THE FINALISTS FOR THE DIGITAL PRESERVATION AWARDS 2026 HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!

Organized by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) every two years, the Digital Preservation Awards are the leading international celebration of achievement in digital preservation. The Awards recognize the people, projects, and organizations making outstanding contributions to securing our digital legacy.

The Awards celebrate the work of a global community committed to collaboration, innovation, and long-term access to digital content. This year's finalists were selected from initiatives, projects, and collaborations completed between August 2024 and July 2026.

DPC Members are now invited to help choose the winners through the DPC Member Vote. Winners will be announced at the Digital Preservation Awards ceremony on 15 October 2026.

The Digital Preservation Awards categories

 Click the listing to discover the great work of each of our 2026 Digital Preservation Awards Finalists! 

About the Digital Preservation Awards

Created in 2004 to raise awareness about digital preservation, the Digital Preservation Awards provide a rare opportunity to engage in high-profile advocacy, articulating nuanced messages about how and why one might engage in digital preservation. They enable the DPC, acting on behalf of the global digital preservation community, to endorse and celebrate outstanding work which may go unrecognized by others, and which may be little known among the senior managers of the agencies sponsoring this work. Therefore, nominations which have received recognition through other schemes such as the NDSA Excellence Awards are unlikely to be recognized again by the Digital Preservation Awards.

In its early iterations (2004, 2005, 2007 and 2010) the DPC sponsored a single award under the auspices of the Conservation Awards. In 2012, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Coalition, the DPC organized the Digital Preservation Awards under its own mandate, offering 3 awards. In 2014, a further 2 awards were offered and, in 2016, the DPC Fellowship was introduced for the first time. And in 2020 a new category allowing for an explicit celebration of collaboration was added. In 2022, we marked the DPC’s 20^th Anniversary with another award which celebrates a continuing, substantial and impactful contribution to the digital preservation community in any form, over the preceding 20 years. In 2026, we are offering an exciting new category to recognize the vital work of maintaining the tools, services, and infrastructure that support digital preservation over time with the Award for Resilience, Maintenance and Continuity!

The exciting process will culminate in an awards ceremony on Thursday 15^th October 2026.

We are very grateful to our sponsors and DPC Supporters for their generous contributions which enable the Digital Preservation Awards to take place:

If your organization would like to sponsor the Digital Preservation Awards please email angela.puggioni@dpconline.org. 

The Digital Preservation Awards winners have been revealed! 

The Digital Preservation Awards 2020 have been presented to our worthy winners on World Digital Preservation Day (WDPD20).

Watch the ceremony as congratulate the winners of the:

• The International Council on Archives Award for Collaboration and Cooperation
• The Software Sustainability Institute Award for Research and Innovation 
• The Dutch Digital Heritage Network Award for Teaching and Communications
• The National Records of Scotland Award for the Most Distinguished Student Work in Digital Preservation
• The National Archives (UK) Award for Safeguarding the Digital Legacy
• The DPC Award for the Most Outstanding Digital Preservation Initiative in Commerce, Industry and the Third sector
• The Digital Preservation Coalition Fellowship

Read about the Digital Preservation Awards winners

Watch the Live Stream of the Awards Presentations below:

Find out about the Digital Preservation Awards 2020 Finalists 

Drawing together the finalists' presentatations from the recent #WeMissiPRES event in September, hear our Digital Preservation Awards judges as they introduce and reflect on the excellent, inspiring and innovative people and projects they have encountered throughout the awards process.

Watch and learn about each of our incredible finalists as they tell us more about their work.

See all Digital Preservation Awards 2020 Finalists

The Digital Preservation Awards are made possible by the expertise and support provided by our international panel of Judges, and funding from our sponsors.

The Digital Preservation Awards celebrate the excellence and innovation that will help to secure our digital legacy.  

They were created in 2004 to raise awareness about digital preservation, providing a rare opportunity to engage in some high-profile advocacy, articulating nuanced messages about how and why one might engage in digital preservation. They enable the DPC to endorse and celebrate outstanding work which may go unrecognized by other communities and which may be little known among the senior managers of the agencies undertaking this work.

In its early iterations (2004, 2005, 2007 and 2010) the DPC sponsored a single award under the auspices of the Conservation Awards. In 2012, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Coalition, the DPC organized the Digital Preservation Awards under its own mandate, offering 3 awards – an award for teaching and communications, an award for research and innovation, and a special tenth anniversary award for outstanding contribution to digital preservation. In 2014 a further 2 awards were offered and in 2016 the DPC Fellowship was offered for the first time.

In 2018 the DPC again offers awards in 5 categories, alongside a sixth - ‘Fellowship’ Award:

• The Software Sustainability Institute Award for Research and Innovation which recognizes excellence in practical research and innovation activities. The award includes a cash prize of £1000, a trophy and certificates.
• The DPC Award for Teaching and Communications, recognizing excellence in outreach, training and advocacy. The award includes a cash prize of £1000, a trophy and certificates.
• The National Records of Scotland Award for the Most Distinguished Student Work in Digital Preservation, encouraging and recognizing student work in digital preservation. The prize includes attendance at an international conference, a trophy and a certificate.
• The National Archives Award for Safeguarding the Digital Legacy, which celebrates the practical application of preservation tools to protect at-risk digital objects. The award includes a cash prize of £1000, a trophy and certificates.
• The Open Data Institute Award for the Most Outstanding Digital Preservation Initiative in Commerce, Industry and the Third sector, encouraging and recognizing the adoption of digital preservation tools and approaches in institutions which are not explicitly memory institutions. The award includes a cash prize of £1000, a trophy and certificates.

In addition, winners and finalists will receive a print quality logo for reproduction on websites or stationery. All applicants will receive practical commentary on their nomination including comments from the ‘public vote’. Informal feedback suggests that this feedback has been widely re-used by applicants in grant applications and curricula vitae.

The ceremony for the Digital Preservation Awards took place in Amsterdam on the evening of World Digital Preservation Day, Thursday 29th November 2018.