Innovator in Residence Program

Jer Thorp's "Library of Colors"

The application period for the Library's 2026-2027 Innovator in Residence is now OPEN! Concept papers are due on April 10th, 2026 by 2:00pm ET. See SAM.gov for full announcement.

Register for Informational Webinars in March

We are offering two informational webinars in March about the application process and residency. Registration is required. Transcripts and slides will be posted here afterwards.

Getting Started

The Broad Agency Announcement on SAM.gov includes 6 documents to help you in your application process:

"01 - 030ADV26R0021 - IIR-BAA-2026.pdf" is the announcement, with all info related to the residency and the steps to apply.
"02 - 030ADV26R0021 - BAA-FAQ-2024.pdf" is a list of questions we have received from past rounds and answers.
"03 - 030ADV26R0021 - Budget_Plan_Worksheet.xlsx" is a spreadsheet you must complete IF you are invited to submit a full proposal. You do not need it for the concept papers due on April 10th, but it might be a helpful resource as you think about pricing.
"04 - 030ADV26R0021 - Vivian Li - Proposal-redacted-PII.pdf" is an example of a selected full proposal for the 2024 Innovator in Residence program by current innovator Vivian Li.
"05 - 030ADV26R0021 - Li - Concept Paper - redacted.pdf" is an example of a selected concept paper for the 2024 Innovator in Residence program by current innovator Vivian Li.
"06 - 030ADV26R0021 - Finding-LC-Digital-Collections.pdf" is a helpful resource that highlights some of the Library's digital collections and tips on how to browse others to get ideas for your concept.

Questions?

Take a look at the FAQ. Still have a question? Email our Contracts and Grants Directorate at LOC-BAA@loc.gov. Include this BAA number (030ADV26R0021) and “BAA Innovator in Residence” in the subject line. Questions received after March 20th, 2026 may not be answered. All final questions and answers received in webinars or by email will be posted on March 25th, 2026 on this page and SAM.gov.

About the Residency

The Innovator in Residence program is part of the Library’s multifaceted effort to harness emerging technology and transformational experimentation to further its mission. In support of this effort, the Library of Congress has issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to fund individuals to do research with Library of Congress collections, produce a creative and transformative digital work for the American people, and serve as an ambassador for the Library. The residency is anticipated to be mostly remote, with some in-person research and event requirements, beginning in late September 2026. The residency will be no less than 12 months and no more than 24 months. Applicants will propose their own schedule for the residency as part of the application process. A second year of the residency is optional but not required, pending Library approval and available funding. Proposed budgets should not exceed $90,000 for the first year and $90,000 for an optional second year. The selected Innovators in Residence will have access to both publicly available and on-site only Library collections and will be given program and research support. The work(s) will be displayed on the Library’s websites and/or in public spaces at the discretion of the Library.

Current Innovator in Residence

Artist, developer and 2025 Innovator in Residence Vivian Li created Anywhere Adventures, a mobile website for audiences around the country to learn about their hometowns through items from the Library’s digital collections. Full of historical photos, maps, newspaper articles and other Library materials, the mobile website, designed to be viewed on a phone, offers self-guided tours of locations across each of the selected cities.

Past Innovators

2022 Jeffrey Yoo Warren digitally reconstructed historic Chinatowns with 3D and virtual reality technologies as part of Seeing Lost Enclaves: Relational Reconstructions of Erased Historic Neighborhoods of Color. Yoo Warren published a toolkit to share his methodology.
2021 Courtney McClellan - designed and curated Speculative Annotation, a dynamic website presenting items from the Library’s collections for students and teachers to have conversations with history through annotation.
2020 Brian Foo - created the application Citizen Dj to enable the public to discover and create from LC free to use sound collections. Brian's concept paper is available at [baa link] for applicants to see.
2020 Benjamin Charles Germain Lee - created a way for users to explore visual content from historic newspapers in the Chronicling America collection using machine learning.
2018 Jer Thorp - applied the idea of serendipity to the scale of LC collections through the podcast "Artist in the Archive" and a suite of applications