• Program Description • Award Information • Eligibility • How to Prepare an Application • How to Submit an Application • Application Review • Award Administration • Points of Contact • Other Information • Budget Instructions and Sample Budget (PDF) • Budget form (PDF) • Definitions of types of funding • Specifications form (PDF) • Instructions for filling out Specifications Form (PDF) • DUNS number requirement • Registration checklist • Download the current version of Adobe Reader • How to convert documents into PDFs • Tips for Creating PDF Files in Grants.gov Applications • Grants.gov FAQs • Grants.gov customer support To obtain a printed version of these guidelines, call 202-606-8446, send an e-mail to info@neh.gov, or write to NEH, Office of Public Affairs, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506.

Date posted: November 27, 2007

Draft proposals: Program staff recommend that draft proposals be submitted six weeks before the deadline. Time constraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after that date.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.169

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) invite proposals for innovative, collaborative humanities projects using the latest digital technologies for the benefit of the American public, humanities scholarship, and the nation's cultural institutions. These grants require substantive collaborations among libraries, museums, archives, universities, and other cultural organizations. Grants support projects that explore new ways to share, examine, and interpret humanities collections in a digital environment; that develop new uses and audiences for existing digital resources; or that result in extensible and transferable methodologies or tools.

• advance the role of cultural repositories in online teaching, learning, and research for public audiences, teachers, students, and scholars;
• develop collaborative approaches involving the scholarly community and cultural repositories for the creation, preservation, use, and presentation of reusable digital collections and products;
• use innovative approaches in digital technology to provide new perspectives on humanities resources or offer new interpretive contexts for scholars, students, and public audiences; or
• examine and coordinate community-based approaches and standards for making resources available online and allowing them to be widely shared.

Types of projects not supported

• projects whose primary activity involves digitization of collections;
• recurring or established conferences or professional meetings;
• creative or performing arts;
• empirical social scientific research;
• specific policy studies;
• the preparation or publication of textbooks;
• projects that focus on general pedagogical theory, research on educational methods, tests, or measurements;
• projects that focus on cognitive psychology;
• projects devoted to political, religious, commercial, or social advocacy;
• purchase of artifacts or collections;
• professional development; or
• general operations, renovation, or construction.

Application advice and proposal drafts: Prior to submitting a proposal, applicants are encouraged to contact program officers who can offer advice about preparing the proposal and review draft proposals. These comments are not part of the formal review process and have no bearing on the final outcome of the proposal, but applicants in other programs have found them helpful in strengthening their applications. Program staff recommend that draft proposals be submitted six weeks before the deadline. Time contraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after that date. Draft proposals should be submitted by e-mail attachment to preservation@neh.gov. You will prepare your application for submission via Grants.gov just as you would a paper application. Your application should consist of the following parts:

1. Description of the project and its significance Provide a one-page abstract written for a non-specialist audience, clearly explaining the project's importance to the humanities, the major issues to be addressed, its principal activities, and its expected results.
2. Table of contents List all parts of the application and corresponding page numbers.
3. List of participants On a separate page, list in alphabetical order, surnames first, all project participants and collaborators and their institutional affiliations. This list should include advisory board members and authors of letters of support, if any. The list is used to ensure that prospective panelists have no conflict of interest with the project that they will be evaluating.
4. Narrative Limit the narrative to twenty single-sided and single-spaced pages. All pages should have one-inch margins and the font size should be no smaller than eleven point. Use appendices to provide supplementary material. Individuals with a variety of professional backgrounds will read these applications and advise NEH on their merits. Project narratives should, therefore, be written so that they can be understood by persons who may not have the same technical awareness as the applicant. Provide a detailed project description that addresses the following topics:
• Significance and impact Provide a clear and concise explanation of the project’s goals. Discuss the significance of the project on the basis of its lasting value to research, education, or public programming in the humanities. Describe the scope of the project and its relationship to other work in the field. Explain the significance and potential impact of the new model, methodology, or tool that the project would produce or demonstrate. Discuss the project’s impact on museums, libraries, or archives.
• Importance of your collaboration Provide a concise description of the organizations or entities that are collaborating on the project and explain the history of the collaborative relationship. Describe the strengths of the collaborators and their respective roles and discuss the importance of the collaboration. If relevant, discuss any planned partnerships with private sector organizations. NEH and IMLS encourage substantive collaborations where each organization or entity would have a significant role in the project.
• History and duration of the project Provide a concise history of the project, including information about preliminary research or planning, previous related work and products, and previous financial support. If a project will take more than two years to complete, describe the scope and duration of the entire project, as well as the specific accomplishments or products intended for the proposed grant period. Describe probable sources of support for subsequent phases of the project.
• Enhancing the humanities through the use of innovative technologies, methodologies, tools, or models Explain what is innovative about the project. Discuss how the project will explore or use new technologies, methodologies, tools, or models to accomplish its goals. Discuss how this project's approach differs from or builds upon other relevant work and discuss the potential advantages to the field or its intended audiences. If applicable, describe the resources or research facilities available to the project.
• Methodology and standards Explain and justify the process, procedures, and standards that will be used to carry out the project. Discuss how humanities scholars and other appropriate professionals working as a team will guide the project in developing procedures, best practices, or national standards, and how any products will reflect their contributions. Discuss how materials or information will be organized, presented, and disseminated in a manner that reflects sound scholarship, accepted professional practices, and national standards pertinent to the project's materials and methods. If the methodology departs from accepted standards and procedures, explain why the project's goals require this approach and whether the results would be compatible with other resources that follow existing standards. If a prototype or test bed will be created, indicate how its scope and content will be appropriate to the goals of the project. For projects that include the creation of Web sites, describe the Web site’s architecture and functionality, as well as the user interface and the intended user experience. Include URLs, sample screen shots, or other materials that will show the final or anticipated form of the project, and discuss the experience of the project's staff in doing comparable work. While Advancing Knowledge projects may not focus on digitizing collections, some digitization may be necessary to accomplish the project’s broader goals. In such cases, applicants should explain the extent and purpose of the digitization activities. Proposals that include converting non-digital material to digital format, creating new digital content, or repurposing of existing digital content must include the Specifications for Projects That Develop Digital Products form (2-page PDF, to be included as Attachment 8). NEH views free access to collections, models, and tools as a key component of exemplary digital projects in the humanities. If the project's products will not be freely available and open source, explain why and explain how the Endowment's dissemination priorities will still be satisfied by the project.
• Evaluation Describe how the results of the project will be evaluated. Explain how the project will test the potential applicability of any innovative methodologies, tools, or products that the project is likely to develop.
• Dissemination Explain how the results of the project will be disseminated and why these means are appropriate to the intended audiences. Dissemination plans should include all appropriate audiences. If relevant, discuss print or electronic publishing arrangements and provide an estimated price for the final product. Discuss what provisions will be made for the long-term maintenance of digital products. Discuss any intellectual property issues that might affect the availability of the materials. Institutions receiving grants to create software are expected to publish or provide technical documentation concerning its development and implementation and to indicate plans for its continuing maintenance and updating. The Endowment expects grantees to provide broad access to all grant products, insofar as the conditions of the materials and intellectual property rights allow. NEH strongly encourages projects that offer free public access to online resources. All other considerations being equal, NEH will give preference to projects that provide free, online access to digital materials produced with grant funds. All institutions receiving grants are to create a "lessons learned" white paper. This white paper should present the project’s goals, document its activities, and analyze results and outcomes. The paper should clearly describe the lessons learned so that others can benefit from the project.
• Work Plan Describe the specific tasks that will be accomplished during the grant period and the specific individuals who will be responsible for their completion. Include a schedule indicating what will be accomplished during each stage of the project. The activities described in the proposal should be completed by the end of the grant period.
• Staff Identify the project director, scholars, and collaborators who would work on the project during the proposed grant period, and describe their responsibilities and qualifications. Provide résumés for the principal collaborators (maximum of two pages each) in an appendix. Project directors must devote a significant portion of their time to their projects. All persons directly involved in the conduct of the proposed project—whether or not their salaries are paid from grant funds—should be listed, their anticipated commitments of time should be indicated, and the reasons for and nature of their collaboration explained. If the project has an advisory board, provide a statement of its function.
5. Budget Using the instructions, complete the budget form (PDF form). While all items should be justified by the narrative, further explanation may be included in brief budget notes. For any outsourced work, third-party contractor costs should be included in the budget category "Services." Attach a complete itemization of these costs to the budget form. If there is more than one contractor, each one must be listed on the budget form and the costs itemized separately. To the maximum extent practical, all procurement contracts must be made through an open and free competition. They are to be awarded to the bidder or offeror whose bid or offer is most advantageous, considering price, quality and other factors. Applicants must justify procurement contracts in excess of $100,000 that are not awarded by competitive bids or offers. Permanent equipment may be purchased for a project if an analysis demonstrates that it is the most economical and practical alternative to leasing. Permanent equipment is defined as nonexpendable personal property costing $5,000 or more and having a useful life of more than one year. Consistent with the Buy American Act (41 U.S.C. 10a-c and Public Law 105-277), grantees and subrecipients who purchase equipment and products with grant funds should purchase only American-made equipment and products.
6. Appendices Use appendices to provide:
   • representative samples of the final or anticipated form of the work, prefaced by explanatory notes (if applicable);
   • brief résumés (no longer than two pages) for staff with major responsibilities for the project's implementation;
   • job descriptions for any additional staff who will be hired specifically to work on the project;
   • brief résumés (no longer than two pages) for project consultants;
   • letters of commitment from outside participants and each of the collaborating institutions; and
   • letters of support addressing the project's significance and written by experts in the project's subject area, proposed methodology, or technical plan (authors of letters of support will not participate further in the NEH review process).
7. History of grants If the project has received previous support from any federal or nonfederal sources, including NEH or IMLS, list on one page the sources, dates, and amounts of these funds. If the project has a long history of support, the sources and contributions may be grouped and summarized.

