Who funds cultural heritage research?

We count 226 funded cultural heritage projects, active between 2020 and 2035, from 6 funders. The most came from EU · MSCA (79 projects), EU · Culture, creativity and inclusive society (62 projects) and EU · ERC (31 projects). The median award is $2.1M, across the 223 of 226 projects that list an amount.

Funded projects

226

Funders

6

Median award

$2.1M

Open calls now

14

Top funders of cultural heritage research

Projects whose title or summary mentions cultural heritage. Median award: of the projects that list an amount, in US dollars; “—” when fewer than 3 do.

Open cultural heritage funding calls

14 open calls mention cultural heritage today; the 12 most on-topic are listed.

• Exploring and Enhancing Outdoor and Heritage Tourism in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
  National Park Service$10,000 – $50,000Deadline: November 4, 2026 ·
• Unlocking advanced capabilities in conservation and heritage science
  Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)£500,000 – £1,500,000Deadline: November 25, 2026 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 4 funded (23% · Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), all funding decisions, 2024-25)
• Attendance and engagement at UK sporting, cultural and heritage sites
  Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)£1,100,000 – £1,320,000Deadline: December 1, 2026 ·
  Real odds: About 1 in 4 funded (23% · Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), all funding decisions, 2024-25)
• Project grant for international research collaboration within Resilient Cultural Heritage (RCH)
  Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)Not specifiedDeadline: January 18, 2027 ·
• Open topic: Impact-driven research on realising the full potential of cultural heritage, arts and cultural and creative industries
  European Commission · Horizon Europe€2,000,000 – €4,000,000Deadline: May 4, 2027 ·
• Culture, heritage and creative industries for health and well-being
  European Commission · Horizon Europe€3,000,000 – €4,000,000Deadline: September 23, 2027 ·
• Societal impact of cultural heritage
  European Commission · Horizon Europe€2,500,000 – €3,000,000Deadline: September 23, 2027 ·
• Safeguarding & transmission of intangible cultural heritage
  European Commission · Horizon Europe€3,000,000 – €4,000,000Deadline: September 23, 2027 ·
• Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services (2027)
  Institute of Museum and Library Services$5,000 – $250,000Deadline: November 13, 2026 ·
• Towards a consolidated culture and creativity driven European innovation ecosystem
  European Commission · Horizon Europe€4,500,000 – €5,000,000Deadline: September 23, 2027 ·
• AI4Creatives Support Platform: embracing a fair AI revolution
  European Commission · Horizon Europe€4,500,000 – €5,000,000Deadline: September 23, 2027 ·
• Crafting routes to a circular economy
  European Commission · Horizon Europe€3,000,000 – €3,500,000Deadline: September 23, 2027 ·

Real odds

• About 1 in 4 funded · 23% · Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), all funding decisions, 2024-25 · UKRI investment and outputs data, table 2.1

Published success rates for the programs behind the open calls above: the share of applications the funder funded, program-wide, not for this topic.

Funded cultural heritage projects

A sample, latest start first, at most three per program.

• See will be developed by graduate and undergraduate students at the uc berkeley space sciences laboratory with mentoring and oversight from…
  NASA · $963,166 · ends 2031
• CHRONOS: Cradle of Humankind: Refining our Origins; a New chronology of Our Species
  UKRI · NERC · £757,355 · ends 2031
• EduceOps: EduceLab Operations for Next-Generation Heritage Science Infrastructure
  NSF · CISE · $6,000,000 · ends 2030
• Roman and Early Medieval Alloys Defined (REMADE): Reshaping Archaeological Metallurgy
  UKRI · UKRI FLF · £593,671 · ends 2030
• Black Researcher Consortium
  Wellcome · £232,747 · ends 2030
• RUI: Salinity, source rocks, and cyclothems: Using paleosalinity proxies to track marine influence in the Maritimes Basin
  NSF · GEO · $411,477 · ends 2029
• The Sustainable Heritage Initiative
  UKRI · UKRI FLF · £595,547 · ends 2029
• Nambawan Piksa Bilong Papua New Guinea / Papua New Guinea's First Films: Connecting Moving Images from 1904 to Descendant Communities Today
  UKRI · AHRC · £668,490 · ends 2028
• We spend over $50b on snack food each year in america, and calories from those snacks account for nearly a quarter of our daily energy, are…
  USDA · $650,000 · ends 2028
• The University of Leeds and Ventrolla Limited KTP 25_26 R2
  UKRI · Innovate UK · £164,343 · ends 2028

How we count

Funded projects come from public award records (NIH RePORTER, NSF, EU CORDIS, UKRI Gateway to Research, Wellcome, the Gates Foundation, DOE, NASA and USDA NIFA) whose title or summary matches “cultural heritage or heritage”. NIH lists each budget year separately; one project counts once. Amounts are as the funder lists them; medians use only projects that list one, in US dollars. Open calls and forecasts are from our listings of October 28, 2026. A project can mention a topic without being mainly about it, so treat the counts as a guide to who funds the area.