The Catalyst Fund is an award program that provides support for new ideas and innovative projects that advance the mission and reach of Lyrasis member organizations. Initiated by the
Lyrasis Leaders Circle, the Fund expands opportunities to explore, test, refine and collaborate on innovations with potential for community-wide impact.
Catalyst Fund Values
The Catalyst Fund values are those which include:
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Community-driven projects and projects having community impact
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Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility
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Open source, open access, open sharing of results, and open infrastructure
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Cross institutional collaboration
Subject Specific Tracks or Themes
The Catalyst Fund supports creative concepts that:
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Serve the broad interests of the Lyrasis membership
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Test-and-try new approaches to shared problems; and
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Advance important objectives of libraries, archives, museums, and complementary research communities.
Lyrasis is especially interested in projects that provide templates or ideas that can be used to spark innovation, business models, or concepts for the museum, library, archives, or research communities, to solve common or shared challenges.
The types of applications seen in previous years have addressed subjects and concepts as varied as AI, accessibility, climate change, copyright challenges, digital archiving, disaster preparedness/response, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), metadata transformation, open educational resources, professional education, open source and community-supported software development, scholarly communication, social justice work and virtual reality, just to name a few. However, don't let this list limit your creativity.
In addition to our general call for proposals, the Catalyst Fund will be accepting proposals on a thematic track and will welcome applications focused specifically in the areas of community driven projects and projects having community impact.
Applications in this track will apply the values and creative concepts of the Fund, as listed above, to the advancement, evolution, expansion, and/or application of community engagement, providing innovative solutions for Lyrasis, and the field at large. Applications do not need to address this theme, but funds have been reserved specifically for those that do.
All applications will be evaluated on the strength of needs/case statements and how well results can be adapted and used in initiatives serving cultural and scientific heritage organizations.
Regardless of the subject, two types of submissions – proposals and ideas – can be made by any member of Lyrasis.
A member may submit no more than ONE proposal and ONE idea to the Catalyst Fund in a single cycle. (See More Information for details on review criteria and answers to frequently asked questions.)
Funding decisions for the Catalyst Fund are announced in early June. Recipients will have one year to implement their projects (July - June).
Not planning to apply this year? Consider volunteering as a reviewer, for more information, see the Reviewing and Selecting Proposals and Ideas here.
More questions? Email us at: catalystfund@lyrasis.org.
How to Apply
Applications for the Catalyst Fund will be accepted through midnight EST on February 24, 2023. Members are encouraged to discuss their proposed concept with Catalyst Fund staff prior to submitting a brief online application form and two-page PDF describing their proposal or idea.
Please review
MORE INFORMATION before submitting.
For Proposals:
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All prospective applicants should consider discussing their proposed concept with Catalyst Fund staff prior to submitting a proposal. Contact
catalystfund@lyrasis.org to schedule a meeting.
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Review the
Instructions for Proposals.
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Create your proposal. Use this template (MS Word format) to create your application. Your final proposal will need to be formatted as a PDF.
For Ideas:
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All prospective applicants should consider discussing their proposed concept with Catalyst Fund staff prior to submitting an ‘Idea’. Contact
catalystfund@lyrasis.org to schedule a meeting.
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Review the
Instructions for Ideas.
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Describe your idea. Use the template linked below (MS Word format) to create your own document using the same outline. Your final proposal will need to be formatted as a PDF.
