Documenting Ukraine will award one-time project grants of 5000 EUR
The war that Russia launched on 24 February 2022 has affected the lives of every person in Ukraine, including those who are fighting to defend their country, mobilized to assist others, or displaced from their homes. Their stories should be recorded.
Vital work is being done by those who create a record of the war in Ukraine, who capture the human experience of that war, and who make it accessible and comprehensible to the broader world.
Not only is it essential to make clear what is happening in the present moment, to bear witness to events and assert the truth in the face of the Russian regime’s longstanding assault on the very notion of truth, which has enabled this war of aggression. It is also crucial to build a written, visual, and aural archive of the war, to ensure that this record can be returned to in years to come.
The project Documenting Ukraine seeks to facilitate this work by supporting journalists, scholars, artists, public intellectuals, and archivists based in Ukraine as they work on documentation projects that establish and preserve a factual record, through reporting, gathering published source material, or collecting oral testimony; or bring meaning to events through artistic interpretation and intellectual reflection.
Documenting Ukraine also foresees the construction of a complex archive of materials created and collected by project participants and the presentation of these materials to the public, in cooperation with partner institutions, including the Center for Urban History (Lviv).
Project Grants
In its initial phase, Documenting Ukraine will award one-time project grants of 5000 EUR. These grants are awarded via two tracks:
- by recommendation of a member of the IWM community
- by open application (see below)
Examples of eligible activities include but are not limited to:
- Journalists could apply to continue their reporting.
- Writers could propose essays or book projects in which they reflect on their personal experience of the war.
- Scholars could propose conducting interviews with those whose lives have been affected by the war or gathering and processing published materials about the war.
- Public intellectuals could propose writing or giving interviews for European media.
- Filmmakers or visual artists could propose projects in their discipline; curators could propose exhibitions.
- Publishers could propose book projects about the war; translators could propose particular texts about the war for translation.
- Archive employees could propose documenting the impact of the war on their collection.
To be considered in the next application round, please send a brief project description (max. 1 page), a CV, and the name and contact details of one reference to ukraine@iwm.at with the subject line "Documenting Ukraine". Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis; the next jury review will occur in mid-May, with decisions communicated to applicants by 27 May.
The jury is not required to publicly justify its decisions, nor to give individual feedback to applicants.
Support the Project
We are grateful for any contributions that allow us to expand the number of grants we are able to offer. Donations can be made in two ways:
- Credit card or check, through the King Badouin Foundation United States. Donations made via KBF US are tax-deductible in the United States. To donate directly to the Documenting Ukraine project, please visit this page.
- Bank transfer directly to the IWM:
Account Holder:
Institut f. d. Wissenschaften vom Menschen – Spendenkonto
Spittelauer Laende 3, 1090 Wien
Bank
Erste Bank
Graben 21, 1010 Wien
IBAN
AT50 2011 1280 5698 6103
BIC/SWIFT
GIBAATWWXXX