NEH Grant Programs
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: PICTURING AMERICA SCHOOL COLLABORATION PROJECTS Receipt Deadline: October 1, 2008 (for projects beginning April 2009)
Advice for Applicants to Upcoming NEH Grant Competitions
Some applicants for NEH grants report that they have recently had difficulty submitting their applications through Grants.gov; they found that the system has periodically been slow and unresponsive. This problem exists because Grants.gov—the system used by applicants to the grant programs of most federal government agencies—has recently had to deal with an unusually high volume of applications. The system has therefore been overloaded. Unfortunately, the problem is expected to continue at least through mid-summer, when system upgrades are scheduled to be installed.
In response to this problem, NEH offers the following advice to prospective applicants. We strongly urge you not to submit your application on the day of the deadline, but instead to submit your application early. If applications are submitted over a period of time, the load of applications should be more manageable for Grants.gov. Applying early will also give you a margin for error, should you need help from Grants.gov to resolve a technical problem when you attempt to submit your application. If possible, you should also plan to submit your application outside of normal business hours on the East Coast. Grants.gov tends to work more smoothly in the early morning, in the evening, and especially on weekends.
Successfully receiving your application is very important to us, so we hope that this advice will be helpful to you. And if you continue to have problems with Grants.gov, please contact NEH division or office staff, using the contact information provided in the program guidelines. We apologize for any inconvenience that you may encounter in submitting your application.
To check on the current status of Grants.gov, please consult the Grants.gov blog.
Date posted: June 19, 2009
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.161
Questions?
Contact NEH's Division of Research Programs at 202-606-8200 or fdhc@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.
Grant Program Description
NEH Fellowships at Digital Humanities Centers (FDHC) support collaboration between digital centers and individual scholars. An award provides funding for both a stipend for the fellow and a portion of the center’s costs for hosting a fellow. Awards are for periods of six to twelve months of continuous full-time research. The intellectual cooperation between the fellow and the center may take many different forms and may involve humanities scholars of any level of digital expertise. Fellows may work exclusively on their own projects in consultation with center staff, collaborate on projects with other scholars affiliated with the center, function as “apprentices” on existing digital center projects, or any combination of these. Awards support projects at any stage of development.
FDHC grants are made to digital humanities centers and, therefore, a staff member of the digital humanities center must serve as the project director. Prospective fellows must apply through a digital center. Centers may submit one application per deadline; individual scholars may apply in collaboration with only one digital center per deadline. Scholars are eligible, regardless of their institutional affiliation. Current staff members of the applicant center may not, however, be proposed as fellows.
Providing Access to Grant Products
As a taxpayer-supported federal agency, NEH endeavors to make the products of its grants available to the broadest possible audience. Our goal is for scholars, educators, students, and the American public to have ready and easy access to the wide range of NEH grant products. All other considerations being equal, NEH gives preference to projects that provide free access to the public. Detailed guidance on dissemination matters can be found in the Dissemination section.
Fellowships at Digital Humanities Centers 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;
  • cataloging or producing inventories of collections;
  • projects that consist exclusively of digital conversion of collections, files, or images;
  • research in educational methods, tests, or measurements;
  • recurrent meetings of professional organizations, societies, and scholarly organizations; or
  • support for publication costs or publication subvention.
III. Award Information
Awards include funding for both a stipend for the fellow and a portion of the center’s costs incurred when hosting a fellow. Fellows receive stipends of $4,200 per month for periods of six to twelve months of work. Centers may receive up to $4,200 per month to cover the direct and indirect costs of administering the fellowship. The maximum award for a twelve month grant, therefore, is $100,800: $50,400 for the fellow's stipend and $50,400 for the direct and indirect costs of administering the fellowship.
Cost Sharing
Cost sharing is not required. NEH, however, is rarely able to support the full costs of projects approved for funding. Cost sharing includes cash contributions to the project by the applicant and third parties, as well as in-kind contributions, such as donated goods and services. Cost sharing also includes gift money raised to release federal matching funds.
