Grants for Biscay's ethnographic heritage with a budget limit of 46,000 euros

The Provincial Council of Bizkaia has approved Provincial Decree 79/2026, dated September 10, which approves the regulatory bases and the 2026 call for provincial grants to carry out activities in the field of conservation, research, and dissemination of the ethnographic heritage of Bizkaia. The regulation was published today, September 16, in the Official Gazette of Bizkaia (BOB), issue number 177, and the call contained therein has a budget limit of 46,000 euros. The full text is available under reference BOB-2026a177-(I-1027), and the summary of the call is in the extract under reference BOB-2026a177-(I-1076).

Leixuri Arrizabalaga Arruza, the Provincial Deputy for Basque Language, Culture, and Sport, signed the decree, which also bears the signature of the General Deputy, Elixabete Etxanobe Landajuela. The regulation is based on Law 6/2019, of May 9, on Basque Cultural Heritage, which recognizes the competence of provincial institutions to promote economic incentive measures for the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage. The Council explained that the ethnographic heritage of Bizkaia consists of places, buildings, and installations historically used in Bizkaia, movable assets that are indicators of cultural traditions, knowledge inherited from the past, and intangible heritage.

Who the call is addressed to

The call has two groups of beneficiaries:

• Natural persons, provided they are not carrying out the project as professional consultants or researchers.
• Private non-profit organizations in the Historical Territory of Bizkaia, provided their purpose is linked to the cultural traditions and ethnographic heritage of Bizkaia and they are inscribed in the corresponding registry.

Applicants must meet the conditions on the day the deadline for submitting requests ends and maintain them throughout the entire procedure until the justification of the grant is delivered. Non-profit organizations will not be eligible for grants if they have received a penalty for discrimination based on sex or against LGBTI persons, or if they do not comply with the current regulations in the field of equality.

Activities eligible for funding

The grants will be directed toward activities carried out throughout 2026, and five types of initiatives will be accepted:

• Organizing congresses, seminars, workshops, or courses centered on the ethnographic heritage of Bizkaia.
• Research, documentation, interpretation, and analysis regarding ethnographic heritage.
• Cataloging and registration of ethnographic heritage.
• Conservation, restoration, or valorization of ethnographic heritage.
• Divulgation, publication, and dissemination of ethnographic heritage.

Excluded from the call are activities addressed only to a limited collective, those whose sole purpose is audiovisual creativity, editorial production, or plastic arts, those related to education, social welfare, environment, youth, leisure, sports or free time, travel and tourism, and activities carried out by the Council or other public administrations.

46,000 euro limit and grant amount

The maximum budget is 46,000 euros, and it is divided into two items:

• For grants to natural persons, 30,000 euros, charged to the 2026 item 0404 G/336107/46999 2007/0157.
• For grants to non-profit private organizations, 16,000 euros, charged to the 2026 item 0404 G/336107/45100 2007/0157.

This distribution is estimated and may be changed by provincial order before the call is resolved. The maximum amount of the grant will be 80% of the project’s net budget, and, in any case, it will not exceed 16,000 euros, nor the amount requested.

Deadlines and evaluation

The period for submitting applications is 20 calendar days, starting from the day following the publication of the decree in the Official Gazette of Bizkaia; therefore, from September 17 to October 6. Natural persons may submit applications at the Provincial Council’s Cultural Heritage Service (Bilbao, Maria Diaz de Haro street 11) or through the electronic office; non-profit organizations, however, must mandatorily use the electronic office.

The maximum period for issuing and notifying the resolution is three months after the application period has ended. If no resolution is notified after this period, the application will be understood as rejected. The resolution will be issued by the Provincial Deputy for Basque Language, Culture and Sport, according to the proposal of the qualifying jury.

The qualifying jury will apply a maximum score of 100 points, according to the following criteria:

• Quality and interest of the intervention from the perspective of ethnographic heritage: 30 points.
• Innovative elements of the activity: 20 points.
• Resonance and external dissemination of the activity: 20 points.
• Training, professional or technical capacity of the person in charge and the authors of the activity: 20 points.
• Integration of the gender perspective: 4 points.
• Track record in the field of equality between women and men: 4 points.
• Registration on the Kultursistema platform: 2 points.

Proposals that do not achieve 70 points will not be accepted.

Control and justification

Grant recipients must carry out the entire activity during the 2026 event and submit the justification before February 26, 2027. The grants are compatible with grants from other administrations or organizations, but they cannot exceed the cost of the activity. Furthermore, the grants are subject to the de minimis regulation, according to Regulation (EU) 2023/2831, and the total de minimis aid that each beneficiary can receive over a three-year period cannot exceed 300,000 euros. The maximum percentage for subcontracting is 90% of the amount of the subsidized activity.

The call aims to protect the transmission chain of the ethnographic heritage of Bizkaia, and as the Provincial Council has emphasized, supporting these initiatives strengthens the cultural fabric of Bizkaia in addition to preserving cultural heritage. Interested parties have a period of only 20 days to prepare and submit applications.

Source: Official Gazette of Bizkaia, no. 177, September 16, 2026, Section I, pp. 1-15 (official reference: BOB-2026a177-(I-1027)).