![]() ![]() The deadline for this program has passed. Updated guidelines will be posted in advance of the next deadline. In the meantime, please use these guidelines to get a sense of what is involved in assembling an application.
Date posted: August 9, 2010
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.169
Questions?
Questions from U.S. applicants should be directed to NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities
at odh@neh.gov. Applicants wishing to speak to a staff member by telephone should provide in an e-mail message a telephone number and a preferred time to call. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.
Questions from German applicants should be directed to DFG at +49 (228) 885-2857 or christoph.kuemmel@dfg.de
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
in the United States and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
e.V., DFG) in Germany are working together to offer support for digital humanities projects.
These grants provide funding for up to two bilateral symposia or workshops in the area of
digital humanities.
Collaboration between U.S. and German partners is a key requirement for this grant category. The goal of this request for proposals is to promote stronger bilateral cooperation and increased competencies in the digital humanities communities in the two countries by initiating or intensifying contact between distinguished scholars, junior researchers, scientists, librarians, information professionals, and others working on humanities projects.
Each application must be sponsored
by one eligible institution (U.S.) and one individual (Germany), and there
must be a project director from each country (see Eligibility requirements
below). The partners will collaborate to write a single application package,
which the U.S. partner will submit to the NEH (via Grants.gov) and the German
partner will submit to the DFG via regular postal service (original plus duplicate;
additional submission of a PDF version via e-mail is encouraged).
All potential applicants should note that while NEH and DFG each host a version of the guidelines on their respective websites, the requirements for the application package as outlined in the section “Application and Submission Information” are identical. However, each set of guidelines contains some variations in grant administration procedures to be followed by successful applicants. These variations reflect the administrative and organizational requirements of each country.
Beside the research goal, applications should explain the need for the U.S.-German partnership and provide workable approaches to key issues within the digital humanities.
Proposals for bilateral symposia or workshops may focus on any area of the digital humanities. Eligible areas include but are not limited to
Proposals for bilateral symposia and workshops should specify an output resulting from the event or events (in most cases this will be a conference report and first steps toward future bilateral collaboration). Proposals should also include a plan for the dissemination of the results of the symposium or workshop.
All other factors being equal, preference will be given to applications proposing symposia or workshops hosted in the United States or Germany. Applicants proposing to host events in another country must justify the choice of venue for these exceptional cases. Furthermore, when exceptional circumstances warrant additional participants from a third country, DFG and NEH funds may be used to pay for subsistence and international travel for participants from countries other than Germany and the United States, but applicants must explain the rationale governing their selection of participants.
Successful applicants will be expected to create and make publicly available a final report, or “white paper,” as one of their work products. This report should document the project, including lessons learned, so that others can benefit from their experience. Applicants who wish to enhance digital humanities collections by adding resources, uniting split collections, or building joint infrastructure or tools should apply to the DFG/NEH Bilateral Digital Humanities Program: Enriching Digital Collections. Proposals for bilateral symposia or workshops may not be used for
Open access and grant products
Both NEH (as a taxpayer-supported federal agency) and DFG (as a publicly-financed independent agency) endeavor to make the products of their grants available to the broadest possible audience. Our goal is for scholars, educators, students, and the U.S. and German public to have ready and easy access to the wide range of NEH and DFG grant products. For projects that lead to the development of websites or other online resources, all other considerations being equal, NEH and DFG give preference to those that provide free access to the public. Detailed guidance on access and dissemination matters can be found in the Work plan and Results sections below.
Awards range from $20,000 to $100,000 (approximately €16,000 to €80,000) for up to one year. These award amounts represent the sum of the awards made by NEH and DFG. Note that the German participants must follow allowable amounts according to the German Federal Travel Expenses Act.
A representative from each country will receive its portion of the grant funds from the funding agency in its country (NEH in the U.S.; DFG in Germany). Projects must include an American project director with an institutional affiliation and a German project director who may but need not have an institutional affiliation, so that funds may be distributed according to respective national laws and funding guidelines. Successful applicants to NEH will be awarded a grant in outright funds. Applicants should endeavor to balance the requests to NEH and DFG, requesting roughly equal amounts of money from each agency. The total amount requested from both agencies together should not exceed the $100,000 (approximately €80,000) limit.