(Learn more about different types of grant funding.)
Eligibility
Each application will include one digital humanities center and one individual scholar.
Center eligibility is limited to:
  • Digital humanities centers affiliated with either American institutions of higher education or U.S. nonprofit organizations or institutions with IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt status.
Individual scholar eligibility is limited to:
  • U.S. citizens; and
  • foreign nationals who have been living in the United States or its jurisdictions for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline.
All individual scholars must have completed their formal education by the application deadline. While applicants need not have advanced degrees, individuals currently enrolled in a degree-granting program are ineligible to apply.
Centers may submit one application per deadline; individual scholars may apply in collaboration with only one digital center per deadline.
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.
An individual scholar applying for a fellowship at a digital humanities center may apply for other NEH awards, including Fellowships, Faculty Research Awards, and Summer Stipends. A scholar would not, however, be permitted to hold one of these individual awards while on tenure of an NEH fellowship at a digital humanities center.
Late, incomplete, and ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
Application and Submission Information

How to Prepare your Application
Application Advice and Proposal Drafts:
Applications should be completed jointly by the scholar and the digital humanities center and submitted by the center.
Applicants may submit by e-mail (fdhc@neh.gov) a draft of the narrative sections of their proposal at least six weeks before the deadline. A response cannot be guaranteed if the draft arrives later. The preliminary proposal gives an applicant the opportunity to receive staff comments about the substance and format of the application. These comments are not part of the formal review process. Once NEH has received a formal application, its staff will not comment on its status except with respect to questions of completeness or eligibility.
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. Statement of significance and impact
    Provide a one-page abstract written for a nonspecialist audience stating clearly the importance of the proposed work in the digital context, the project’s significance for larger issues in the humanities, and the character and importance of the collaboration.
  2. Description of the host digital humanities center
    Provide a three-page overview that describes the center’s history and mission; its main areas of scholarly focus and digital expertise; recently completed and ongoing digital humanities projects; the center’s sources of funding; and any existing fellowships programs.
  3. Narrative
    Provide a narrative description and intellectual justification for the project and a work plan. Narrative descriptions should not exceed twelve double-spaced pages. All pages should have one-inch margins and the font size should be no smaller than eleven point.
    Your narrative should address both the humanities research and the technological components and should consist of the following sections:
    • Intellectual significance of the proposed project
      Provide a description of the research, its intellectual significance, and its value to scholars and general audiences in the humanities.
    • The use of digital technologies
      Provide a clear explanation of how the project will use digital technologies to accomplish its goals. Address the extent to which the project will take an innovative digital approach or, if appropriate, how the project’s approach is unique or builds on existing models, and how its final results will be of value to scholars and general audiences in the humanities.
      NEH views the use of open source software as a key component in the broad distribution of exemplary digital scholarship in the humanities. If either the implementation of the project or its ultimate product is not predicated on generally accessible open source software, explain why and also explain how the dissemination goals of NEH will nevertheless be satisfied by the project.
    • History, scope, and duration of the project
      Provide a concise history of the project, including information about preliminary research or planning, previous related work, previous financial support, and publications produced. If work on projects initiated during the fellowship is to continue after the period of the grant, describe plans for that work and probable sources of future support. Describe the scope of the project activities and the relationship of the project to other published and ongoing work in the field. If the proposed fellowship includes work on an existing project at the center, describe how that work will enhance the fellow’s scholarly interests and support the center’s mission and goals.
    • Collaboration of fellow, center, and staff
      Explain the respective roles of the center and the fellow, and the extent and duration of the cooperation envisioned. Describe the resources and research facilities available to the project, and discuss the ways in which the collaboration may serve as a model for future endeavors. Identify the project director and collaborators who would work on the project during the proposed grant period, and describe their responsibilities, qualifications, and digital expertise. Append résumés for the principal collaborators as described below in Item 4.
