Date posted: July 31, 2007
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Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.161
Questions?
Contact the staff of NEH's Division of Research Programs at 202-606-8200 and collaborative@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.
Eligible projects include:
- research that significantly adds to knowledge and understanding in the humanities;
- conferences on topics of major importance in the humanities that will benefit ongoing research;
- archaeological projects that include the interpretation and communication of results (projects may encompass excavation, materials analysis, laboratory work, field reports, and preparation of interpretive monographs);
- translations into English of works that provide insight into the history, literature, philosophy, and artistic achievements of other cultures; and
- research that uses the knowledge, methods, and perspectives of the humanities to enhance understanding of science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences.
These grants support full-time or part-time activities for periods of one to three years. Support is available for various combinations of scholars, consultants, and research assistants; project-related travel; field work; applications of information technology; and technical support and services. All grantees are expected to communicate the results of their work to the appropriate scholarly and public audiences.
Providing Access to Grant Products
Previously funded projects
Collaborative Research Grants may not be used for:
- specific policy studies or educational or technical impact assessments;
- projects that seek to promote a particular political, philosophical, religious, or ideological point of view;
- projects that advocate a particular program of social action;
- support for the preparation or publication of textbooks;
- archaeological materials analysis whose primary goal is refinement of a method;
- inventories of collections;
- research in educational methods, tests, or measurements;
- recurrent meetings of professional organizations, societies, and scholarly organizations;
- planning or putting on exhibitions.
- support for publication costs or publication subvention.
Note: Proposals for documentary editing should be submitted to Scholarly Editions Grants. Proposals for preparing bibliographies, descriptive catalogs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, databases, or other research tools or reference works should be submitted to the Humanities Collections and Resources in the Division of Preservation and Access.
We the People Grant Program
Rediscovering Afghanistan
Digital Humanities Initiative
Cost sharing
(Learn more about different types of grant funding.)
- U.S. nonprofit organizations or institutions with IRS 501(c) (3) tax exempt status;
- state and local governments, and tribal governments;
- U.S. citizens; and
- foreign nationals who have been living in the United States or its jurisdictions for at least the three years immediately prior to the time of application.
Applicants affiliated with an eligible institution must apply through an institution, ordinarily their own institution. Adjunct faculty may apply as individuals.
Degree candidates may not be project directors.
Project directors may submit only one application to this program, although they may apply for other NEH awards, including Fellowships or Summer Stipends.
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 other federal entities in their projects, as long as these resources are not used as gifts to release NEH matching funds.
Ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
- Statement of significance and impact
Provide a one-page abstract written for a nonspecialist audience stating clearly the importance of the proposed work and its relation to larger issues in the humanities. - Table of contents
List all parts of the application and corresponding page numbers. - List of participants
On a separate page, list in alphabetical order, surnames first, all project participants and collaborators and their institutional affiliations, if any. The names on this list should match the names mentioned in the staff section of the project's narrative description. The list is used to ensure that prospective evaluators have no conflict of interest with the project that they will be evaluating. This list should include advisory board members, if any. - Narrative
Applicants should provide an intellectual justification for the project and a work plan. Narrative descriptions are limited to twenty-five double-spaced pages. Applications exceeding the page limit will not be reviewed. All pages should have one-inch margins and the font size should be no smaller than eleven point. Use appendices to provide supplementary material. Applicants should keep in mind the criteria ( listed below) used to evaluate proposals. Provide a detailed project description consisting of the following sections:- Substance and context
Provide a clear and concise explanation of the project and its value to scholars, students, and general audiences in the humanities. Describe the scope of the research, source materials, the relationship of the research to other published and ongoing work in the field, and major issues to be addressed. Include a bibliographical essay in the narrative section or a bibliography of relevant primary and secondary sources in an appendix. - History and duration of the project
Provide a concise history of the project, including information about preliminary research or planning, previous financial support, publications produced, and resources or research facilities available. List any volumes, microform products, or electronic products produced with dates of publication; where applicable, the list should indicate the publisher, print or production runs, sales, and royalties. Provide reviews of the most recent volume or other product in an appendix. If an archaeological excavation is proposed, list publications of previous field reports and interpretive studies of the site. If the project has a Web site, provide its address. If work on the project will continue after the period of the grant, the applicant should provide details about that work and probable sources of support. - Staff
Identify the project director and collaborators who would work on the project during the proposed grant period, and describe their responsibilities and qualifications. All collaborators should be identified, regardless of whether NEH funds are requested to support their participation in the project. Provide résumés of 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 named, their anticipated commitments of time should be indicated, and the reasons for and nature of their participation explained. If the edition has an advisory board, provide a statement about its meetings and other activities, and a list of board members. - Methods
Explain the project's methods.- Explain how central research questions will be approached and how any potential difficulties in working with primary source materials will be resolved.
