Obtaining the Unobtainable: The Holy Grail of Seed Funding for Small-Scale Digital Projects

Inspired by the successes of Zooniverse's internationally acclaimed digital projects, and the growing appetite among funding bodies to fund collaborative and interdisciplinary projects, today's doctoral students face an exciting challenge. How can a doctoral or early career researcher advance knowledge creation and production through the creative and exciting myriad of opportunities available in Digital Humanities?

Even for established academics, it is very difficult to attract funding without a proof-of-concept prototype of the planned project and a workable budget which demonstrates value, innovation and alignment with the stated aims of funding bodies. Addressing these and many more aspects is crucial for demonstrating in a funding proposal that new digital approaches can create world-leading research which will be disseminated widely.

Reflecting on the successful funding bids for ‘Crowd-Map-The-Crusades' and the AHRC-funded ‘Promoting Interdisciplinary Engagement in the Digital Humanities', this paper will discuss some ideas about useful strategies which doctoral and early career researchers can use when looking to set up and fund their own small-scale digital projects, including developing concepts into scalable and sustainable models, accessing seed funding, how to access the requisite skills training, and how to engage with international DH networks.