Currently 8 active cross-disciplinary and social impact grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in Worldwide. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Almost every entry is funded; a few notable unpaid open calls and festival submissions are included as clearly flagged exceptions. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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Travel voucher for Dutch-based professionals in design, architecture and/or digital culture who have been invited by a foreign party to give a presentation, lecture or workshop. To apply you must have submitted an application to the Fund in the past five years that was positively assessed (previous International Vouchers do not count). The inviting foreign party must cover a proportionate share of the costs. Covers hourly fees, travel and accommodation directly related to the activity. IMPORTANT TIMING RULE: applications are accepted from 5 months to a minimum of 7 weeks before the activity begins, and processing takes about 6 weeks. This lead time can rule out activities that fall shortly after a round opens. Round 2 (4 May to 22 June 2026) has closed. Round 3 runs 8 September 2026 15:00 CEST to 27 October 2026 16:00 CEST, with a budget of EUR 33,000; given the 7-week rule it effectively serves activities starting from late October 2026 onwards. IMPORTANT PREREQUISITE: you must already have had an application to the Fund positively assessed within the past five years, and a previous voucher does not satisfy this, so this is not a viable first approach to the Fund. The window runs 8 September 2026, 15:00 CEST to 27 October 2026, but closes early once 20 complete applications are received. Maximum one voucher per applicant per calendar year.
Movies that Matter, the human rights film festival in The Hague (19-27 March 2027), is open for 2027 submissions. The festival screens poignant fiction films and revealing documentaries that stir debates about human rights, sustainability and the fight against injustice, and feeds several competitions: the Grand Jury Documentary Competition (eight documentaries, EUR 5,000, winner eligible for Academy Award consideration for Best Documentary Feature), Grand Jury Fiction (EUR 5,000), Shorts (EUR 1,500), plus Activist Lens, Justice Frame, Dutch Focus, an Education Award and an Audience Award. ELIGIBILITY: films of any length, completed or world-premiering in 2026 or 2027, addressing human rights and/or social or environmental issues; English commentary/dialogue or English subtitles required; the film must not have been released in Dutch cinemas, broadcast on Dutch television, made freely available online, or submitted to the festival before. A world premiere is not required but may be taken into account in selection. FEES: EUR 25 normal fee until 30 September 2026, EUR 35 late fee from 1 October; final deadline 1 November 2026. Selection is announced at the end of February 2027. Submit via the festival's own submission database at database.moviesthatmatter.nl. Note the festival also runs a separate Take on Film & Impact industry programme (deadline 11 October 2026) for feature documentaries in late/post-production, but it carries no cash and participants fund their own travel, so it is not listed on the desk.
The Klagenfurt association Lendhauer invites proposals for artworks at the Lendhafen, the city's harbour, under the 2027 theme Urban Ecologies: Coexistence and Control. The call asks who or what counts as useful or disruptive in public space, who is included or excluded, and whether peaceful coexistence is achievable, treating urban space as networks of diverse relationships between human and non-human actors. Both fully developed artistic works and experimental, process-based or collaborative approaches are welcome. WHAT YOU GET: production costs up to EUR 4,000 gross (exact amount depends on project scope), an artist fee up to EUR 2,500 gross, travel expenses up to EUR 1,000, and on-site coordination of technical and organisational requirements including permits. ELIGIBILITY: artists, designers, architects, performers, theorists and practitioners working in interdisciplinary contexts; individuals and collectives, based in Austria or abroad; disciplines listed are architecture, performing arts, and visual arts and design. Projects are realised June to end of September 2027. DEADLINE: 2 November 2026. Full details and application via lendhafen.at.
