overview of neh grant programs federal update webinar university of missouri fall 2011 nadina...

Overview of NEH Grant ProgramsFederal Update Webinar

University of MissouriFall 2011

Nadina Gardner, DirectorDivision of Preservation and Access

(202) [email protected]

Where to Find Us

Old Post Office Pavilion1100 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20506

www.neh.gov

What is NEH?• The National Endowment for the

Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency created in 1965.

• It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States.

• NEH supports quality humanities projects in four funding areas: preserving and providing access to cultural resources, education, research, and public programs.

Founding LegislationNational Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Humanities

“The practice of art and the study of the humanities require constant dedication and devotion. While no government can call a great artist or scholar into existence, it is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to help create and sustain not only a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry but also the material conditions facilitating the release of this creative talent.”

National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965

What does NEH do?NEH grants typically go to cultural institutions, such as museums, archives, libraries, colleges, universities, public television, and radio stations, and to individual scholars. NEH grants: •strengthen teaching and learning in the humanities in schools and colleges across the nation •facilitate research and original scholarship •provide opportunities for lifelong learning •preserve and provide access to cultural and educational resources •strengthen the institutional base of the humanities

What has NEH supported?

• "Treasures of Tutankhamen," the blockbuster exhibition seen by more than 1.5 million people

• The Civil War, the landmark documentary by Ken Burns viewed by 38 million Americans

• Library of America, editions of novels, essays, and poems celebrating America's literary heritage

• United States Newspaper Project, an effort to catalog and microfilm 63.3 million pages of newspapers dating from the early Republic

• Fifteen Pulitzer prize-winning books, including those by James M. McPherson, Louis Menand, Joan D. Hedrick, and Bernard Bailyn

What are the humanities?

The term 'humanities' includes, but is not limited to, the study of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life.

How is the NEH structured?

• NEH is directed by a chairman, who is appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, for a term of four years.

• Advising the chairman is the National Council on the Humanities, a board of 26 distinguished private citizens who are also appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The National Council members serve staggered six-year terms.

• NEH grant programs are administered by seven divisions and offices.

NEH Chairman Jim Leach

• 9th NEH Chairman

• Nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009

• Previously served for 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives

• Conducted the American Civility Tour

NEH Divisions & Offices

• Division of Education Programs • Division of Preservation and

Access • Division of Public Programs • Division of Research Programs • Federal/State Partnership • Office of Challenge Grants • Office of Digital Humanities

What does NEH staff do?• work with prospective applicants• recruit and oversee peer-review panels• present results of peer review to members

of the National Council on the Humanities and the agency’s senior staff

• conduct site visits of projects that have received NEH support

• represent NEH at regional, national, and international conferences in the humanities

NEH Budget

•Fiscal Year 2008: $141,000,000

•Fiscal Year 2009: $155,000,000

•Fiscal Year 2010: $167,500,000

•Fiscal Year 2011: $154,690,000

FY2012 Appropriation Request

Division of Education Programs

The Division of Education Programs seeks to improve humanities education at schools and colleges through its programs devoted to teachers and their students. Grants strengthen teaching and learning through new or revised curricula and materials, collaborative study, seminars, and institutes.


•Deepen their reflections on human experience

•Increase their understanding of different cultures and societies, past and present

•Achieve the knowledge and wisdom necessary for democratic citizenship

The division strives to cultivate intellectual curiosity, so that students can:


Grant Categories• Summer Seminars and Institutes

• Landmarks of American History and Culture: Workshops for School Teachers

• Humanities Initiatives at: • Historically Black Colleges and Universities • Institutions with High Hispanic Enrollment• Tribal Colleges and Universities

• Enduring Questions

• Picturing America School Collaboration Projects

• Bridging Cultures at Community Colleges Cooperative Agreement

Provide opportunities for teachers to:

• Create intensive two-to-five week programs that reach a national audience of school teachers or college and university faculty members

• Engage in collegial study of significant texts and topics in the humanities

• Use the resources of libraries, museums, and cultural sites


Summer Seminars and Institutes


Landmarks of American History and Culture

Workshops for School Teachers

• Create multiple intensive one-week programs in American history that reach national audiences

• Engage in collegial study of significant texts and topics in the American experience at historic sites

• Integrate the use of archival sources and material evidence into educational curricula

Humanities Initiatives for Historically Black, High Hispanic Enrollment, and Tribal Colleges

and UniversitiesProvide opportunities to:

• Enhance and redefine institutions’ humanities programs in collaboration with consulting scholars

• Support faculty members as they collaborate to strengthen humanities programs

• Prepare institutions to develop new humanities programs, take advantage of underused resources, or collaborate with other institutions

• Train staff and faculty members in the use of humanities materials and technologies



Enduring Questions

• Design a new course for undergraduate teaching and learning that promotes engagement with fundamental issues in the humanities

• Focus on an explicitly stated question drawing upon significant readings from prior to the twentieth century

• Stimulate inquiry beyond vocational or specialized areas (not limited to those trained in or teaching in humanities disciplines)

Provide opportunities to:


Picturing America School Collaboration Projects

Provide opportunities to:• Strengthen understanding of the connections between great

works of American art and significant events, themes, and topics in the American experience

• Encourage collaboration between K-12 educators and humanities experts

• Foster discussion of how to use Picturing America images among K-12 teachers within a locality or region

• Provide access to rich scholarly resources and primary materials to support teaching

Division of Education ProgramsContact info:


www.neh.gov/grants/grantsbydivision.html#education

Division of Preservation & Access

The Division of Preservation and Access provides leadership and support in the national effort to preserve and create access to cultural heritage resources that constitute the foundation for research, education, and public programming in the humanities.

Overview of the slave trade out of Africa, 1500-1900 from An Atlas of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade by David Eltis and David Richardson, Yale University Press, 2010.


Grant Categories• Humanities Collections and Reference Resources• Research and Development • Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections • Education and Training • Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller

Institutions • National Digital Newspaper Program• Documenting Endangered Languages (with NSF)

Cultural Heritage Collections can include:

•Decorative and fine art objects

•Furniture, textiles, and historical objects

•Archaeological and ethnographic artifacts

•Prints and photographs

•Moving images and sound recordings

•Architectural and cartographic records

•Books, journals, archives, and manuscripts

•Digital materials



Humanities Collections and Reference ResourcesApplications may be submitted for projects that address one or more of the following

activities: •arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections; •cataloging collections of printed works, photographs, recorded sound, moving images, art, and material culture; •providing conservation treatment (including deacidification) for collections, leading to enhanced access; •digitizing collections; •preserving and improving access to born-digital sources; •developing databases, virtual collections, or other electronic resources to codify information on a subject or to provide integrated access to selected humanities materials; •creating encyclopedias; •preparing linguistic tools, such as historical and etymological dictionaries, corpora, and reference grammars; •developing tools for spatial analysis and representation of humanities data, such as atlases and geographic information systems (GIS); and •designing digital tools to facilitate use of humanities resources.


Research and DevelopmentEligible projects include:•the development of technical standards, best practices, and tools for preserving and creating access to humanities collections; •the exploration of more effective scientific and technical methods of preserving humanities collections; •the development of automated procedures and computational tools to integrate, analyze, and repurpose humanities data in disparate online resources; and •the investigation and testing of new ways of providing digital access to humanities materials that are not easily digitized using current methods.


Sustaining Cultural Heritage CollectionsPlanning grants might be used to:•reevaluate environmental parameters for collections; •examine passive (nonmechanical) and low-energy alternatives to conventional energy sources and energy-intensive mechanized systems for managing environmental conditions; •analyze existing climate control systems and the performance characteristics of buildings and building envelopes to develop a plan for improved operation, effectiveness, and energy efficiency; •examine options and develop strategies for lighting collection spaces in ways that protect collections while achieving improved energy efficiency; or •evaluate the effectiveness of preventive conservation strategies previously implemented, including energy-efficient upgrades to existing systems and performance upgrades to buildings and building envelopes. Implementation grants to preserve humanities collections might be used to:•manage interior relative humidity and temperature by passive methods (such as creating buffered spaces and housing, controlling moisture at its sources, or improving the thermal and moisture performance of a building envelope); •install or recommission heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems; •install storage systems and rehouse collections; •improve security and the protection of collections from fire, flood, and other disasters; or •upgrade lighting systems and controls, to achieve energy efficiency and levels suitable for collections.


Education and TrainingThese grants support:•regional preservation field services that provide a wide range of education and training (for example, through surveys, workshops, consultations, reference services, and informational materials about the care of humanities collections), especially for staff at smaller libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural organizations; •master’s degree programs in preservation and conservation; and •workshops that address preservation and access topics of national significance and broad impact.


Preservation Assistance Grantsfor Smaller InstitutionsActivities that can be supported include:

•General preservation or conservation assessments that will help an institution identify its overall preservation needs and develop a long-range, prioritized preservation plan to address those needs. •Consultations with preservation professionals to develop a plan for addressing a specific preservation problem.•Attendance at workshops on preservation topics, best practices for cataloging humanities collections, standards for digital preservation, and the care and handling of collections during digitization.•The purchase of preservation supplies, equipment, and storage furniture. Applicants who request funding for the purchase of storage furniture must demonstrate that the request is based on a completed preservation needs assessment or a specialized consultation with a preservation professional.


National Digital Newspaper Program

NDNP is creating a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, from all the states and U.S. territories. This searchable database will be permanently maintained at the Library of Congress (LC) and be freely accessible via the Internet. An accompanying national newspaper directory of bibliographic and holdings information on the website directs users to newspaper titles available in all types of formats.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/


National Digital Newspaper Program


Documenting Endangered Languages

The Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) program is a partnership between NEH and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and advance knowledge concerning endangered human languages. Made urgent by the imminent death of an estimated half of the 6000-7000 currently used languages, this effort aims also to exploit advances in information technology. Awards support fieldwork and other activities relevant to recording, documenting, and archiving endangered languages, including the preparation of lexicons, grammars, text samples, and databases.


Contact info:(202) 606-8570

[email protected]

www.neh.gov/grants/grantsbydivision.html#preservation

Division of Public ProgramsThe Division of Public Programs expands understanding of the humanities through engaging and substantive projects that encourage lifelong learning for Americans nationwide. Grants typically support radio and television documentaries, exhibitions and interpretation of historic sites, reading and discussion series, lectures, symposia, and after school programs.

Division of Public ProgramsGrant Categories

• America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations

• America’s Media Makers

• Bridging Cultures through Film: International Topics

• Small Grants to Libraries

• NEH on the Road

Division of Public ProgramsPublic humanities programs:

• promote the experience of lifelong learning in the humanities

• offer new insights into familiar subjects

• invite conversation about important humanities ideas and questions

• reach large and diverse public audiences

• make creative use of new and emerging technologies

Division of Public ProgramsAmerica’s Historical and Cultural

Organizations

• Grants support a wide range of public humanities programs, including: • interpretive exhibitions• websites • reading and film discussion programs • symposia

• Awards primarily cover costs for staff, consultation with scholars, audience evaluation, design and production, and ancillary materials.

• We welcome projects that use more than one format.

Division of Public ProgramsAmerica’s Historical and Cultural

OrganizationsProjects in these categories are especially encouraged: • Dissemination Projects present programming at twenty or

more venues in a wide range of formats.

• Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects draw on the evocative power of historic places to address themes and issues central to American history.

• Family and Youth Programs in American History offer programming tailored to youth and family audiences.

• NEH’s new Bridging Cultures initiative supports projects focusing on cultures internationally, or within the United States.

• Chairman’s Special Awards of up to $1 million support large-scale traveling exhibitions of exceptional reach and visibility.

Division of Public ProgramsAmerica’s Media Makers

• explore significant topics or ideas in the humanities;

• offer creative approaches to humanities content; and

• encourage dialogue and discussion.

Development or Production categories support media projects that:

Division of Public ProgramsAmerica’s Media Makers

• Radio projects may feature documentary programs or historical dramatizations. They may be intended for regional or national distribution.

• Television projects may be documentary programs or historical dramatizations that address significant figures, events, or developments. They must be intended for national distribution.

• Digital technology projects may expand the content of a radio or television program or may be components of a larger, non-broadcast project or be projects in their own right. Examples include: DVDs, Web sites, games, virtual environments, streaming, video on demand, and podcasts, as well as user-generated content.

Division of Public Programs Bridging Cultures through Film:

International TopicsSparking Americans’ engagement with the wider world through exploration of countries and cultures outside the U.S., and/or across nations.

Films might: • Take a wide range of approaches to international and

transnational topics:

• Examine critical issues viewed through an international lens

• Document the life and work of an international figure

• Explore the history or cultures of a specific region, country or community outside of the U.S.

• Bring humanities public programming to libraries across the country.

• Offer successful applicants a $2,500 grant for exhibition-related expenses and for exhibition programming.

• Have reached 48 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands.

• Grants have included: • exhibitions at 737 sites, • multi-format projects at over 160 venues• completed film and book discussion projects at 125 venues.

Division of Public ProgramsSmall Grants to Libraries

Division of Public ProgramsNEH on the Road

• Mid-America Arts Alliance developed NEH on the Road in 2003 so smaller museums and communities would have high quality humanities programming that fit their spaces and budgets.

• Each NEH on the Road exhibition requires only 2,000 square feet of space

• Small to mid-sized museums, libraries, schools, and universities anywhere in the U.S. may host an NEH on the Road exhibition.

Division of Public ProgramsEDSITEment

• EDSITEment is a partnership among the National Endowment for the Humanities, Verizon Foundation, and the National Trust for the Humanities and is a proud member of the Thinkfinity Consortium of premier educational websites.

• EDSITEment offers a treasure trove for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material on the Internet in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies.

• All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom. They cover a wide range of humanities subjects, from American history to literature, world history and culture, language, art, and archaeology, and have been judged by humanities specialists to be of high intellectual quality. EDSITEment is not intended to represent a complete curriculum in the humanities, nor does it prescribe any specific course of study.

Division of Public ProgramsEDSITEment

Division of Public Programs


[email protected]

www.neh.gov/grants/grantsbydivision.html#public

Division of ResearchThe Division of Research Programs encourages research and writing in all areas of the humanities. Grants support individuals and teams of scholars pursuing advanced research in the humanities that will contribute to scholarly knowledge or to the general public's understanding of the world.

Image of the Gettysburg Address from the Bliss Copy held by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

Division of ResearchGrant Categories

• Awards for Faculty

• at Historically Black Colleges and Universities • at Institutions with High Hispanic Enrollment • at Tribal Colleges and Universities

• Collaborative Research

• Fellowships

• Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions

• Fellowships for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan

• Scholarly Editions and Translations

• Summer Stipends

Division of ResearchAwards for Faculty at Historically Black,

High Hispanic Enrollment, and Tribal Colleges and Universities

• Awards support individual faculty members

• Awards allow for a range of research-related endeavors, including:• conducting research in primary and secondary materials • writing books and articles based on such research • undertaking research in response to institutional or community needs and

aims, • incorporating new research into existing classes

• Awards are $4,200 per month for periods of two to twelve months’ tenure (or its equivalent).

Division of ResearchCollaborative Research

• Grants support original research undertaken by a team of two or more scholars or research coordinated by an individual scholar that, because of its scope or complexity, requires additional staff or resources beyond the individual's salary.

• Grants support full-time or part-time activities for periods of one to three years.

• Grantees are expected to communicate the results of their work to the appropriate scholarly and public audiences.

Division of ResearchFellowships

• $4,200 per month for 6-12 months of full time tenure• For individuals pursuing advanced research • Faculty or staff members of colleges, universities,

primary, or secondary schools, or independent scholars or writers

• No concurrent teaching assignment or other major activity

• May hold other concurrent fellowships/grants• Project to be completed during the tenure of an

award or as part of a long-term endeavor• Products: articles, monographs, books, an

archaeological site report, a translation, an edition, a database, or other scholarly tools

Division of ResearchFellowship Programs at Independent Research

Institutions

• Fellowships for 4-12 months, carry a maximum stipend of $4,200 per month.

• Individual scholars apply directly to institutions offering NEH fellowships, including:– Folger Shakespeare Library– Institute for Advanced Study– John Carter Brown Library– National Humanities Center– Newberry Library– Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York

Public Library– American Academy in Rome

Information for Scholars:

Division of ResearchFellowship Programs at

Independent Research Institutions

• Grants support domestic and foreign research centers offering fellowship opportunities for postdoctoral and independent scholars.

• Funding priority given to programs that provide long-term fellowships (4 months or longer).

• Only independent research institutions may apply.

Information for Institutions:

Division of ResearchFellowships for Advanced Social

Science Research on Japan

• Joint activity of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) and the NEH.

• Awards support research on modern Japanese society and political economy, Japan's international relations, and U.S.-Japan relations.

• Encourages innovative research that puts these subjects in wider regional and global contexts and is comparative and contemporary in nature.

• Research should contribute to scholarly knowledge or to the general public's understanding of issues of concern to Japan and the U.S.

Division of ResearchScholarly Editions and Translations

• Grants support preparation of authoritative and annotated texts and documents.

• Materials have been either previously inaccessible or available only in inadequate editions.

• Projects involve the editing of significant literary, philosophical, and historical materials.

• Editions contain scholarly and critical apparatus appropriate to the subject matter and format of the edition.

• Applicants are strongly encouraged to propose electronic editions that provide wide access to scholars and students.

Division of ResearchSummer Stipends

• Successful applicants receive an outright award of $6,000 for two consecutive months of full-time research and writing.

• Summer Stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research of value to humanities scholars and/or general audiences.

• Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions or other scholarly resources.

Division of Research


[email protected]

http://www.neh.gov/grants/grantsbydivision.html#research

Office of Federal/State Partnership

NEH’s Federal/State Partnership is a collaborative effort, dedicated to the study and enjoyment of the humanities in the public sphere, links a national agency with fifty-six nonprofit state and jurisdictional humanities councils. Through its programs, the Federal/State Partnership and the individual councils advance knowledge and understanding, and increase public awareness of the humanities.


• Humanities councils are located in each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and five territories.

• The councils receive general operating support from NEH, and they are also eligible to apply for other NEH grant opportunities.

• As independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, they also raise money from diverse sources.

• The councils themselves make grants to nonprofit organizations and individual scholars for the preparation or execution of humanities programs and, in a few instances, for independent scholarly research.


Programs supported by the fifty-six state and jurisdictional humanities councils, 2010-2011:

7,369 Media programs2,543 Exhibitions

18,448 Reading and discussion programs4,486 Speakers bureau presentations4,750 Local history programs

Office of Federal/State PartnershipContact info:

(202) 606-8254 [email protected]

www.neh.gov/grants/grantsbydivision.html#fedstate

Office of Challenge Grants

The Office of Challenge Grants provides institution-building grants to improve humanities programs and carry out long-term plans for strengthening basic resources and enhancing financial stability.

Office of Challenge GrantsGrant Categories

•Challenge Grants

•Challenge Grants for Two-year Colleges

•Create or augment endowment

•Construction/Renovation

•Direct expenditures:•equipment •acquisitions •technology •fundraising costs

Office of Challenge GrantsTypes of Funding

Grants range from $375,000 to $500,000

•Up to $1 million maximum

•3:1 match required (1 federal dollar for every 3 non-federal dollars)




[email protected]

www.neh.gov/grants/grantsbydivision.html

#challenge

Office of Digital HumanitiesOur primary mission is to help coordinate the NEH's efforts in the area of digital scholarship. As in the sciences, digital technology has changed the way scholars perform their work. It allows new questions to be raised and has radically changed the ways in which materials can be searched, mined, displayed, taught, and analyzed. Technology has also had an enormous impact on how scholarly materials are preserved and accessed, which brings with it many challenging issues related to sustainability, copyright, and authenticity. The ODH works not only with NEH staff and members of the scholarly community, but also facilitates conversations with other funding bodies both in the United States and abroad so that we can work towards meeting these challenges.

Office of Digital HumanitiesGrant Categories

• DFG/NEH Bilateral Digital Humanities Programs:

Bilateral Symposia and Workshops

• DFG/NEH Bilateral Digital Humanities Programs: Enriching Digital Collections

• Digging into Data

• Digital Humanities Implementation

• Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants

• Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities

Office of Digital Humanities

DFG/NEH Bilateral Digital Humanities Programs: Symposia

and Workshops• This program, a partnership with the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V., DFG), supports funding for up to two bilateral symposia or workshops.

• Collaboration between U.S. and German partners is a key requirement.

• Proposals may focus on any area of the digital humanities.


DFG/NEH Bilateral Digital Humanities Programs: Enriching Digital

Collections• This program, a partnership with the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V., DFG), supports collaborations between U.S. and German institutions who are working to digitize or enable scholarly access to important humanities collections.

• Collaboration between U.S. and German partners is a key requirement for this grant category.

• These grants provide funding for up to three years of development of digitization projects.

Office of Digital HumanitiesThe Digging into Data Challenge

This program seeks to answer the question:

•What do you do with a million books? •Or a million pages of newspaper? •Or a million photographs of artwork?

That is, how does the notion of scale affect humanities and social science research? Now that scholars have access to huge repositories of digitized data—far more than they could read in a lifetime—what does that mean for research?

DID is co-sponsored by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK, the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the U.S., and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

Office of Digital HumanitiesDigital Humanities Implementation

Implementation grants may involve:•implementation of computationally-based methods or techniques for humanities research; •implementation of new digital tools for use in humanities research, public programming, or educational settings; •efforts to ensure the completion and long-term sustainability of existing digital resources (typically in conjunction with a library or archive); •studies that examine the philosophical or practical implications of the use of emerging technologies in specific fields or disciplines of the humanities, or in interdisciplinary collaborations involving several fields or disciplines; or •implementation of new digital modes of scholarly communication that facilitate peer review, collaboration, or the dissemination of humanities scholarship for various audiences.

Office Digital HumanitiesDigital Humanities Start-Up Grants

• Grants support innovative projects that represent the next generation of advances in humanities research, education, preservation, access, and public programming.

• They must propose an innovative approach, method, tool, or idea.

• These grants are modeled, in part, on the “high risk/high reward” paradigm often used by funding agencies in the sciences.

Office of Digital HumanitiesInstitutes for Advanced Topics

in the Digital Humanities

• Supports major training institutes that enable digital humanities experts to share their knowledge with colleagues from around the country.

• Training events must be regional or national in scope.

• Funded institutes train participants to use new technologies and methodologies that can be applied to enhance humanities research, education, preservation, access, or public programming.


Contact info:(202) [email protected]

Subscribe to their digital newsletter:www.neh.gov/grants/digitalhumanities.html

How do I apply?

• Visit www.neh.gov and read the guidelines.

• Talk to someone at your institution to know the resources available to you.

• Contact NEH staff.• Register with Grants.gov.

Grants.gov

• All applications must be submitted online at www.grants.gov.

• Register early.• Identify your

institution's Authorized Organization Representative (AOR).

NEH Peer Review Panel

Each grant program may have specific evaluation criteria, but in general NEH applications are judged on the following:

•The humanities significance of the proposed project•The quality or promise of the quality of the applicant's work •The quality of the conception, definition, organization, and description of the project•The feasibility of the proposed plan of work•The likelihood that the applicant will complete the project

General Application Tips• Read the guidelines, FAQs, and sample proposals for the specific

grant program, available at: www.neh.gov/grants.• Call or email a program officer to confirm your project’s eligibility

and to discuss its likely competitiveness.• If the grant program you’re interested in accepts draft applications

for review by NEH staff, take advantage of this offer. Submit your draft well before the deadline for drafts, and you’re likely to avoid the rush and receive a response sooner.

• Make as compelling a case as you can for the humanities significance of your project.

• If your application is not funded, ask for the peer reviewers’ comments.

Application Tips continued• Strike a tone that is concise and positive without being overly

optimistic.• Write for a general audience, avoiding unnecessary professional

jargon. If your project includes technical work, describe it in detail in the section of the application that addresses the project’s methodology.

• Provide examples of projects in your field similar to yours, in order to demonstrate your knowledge of the field and to show the particular value of your own project.

• Many NEH grant programs have page limits for narratives but none for appendices; however, remember that voluminous, unnecessary material in the appendices will only obscure the truly important information you want the reviewers to notice and remember.

• Include all vital information within the proposal narrative; use the appendices for supporting documentation only.

Interesting in Reviewing NEH Applications?

• Contact the NEH Division or Office of your choice and send in a C.V.

• Enter your contact information online: https://securegrants.neh.gov/Prism/

Overview of NEH Grant ProgramsFederal Update Webinar

University of MissouriFall 2011

Nadina Gardner, DirectorDivision of Preservation and Access


overview of neh grant programs federal update webinar university of missouri fall 2011 nadina...

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