On average, workshops or symposia will have ten to fifteen participants from each country for a single event or a series of two events.
Funding can be provided for the following:
German participants should follow the guidelines of the German Federal Travel Expenses Act (Bundesreisekostengesetz, or BRKG), and participants should plan for economy airfare only. Travel costs charged to NEH grant funds must adhere to the guidelines contained in Article 9. Travel Costs and Article 10. Foreign Travel of the General Terms and Conditions for Awards. Please note that all air transportation of persons or property that is paid in whole or in part with NEH funds must be performed on a U.S. flag air carrier as outlined in Article 10.
Cost allocation policy
Costs will be shared as follows:
If the workshop or symposium is being held in Germany, applicants may request from DFG funding according to the German Federal Travel Expenses Act (BRKG) for
Applicants may request from NEH funding for
If the workshop or symposium is being held in the United States, applicants may request from NEH funding for
Applicants may request from DFG funding for
Cost sharing
Cost sharing is not required.
Applications must be submitted to both NEH and DFG. Applications
sent to only one agency will not be considered for review.
See “How to Submit Your Application” for instructions
on submitting to each granting agency.
Late, incomplete, and ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
U.S. partner eligibility
Any U.S. nonprofit organization with IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status is eligible, as are state and local governmental agencies and tribal governments. Individuals are not eligible to apply.
NEH generally does not award grants to other federal entities or to applicants whose projects are so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities. This does not preclude applicants from using grant funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in their projects.
German partner eligibility
Proposals may be submitted by an individual researcher in Germany who intends to serve as the project coordinator. The individual researcher may but need not have an institutional affiliation and must have completed his or her research training (usually by having obtained a doctorate).
Ineligible to apply, however, are individuals working at for-profit institutions or at institutions that do not allow immediate publication of research findings in a generally accessible form.
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR APPLICATION
Application advice
Prior to submitting a proposal, applicants are encouraged to contact program officers who can offer advice about preparing the proposal. These comments are not part of the formal review process and have no bearing on the final outcome of the proposal, but applicants have found them helpful in strengthening their applications. You may submit a draft proposal to either DFG or NEH (or both) until six weeks prior to the deadline.
You will submit your single application to both funding agencies. Co-applicants should collaborate in order to create this single application package. The application materials should be exactly the same in the copies submitted to NEH and DFG, with the following exception: Applications submitted to NEH through Grants.gov should list a primary project director affiliated with a U.S. institution; applications submitted to the DFG should list a primary project director (“Hauptantragsteller”) who may but need not be affiliated with a German institution.
The application should consist of the following parts:
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION VIA GRANTS.GOV
Register or Verify Registration with Grants.gov
Applications for this program must be submitted via Grants.gov. Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register with the website to create an institutional profile. Once registered, your organization can then apply for any government grant on the Grants.gov website.
If your organization has already registered and you have verified that your registration is still valid, you may skip this step. If not, please see the Grants.gov checklist to guide you through the registration process. We strongly recommend that you complete or verify your registration at least two weeks before the application deadline, as it takes time for your registration to be processed. If you have problems registering with Grants.gov, call the Grants.gov help desk at 1-800-518-4726.
Download the Free Adobe Reader software
To fill out a Grants.gov application package, you will need to download and install the current version of Adobe Reader. The latest version of Adobe Reader, which is designed to function with PCs and Macintosh computers using a variety of popular operating systems, is available at no charge from the Adobe website (www.adobe.com). Click on “Get Adobe Reader” and then “Download Now.”
Once installed, the current version of Adobe Reader will allow you to view and fill out Grants.gov application packages for any federal agency. If you have a problem installing Adobe Reader, it may be because you do not have permission to install a new program on your computer. Many organizations have rules about installing new programs. If you encounter a problem, contact your system administrator.
Download the Application Package
To submit your application, you will need to download the application package from the Grants.gov website. You can download the application package at any time. (You do not have to wait for your Grants.gov registration to be complete.) Click the button at the right to download the package.