Online incubator from Swiss foundation Unearthodox (formerly the Luc Hoffmann Institute) for innovators with early-stage ideas at the intersection of environmental and societal challenges, aimed at work that tackles root causes in the relationship between people, society and nature rather than symptoms: climate, biodiversity, habitat loss, regeneration and environmental justice among them. WHAT YOU GET: a CHF 10,000 grant plus 10 months of cohort-based incubation (March to December 2027) with coaching, expert and peer support, and access to a global community of systems innovators. ELIGIBILITY: over 18, idea already in motion through research, testing, piloting or community engagement; applications in English; participation fully online with sessions planned for UTC-6 to UTC+6. SELECTION CRITERIA: systems orientation (25 percent), nature-society vision (25 percent), boundary-pushing (25 percent), transformational intent (15 percent), edge-walking (10 percent). DEADLINE: 16 November 2026, 23:59 GMT+1 (window opened 15 September 2026).
The Mensch Maschine VISIT Residency Program is an annual fellowship offering four fully funded fellowships to artists from around the world, run by the JUNGE AKADEMIE of the Akademie der Künste (Berlin) with VISIT, the artist-in-residence programme of the E.ON Foundation, E-WERK Luckenwalde and Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw). The 2027 edition particularly encourages projects at the intersection of art, energy and ecology exploring the theme ENERGY GHOSTS: the unseen dimensions of energy approached through mythology, cosmology or speculative fiction, the invisible infrastructures, histories and residues that haunt contemporary life, and energy as an ecological, political or spiritual force. Proposals are welcome from visual art, performance, film, installation, sound, writing and new media. WHAT YOU GET: EUR 20,000 per fellow for artist fees and production costs of a new project (research and development, travel, material and presentation costs); three fellows receive studio space and accommodation at E-WERK Luckenwalde (a former power station about 40 minutes south of Berlin), one is accommodated by the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. The three-month residency runs roughly September to November 2027 with on-site presence of at least 75% required, a retreat at Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw in September 2027, events across the three venues, and a closing symposium in October 2027 at the Akademie der Künste where fellows show work in progress alongside the 2026 cohort. JURY: Nolan Oswald Dennis; Chus Martinez (Institute Art Gender Nature, TBA21); Sarah Johanna Theurer (Fondation Beyeler); Anh-Linh Ngo (Akademie der Künste); and Tiara Roxanne. APPLICATION: via the VISIT portal at visit-energy.com/bewerben. DEADLINE: 1 December 2026, 23:59 CET.
Emergent Ventures funds entrepreneurs and thinkers worldwide with highly scalable, zero-to-one ideas for meaningfully improving society. It is aimed at individuals (applicants must be 13 or older) rather than institutions, and international and non-US applicants are eligible; grants are awarded to people around the world. Dedicated support is available for projects focused on India, Africa, the Caribbean or Ukraine. Grant amounts are not disclosed and are set per project. Applications are accepted on a rolling, continuous basis through an online form. The programme launched in 2018 and is administered by Tyler Cowen at the Mercatus Center.
Applications for the 2027 Bertha Artivism Awards are open (confirmed 23 September 2026). The awards fund up to USD 20,000 for a one-year activist-art project made in collaboration with a social justice organization, campaign or movement, and the cohort also receives peer exchange and support from the Bertha Foundation network. Open worldwide to artists and collectives across disciplines. IMPORTANT: no closing date is published on the award page, and the cohort starts January 2027, so apply early rather than waiting; the call has historically opened around August and closed in the autumn. TO APPLY: submit the application form linked from the Artivism Awards page at berthafoundation.org.
The Disability Chapter of the Awesome Foundation, a trustee-funded giving circle, awards a USD 1,000 no-strings micro-grant every month to a project benefiting disabled people: accessibility and assistive technology, arts and culture, inclusion and advocacy all qualify. ELIGIBILITY: worldwide; individuals, nonprofits or companies; applicants do NOT need to be disabled themselves, though disability-led projects get priority. NOT FUNDED: personal medical needs, rent, repairs and similar personal expenses. APPLICATION: free, via the chapter page; submissions are only accepted from the 1st through the 10th of each month, with decisions by the end of the month. DEADLINE: rolling monthly windows (1st to 10th).