Stimuleringsfonds

In January 2026, we processed applications that could not be submitted in time for phase 1 of the Digital Culture Grant Scheme at the end of 2025. At the time, a technical problem in the application system meant that we could not guarantee a level playing field.

selection

As in the last selection of 2025, a critical eye played a central role, with projects that question technology as a power that determines who is visible and who is not, who participates and who is excluded.

Reclaiming the Future – Felix Meritis
With Reclaiming the Future, culture house Felix Meritis is realising a programme series of three thematically linked editions on imagination. The project explores how contemporary technologies (ranging from sound technology to artificial intelligence and biotechnology) determine who will have a place in our imagination of the future, and who will remain invisible there. Who is entitled to the future? Instead of approaching technology as logical progress, the triptych shows technology as a social and cultural force that classifies, controls and excludes bodies. On the other hand, Felix Meritis wants to show that using technology can also generate new forms of memory and visibility. The project is supported by a network of makers and researchers at the intersection of digital culture, critical technology, community and corporeality.

BEGIN AGAIN – BrotherTill
BEGIN AGAIN is an interdisciplinary theatre performance by BrotherTill where each visitor receives an interactive AI object. This object reacts live to movement and emotion and influences the dramaturgy of the performance. This means that the audience is not a passive spectator but actively participates in the theatre. By using this form, BrotherTill aims to raise questions about power, technology and humanity. Playing in theatres across the country, the production is the second step in an international triptych about humans and machines. BrotherTill is working together with writer and director Lisa Weeda, software developer Wieger Steenhuis and lighting designer and technician Ben Vrielink.

Archival Horizons/Archivo Emergente – Counter/Narratives

Archival Horizons/Archivo Emergente – Counter/Narratives
With Archival Horizons/Archivo Emergente, Counter/Narratives deploys mapping (and counter-mapping) to redefine heritage on the ABCSSS islands and showcase queer stories. A digital platform allows users to upload their own stories, creating a living map of histories and life stories. This breaks with existing, inaccessible archival practices. In this follow-up project, a new digital infrastructure will be developed and the UX/UI improved. This optimisation makes new projects possible, including the artistic intervention Bid’i Bai Bin and the podcast Be Right Back. Counter/Narratives collaborates with Elisa Academy, Julia Isenia, Lysanne Charles and Eva Croes.

numbers

Of the 17 applicants approached, 14 submitted a full project plan. Of these, one application was a follow-up application. Four of the 14 projects were positively assessed by the advisory committee. The original budget for this round was €130,000. To this, €1,578 was added, allowing three positively assessed projects to be fully supported.

follow-up

The next period for the Digital Culture Grant Scheme opens on 12 August at 15:00 CEST and closes on 19 August at 16:00 CEST 2026.

Following the problems that arose in late 2025 relating to the consideration of a maximum number of applications in the order they were submitted, changes have been made to a number of grant schemes. Also under the Digital Culture Grant Scheme, all summary applications will be ranked in random order by means of a draw after the close of phase 1, after which the intake will start. As a result, the time an application is submitted no longer takes precedence. The selected applicants will then develop a full project plan in phase 2, which will be assessed by the committee. Read more in this news item.