Grant Name: Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants
Funding Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities
Grant Cycle: September 27, 2011 (for projects
beginning in April). Draft proposals (optional): Program staff recommends that
draft proposals be submitted at least six weeks before the deadline. Time
constraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after
that date.
Phone: Applicants wishing to speak to a staff member by telephone
should provide in an e-mail message a telephone number and a preferred time to
call.
Website:
http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/digitalhumanitiesstartup.html
Email: odh@neh.gov
How to Apply: Applications for this program must be
submitted via Grants.gov. Before using
Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register with the website
to create an institutional profile. Once registered, your organization can then
apply for any government grant on the Grants.gov website.
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 or verify 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.
As
part of the Grants.gov registration process, applicants are required to
register with the Central
Contractor Registration (CCR). Grantees are also required to maintain the
currency of their information in the CCR by reviewing and updating their
information at least annually after the initial registration, and more
frequently if required by changes in information.
To
submit your application, you will need to download the application package from
the Grants.gov website. 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 four forms that you must complete in order to
submit your application:
- Application for Federal Domestic Assistance
- Short Organizational—this form asks for basic information about
the project, the project director, and the institution.
- Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant
Programs—this form asks for additional information about the
project director, the institution, and the budget.
- Project/Performance Site Location(s) Form—this form
asks for information about the primary site(s) at which grant activities
will take place.
- Attachments 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.
Application
advice and proposal drafts: Prior to submitting a proposal, applicants are
encouraged to contact program officers who can offer advice about preparing the
proposal and review draft proposals. These comments are not part of the formal
review process and have no bearing on the final outcome of the proposal, but
applicants have found them helpful in strengthening their applications. Program
staff recommends that draft proposals be submitted at least six weeks before
the deadline. Time constraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals
submitted after that date. Draft proposals may be submitted by e-mail
attachment to odh@neh.gov.
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.
- Table of contents
List all parts of the application and
corresponding page numbers.
- List of participants
On a separate page, list (with surnames
first) all project participants and collaborators and their institutional
affiliations, if any. The names on this list should match the names mentioned
in the staff section of the project’s narrative description. The list is used
to ensure that prospective reviewers have no conflict of interest with the
projects that they will evaluate. This list should include advisory board
members, if any.
Provide a one-paragraph (up to one
thousand characters) abstract written for a nonspecialist audience, clearly
explaining the project’s principal activities, and its expected results. This
paragraph also may be used in the Project Information field in the Application
for Federal Domestic Assistance—Short Organizational form (see
below).
After the abstract, provide the following
two brief (no more than five hundred characters) statements:
Statement
of Innovation: using the description of innovation found in the Frequently
Asked Questions document as a starting point, briefly explain—in terms
comprehensible to a general audience—how and why the project is innovative.
Statement
of Humanities Significance: briefly explain—in terms comprehensible to a
general audience—the humanities significance of the proposed project (i.e.,
what the project will contribute to a particular discipline or field, and what
it will contribute to the humanities more generally).
- Narrative
The narrative should not assume
specialized knowledge, and it should be free of jargon. It should clearly
define technical terms so that they are comprehensible to a nonspecialist
audience.
Applicants should provide an intellectual
justification for the project and a work plan. For Level I Start-Up
grants, the narrative section should not exceed three single-spaced pages. For
Level II Start-Up grants, the narrative should not exceed six
single-spaced pages. All pages should have one-inch margins, and the font size
should be no smaller than eleven point. The narrative should address the
long-term goals of the project as well as the activities that the Digital
Humanities Start-Up Grant would support. Applicants should keep in mind the
criteria (listed below) used to evaluate proposals. Applicants must state
whether they are applying for a Level I or Level II grant.
Provide a detailed project description
that addresses the following topics.
- Enhancing
the humanities through innovation
Provide a clear
and concise explanation—comprehensible to a general audience—of the start-up
activities and the ultimate project results, noting their value to scholars,
students, and general audiences in the humanities. Describe the scope of the
project activities, the major issues to be addressed, and their significance to
the humanities. Show how the project will meet its objectives in innovative
ways.
Applicants
should provide a rationale for the compatibility of their methodology with the
intellectual goals of the project and the expectations of those who would make
use of the grant product. 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 start-up project or the long-term project is not
predicated on generally accessible open-source software, explain why and also
explain how NEH’s dissemination goals will still be satisfied by the project.
