Opportunity Information: Apply for 20170608 PR
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Research and Development grant opportunity supports projects aimed at solving significant, field-wide problems in preserving and improving access to humanities collections and resources. The focus is on practical, innovative work that can move the cultural heritage community forward, especially when existing tools, methods, or workflows are not adequate for the scale or complexity of current preservation and access needs. At its core, the program is designed for efforts that produce new knowledge, techniques, or technologies that others can learn from and build upon, ultimately strengthening humanities research, teaching, and public engagement.
A central theme of the program is addressing major preservation challenges across many types of materials that make up the nation’s cultural record. This includes highly fragile physical items such as artifacts and manuscripts, which may require better conservation approaches or improved environmental monitoring and stabilization. It also includes analog media like audio and video recordings, where deterioration and format fragility create urgent risks of loss. In addition, the program explicitly recognizes the growing challenge of preserving and providing ongoing access to digital assets, especially as hardware, software, file formats, and storage environments become obsolete. Projects may therefore explore strategies for sustainable digital preservation, migration, emulation, integrity checking, or scalable workflows that reduce risk and increase long-term usability.
Beyond preservation, the opportunity also emphasizes improved access to humanities materials through advanced methods of organization, discovery, and use. This can include developing better ways to describe collections, enhance metadata, and improve search, browsing, and discovery for researchers and the public. It can also involve creating or refining tools that help users analyze or interact with collections, including approaches that make large or complex collections more understandable and more usable. The underlying expectation is that the project’s outcomes will make it easier for people to find, interpret, and work with cultural heritage resources in meaningful ways.
Because these problems often span multiple domains, the program highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. Competitive projects are expected to bring together teams that combine humanities expertise with specialized knowledge in preservation and relevant technical fields such as information science, computer science, and the natural sciences. This reflects the reality that many preservation and access obstacles are not purely technical or purely humanistic, but instead require coordinated solutions that respect scholarly context, ethical considerations, and practical constraints in libraries, archives, museums, and related institutions.
Every proposed project must clearly explain how its advances will benefit the broader cultural heritage community, not just the applicant organization. In other words, the work should have relevance and potential impact beyond a single collection or institution, and it should connect its technical or methodological improvements to concrete benefits for humanities scholarship, classroom instruction, or public programming such as exhibits, educational resources, community history initiatives, or digital public humanities experiences.
Administratively, this is a discretionary grant program in the humanities (CFDA 45.149) offered by the NEH. The funding instrument is a grant, with an award ceiling of $350,000. Eligible applicants include a wide range of public and nonprofit entities: state, county, and local governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions in that nonprofit category). The opportunity listed an original closing date of June 8, 2017, and was created on March 27, 2017, indicating the specific cycle referenced in the source data, though similar NEH programs may reappear in future cycles with updated dates and requirements.
In practical terms, this opportunity is best suited for institutions and partnerships that are ready to test, prototype, and evaluate new approaches to preservation or access, especially where the results can be shared, adapted, or scaled by others. The strongest proposals typically frame a clearly defined challenge, explain why current practices are insufficient, outline a credible interdisciplinary plan to develop and assess a solution, and show how the final outputs will strengthen the ability of libraries, archives, museums, and related organizations to protect and open up humanities collections for long-term public and scholarly use.Apply for 20170608 PR
- The National Endowment for the Humanities in the humanities sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Research and Development" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 45.149.
- This funding opportunity was created on 2017-03-27.
- Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-06-08. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $350,000.00 in funding.
- Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - NEH Research and Development Grants
What is the NEH Research and Development grant opportunity?
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Research and Development program supports practical, innovative projects that solve significant, field-wide problems related to preserving humanities collections and improving access to humanities resources. The emphasis is on work that advances new knowledge, techniques, or technologies that others in the cultural heritage community can learn from and build upon.
What is the main purpose of this program?
