The Lyrasis Catalyst Fund
Investing in Our Members
The Lyrasis 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.
The 2026 Lyrasis Catalyst Fund application opens on Tuesday, January 6, and will close on Friday, February 27.
Only Lyrasis members are eligible to apply. This includes organizations that are part of a group membership. If you are uncertain about your organization’s membership status, please contact Member Support at membersupport@lyrasis.org. Each member organization may serve as the lead applicant for no more than one proposal and one idea submission each cycle.
Want to learn more about the Lyrasis Catalyst Fund and the application process, guidelines, evaluation criteria and key cycle dates? Informational webinars are scheduled for Tuesday, January 20 at 3 p.m. EST and Thursday, January 22 at 10 a.m. EST. Registration is required. The same information will be presented at both webinars. Participants will gain clarity on how to develop strong ideas, transform them into competitive proposals and understand what to expect throughout the process.
Lyrasis staff are here to help! You can schedule a meeting to discuss your proposal ideas, or submit a draft of your application (MS Word format) to catalystfund@lyrasis.org at least two weeks before the final deadline of February 27. Draft reviews are optional but encouraged. Feedback will be offered as helpful suggestions and does not influence the final funding decision.
Initiated by the Lyrasis Leaders Circle, the Lyrasis Catalyst Fund expands opportunities to explore, test, refine and collaborate on innovations with potential for community-wide impact. All Lyrasis members are encouraged to propose, become a reviewer and vote for which proposals are funded each year!
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Lyrasis Catalyst Fund Values
The Lyrasis Catalyst Fund values are:
- Community-driven projects and projects having community impact
- Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility
- Open source, open access, open sharing of results and open infrastructure
- Cross-institutional collaboration
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Creative Concepts
The Lyrasis Catalyst Fund supports creative concepts that
- Serve the broad interests of the Lyrasis membership
- Test-and-try new approaches to shared problems
- Advance important objectives of libraries, archives, museums and complementary research communities
Submissions
Submissions are accepted from any member of Lyrasis. 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.
A member may submit no more than ONE proposal and ONE idea per year.
- If submitting a proposal, you are requesting funds to pilot your own project. Funds will be awarded to your organization if the project is selected.
- If submitting an idea, you are recommending an issue, problem, service need or solution that Lyrasis could investigate, test and address. If selected, ideas will be included in Lyrasis' Research and Innovation agenda for exploration, planning, program design and piloting. Your organization may have the option, but would not be obligated, to participate in the resulting program, service, or solution.
If you wish to submit a proposal or idea to continue work on a project previously funded by the Lyrasis Catalyst Fund, you may apply. Such applications will be judged by the same criteria as others in the competition. The work on the prior Catalyst Fund project must be completed and the final report submitted for consideration of a new grant award. In addition, the new Catalyst Fund submission must include a description of the previously funded project's accomplishments and what new activities are proposed.
If you'd like the staff to review your application, or comment on your concept, reach out to us at catalystfund@lyrasis.org.
Not planning to apply this year? Consider volunteering as a reviewer.