Applicants
requesting complete or partial funding for the development, acquisition,
preservation, or enhancement of geospatial data, products, or services must
conduct a due diligence search on the Geospatial
One-Stop (GOS) Portal to discover whether their needed geospatial-related
data, products, or services already exist. If not, the proposed geospatial
data, products, or services must be produced in compliance with applicable
proposed guidance posted at www.fgdc.gov. For
further information on this requirement, please see Article 34 of the General
Terms and Conditions for Awards.
- Environmental
scan
Provide a clear
and concise summary of an environmental scan of the relevant field. The goal of
an environmental scan is to take a careful look at similar work being done in
the applicant’s area of study. For example, if you are developing software to
solve a particular humanities problem, please discuss similar software developed
for other projects and explain how the proposed solution differs. If there are
existing software products that could be adapted and re-used for the proposed
project, please identify them and discuss the pros and cons of taking that
approach. If there are existing humanities projects that are similar in nature
to your project, please describe them and discuss how they relate to the
proposed project. The environmental scan should make it clear that you are
aware of similar work being done and should explain how your proposed project
contributes to and advances the field.
- History
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,
publications produced, and resources or research facilities available. It is
anticipated that work on projects initiated during the term of a Digital
Humanities Start-Up Grant will continue after the period of the grant. The
applicant should describe plans for that work and probable sources of support
for subsequent phases of the project.
- Work plan
- Describe
the specific tasks that will be accomplished during the grant period.
Include a schedule of important tasks and milestones for the duration of
the project. Describe each task in some detail, noting which team
members will be involved.
- Describe
plans for evaluating the results of the start-up activities. This
evaluation should both look back on what the Digital Humanities Start-Up
Grant accomplished and look forward to how the long-term project goals
will be achieved.
- If
your project involves a workshop or conference as part of its
activities, please include, as an appendix to your application, the
agenda and a list of proposed participants.
- Staff
Briefly
identify the project director and collaborators who would work on the project
during the proposed grant period and describe their responsibilities. 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 listed, their
anticipated commitments of time should be indicated, and the reasons for and
nature of their collaboration should be explained.
If the project
has an advisory board, provide a statement of its function and a list of board
members in the biographies section of the application, which is discussed
below.
- Final
product and dissemination
Describe the
plans to disseminate the project results through various media (electronic
media, presentations at meetings, journal articles or books). Applicants should
also discuss how the project’s ultimate product is likely to be disseminated
and what provisions will be made for the long-term maintenance of the product.
Projects
developing new software are encouraged to make the software free in every sense
of the term, including the use, copying, distribution, and modification of the
software. Open-source software or source code should preferably be made
publicly available through an online repository such as SourceForge.
Applicants
should discuss how their white paper will detail the activities of the project
and how it could be useful to the field.
- Project budget
Using the instructions
(4-page PDF) and the budget
template (3-page PDF), complete the budget
spreadsheet (MS Excel format) or a format of your own that includes all the
required information.
All project directors will attend a
planning meeting at the NEH offices in Washington, D.C. Directors should budget
accordingly for a one-day meeting in the first year of the requested grant
period.
Budget
narrative
(optional)
If needed, include a brief narrative
supplement to the budget, explaining projected expenses or other items in the
financial information provided on the NEH budget form. The budget narrative may
be single-spaced.
Applicants are advised to retain a copy
of their budget form.
- Biographies
Include a biographies section that
contains a brief, one-paragraph biography for each principal project
participant. If the project has an advisory board, provide a statement of its
function and a list of board members.
- Data management plan
Applicants should prepare a data
management plan for their project. The plan should describe how the project
team will manage and disseminate data generated or collected by the project.
For example, projects in this category may generate data such as software code,
algorithms, digital tools, reports, articles, research notes, or websites.
Include as an attachment (not to exceed one page) a description of the project
data management. For further guidance on the content of this plan, please see Data
Management Plans for NEH Office of Digital Humanities Proposals and Awards.
- Letters of commitment and support
Include letters of commitment from other
participants and cooperating institutions. Include letters of support
(preferably no more than two) from experts in the project’s subject area, the
proposed methodology, or the technical plan.
- Appendices
If applicable, include wireframes, screen
shots, or other project schematics. Materials in this section may not exceed
ten pages.
