Artists’ Salary Fund (Iceland) – Salary Fund for Composers (application period 15 Aug–1 Oct 2026)

This buys composers time to write. Icelandic artists' salaries are paid monthly as income for making work, not as a project budget, so the money covers your living costs while you compose rather than reimbursing studio or production expenses. The composers' fund is one of eight; performers apply to a separate music performers' fund, and a composer who also performs would submit a separate application to each.

It is open to independent, self-employed artists. If you have held artists' salaries before, your new application will not even be considered until you have filed a progress or final report on the last one. Anyone awarded six months or more is not supposed to hold a full-time job during the salary period. Applications are individual, submitted through the Rannís portal with Icelandic electronic ID — one per fund, with the most recent submission counting if you send more than one. You can write in Icelandic or English.

The number of months awarded varies, and the monthly rate is set each year in the national budget with reference to wages and prices, so this page does not name a figure. There is no match funding requirement.

Assessment is unusually transparent about its weighting: your work plan and schedule count for 70% of the score, your track record for 30%. Three-person panels appointed annually by the culture minister decide, nominated for this fund by the Icelandic composers' societies. Decisions are final, cannot be appealed to the minister, and by law come with no written reasons. This round is open 5 August to 1 October 2026, 15:00.