In early 2010 Creative Commons launched its catalyst grants program to award grants of $1000 to $10,000 to researchers, educators and technologists around the world. According to the announcement,
Grant recipients will be selected through a rigorous public review and transparent evaluation process involving representatives from CC’s affiliate institutions. Catalyst Grants will make it possible for individuals and organizations to harness the power of Creative Commons. A grant might enable a group in a developing country to research how Open Educational Resources can positively impact its community. Another could pay for a programmer to add CC license support to tools for publishing and distributing news. A third could fund a study of entrepreneurs using Creative Commons licenses to create a new class of socially responsible businesses.
Unfortunately, opportunity to apply for the grants closed on June 30, 2010, but you may be interested in following the catalyst grants site for announcements about which projects are awarded. In particular, I will be following the results of an application submitted by Virigina Kuhn on Scholarship and the Commons: Best Practices in Creating and Defending Digital Dissertations.
I will try to keep up with this site in the hopes that the program will continue and will let you know about the next year’s application and awards cycle.
