EMKP offers grants for documentation work on material knowledge systems that are under threat and in danger of disappearing. This includes knowledge systems associated with the making, use, repair and re-purposing of material objects, spaces, architecture, performances and environments. Small and large grants are offered annually to knowledge holders, practitioners, and scholars irrespective of nationality. Selected projects will be expected to produce a digital record of the material practices under study, which will be deposited and curated in the EMKP repository at the British Museum, and made freely available to all.
EMKP was launched in 2018 and is funded by Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, and is hosted by the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum.