Currently 6 active paid grants, fellowships and residencies taking place in Spain, across AI, arts, film, journalism, research, tech and cross-disciplinary practice. Many are open to applicants of any nationality; check each entry for residency and citizenship requirements. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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Fundacion Cotec (a Spanish innovation-focused non-profit) and Sonar+D, building on an initial experiment at Sonar 2026, invite proposals for a long-term installation at KNOWCASE, the street-level showcase of Cotec's Madrid headquarters in Chamberi, visible to the public 24 hours a day. THEME: digital culture, meaning projects that combine knowledge, research, science and data with art, technology and social impact. Cotec's stated priorities are the big transitions (analogue to digital, linear to circular economy, tangible to intangible) plus innovation ecosystems and R&D&I, the climate crisis, the future of work and learning, social divides, citizen participation and democratic health. WHAT YOU GET: a budget of up to EUR 100,000 plus VAT covering everything (design, production, installation, maintenance, documentation, artist fees, travel, accommodation and insurance), and a minimum 24-month public display from February 2027. WHO CAN APPLY: artists, collectives, designers, technologists, universities, research centres, startups, businesses, creative agencies, producers, cultural institutions and multidisciplinary teams, internationally; applicants must demonstrate solid experience and a relevant portfolio. CONSTRAINTS: the proposal must be original and never previously exhibited, must include participative or interactive elements, must encourage critical thinking, and must be technically and financially viable for the full 24+ month exhibition period (durability and maintenance are central selection criteria). Selection weighs conceptual quality highest (40 percent), followed by public interactivity (25 percent). HOW TO APPLY: one PDF of maximum 15 pages containing summary, concept, technical proposal, visuals, budget, timeline, team profile, portfolio and declaration, in Spanish, another official language of Spain, or English, via the application portal linked from the terms and conditions. Results announced 14 October 2026. Deadline 7 September 2026 at midnight CEST.
Híbrides is a biennial of artistic research co-organised by the Axolot.cat collective and the DARTS (Design, Art, Technology and Society) research group at the UOC in Barcelona. The second edition, "Small Embodied Data," centres on the concept of classification -- approached through machine learning, data science, algorithmic systems, and questions of who designs classifiers, under what ethical codes, and to what end. The biennial brings classification into dialogue with its previous themes of Small Data (community-defined, intentional data collection and analysis) and Embodiment (bodily experience as a foundation of situated, sensory knowledge). Both academic and non-academic contributions are welcome. FORMATS ACCEPTED: Oral Presentations (20 minutes; artistic practice, artistic research, or academic research projects; may be video-recorded for a public archive and developed into short papers); Performances (20-30 minutes; must engage with the physical body, stage, and technology; complete works, including previously presented work; takes place in a multipurpose space with technical support). SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: online form with abstract (max 1,000 characters), professional biography (max 1,000 characters), and link to representative materials (3-5 images; video and technical rider required for performances). HONORARIA: oral presentations €100; performances €400; invoice required in both cases. Participants must follow the event's code of conduct. Event runs 26-28 November 2026 at UOC Poblenou campus and Convent de Sant Agustí, Barcelona. Deadline: 7 September 2026. Submit at https://hibrides.axolot.cat/opencall.html.
Two research and creation residency grants in Agullana, Catalonia, for artists, thinkers and scientists of any branch (formal, natural, social, applied) working at the intersection of art, culture, science and thought. THIS YEAR'S THEME, The Word, is squarely about large language models. The framework moves from the word as creative principle across traditions (the Judeo-Christian creating God, the Quran as uncreated word, the Sanskrit Om and the Vedas, mantras that summon rather than describe) to science relocating that intuition in the cell (Sagan's four-letter alphabet of DNA as a material text, Margulis countering that the language of life is chemistry, Witzany holding that all cell interactions are sign-mediated), and then to LLMs, which for the first time detach the word from the flesh and generate text through a probabilistic architecture trained on human language. The call asks what LLMs reveal about authorship, originality and meaning when a system generates text that moves, persuades or deceives without experience or intention, and whether we can still say the models operate exclusively on human experience once they ingest their own output. It explicitly wants work that blurs comprehension and simulation, authorship and recombination, and it names antecedents worth knowing before applying: Ramon Llull's Ars Magna, Joan Brossa's Sextina cibernetica, Oulipo constraint writing, oracles and divination, oral-formulaic transmission, translation as probabilistic approximation, exquisite corpses, Burroughs's cut-ups, automatic writing, musical improvisation and scientific simulation. Les antipodes asks for engagement 'beyond the instrumental use of the tools' and away from utopian and dystopian framings. WHAT YOU GET: spacious, luminous, independent work spaces plus a shared terrace in the centre of the village, spaces for meeting, dialogue and public presentation, introductions to local, academic, artistic and professional contacts on request, and support organising any activities that arise. The residency ends with an informal presentation, and results may feed into the publications or public programme of Les antipodes. IMPORTANTLY, this is not an acquisition prize and involves no transfer of rights: authorship and intellectual property stay with the creators, and selection implies no acquisition of the work. Credits on resulting work must acknowledge Numeric 2026 and its collaborators. WHO CAN APPLY: open to everyone of legal age, any discipline or origin, individually or as a collective, with the stipend shared among collective members. Applications must be in Catalan or English whatever the working language of the project, submitted through the online form with an optional PDF of up to 5 pages and 10 MB. One application per person or collective. EVALUATION, in order of weight: singularity and innovation; relevance to this year's LLM framework; and interaction and transfer of value, meaning relations with the social and geographical environment of Agullana and the Emporda and a plan for presenting the outcome in editorial, on-site, performative, sound, audiovisual or other form. The call may be declared void if no proposal reaches the required level. PRACTICAL: residents must hold their own health cover (EHIC for EU citizens, or valid travel or health insurance for Spain otherwise) and are responsible for their own equipment. Supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya, Agullana and Figueres town councils, and Accion Cultural Espanola through the PICE national residencies programme. Terms are published in Arabic, Catalan, English, Spanish, French and Chinese.
