Call for Applications: IHRA Grant Program

Deadline Date: September 30, 2024

Donor Name: International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)

Grant Size: $10,000 to $100,000

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is currently accepting applications for its grant program.

Over the last decade, the IHRA Grant Program has funded over 150 projects from around the world, supported by annual contributions from each of the IHRA’s Member Countries.

The IHRA works closely with each project, and their expertise means organizations are able to reach a level and an audience which they probably wouldn’t be able to reach by working alone.

The projects they co-fund are innovative, relevant, and impactful, have a clear international component, and either safeguard the record of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma (Program 1), or counter distortion (Program 2).

Until 2025, the IHRA’s work will continue to be guided by the two thematic areas which reflect what IHRA experts have identified as the most pressing issues in the field. These are: 

• Program 1: Safeguarding the record of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma 
  • With reference to paragraph 7 of the Stockholm Declaration, IHRA Member Countries share a commitment to shed light on the still obscure shadows of the Holocaust as well as to ensure and facilitate access to the historical record. Through Program 1, the IHRA seeks to fund projects that contribute to safeguarding the record of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma in the following areas:
    • Initiatives which address the future of memory, especially those focusing on testimonies of survivors and witnesses which have not yet been recorded. 
    • Mapping and documentation of as yet unidentified and/or unmarked sites (including killing sites) pertaining to the Holocaust and/or the genocide of the Roma. 
    • Archival material that is physically at risk or where there are problems of accessibility.
  • Important aspects:
    • Applicants for projects within this program are strongly encouraged to draw on and make use of the IHRA’s supplementary definition of Holocaust-related materials that was developed for IHRA’s archival access project. 
    • Eligible applications will demonstrate that their proposal seeks to contribute to a more complete historical record. 
    • Successful projects will also include aspects that seek to engage community leaders and political decisionmakers, and to raise awareness both at the political level and with relevant media.
• Program 2: Countering distortion 
  • With reference to paragraph 3 of the Stockholm Declaration, IHRA Member Countries share a commitment to uphold and disseminate the comprehensive truth of the Holocaust, as well as of the genocide of the Roma, and to ensure that future generations can understand the causes and process of implementation of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma and reflect upon their consequences.
  • Through Program 2, the IHRA encourages projects that aim to prevent and counter distortion in the following areas:
    • Public discourse, involving the media and particularly social media 
    • Education 
    • Research 
    • Memorialization
  • Important aspects:
    • The IHRA Grant Program funds projects that seek effective and meaningful ways to prevent and counteract distortion, which emphasize the sharing of good practices and strengthen international cooperation on this topic, as well as increasing the capacity of governmental and nongovernmental institutions to address these issues. 
    • Applicants must clearly demonstrate how the proposed objectives of the project will contribute to preventing and countering distortion in the aforementioned areas. 
    • Issues such as countering distortion of the Holocaust and genocide of Roma, are complex and nuanced, and to guide the work in this area, the IHRA has developed definitions that should be used as a starting point across projects addressing the challenges of distortion, antisemitism and antigypsyism/anti-Roma discrimination.

Professor Yehuda Bauer Grant 

• Separately to the two programs, applicants may wish to apply for the Professor Yehuda Bauer Grant. As founder of the IHRA, author of the 2000 Stockholm Declaration and a world-renowned scholar, Professor Bauer has left a remarkable and lasting effect on the IHRA’s work and the field of Holocaust remembrance. One of Professor Bauer’s key messages is that antisemitism was a major factor in the outbreak of World War II and the Holocaust which led to the murder of 6 million Jews. Therefore, continued research into this topic is vital. Accordingly, the IHRA will award funding in the amount of €50,000 to a project which aims to undertake new and significant research on the Holocaust and antisemitism, with no co-funding required. The project must also have an international dimension to it. The IHRA will not fund individual research and monographs. 
• Applicants will be asked to indicate on the application form if they would like to be considered for the Professor Yehuda Bauer Grant. Applicants who apply for the Professor Yehuda Bauer Grant can still have their projects considered for funding as part of the regular IHRA Grant Program. Please consider that only one project will be awarded the Professor Yehuda Bauer Grant this year.

Focus on Ukraine 

• Given the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the IHRA Grant Program will continue to prioritize funding for institutions working in and around Ukraine to continue their efforts during this difficult time, and to initiate the development of concepts and capacities which would allow continued remembrance of the Holocaust during Ukraine’s recovery process and beyond. 
• Please note that any project focusing on Ukraine must also align to either Program 1 (Safeguarding the record of the Holocaust and genocide of the Roma) or Program 2 (Countering distortion).

Funding Information

• For this grant call, the maximum amount of funding an organization can receive is €30,000 over a maximum period of 24 months.

Target Groups

• Political Decision Makers/Actors: Members of Parliament, government representatives (including but not limited to: ministers, ministry officials, diplomats, governors, mayors, etc.)
• Civil Servants: Including but not limited to: officials in public directorates and institutions, police commissioners and officers, etc. Where an IHRA Member Country directly benefits from a project, for example by educating civil servants in a country, the IHRA will only fund the project under the condition that the IHRA Member Country is co-funding a minimum of 40 % of the project costs.
• Civil Society: Including but not limited to: NGOs, union representatives and community/religious institutions and leaders, social activists and lawyers etc.
• Media: Particularly opinion leaders in the field of social media, press, television and radio (including journalists and heads of media institutions).
• Educational Policymakers: Including but not limited to: developers of curricula, textbooks, and teaching materials; editors, university deans and board members, teacher trainers, heads of educational departments at museums and memorials, etc
• Academia: E.g. scholars, academics (including university professors), academic organizations and associations.
• Museums and Memorials: E.g. representatives of museums and memorials including curators and guides.
• Archives and Archivists: Including public and private collections.
• Please note: teachers, pupils, and children as such are not eligible target groups for the IHRA, since they fall under the responsibility of the individual Member Countries. However, the training of teacher trainers is possible. If teacher trainers are among the target group, proof of their affiliation with an official institution for teacher training is required

Eligibility Criteria

• The IHRA Grant Strategy welcomes applications from all over the world and from any organization or institution in the field of education, remembrance, and research of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma.

Criteria

• Only online applications (and attachments) will be accepted. 
• Applicant organizations can only submit one application each year. 
• According to the “Sunset Rule” the same institution may receive funding up to a maximum of three times in a row from the IHRA. Subsequently the organization will not be eligible to receive IHRA funding for at least one year before they can apply again.

Ineligible

• Your project will not be considered if:
  • Applications are incomplete, or do not meet the formal requirements as laid out in the guidelines for applications. 
  • Representatives of the applying organization, or project partners of such organizations, contact members of the Grant Review Committee regarding the Grant Strategy and/or their application during the application and review periods (Steps 1 -5 in below timeline). 
  • They receive applications from organizations that already received funding from the IHRA but did not submit a final narrative and financial report for the previously funded projects by the application deadline. 
  • If they receive letters of recommendation from the Presidency, the Advisor, Honorary Chair, chairs of the working groups, committees or IHRA projects, by Heads of Delegations of IHRA Member, Liaison or Observer Countries, or by experts holding other functions within the IHRA.

For more information, visit IHRA.