Save the application package to your computer’s hard drive. To open the application package, select the file and double click. You do not have to be online to work on it.
You can save your application package at any time by clicking the “Save” button at the top of your screen. Tip: If you choose to save your application package before you have completed all the required forms, you may receive an error message indicating that your application is not valid. Click “OK” to save your work and complete the package another time. You can also use e-mail to share the application package with members of your organization or project team.
The application package contains four forms that you must complete in order to submit your application:
To assist applicants, Grants.gov provides a helpful troubleshooting page.
How to Fill Out the SF-424 Short Form
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. In items 6, 7, 8, and 9 below, NEH recommends that the project title, brief project description, project director’s name, primary contact/grants administrators name, and authorized representative’s name be typed directly onto the form, instead of being pasted in; pasted-in quotation marks, diacritics, and other symbols are often converted into question marks during transmittal.
Please provide the following information:
How to Fill Out the Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the following information:
How to Fill Out the Project/Performance Site Location(s) Form
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the requested information. Instructions for the form can be found here: http://grants.gov/assets/Forms/SF424Site_Location_Instructions.pdf. Alternatively, instructions for each requested data element may be viewed by positioning your cursor over the blank field.
How to Use the Attachments Form
You will use this form to attach the files that make up your application.
Your attachments must be in Portable Document Format (.pdf). We cannot accept
attachments in their original word processing or spreadsheet formats. If you don’t already have software to convert your files into PDFs, many low-cost and free software packages will do so. To learn more, go to www.neh.gov/grants/grantsgov/pdf.html.
When you open the Attachments Form, you will find fifteen attachment buttons, labeled “Attachment 1” through “Attachment 15.” By clicking on a button, you will be able to choose
the file from your computer that you wish to attach. You must name and attach your files
in the proper order so that we can identify them. Please attach the proper file to the
proper button as listed below:
ATTACHMENT 1: To this button, please attach your description of the project and its significance.
Name the file “projectdescription.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 2: To this button, please attach your table of contents. Name the file “contents.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 3: To this button, please attach your narrative. Name the file “narrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 4: To this button, please attach your NEH budget. Name the file “NEHbudget.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 5: To this button, please attach your DFG budget. Name the file “DFGbudget.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 6: To this button, please attach your budget narrative. Name the file “budgetnarrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 7: To this button, please attach your list of participants. Name the file “participants.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 8: To this button, please attach your CVs. Name the file “cv.pdf”.
Use the remaining buttons to attach any additional materials (if appropriate). Please give these attachments meaningful file names and ensure that they are PDFs.
Uploading Your Application to Grants.gov
When you have completed all four forms, use the right-facing arrow to move each of them to the “Mandatory Documents for Submission” column. Once they have been moved over,
the “Submit” button will activate. You are now ready to upload your application package to Grants.gov.
During the registration process, your institution designated one or more AORs (Authorized Organization Representatives). These AORs typically work in your institution’s Sponsored Research Office or Grants Office. When you have completed your application, you must ask your AOR to submit the application, using the special username and password that were assigned to him or her during the registration process.
To submit your application, your computer must have an active connection to the Internet. To begin the submission process, click the “Submit” button. A page will appear, asking you to sign and submit your application.
At this point, your AOR will enter his or her username and password. When you click
the “Sign and Submit Application” button, your application package will be uploaded to Grants.gov. Please note that it may take some time to upload your application package, depending on the size of your files and the speed of your Internet connection.
After the upload is complete, a confirmation page will appear. This page, which includes a tracking number, indicates that you have submitted your application to Grants.gov. Please print this page for your records. The AOR will also receive a confirmation e-mail message.
NEH suggests that you submit your application no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the day of the deadline. Doing so will leave you time to contact the Grants.gov help desk for support, should you encounter a technical problem of some kind. The Grants.gov help desk is now available seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day (except on federal holidays), at 1-800-518-4726. You can also send an e-mail message to support@grants.gov.
To assist applicants, Grants.gov provides a helpful troubleshooting page.
Deadlines
Applications must be received by Grants.gov on or before November 16, 2010. Grants.gov will date- and time-stamp your application after it is fully uploaded. Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted.
