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Status: Open
As finances allow, Linux Australia offers a grants program in support of free and open source systems and communities in Australia and New Zealand. Grants applicants must be members of Linux Australia. In 2026 there are two grant categories on offer.
- Project Grants: funding for open source, open data, open government, open education, open hardware and open culture projects.
- Community Grants: funds to assist groups within our community with their activities.
The total funding available across all grants and sponsorships in 2026 is $30k.
What Grants are available?
Linux Australia Project Grants can be sought for the following purposes in support of open technologies:
- Overhead costs such as hardware or bandwidth
- Resources such as web space, hosting and mailing lists
- Advertising or media coverage of an event or conference
- Bulk ordering of items that may be useful to user groups or special interest groups
- Support costs for a community project that uses open technologies
- Other costs related to the delivery of the project or grant objective, within reason
Community Grants are offered to help groups within the open technology community. They can be used to help cover expenses associated with open technology community activities, such as:
- Infrastructure to support in-person or virtual meetings
- Room hire or staging costs for gatherings
- Catering for in-person events
- Publicity and promotion of community activities or events
- Reasonable costs may be included in the grant application for labour or professional services.
All resources produced with the help of Linux Australia grants should be made available under a suitable open technology or documentation licence.
Sponsorship requests for events are handled as “project” grants.
Closing date
Applications for funding will close at 23:59 on 15 November 2026 anywhere on earth. However, work funded through the program may continue past this date. Project timelines are negotiable, but in most cases projects should aim to be completed by the end of 2026.
Sounds great! How do I apply for a grant?
- Make sure you are a member of Linux Australia
- Read the Guidelines for Submissions to help you prepare a successful grant application.
- The Linux Australia Council ([email protected]) is available to answer any questions you might have.
- Submit your grant application using the form accessible on this page after logging in to the Linux Australia website as a member.
A 2 week community consultation opens when the grant application is submitted. At its next scheduled meeting after this period, the Linux Australia Council will evaluate the application and consider feedback received from the community. Notice of the outcome will be sent soon after.