- Describe in detail the tasks to be undertaken and the computer technology to be employed, indicating what technical and staff resources will be required, as well as the staff's experience with the technology and its application to humanities scholarship.
- Applicants proposing field work should discuss the appropriateness of the methodology, including a clear, explicit discussion of the links between the project's interpretive questions, the data, and the methods of collection and analysis.
- Applicants preparing a translation should demonstrate the significance of the text to be translated and explain the criteria for selecting the text that will serve as the basis for the translation. Explain how errors and variant readings in existing editions will be dealt with, and how particular problems posed by the translation (including the degree of difficulty of the text) will be resolved. Describe the total number of existing documents and texts, the percentage of documents or pages to be translated, how that percentage was determined, and the selection criteria applied. If working with a large number of documents, describe the procedures for controlling them. If transcribing materials, describe the principles to be followed. Translations should include critical introductions and explanatory annotations to establish historical and intellectual contexts of the work or works. Describe how the introduction and annotations will contribute to a better understanding of the text.
- Applicants proposing a conference should identify the issues to be addressed and explain their importance. Identify the presenters and commentators and describe how they were selected. Describe in detail the qualifications of each person listed on the program. Provide letters of commitment from conference participants in an appendix. Describe the conference's daily program and show how it will foster productive discussion. Provide information about facilities to be used for holding the conference and housing the participants. Applicants must demonstrate that a conference is the appropriate method for realizing the research objectives and that the objectives cannot be achieved through regular meetings of professional organizations and formal or informal gatherings of scholars.
- Final Product and Dissemination
Explain how the results of the project will be disseminated and why these means are appropriate to the subject matter and intended audience. If relevant, discuss publishing arrangements, publicity plans, estimated prices, and user costs. While grants may be used to support works in print, NEH encourages applications that provide for online access.
Describe publication plans and provide, if possible, an outline of the publication. Include in an appendix any pertinent correspondence with a publisher, such as a letter of interest. Applicants should discuss the form chosen for the final product (printed articles or books, microform, electronic media, or some combination) and the rationale for the choice. If the project involves materials under copyright, the applicant should indicate what has been done to secure the necessary permission to publish. If the project has a Web site, please provide its URL.
The Endowment expects grantees to provide broad access to all grant products, insofar as the condition 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. - Work Plan
Describe what will be accomplished during each six-month period and identify the staff members involved. The work described in the proposal should be completed by the end of the grant period.
- Substance and context
- Project budget
Using the instructions provided, complete the budget form (PDF). - Appendices
Use appendices to provide essential supplementary materials. Appendices are limited to thirty-five pages. Include a brief résumé (two-page maximum) for each principal project participant and letters of commitment from other participants and cooperating institutions. Assessments of previous applications and testimonials (as opposed to letters of commitment from conference participants or letters of interest from prospective publishers) should not be included. Descriptive material from preliminary work or previous periods of support may be included in an appendix, but should be limited to essential information. If bibliographical references are not in the narrative, include a bibliography of the relevant primary and secondary literature in an appendix. - For archaeological excavations, include appropriate plans, maps, and photographs, as well as evidence that all necessary permits will be forthcoming.
- For translations, provide a five- to seven-page, double-spaced sample of the translation to be undertaken with appropriate sample annotations and a photocopy of the same passage in the original language. Choose passages that show the importance and the degree of difficulty of the text.
- For conferences, provide a copy of the proposed program, letters of commitment from presenters and cooperating institutions, résumés (two-page maximum) for the conference organizers, and a paragraph devoted to each presenter's qualifications.
- Statement of history of grants
If the project has received previous support from any federal or nonfederal sources, including NEH, please list the sources, dates, and amounts of these funds. These materials should explain how many years of NEH support the project has already received. If the project has a long history of support, the sources and contributions may be grouped and summarized.
