One week from today, we’ll reveal the winners of the Digital Preservation Awards 2026! As we count down to the ceremony on Thursday 15 October, our “Meet the Finalists: Digital Preservation Awards 2026” video series introduces the three finalists for the Research Data Alliance Award for the Most Outstanding Digital Preservation Initiative in Commerce, Industry and the Third Sector.
This award recognizes organizations putting digital preservation into practice beyond the traditional memory institution sector. The 2026 finalists showcase three very different approaches:
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GOG Preservation Program - Good Old Games (GOG): Keeping classic PC games playable as technology changes through technical improvements and ongoing maintenance.
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LDF Recollection: Innovating a Civil Rights Archive - NAACP Legal Defense Fund Archives Team: Preserving and sharing civil rights records through a public digital repository and workflows tailored to a legal archive.
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Diageo Archive AI Cataloguing Assistant Application - Alice McFarlane, Diageo Archive: Combining AI-assisted metadata creation with archivist oversight to support the long-term accessibility of digital heritage collections.
The winner will be revealed at the Digital Preservation Awards ceremony in Warsaw on Thursday 15 October 2026, hosted by FINA as part of the No Time to Wait 10 conference. Join the celebrations online from 16:00–17:15 UTC (18:00–19:15 in Warsaw), with the livestream available on the Digital Preservation Awards page on the day.
With thanks to the Research Data Alliance for sponsoring this Award category and to our Headline Sponsor, Artefactual Systems, for supporting the 2026 Awards.Our finalist video series continues throughout the week, so look out for more stories as we count down to the celebrations!