Grants from DFF

Description

1) Objective

The Digital Freedom Fund supports strategic litigation on digital rights in Europe that contributes to advancing human rights in the digital sphere. DFF works with a broad definition of digital rights. They consider digital rights to be human rights as applicable in the digital sphere. The digital sphere covers both physically constructed spaces, such as infrastructure and devices, and spaces that are virtually constructed, such as online identities and communities. Applicants can submit applications for three types of activities:

• Litigation: Litigation support, for a single instance; Example: a constitutional challenge to recently adopted legislation on government surveillance.
• Research: Pre-litigation research; Example: a comparative study between EU jurisdictions to determine which one offers the best options to address a specific issue.
• Emergency: Emergency support; Example: immediate costs related to filing an appeal on short notice.

2) Eligibility

Any organisation that advocates for digital rights, including as part of their broader human rights or social justice work is eligible.

3) Location

DFF accepts grant applications concerning all Council of Europe Member States.

4) Budget

So far the average size of a litigation track support grant is around €45,000 and the average size of a pre-litigation research support grant is around €25,000. They have approved grants as low as € 3,000, and in a few rare cases litigation grants of over €100,000.

5) Application

The current call for applications is running from 1 December 2025 – 17 February 2026.