Background: The National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites applications to the Digital
Humanities Start-Up Grants program. This program is designed to encourage
innovations in the digital humanities. By awarding relatively small grants to
support the planning stages, NEH aims to encourage the development of
innovative projects that promise to benefit the humanities.
Proposals
should be for the planning or initial stages of digital initiatives in any area
of the humanities. Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants may involve
- research
that brings new approaches or documents best practices in the study of the
digital humanities;
- planning
and developing prototypes of new digital tools for preserving, analyzing,
and making accessible digital resources, including libraries’ and museums’
digital assets;
- scholarship
or studies that examine the philosophical or practical implications and
impact of the use of emerging technologies in specific fields or
disciplines of the humanities, or in interdisciplinary collaborations
involving several fields or disciplines;
- innovative
uses of technology for public programming and education utilizing both
traditional and new media; and
- new
digital modes of publication that facilitate the dissemination of
humanities scholarship in advanced academic as well as informal or formal
educational settings at all academic levels.
Innovation
is a hallmark of this grant category. All applicants must propose an innovative
approach, method, tool, or idea that has not been used before in the
humanities. These grants are modeled, in part, on the “high risk/high reward”
paradigm often used by funding agencies in the sciences. NEH is requesting
proposals for projects that take some risks in the pursuit of innovation and
excellence.
Digital
Humanities Start-Up Grants should result in plans, prototypes, or proofs of
concept for long-term digital humanities projects prior to implementation.
Two levels of awards will be made in this
program: Level I and Level II.
Level I awards are small grants designed to fund
brainstorming sessions, workshops, early alpha-level prototypes, and initial
planning. In addition to early planning towards an innovative prototype, Level
I proposals should identify a problem or research question, explore a research
agenda, or discover appropriate methodologies or technologies. Outcomes for
Level I projects would likely include reports, position papers, and plans for
subsequent steps and future research or development. Level I projects may also
fund conferences or workshops addressing specific topics related to the impact
of technology on the humanities. Proposals should include specific plans for
broad dissemination of project outcomes.
Level II awards are larger grants that can be
used for more fully-formed projects that are ready to begin implementation or
demonstrate proofs of concept. Level II proposals should therefore include a
more articulated plan of work leading to concrete and tangible outcomes, such
as working prototypes, test beds, or demonstration projects. Applicants must
state in their narrative which funding level they seek. Applicants should
carefully choose the funding level appropriate to the needs of the proposed
project. See Section II, Award Information, for more details.
Digital
Humanities Start-Up Grants support full-time or part-time activities for periods
up to eighteen months. Support is available for various combinations of
scholars, consultants, and research assistants; project-related travel; and
technical support and services. Up to 20 percent of the total grant may be used
for the acquisition of computing hardware and software. All grantees are
expected to communicate the results of their work to appropriate scholarly and
public audiences.
Successful
applicants will be expected to create a “lessons learned” white paper. This
white paper should document the project, including lessons learned, so that
others can benefit from the grantees’ experience. This white paper will be
posted on the NEH website.
All
proposals will be required to include a data
management plan that discusses how research data will be preserved. (Please
see the Application and Submission Information section for more details.)
Types of
projects not supported
Digital
Humanities Start-Up Grants cannot be used for
- projects
that mainly involve digitization, unless the applicant is proposing an
innovative method for digitization;
- the
creation or conversion of a scholarly journal (however, the exploration of
or planning for new models of scholarly publication is allowed);
- the
implementation or assessment of existing digital applications in the
humanities (however, exploration of or planning for a new direction or
tool for an established project is allowed);
- recurring
or established conferences or professional meetings;
- acquisition
of computer equipment or software in excess of 20 percent of the grant
total;
- creative
or performing arts;
- empirical
social scientific research;
- work
undertaken in the pursuit of an academic degree;
- the
preparation or publication of textbooks;
- projects
that seek to promote a particular political, religious, or ideological
point of view; or
- projects
that advocate a particular program of social action.
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. For the Digital Humanities Start-up
Grants program, such products may include software code, algorithms, digital
tools, reports, articles, and websites. For projects that lead to the
development of such products, all other considerations being equal, NEH gives
preference to those that provide free access to the public.
Eligibility
is limited to
- U.S.
nonprofit organizations or institutions with IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
status; and
- state and
local governmental agencies and federally recognized Indian tribal
governments.
Individuals
are not eligible to apply.
Degree
candidates may not be project directors.
Project
directors may submit only one application to this program at a time, although
they may participate in more than one Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant. They
may also apply for other NEH awards.
