Application Process

You can apply between Monday, July 07, and Sunday, August 17, 2025 (11:59 PM CEST) as an individual, informal group, or a non-profit organization.

How to Apply

Complete the application form.

Please attach the following documents:

  1. A brief project outline, describing your project’s goals, timeline, and format.
  2. If you are applying as a non-profit organization, please also include:
  • Proof of non-profit status
  • Your organization’s statutes
  • Extract from the association register

You may submit your application in German or English.

At the end of the funding period, you will be required to submit a short final report along with the project results published under a free license. Non-profit organizations must also submit a financial report.

 

Formal Criteria

  • Project goals and feasibility

    The project goal is realistic and can be implemented within the program period.

  • Publishing results under a free license

    You are willing to publish your project results under a free license. This ensures your work is accessible and reusable by everyone. The program uses Creative Commons licenses CC0, CC BY, and CC BY-SA. Other license types, such as “NC” (NonCommercial) or “ND” (NoDerivatives), are not compatible because they restrict reusability too heavily.

  • Application Completion

    The application form must be completed in full, and all required documents [link] must be submitted.

  • Submission deadline

    Your application must be submitted via the online form [link] no later than Sunday, August 17, 2025 (11:59 PM CEST).

  • Language skills

    Your German and/or English skills must be sufficient to participate in the program. If you can understand our website in German or English and submit your application in one of these languages, we presume your language skills to be adequate for communicating with us and for participating in the program. If needed, the program provides translation support (German ↔ English).

  • Address in Germany & bank account

    To be eligible for funding, you must provide a postal address in Germany and a bank account.

Content Criteria

The final selection is based on the content criteria. We also aim to ensure a diversity of project formats and topics. A total of ten projects will be selected by an interdisciplinary jury.

Your project must meet at least three of the following criteria:

  • Situated knowledge: You (or the majority of your group or organization) have a personal connection to the community or communities your project relates to.
  • Community-oriented: Your project aims to share knowledge from one or more marginalized communities and to use Free Knowledge for the benefit of your community or communities.
  • Critical of power structures: Your project questions existing power relations and/or addresses inequalities in societal and political participation.
  • Intersectional: You recognize that different forms of discrimination are intertwined. This is reflected in the content of your project and the lived realities of your project team. Intersectionality here always includes an analysis of racism as a core component.
  • Empowerment-focused: Your project strengthens one or more of your communities.

Any questions?

We are happy to support you during the application process.  Just send an email with the subject line “Application questions” to: reshape@wikimedia.de.  If needed, we’ll arrange a time for a phone consultation.

Additionally, we will offer an online info event via Zoom on Tuesday, July 22, at 6:30 PM (CEST).  To register, email us at reshape@wikimedia.de with the subject line “Info event”.