Applications for this program must be submitted via Grants.gov. Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register with the Web site to create an institutional profile. Once registered, your organization can then apply for any government grant on the Grants.gov Web site.

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 our handy checklist to guide you through the registration process. We strongly recommend 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.

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 APPLICATION PACKAGE

To submit your application, you will need to download the application package from the Grants.gov Web site. 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 it, you may receive an error message indicating that your application is not valid if all of the forms have not been completed. 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 three forms that you must complete in order to submit your application:

1. Application for Federal Domestic Assistance - Short Organizational (SF-424 Short)—this form asks for basic information about the project, the project director, and the institution.
2. Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs—this form asks for additional information about the project director, the institution, and the budget.
3. NEH Attachment Form—this form allows you to attach your narrative, budget, and the other parts of your application.

HOW TO FILL OUT THE APPLICATION FOR FEDERAL DOMESTIC ASSISTANCE SF-424 SHORT FORM

Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the following information:

1. Name of Federal Agency: This will be filled in automatically with "National Endowment for the Humanities."
2. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: This will be filled in automatically with the CFDA number and title of the NEH program to which you are applying.
3. Date Received: Please leave blank.
4. Funding Opportunity Number: This will be filled in automatically.
5. Applicant Information: In this section, please supply the name, address, employer/taxpayer identification number (EIN/TIN), DUNS number, Web site address, and congressional district of the institution. Also choose the "type" that best describes your institution (you only need to select one). If your institution is located, for example, in the 5th Congressional District of your state, put a "5." If your institution doesn't have a congressional district (e.g. it is in a state or U.S. territory that doesn't have districts or is in a foreign country), put a "0" (zero). All institutions applying to federal grant programs are required to provide a DUNS number, issued by Dun & Bradstreet, as part of their application. Project directors should contact their institution’s grant administrator or chief financial officer to obtain their institution’s DUNS number. Federal grant applicants can obtain a DUNS number free of charge by calling 1-866-705-5711. (Learn more about the requirement.)
6. Project Information: Provide the title of your project. Your title should be brief, descriptive, and substantive. It should also be informative to a non-specialist audience. Provide a brief description of your project. The description should be written for a non-specialist audience and clearly state the importance of the proposed work and its relation to larger issues in the humanities. List the starting and ending dates for your project.
7. Project Director: Provide the Social Security Number, name, title, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers for the project director. Disclosure of Social Security Numbers is optional. NEH uses them for internal application processing only.
8. Primary Contact/Grants Administrator: Provide the contact information for the official responsible for the administration of the grant (e.g., negotiating the project budget and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of the award). This person is often a grants or research officer or a sponsored programs official. Normally, the Institutional Grants Administrator is not the same person as the Project Director. If the project director and the grant administrator are the same person, skip to item 9.
9. Authorized Representative: Provide the contact information for the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) who is submitting the application on behalf of the institution. This person, often called an "Authorizing Official," is typically the president, vice president, executive director, provost, or chancellor. In order to become an AOR, the person must be designated by the institution's E-Business Point of Contact. For more information, please consult the Grants.gov user guide, which is available at: www.grants.gov/applicants/applicant_help.jsp.

