Opening the Shared: Memory, Stories, and Cultural Heritage. Grant Programme

As part of the project “REHERIT 2.0: Shared Responsibility for Shared Heritage”, a grant programme is being launched to support community initiatives that explore, reflect on, preserve, and develop multicultural heritage as a resource for understanding and resilience.

Ukrainian cultural heritage is a complex, multi-layered space that encompasses stories of the coexistence of different cultures, everyday practices, traditions, creativity, and people’s lived experiences. It often also carries the experience of historical
traumas — loss, violence, forced change, and silencing. Bringing these stories back and speaking about them in a shared space is an important step towards restoring the community’s sense of wholeness. This is especially valuable in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine, when communities face difficult questions about loss, memory, belonging, and the future.

In such times, it is important to restore and strengthen people’s connections with the places, stories, and cultural meanings that shape community identities. A responsible engagement with heritage helps reveal the uniqueness of territories and strengthen residents’ sense of belonging, unite the community, and create new opportunities for interaction, education, local culture, and local economic development.

The grant programme focuses on the developmental potential of heritage: its ability to strengthen local identity, shape new educational, cultural, tourism, and creative practices, support the sustainability of local institutions, and create the groundwork for the socio-economic development of communities. The programme aims to support community initiatives that work with multicultural heritage, collective memory, and a responsible engagement with shared heritage as a resource for understanding, participation, and development. For the REHERIT 2.0 project, it is important that supported initiatives combine sensitive work with memory and heritage with a realistic vision of their long-term significance for the community.

We invite applications from those working in the fields of cultural heritage, culture, local history, museum work, creative practices, urban studies, local development, education, research, advocacy, or related areas connected to the programme’s theme.

Applicants may be legal entities or individual entrepreneurs with proven experience in implementing projects or providing services in the specified field.

The grant amount per project ranges from EUR 10,000 to EUR 30,000.

Applications are submitted in two stages:

• By 30 July 2026, project concepts can be submitted via the online form.
• After a shortlist of 20 projects is announced, the second stage is the submission of a full application.

The winners will be announced in November.

Projects must be implemented in 2027.

Indicative implementation period: January–September 2027.

Reporting: October–November 2027.

Please read the instructions for the grant application competition.

For questions, please contact reherit@lvivcenter.org.

One applicant may submit up to two applications – one under each lot – but can receive funding for only one application (the one ranked higher in the evaluation).

PROGRAMME LOTS

Lot 1: Research, reflection, and revitalisation of heritage.

Support is provided for projects aimed, in particular, at:

• Researching and preserving multicultural cultural heritage through participatory formats and approaches (oral history projects, archiving, signage, etc.).
• Revitalising and expanding awareness of cultural heritage with the help of digital tools (including the creation of digital platforms and products such as websites, mobile applications, interactive maps, 3D modelling, etc.).
• Reinterpreting the cultural heritage of cities, towns, and villages through artistic practices and media formats (exhibitions, documentary films, work with archival materials through artistic visual or audio practices, podcasts, etc.).
• Running local advocacy campaigns aimed at inclusive reflection on cultural heritage, strengthening social ties, and fostering sensitivity through work with heritage.

Lot 2: Preservation, management, and development of heritage.

Support is provided for projects aimed at:

• Carrying out pre-project research and preparing design and cost documentation.
• Developing project concepts to attract investment, including public investment projects (DREAM).
• Restoring/conserving small cultural heritage objects or parts of heritage objects.
• Creating registers of the current condition of cultural heritage objects and preparing inventory documentation.
• Developing strategies (for territorial communities, institutions, heritage sites) and preservation programmes.
• Establishing heritage management functions in communities (developing local policies, advocacy campaigns at local and regional levels regarding heritage management).

Applicants from all regions of Ukraine may take part in the competition.

Preference will be given to projects with a substantive connection to the history of the community’s multicultural past, local context, ongoing initiatives, or already launched processes aimed at researching, preserving, revitalising, or responsibly managing multicultural heritage.

The grant programme “Opening the Shared: Memory, Stories, and Cultural Heritage” is one of the key components of the project “REHERIT 2.0: Shared Responsibility for Shared Heritage”, which seeks to highlight and rethink the role of local multicultural heritage as a shared asset for local socio-economic development, as well as a resource for understanding and overcoming discrimination.

“REHERIT 2.0: Shared Responsibility for Shared Heritage” is implemented by the Center for Urban History and the Center for Regional Development of the PPV Economic Development Agency with financial support from the European Union.

Source: Reherit.org.ua