for your project will depend on the type of funding your institution receives:

• fully federally funded institution: up to 100 percent of eligible project costs
• All other institutions: up to 50 percent of eligible project costs.

Eligible costs are:

• all costs incurred in the implementation of your project,
• expenses for external services,
• project-related personnel costs (not permanent staff),
• Expenses for working materials and consumables or public relations work that can be directly attributed to the project.

Ineligible costs are:

• Expenses for permanent staff,
• investments,
• expenses for permanent exhibitions or measures to be carried out on a regular basis,
• expenditure on necessary structural and technical measures,
• the purchase of working equipment, or
• Expenditure for measures to maintain the operational functionality of your institution, such as magazine cleaning.

Once the grant has been awarded, you can request funding for the costs incurred from the Koordinierungsstelle für die Erhaltung des schriftlichen Kulturguts (KEK) (Coordination Office for the Preservation of the Written Cultural Heritage) in accordance with the information in the grant notification. The funds will then be paid out to you during the course of the project, so that the costs incurred can be paid directly from the grant funds.

You submit your application for funding to the state ministry responsible for you. After a positive review, the application will be forwarded to the Koordinierungsstelle für die Erhaltung des schriftlichen Kulturguts (KEK) for further processing. The advisory board of the CEC makes a recommendation on eligible projects, the funding decision is finally made by the BKM. The CEC is responsible for processing and examining the project and the project report to be submitted at the end of the project.

You have no claim to the approval of the funding.