Medialab Matadero in Madrid selects three projects for a research and creation residency bringing together contemporary art, design, science, technology and society, welcoming critical, experimental and collaborative work. Each project must connect clearly with one or more themes from Medialab's recent programs: LAB 1 Sentient Media, LAB 2 The Metabolic Sublime, LAB 3 Synthetic Minds, LAB 4 Weird Futures and LAB 5 The Mechanics of Truth. Open to individuals and collectives from any discipline (design, art, architecture, film, journalism, digital media, environmental science, philosophy, engineering, programming, activism and more). SUPPORT: EUR 10,000 per project (before taxes), individual workspace, access to the Fablab and technical materials, curatorial team guidance, and logistical and financial support for public activities; proposals must include public engagement plans and produce documentation. RESIDENCY: January to July 2027, in person in Madrid. DEADLINE: 27 September 2026. No application fee.
The European Media Art Platform (EMAP/EMARE) is a network of leading European media-art organisations offering fully funded two-month production residencies for artists working with digital media, including media art, bio art and robotic art. Each residency provides a EUR 4,000 grant to the applying artist (including subsistence), a EUR 4,000 project budget, host-provided accommodation, travel covered according to EU ceilings, and access to technical facilities and media labs; a collaborating artist receives an additional EUR 2,000 (EUR 6,000 total for a duo). Residencies take place at one of 15 host institutions across Austria, France, Slovakia, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Germany and Poland. ELIGIBILITY: applicants must be EU residents or taxpayers in an EU member state, or residents/taxpayers of one of the eligible non-EU countries (Netherlands-based artists qualify). Undergraduate and Master's students are not eligible; PhD candidates and emerging artists of any age and academic background may apply. IMPORTANT: applicants must apply as a duo or collective, or propose a collaborative project, rather than as a purely solo applicant. The 2027 open call runs from 3 September 2026 to 6 November 2026 at 14:00 CET. Apply online at call.emare.eu. No application fee.
NO PUBLISHED CLOSING DATE: the call gives no application deadline, so the operative cutoff is the gathering itself on 2-5 November 2026; apply early. The European Sex Workers' Rights Alliance (ESWA) brings back its Digital Rights Gathering in 2026 as The (W)horrors Edition, in Barcelona just after Halloween. It is a capacity and community-building space by and for sex workers, convened to confront the surveillance, censorship and digital violence they face online and to imagine and build more resilient digital futures. A limited number of spaces is reserved for allies working in adjacent digital rights and harm reduction spaces to host sessions. TWO CALLS ARE OPEN. (1) CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS, for sex workers who want to deepen their knowledge of digital rights, online safety and community resilience. Requirements: be a current or former sex worker who is also a member of an organisation in ESWA's network; be available for three days of interactive sessions, skill-sharing and collective learning on 2, 3 and 4 November, and free from 1 November (travel out) through 5 November (travel home), even though some final-day sessions are optional. Selected participants receive full funding covering travel, accommodation and food. (2) CALL FOR TRAINERS AND SESSION PROPOSALS, for facilitators, trainers and educators experienced in digital rights, online safety or sex worker-led organising, who want to deliver an interactive workshop, skill-share or creative session. Sessions run 90 minutes and are compensated at EUR 300 per session, with travel, accommodation and meals covered. Open to current or former sex workers, and to allies with experience in digital rights, digital discrimination, digital security and related fields. SESSION STRANDS: Digital (W)horrors, naming the threats faced online and unpacking how surveillance, censorship and platform policy work against sex workers, including shadowbanning and algorithmic censorship, over-zealous content moderation, law enforcement and third-party surveillance, deplatforming, non-consensual data scraping and retention, and the platforms and policies that enable them; Building Resilience, practical hands-on skills covering open source and privacy-respecting software, how and why to divest from Big Tech platforms, alternative and encrypted communication tools, digital security basics such as protecting data, devices and identity, and other harm-reduction strategies for working and organising online; Imagining Better Futures, creative forward-looking sessions on what a sex worker friendly internet would look like, including prototyping inclusive digital tools, platforms and spaces built by and for sex workers, new apps, alternative social platforms, community-owned tech, and speculative design exercises; Resourcing the Group, sessions focused on care and resilience, including writing and reflection, grounding and somatic exercises, tools for self-care and sustainability in activism, and space for radical rest. The organisers welcome grounded, political and creative contributions from anyone who would like to lead a session. Separate application forms for participants and for session proposals are linked from the call page. Questions: ana@eswalliance.org.