How to Apply for this Grant
- Read this Announcement
- Read the Application Instructions
- Download the Application from Grants.gov
Questions?
- Contact the NHPRC
E-mail:
nhprc@nara.gov* 
Telephone: 202-357-5010 
Fax: 202-357-5914
* Please see our Privacy Statement
Grant Announcement:
Historical Editing Fellowships
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission supports projects that promote the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage essential to understanding our democracy, history, and culture.
The following grant application information is for Historical Editing Fellowships.
- See also Professional Development grants.
NHPRC support begins no earlier than January 1, 2009.
The deadline for this opportunity has passed. These guidelines may be used for reference, but should NOT be used to prepare an application. New guidelines will be published in June 2009.
Grant Program Description
Applicants should demonstrate the capability to provide strong post-graduate training in documentary editing, including document collection, accessioning, and control; selection; transcription; annotation; proofreading; indexing; and project management.
Staff at the host institution will solicit applicants, select the best candidate, and arrange for their hiring by their institution. The Commission provides this funding to ensure that recent History Ph.D.s or advanced graduate students have exposure to historical editing techniques and careers. The host institution may use a limited amount of funds to cover costs of recruiting a fellow and giving the fellow limited travel and educational opportunities.
Award Information
Awards are for one year grants of $55,000 each. Depending on the quality of proposals and the availability of funding, the Commission expects to fund one to two fellowship projects, each with a single fellow.
The Commission urges applicants to investigate fully their institution's hiring and payment/benefits procedures prior to making an application for an institutional host grant, so that, once funded, the fellowship will run smoothly. Applicants should try to resolve in advance questions bearing on the fellow's compensation. For example, will the fellow be paid as a contractor or be placed on the payroll? Will taxes be withheld? Is it possible to assist the fellow with housing? Benefits arrangements should be decided prior to the soliciting of fellowship applicants. Like all NHPRC grant recipients, the host institution will be required to submit periodic financial and narrative reports on the project.
The basic stipend may be up to $42,000. A 25 percent allowance for fringe benefits supplements the stipend. In addition, up to $2,500 may be used by the institution to cover the costs of interviewing individual applicants and/or sending fellows to professional conferences or training institutes.
Eligibility
Proposals may be submitted only by active NHPRC-supported historical documentary editing projects that are affiliated with:
- Nonprofit organizations and institutions
- Colleges, universities, and other academic institutions
- State or local government agencies
- Federally-acknowledged or state-recognized Native American tribes or groups
Projects in the first year of operation are less likely to be competitive.
How to Prepare an Application
Applicants must use the Grants.gov application process. See How to Apply.
Applicants are encouraged to contact the Director for Publications at the NHPRC who may:
- advise the applicant about the review process;
- answer questions about what activities are eligible for support; and
- supply samples of successful applications
Completing the Application
A complete application includes a Project Description, Summary, Supplementary Materials, and Budget.
Before beginning the process, applicants should review the rules and regulations governing NHPRC grants under the Administering an NHPRC Grant section.
Project Description
The Project Description should provide the purposes and goals; significance to the goals listed in this Announcement; a plan of work; projected results to be completed during the grant period; the names and contact information for the project director and key personnel. The Description should be no more than 20 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type with standard margins. Address the following items in your description:
1. The host documentary editing project
Include a description of project, the current status of progress, including a recent record of work accomplished, the specific volume(s) to be covered during the fellowship period, and staffing.
2. The proposed fellowship advertising and hiring criteria
We encourage applicants to give preference to fellowship candidates who hold a Ph.D. in U.S. History or who have completed all the degree requirements except the dissertation. Please explain your reasons for seeking candidates with different educational backgrounds. In your supplemental materials, please include a sample of your call for applicants.
3. The training plan
The Commission prefers that fellows receive training in all aspects of documentary editing including: document collection, accessioning, and control; selection; transcription; annotation; proofreading; indexing; and project management. In particular, the Commission will look favorably on plans that provide training in electronic publication. The applicant should describe in detail what will be included and the approximate amount of time for each; if any aspects cannot be covered, please explain the omission. In addition, include any courses, classes, workshops, or other educational opportunities relative to the fellowship, that the institution might be able to provide.
4. Performance Objectives and Project Evaluation
List four to six quantifiable objectives in the proposal by which you and the Commission can evaluate the project following the submission of the final report. The performance objectives should be as specific and quantifiable as possible. For example, you may want to measure the number of pages transcribed or proofread or the number of annotations or head notes competed.
In addition, discuss the methods your institution will use to evaluate the fellow's performance and your projects effectiveness in the training process. Indicate what methods, if any, you plan to use to monitor the fellow's continuing contribution to the field of documentary editing.