    • Plan of work
      Describe the specific tasks that will be accomplished during the grant period and identify the staff members involved. Detail the working relationship between the scholar and digital center staff, including the amount of time that center staff will devote to the project.
    • Final product and dissemination
      Describe the plans for disseminating the project results through various media (printed articles or books, presentations at meetings, publication via electronic media, or some combination of these). Applicants should also discuss what provisions will be made for the longterm maintenance of the project’s ultimate product. Describe how the collaborators might measure their success in achieving the project’s goals.
  4. Resúmés
    Include resúmés not exceeding two pages for the proposed fellow and for the center personnel contributing to the project. Resúmés should include information about education, employment, relevant scholarly production and accomplishment, language competence, and technology skills.
  5. Project budget
    Using the NEH budget form, indicate the amount of funding requested. Fellows' stipends are calculated at a flat rate of $4,200 per month for periods of six to twelve whole months. Applicant Digital Humanities Centers can claim up to an equal amount of the stipend in direct and indirect costs. These costs should be itemized.
  6. Bibliography
    Include a brief, one-page bibliography for the proposed project.
When preparing an application, applicants should consult the Review Criteria.
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 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 the Grants.gov checklist to guide you through the registration process. We strongly recommend that 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.
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 Web site (www.adobe.com).
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 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 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 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.
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. 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 grants 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 nonspecialist audience. Provide a brief description of your project. The description should be written for a nonspecialist 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 (i.e., 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 Primary Contact/Grants Administrator is not the same person as the Project Director. If the project director and the grants 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: www07.grants.gov/applicants/app_help_reso.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. Before submitting an application for a supplement, applicants should discuss their request with an NEH program officer.
    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.
How to Use the NEH Attachment 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 NEH Attachment 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 Statement of Significance and Impact. Please name the file “Significance.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 2: To this button, please attach your Description of the Host Digital Humanities Center. Please name the file “Description.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 3: To this button, please attach your Narrative. Please name the file “Narrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 4: To this button, please attach your Resúmés for Project Personnel. Please name the file “Resumes.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 5: To this button, please attach your Project Budget. Please name the file "Budget.pdf".
ATTACHMENT 6: To this button, please attach your Project Bibliography. Please name the file "Bibliography.pdf".
Do not embed any additional files within any of the attachments.
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 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. 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.
To assist applicants, Grants.gov provides a helpful troubleshooting page.
Deadlines
Applications must be received by Grants.gov on or before September 15, 2009. Grants.gov will date- and time-stamp your application after it is fully uploaded. Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted.
Application Review
Evaluators are asked to apply the following criteria in assessing applications:
  1. The intellectual significance of the project’s humanities research and technological components, including their value to scholars and general audiences in the humanities.
  2. The quality or promise of quality of the visiting fellow’s work in the digital humanities.
  3. The appropriateness of the proposed collaboration between fellow and center, including the quality of resources provided by the center, the anticipated intellectual contribution of the fellow to the center, and the potential benefit to the fellow.
  4. The feasibility of the proposed work plan, including, where appropriate, the sustainability of the project beyond the grant period.
  5. The accessibility and interoperability of the final product.
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
Knowledgeable persons outside NEH will read each application and advise the agency about its merits. NEH 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 Administration Information
Award notices
Applicants will be notified by by e-mail of the decision by March 15, 2010. Institutional grants administrators and project directors of successful applications will also receive at that time award documents by mail. Applicants may obtain the evaluations of their applications by sending an e-mail message to fdhc@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.
A final performance report from the digital humanities center that incorporates a report by the visiting fellow 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.
Points of Contact
If you have questions about the program, contact:
Division of Research Programs
Room 318
National Endowment for the Humanities
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20506
202-606-8200
fdhc@neh.gov
If you need help using Grants.gov, contact:
Grants.gov: www.grants.gov
Grants.gov help desk: support@grants.gov
Grants.gov customer support tutorials and manuals: www07.grants.gov/applicants/app_help_reso.jsp
Grant.gov support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726)
Other Information
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
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 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.
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