Skills and Knowledge Exchange Bursary

Bursaries are available for CENL members to share skills and knowledge. They are up to the value of €1000 per application.

About the bursary

‍The bursary can relate to any aspect of skills and knowledge exchange such as:

• Visiting a national library for face-to-face mentoring and shadowing to learn new skills and share your experiences
• Attending a training event (e.g., tutorials, workshops, seminars, conferences) run by other national libraries
• Running a workshop for members to attend and share best practice
• Preparing a webinar or online event for members

Application eligibility criteria

• Your employer is a CENL member
• Your national library is up to date with CENL membership fee payments
• All activities are with other CENL members and enable skills and knowledge exchange

When to apply

There is no fixed deadline to apply for the Skills and Knowledge Exchange Bursary, applications are accepted year-round.

Note: If you are an existing member, please sign in to view supporting documents. If you do not have an account, please register.

Contact for more information.

Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant

The Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant celebrates the enormous contribution Erland Kolding Nielsen has made to the development of European libraries throughout his long and distinguished career.

About the grant

The Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant is a grant of up to €5.000, which is awarded to CENL member library projects that promote international collaboration and strengthen bonds between CENL libraries.

In 2017 CENL introduced a grant to celebrate the enormous contribution Erland Kolding Nielsen made to the development of European libraries throughout his long and distinguished career as Director General of the Royal Library, Denmark from 1986-2017.

The grant is based on proposals from either individual CENL member libraries or from a group of member libraries. The grant can focus on any aspect of international library collaboration including:

• Development of collections (physical and digital)
• Improving research
• Educational or cultural services including exhibitions
• Promoting interlibrary staff communications
• Staff development
• Infrastructure development

Application eligibility criteria

• Your employer is a CENL member
• Your national library is up to date with CENL membership fee payments
• All collaboration activities are in partnership with other CENL members and will foster international collaboration

When and how to apply?

The call for Applications for the Erland Kolding Nielsen Grant 2024 is closed. The successful applicants were announced here.
A new call for applications will be published in 2025.

Note: If you are an existing member, please sign in to view supporting documents. If you do not have an account, please register.

Donate to the grant

If you or your institution would like to donate to the CENL grant in honour of Erland, we would be very pleased to hear from you. Please contact cenl@dnb.de and we will send you details of how to donate.

Contact for more information.

Covid-19 Support Fund

Created in 2020, the Covid-19 Support Fund was a temporary fund to respond and provide funding to help CENL members respond to immediate challenges connected to the Covid-19 crisis, and offer support to adapt and reimagine ways of working together for the longer-term future. Since the pandemic recedes and there is less and less need to react spontaneously to acute situations, the CENL Executive Committee agreed to terminate the fund by the end of 2022.

Hidden Stories Fund

In 2020, CENL supported IFLA’s dedication to inclusion, and to actively work against racial discrimination of all kinds. As national libraries, we need to ensure that our collections, events and exhibitions are genuinely inclusive and representative of and for all communities.

The ‘Hidden Stories Fund’ was a temporary fund to support CENL members who have new projects to collect, preserve, research and highlight the stories from, by and related to underrepresented communities in their national collections. This fund‘s aim was to encourage and support working with underrepresented communities to ensure that their stories are preserved for future generations.