When
two or more institutions or organizations collaborate on a project, one of them
must serve as the lead applicant and administer the grant on behalf of the
others.
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.
Late,
incomplete, or ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
Other Important Information: How to Fill Out the Application for Federal
Domestic Assistance—Short Organizational
Select
the form from the menu and double click to open it. In items 6, 7, 8, and 9
below, NEH recommends that the project title, brief project description,
project director’s name, primary contact/grants administrator’s name, and
authorized representative’s name be typed directly onto the form, instead of
being pasted in; pasted-in quotation marks, diacritics, and other symbols are
often converted into question marks during transmittal.
Please
provide the following information:
- Name of Federal Agency: This
will be filled in automatically with “National Endowment for the
Humanities.”
- Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
Number:
This will be filled in automatically with the CFDA number and title of the
NEH program to which you are applying.
- Date Received: Please
leave blank.
- Funding Opportunity Number: This
will be filled in automatically.
- Applicant Information: In this
section, please supply the name, address, employer/taxpayer identification
number (EIN/TIN), DUNS number, website 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.)
- Project Information: Provide
the title of your project. Your title should be brief (no more than 125
characters), descriptive, and substantive. It should also be informative
to a nonspecialist audience. Provide a brief (no more than one thousand
characters) 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.
- Project Director: Provide
the name, title, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone and fax
numbers for the project director.
- 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.
- 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 www.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:
- Project Director: Use the
pull-down menu to select the major field of study for the project
director.
- Institution Information: Use the
pull-down menu to select your type of institution.
- Project Funding: Enter
your project funding information. Note that applicants for Challenge
Grants should use the right column only; applicants to all other programs
should use the left column only.
- Application Information: Indicate
whether the proposal will be submitted to other NEH grant programs,
government agencies, or private entities for funding. If so, please
indicate where and when. NEH frequently cosponsors projects with other
funding sources. Providing this information will not prejudice the review
of your application.
For Type
of Application, check “new” if the application requests a new period of
funding, whether for a new project or the next phase of a project previously
funded by NEH. Check “supplement” if the application requests additional
funding for a current NEH grant. If you are 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 Fill Out
the Project/Performance Site Location(s) Form
Select
the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the
requested information. Instructions for the form can be found here: http://www.grants.gov/assets/SF424Site_Location_Instructions.pdf.
Alternatively, instructions for each requested data element may be viewed by
positioning your cursor over the blank field.
How to Use the
Attachments 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 Attachments 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 table
of contents. Name the file “contents.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT
2: To this button, please attach your list
of project participants. Name the file “participantslist.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT
3: To this button, please attach your abstract.
Name the file “abstract.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT
4: To this button, please attach your narrative.
Name the file “narrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT
5: To this button, please attach your budget.
Name the file “budget.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT
6: To this button, please attach your biographies.
Name the file “biographies.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT
7: To this button, please attach your data
management plan. Name the file “data.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT
8: To this button, please attach your letters
of commitment and support. Name the file “letters.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT
9: To this button, please attach your appendices,
if any. Name the file “appendices.pdf”.
UPLOADING YOUR
APPLICATION TO GRANTS.GOV
When
you have completed all four 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. Doing so will leave you time to contact the
Grants.gov help desk for support, should you encounter a technical problem of
some kind. The Grants.gov help desk is now available seven days a week,
twenty-four hours a day (except on federal
holidays), at 1-800-518-4726. You can also send an e‑mail message to support@grants.gov.
To
assist applicants, Grants.gov provides a helpful troubleshooting page.
Evaluation: Evaluation of
the application will take into account both the activities proposed for the
start-up project and the long-term project goals.
- The
intellectual significance of the project for the humanities, including its
potential to enhance research, teaching, and learning in the humanities.
- The
likelihood that the project will stimulate or facilitate new research of
value to scholars and general audiences in the humanities, or use new
digital technologies to communicate humanities scholarship to broad
audiences.
- The
quality of innovation in terms of the idea, approach, method, or digital
technology, and the appropriateness of the technology employed in the project.
- The
quality of the conception, definition, organization, and description of
the project and the applicant’s clarity of expression.
- The
feasibility of the plan of work, including whether the start-up activities
will significantly contribute to the project’s long-term goals.
- The
qualifications, expertise, and levels of commitment of the project
director and key project staff or contributors.
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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment