Applicants will be notified by e-mail of the decision by June 15, 2009

I. Program Description II. Endowment-Wide Programs and Initiatives III. Award Information IV. Eligibility V. Application and Submission Information VI. Application Review VII. Award Administration Information VIII. Points of Contact IX. Other Information • Budget instructions (5-page PDF) • Budget form (14-page PDF) • Definitions of types of funding • Instructions for Individual Applicants • Frequently asked questions • Recent Awards • DUNS number requirement • Registration Checklist • Download the current version of Adobe Reader • How to convert documents into PDFs • Tips for Creating PDF Files in Grants.gov Applications • Grants.gov FAQs • Grants.gov customer support To obtain a printed version of these guidelines, call 202-606-8446, send an e-mail to info@neh.gov, or write to NEH, Office of Communications 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506. * - Modification (8/14/08) – An update to Section IV clarifies the eligibility requirements for foreign nationals.

Date posted: August 11, 2008

Date modified: August 14, 2008 *

• 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.

1. 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.
2. Table of contents
   List all parts of the application and corresponding page numbers.
3. List of participants
   On a separate page, list in alphabetical order, surnames first, all participants and collaborators on the project. The names on this list should match the names mentioned in the staff section of the project's narrative description. Include participants’ institutional affiliations, if any. The list of participants will be 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.
4. 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 print or electronic products 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 products 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 project 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 the URL for the conference Web site, if available, and describe any plans for online components or activities. 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 online and print 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, 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.
5. Project budget
   Using the instructions provided, complete the budget form (PDF).
6. 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. 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.
7. 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

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Qualifications, expertise, and levels of commitment of the project director and key project staff or contributors.
4. 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, 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.
5. 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.