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 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, you may skip this step. If not, please see our handy checklist to guide you through the registration process. We recommend you complete 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, this software will allow you to view and fill out Grants.gov application packages for any federal agency. If you have a problem installing PureEdge Viewer, 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.
| Attention Microsoft Vista users: Please note that Grants.gov does not currently support the new Microsoft Vista Operating system. The PureEdge software used by Grants.gov forms are not compatible with Vista. Grants.gov will be reviewing this new product to determine if it can be supported in the future. If you have any questions regarding this matter please email the Grants.gov help desk at support@grants.gov or call 1-800-518-4726. |
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:
- 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.
- Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs —this form asks for additional information about the project director, the institution, and the budget.
- 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:
- Name of Federal Agency : This will be filled in automatically with "National Endowment for the Humanities."
- 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.
- Date Received : Please leave blank.
- Funding Opportunity Number : This will be filled in automatically.
- 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.) - 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.
- 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. - 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.
- 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: http://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:
- Project Director : Use the pull down menu to select the major field of study for the project director.
- Institution Information : Use the pull down menu to select your type of institution.
- 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.
- 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 an application).
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.
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, there are many low-cost and free software packages available. To learn more, go to http://www.neh.gov/grants/grantsgov/pdf.html.
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 1: To this button, please attach your statement of significance and impact. Please name the file "statement.pdf".
ATTACHMENT 2: To this button, please attach your table of contents. Please name the file "contents.pdf".
ATTACHMENT 3: To this button, please attach your list of project participants. Please name the file "participantslist.pdf".
ATTACHMENT 4: To this button, please attach your narrative. Please name the file "narrative.pdf".
ATTACHMENT 5: To this button, please attach your budget. Please name the file "budget.pdf".
ATTACHMENT 6: To this button, please attach your appendices. Please name the file "appendices.pdf".
ATTACHMENT 7: To this button, please attach your history of grants. Please name the file "granthistory.pdf".
ATTACHMENT 8: To this button, please attach your list of suggested evaluators. Please name the file "evaluators.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 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.
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 was 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, 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.
HOW TO SUBMIT SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
If you are sending supplementary materials (those that cannot be submitted electronically—i.e. audio or video materials), please send eight copies of each item and include at the bottom of the table of contents a list of the materials to be mailed separately in your Grants.gov submission. Mail the materials to:
Collaborative Research
Division of Research Programs
Room 318
National Endowment for the Humanities
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20506
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.
If you wish to have the materials returned to you, please include a self-addressed, pre-paid mailer.
DEADLINES
Evaluators are asked to apply the following five criteria.
- Intellectual significance of the project, including its potential contribution to scholarship in the humanities; the likelihood that it will stimulate new research; its relationship to larger themes in the humanities; and the significance of the material on which the project is based.
- Pertinence of the research questions being posed, the appropriateness of research methods, translation approaches, or conference design; the appropriateness of the technology employed in the project; the feasibility of the work plan; in the case of translation projects, the quality of samples, e.g., their content, accuracy, readability, and the clarity and helpfulness of annotations; and the appropriateness of the field work to be undertaken, the archival or source materials to be studied, and the research site.
- Qualifications, expertise, and levels of commitment of the project director and key project staff or contributors.
- Soundness of the dissemination and access plans, including benefit to the audience identified in the proposal and the strength of the case for employing print, microform, digital format, or a combination of media; and in the case of archaeology projects, the likelihood that the project will produce an interpretive study. All other considerations being equal, preference will be given to projects that provide free, online access to digital materials produced with grant funds.
- Potential for success, including the likelihood that the work proposed will be completed within the projected time frame; where appropriate, the project's previous record of success; and the reasonableness of the proposed budget in relation to anticipated results.
Late applications will not be reviewed.
Review and Selection Process
Knowledgeable persons outside NEH will read each application and advise the agency about its merits. The Endowment's staff comments on matters of fact or on significant issues that otherwise would be missing from these reviews, then makes recommendations to the National Council on the Humanities. The National Council meets at various times during the year to advise the NEH chairman on grants. The chairman takes into account the advice provided by the review process and, by law, makes all funding decisions.
Award notices
Administrative requirements
Award conditions
Reporting requirements
Interim and final performance reports will be required. Further details can be found in Performance Reporting Requirements (formerly Enclosure 2).
For organizations, 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).
For awards to individuals, a Final Financial Status Report for Individuals (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 Instructions for Individuals (1-page PDF).
If you have questions about the program, contact NEH's Division of Research Programs at 202-606-8200 and collaborative@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930
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
Grant.gov
support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726)
Privacy Policy
Application Completion Time
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.