How Community Engagement Funds support early-career researchers and promote diversity in the Digital Humanities

NFDI4Culture is delighted to be able to support its research communities each year with funding—known as Community Engagement Funds. This year, the Digital Humanities Community, or the Association of Digital Humanities in German-speaking Countries (Verband Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum e.V.), decided to use the funds specifically to support early-career researchers. As a result, ten young researchers received travel grants enabling them to attend the DHd2026 conference, which took place in Vienna this year.

These grants also help to diversify the discussions on the DHd2026. Young researchers from different institutions and disciplines bring fresh perspectives, forge new networks and subsequently contribute to the conference’s promotion through their own contributions. The funded participants not only share their conference experiences on social media, but also document their experiences in form of blog posts, video reports or podcast interviews, thereby enabling an even wider audience to take part in the discussions.

First reports from the winners have already been published:

• Firmin Forster: forthcoming, DHd-Blog.
• Johannes Ioannu: „Nicht nur Text, nicht nur Daten… Sondern?“, 31. March 2026, in: DHd-Blog and GitHub.
• Lisa Kilbinger—social media contribution
• Alica Müller: „‘Ceci n’est pas un texte.‘ – Mein Rückblick auf die DHd 2026 in Wien“, 20. March 2026, in: DHd-Blog.
• Cristian Ortega Singer and Luise Prager: „Nicht nur Text, nicht nur Daten – die DHd Community“, 20. March 2026, in: DHd-Blog and as an interview with RaDiHum20.
• Verena Schmidt—social media contribution
• Anastasiia Shkliarenko: „Meine DHd2026-Erfahrungen“, 16. March 2026, in: DHd-Blog.
• Karin Wallner: „Wie steht es um die Sichtbarkeit von Frauen und Queerness in den Digital Humanities? Ein Blick in die DHd-Jahreskonferenz 2026 in Wien“, 06. March 2026, in: DHd-Blog.
• Yiyang Huang: „From Manuscripts to AI: Reflections on DHd 2026“, 14. April 2026, in: DHd-Blog.

NFDI4Culture warmly congratulates all travel grant recipients on their successful participation and is delighted that the conference proved to be an inspiring experience for everyone. Our special thanks go to the DHd Association, the Digital Humanities community, and all the partner consortia that made this collaboration possible.

In addition to the ten travel grants from NFDI4Culture, eight more were provided by the DHd Association, two by the consortium NFDI4Memory and five by CLARIAH-AT; 25 in total. The target group comprised Bachelor’s and Master’s students, PhD candidates, and graduates up to two years after completing their Master’s degree. A comprehensive overview of this year’s grants can be found in the blog post by Sarah Lang, the DHd Coordinator for Early Career Support & Grants.

Using the funding for travel grants is just one way of supporting research communities. Through NFDI4Culture, this funding offers academic societies and professional associations numerous opportunities to organise so-called multiplier formats. Such formats demonstrate the consortium’s impact across disciplines and make its sometimes abstract activities tangible and accessible to a wider audience. Previous formats of this kind have shown that targeted incentives not only increase visibility but also activate the community.

NFDI4Culture remains committed to using the Community Engagement Funds to promote new, innovative formats—for the benefit of the entire community. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at contact@nfdi4culture.de. We look forward to hearing from you!