How to Submit Your Application to DFG
Applicants should fill out the following cover sheet for their application:
Signed applications should be sent in duplicate by postal mail to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, z.Hd. Dr. Christoph Kümmel, Gruppe Wissenschaftliche Literaturversorgungs- und Informationssysteme, Kennedyallee 40, 53175 Bonn. Applicants are advised to send an additional version of the application as a PDF document to the DFG e-mail address specified under contacts.
Reviewers involved in the process will be asked to apply the following criteria in assessing applications:
All other considerations being equal, preference will be given to projects that provide free, online access to digital materials produced with grant funds (Open Access).
Review and selection process
Each proposal submitted to NEH and DFG will be evaluated by independent reviewers. Reviewers will read each application and advise NEH and DFG about the application’s merits. DFG and NEH staff will comment on matters of fact or on significant issues that otherwise would be missing from these reviews. The NEH Chairman takes into account the advice provided by the review process and the National Council on the Humanities and, by law, makes all final NEH funding decisions. The DFG Joint Committee makes all final DFG funding decisions, except in those cases in which it has delegated this power to the President of the DFG. DFG and NEH will notify applicants by September 2011 whether proposals have been approved for funding. If only one of the two agencies recommends funding for a project, the principal investigators may be given the option of seeking additional outside funding—either at their home institutions or from an outside funding organization—in order to fully fund the project.
The information below is for the U.S. partner in the project.
Award notices
Applicants will be notified by e-mail of the decision by September 2011. Institutional grants administrators and project directors of successful applications will also receive at that time award documents by e-mail. Applicants may obtain the evaluations of their applications by sending an e-mail message to odh@neh.gov.
Administrative requirements
Before submitting an application, applicants should review their responsibilities as
an award recipient.
Award conditions
The requirements for awards are contained in the General Terms and Conditions for Awards, any specific terms and conditions contained in the award document, and the applicable OMB circulars governing federal grants management.
Reporting requirements
A schedule of report due dates will be included with the award document. Reports must be submitted electronically via “eGMS,” NEH’s online grant management system.
Interim and final performance reports will be required. Further details can be found in Performance Reporting Requirements.
A final Federal Financial Report (SF-425) will be due within ninety days after the end of the award period. For further details, please see the Financial Reporting Requirements.
A white paper will be required and will be due within ninety days after the end of the grant period. This white paper should document the project, including lessons learned, so that others can benefit. This white paper will be posted on the NEH website.
DFG requires its award holders to submit a final performance report within two months after the workshop/symposium.
NEH contact for U.S. partners
If you have questions about the program, contact the Office of Digital Humanities staff at odh@neh.gov. Applicants wishing to speak to a staff member by telephone should provide in the e-mail message a telephone number and a preferred time to call.
If you need help using Grants.gov, contact:
Grants.gov: http://www.Grants.gov
Grants.gov help desk: support@Grants.gov Grants.gov customer support tutorials and manuals: http://www.grants.gov/applicants/resources.jsp Grants.gov support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726) Grants.gov troubleshooting tips.
DFG contact for German partners
Dr. Christoph Kümmel Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Scientific Library Services and Information Systems (Wissenschaftliche Literaturversorgungs und Informationssysteme, LIS) D-53170 Bonn Tel. +49 (228) 885-2857 Christoph.Kuemmel@dfg.de
Privacy policy
Information in these guidelines is solicited under the authority of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 956. The principal purpose for which the information will be used is to process the grant application. The information may also be used for statistical research, analysis of trends, and Congressional oversight. Failure to provide the information may result in the delay or rejection of the application.
Application completion time
The Office of Management and Budget requires federal agencies to supply information on the time needed to complete forms and also to invite comments on the paperwork burden.NEH estimates that the average time to complete this application is fifteen hours per response. This estimate includes time for reviewing instructions, researching, gathering, and maintaining the information needed, and completing and reviewing the application.
Please send any comments regarding the estimated completion time or any other aspect of this application, including suggestions for reducing the completion time, to the Chief Guidelines Officer, at guidelines@neh.gov; the Office of Publications, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, DC 20506; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (3136-0134), Washington, DC 20503. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB number.
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