Project Summary
The Project Summary should be no more than 3 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type with standard margins and should include these sections:
- Purposes and Goals of the Project
- Plan of Work for the Grant Period
- Products and/or Publications to be completed during the Grant Period
- Names, Phone Numbers, and E-Mail Address of the Project Director and Key Personnel
- Performance Objectives
Supplementary Materials
You may attach up to 20 pages of Supplementary Materials to your Narrative, such as:
- Résumés of named staff members (required) who will contribute to the overall fellowship experience
- An example of your proposed call for applicants
- Endorsements from institutional officials and scholars
- Samples of work, including facsimiles of originals, annotations, and other materials
If these materials are available on a web site, please provide a URL.
Project Budget
Applicants will be asked to compute the project costs to be charged to grant funds as well as those that will be supported by the applicant through cost sharing, which includes both direct and in-direct expenses, in-kind contributions, non-Federal third-party contributions, and any income earned directly by the project. All of the items listed, whether supported by grant funds or cost-sharing contributions, must be reasonable and necessary to accomplish project objectives, allowable in terms of the applicable federal cost principles, auditable, and incurred during the grant period. Applicants should review the appropriate Office of Management and Budget circulars on cost principles.
Charges to the project for items such as salaries, fringe benefits, travel, and contractual services must conform to the written policies and established practices of the applicant organization.
- You must submit a budget on the NARA/NEH Budget form found in the Grants.gov application package. Note that the form itself contains additional instructions. You may include with your application a narrative budget supplement for budget categories not otherwise explained in the project narrative.
- Provide specific budget figures, rounding to the nearest dollar.
Budget Categories
In preparing the budget, please follow the suggestions below in each of the categories:
Salaries: List each staff position and the full salary to be charged to the project and show the percentage of time each staff member will devote to the project.
- Indicate which positions are to be filled for the proposed project and which personnel are already on the staff of the applicant institution.
- Grant funds may be used only to pay the salaries of individuals actually working on the project.
- You may include the time provided to the project by advisory board members and volunteers.
Fringe Benefits: Include employee benefits using your organization's standard rates. No separate benefits should be included for positions that are computed at a daily rate or using honoraria.
Consultant Fees: Include payments for consultant services and honoraria.
- Provide justification for large or unusual consultant fees.
- Include consultant travel expenses in the "Travel" category.
Travel: Include transportation, lodging, and per diem expenses. The NHPRC does not fund staff travel to professional meetings unless the travel is essential to accomplish the goals of the project.
Supplies and Materials: Include routine office supplies and supplies ordinarily used in professional practices. Justify the cost of specialized materials and supplies in a supplemental budget narrative.
Services: Include the cost of duplication and printing, long-distance telephone, equipment leasing, postage, contracts with third parties, and other services that you are not including under other budget categories or as indirect-cost expenses. The costs of project activities to be undertaken by each third-party contractor should be included in this category as a single line item charge. Include a complete itemization of the costs in a supplemental budget narrative.
Other costs: Include costs for necessary equipment above $5,000, stipends for participants in projects, and other items not included in previous grant categories.
- The NHPRC does not provide grant funds for the acquisition of routine equipment such as office furnishings and file cabinets, but we may allow for the purchase of archival equipment, such as shelving units, and technical equipment, such as computers and peripherals, essential for a project.
- Include specifications for equipment over $5,000 in a supplemental budget narrative.
Indirect costs: Include reasonable or negotiated "overhead" costs. See the Budget Form instructions to determine how to calculate indirect costs.
- You should not include indirect costs that exceed your cost sharing obligation.
- You may waive indirect costs and instead include specific overhead costs in the appropriate budget categories.
Application Review
The NHPRC staff will acknowledge receipt of the application soon after we receive it. We then begin the evaluation process:
- Commission Staff
Upon receipt of the proposal, the Commission staff may send a questions letter asking applicants to expand on the material provided, clear up any misconceptions, and generally strengthen the proposal before the Commission meeting. Staff make overall recommendations to the Commission based on reviewers' comments, the appropriateness of the project in meeting the Commission's goals, the proposal's completeness, conformity to application requirements and overall eligibility, and answers to the questions letter. - The Commission
After reviewing proposals, the comments of peer reviewers, the applicants' responses to the reviews, and evaluations by the Commission staff, Commission members deliberate on proposals and make funding recommendations to the Archivist of the United States who, as Commission Chairman, has final statutory authority. Throughout this process, all members of the Commission and its staff follow conflict-of-interest rules to assure fair and equal treatment of every application.
Application Cycle
- October 6, 2008 – Deadline - Final proposal due.
- November 2008 – Commission meets.
- January 1, 2009 – Earliest possible starting date for project. Host institution advertises and hires a fellow no later than June 1, 2009.
- April-September 2009 – Fellow begins work at host institution.
Notification
Grants are contingent upon available appropriated funds. In some cases, the Commission will adjust grant amounts depending upon the number of recommended proposals and total budget. The Commission may recommend to the Archivist to approve the proposal and extend an offer of a grant with applicable terms and conditions, or it may recommend rejection of the proposal.
Grant applicants will be notified within 2 weeks after the Archivist's decision.
Grant Administration
For more information on how to comply with Federal regulations, see our Administering a Grant section.
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