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:

1. Project Director: Use the pull-down menu to select the major field of study for the project director.
2. Institution Information: Use the pull-down menu to select your type of institution.
3. Project Funding: Enter your project funding information. Note that applicants for Challenge Grants should use the right column only; applicants to all other programs should use the left column only.
4. Application Information: Indicate whether the proposal will be submitted to other NEH grant programs, government agencies, or private entities for funding. If so, please indicate where and when. NEH frequently cosponsors projects with other funding sources. Providing this information will not prejudice the review of your application. For Type of Application, check "new" if the application requests a new period of funding, whether for a new project or the next phase of a project previously funded by NEH. Check "supplement" if the application requests additional funding for a current NEH grant. If requesting a supplement, provide the current grant number (applicants should discuss their request with a NEH program officer before submitting such applications). For Project Field Code, use the pull-down menu to select the humanities field of the project. If the project is multidisciplinary, choose the field that corresponds to the project's predominant discipline.

You will use this form to attach the various files that make up your application.

When you open the NEH Attachment Form, you will find 15 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 2: To this button, please attach your table of contents. Please name the file "contents.pdf".

ATTACHMENT 4: To this button, please attach your narrative. Please name the file "narrative.pdf".

ATTACHMENT 6: To this button, please attach your appendices. Please name the file "appendices.pdf".

ATTACHMENT 8: To this button, please attach your Specifications for Projects That Develop Digital Products form (2-page PDF). Please name the file "specifications.pdf". (Note: Only some applicants need to attach this file; for more details, please see the Methodologies and Standards paragraph of the Narrative Instructions).

Use the remaining buttons to attach any additional materials (if appropriate). Please give these attachments meaningful file names and ensure that they are PDFs.

When you have completed all three 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.

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, which includes a tracking number, will appear indicating 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.

NEH suggests that you submit your application no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the day of the deadline. That way, should you encounter a technical problem of some kind, you will still have time to contact the Grants.gov help desk for support. The Grants.gov help desk is open Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time at 1-800-518-4726. You can also send an e-mail to support@grants.gov.

NEH continues to experience lengthy delays in the delivery of mail by the U.S. Postal Service, and in some cases materials are damaged by the irradiation process. We recommend that supplementary materials be sent by a commercial delivery service to ensure that they arrive intact by the receipt deadline.

• the degree to which the project would make a significant contribution to the humanities;
• the potential impact of the project, including its benefit to museums, libraries or archives;
• the degree to which the project reflects substantive collaboration;
• the soundness of the methodology, including its adherence to accepted professional and technical standards of practice;
• the viability of the work plan, dissemination efforts, and evaluation procedures;
• the professional training and experience of the staff in relation to the activity for which support is requested; and
• the appropriateness of the project's budget.

All other considerations being equal, preference will be given to projects that provide free online access to digital materials produced with grant funds.

Review and Selection Process

Award notices

Applicants will be notified of the decision by mail in September 2008. Institutional grants administrators and project directors of successful applications will also receive award documents by mail at that time. Applicants may obtain the reasons for funding decisions on their applications by sending an e-mail to preservation@neh.gov.

Administrative requirements

Before submitting an application, applicants should review their responsibilities as an award recipient and the lobbying certification requirement.

Award conditions

The requirements for awards are contained in the General Terms and Conditions for Awards to Organizations, 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.

Interim and final performance reports will be required. Further details can be found in Performance Reporting Requirements (formerly enclosure 2).

A Federal Cash Transactions Report (2-page PDF) will be due within 30 days after the end of each calendar quarter. A final Financial Status Report (2-page PDF) will be due within 90 days after the completion date of the award period. Further details can be found in Financial Reporting Requirements (formerly Enclosure 1).

If you have questions about the program, contact: Division of Preservation and Access Room 411 National Endowment for the Humanities 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20506 202-606-8570 preservation@neh.gov

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/applicant_help.jsp Grants.gov support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726)

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 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 Office of Publications, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C. 20506; and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (3136-0134), Washington, D.C. 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.