The program is designed to move the cultural heritage community forward when existing tools, methods, or workflows are not adequate for the scale or complexity of current preservation and access needs. Projects are expected to generate results that strengthen humanities research, teaching, and public engagement.
What kinds of problems is the program trying to solve?
The program focuses on major, field-wide challenges in preservation and access. This includes problems that affect many institutions and collections, especially where improved approaches are needed to protect materials long-term or to make them easier to discover and use.
What types of materials and collections can projects focus on?
The opportunity recognizes challenges across many types of cultural heritage materials, including fragile physical items (such as artifacts and manuscripts), analog media (such as audio and video recordings), and digital assets that face obsolescence risks due to changing hardware, software, formats, and storage environments.
Does the program support conservation and environmental monitoring work for physical collections?
Yes. The program highlights the preservation needs of fragile physical items and notes potential project areas such as better conservation approaches and improved environmental monitoring and stabilization.
Does the program address preservation risks for analog audio and video?
Yes. The opportunity explicitly includes analog media like audio and video recordings, emphasizing that deterioration and format fragility can create urgent risks of loss.
Does this program support digital preservation and long-term access strategies?
Yes. The program explicitly recognizes the growing challenge of preserving and providing ongoing access to digital assets as technologies become obsolete. Projects may explore sustainable digital preservation approaches such as migration, emulation, integrity checking, and scalable workflows that reduce risk and increase long-term usability.
Is the program only about preservation, or does it also fund access improvements?
It supports both. In addition to preservation, the opportunity emphasizes improving access to humanities materials through advanced methods of organization, discovery, and use.
What kinds of access-focused outcomes are encouraged?
The opportunity mentions outcomes such as developing better ways to describe collections, enhancing metadata, and improving search, browsing, and discovery for researchers and the public. It also includes tools that help users analyze or interact with collections, especially for large or complex collections.
What does NEH mean by "practical" and "innovative" work?
Based on the description, "practical" points to solutions that can be applied in real cultural heritage settings (libraries, archives, museums, and related institutions), while "innovative" points to approaches that go beyond existing tools or workflows when those are not sufficient for current preservation or access needs.
What makes a project a good fit for Research and Development funding?
The opportunity is best suited for institutions and partnerships that are ready to test, prototype, and evaluate new approaches to preservation or access, especially when the results can be shared, adapted, or scaled by others.
Does the program expect projects to create outputs that others can reuse?
Yes. A core expectation is that projects produce new knowledge, techniques, or technologies that others can learn from and build upon, with benefits that extend beyond the applicant organization.
Do applicants need to show benefits beyond their own institution?
Yes. Every proposed project must clearly explain how its advances will benefit the broader cultural heritage community, not just the applicant organization, and how those advances connect to humanities scholarship, teaching, or public engagement.
How should applicants connect technical work to humanities impact?
The opportunity expects applicants to connect technical or methodological improvements to concrete benefits for humanities scholarship, classroom instruction, or public programming such as exhibits, educational resources, community history initiatives, or digital public humanities experiences.
Is interdisciplinary collaboration important for competitiveness?
Yes. The program highlights interdisciplinary collaboration and indicates that competitive projects are expected to bring together humanities expertise with specialized knowledge in preservation and relevant technical fields.
What types of expertise might a strong project team include?
The opportunity suggests teams that combine humanities expertise with preservation knowledge and relevant technical fields such as information science, computer science, and the natural sciences.
What is the funding instrument for this opportunity?
The funding instrument is a grant offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Is this a discretionary grant program?
Yes. The opportunity is described as a discretionary grant program in the humanities.
What is the CFDA number associated with this program?
The opportunity lists CFDA 45.149.
What is the maximum award amount (award ceiling)?
The award ceiling listed is $350,000.
Who is eligible to apply?
Eligible applicants include public and nonprofit entities such as state, county, and local governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions within that nonprofit category).
Are Native American tribal governments eligible?
Yes. Federally recognized Native American tribal governments are listed as eligible applicants.
Are colleges and universities eligible?
Yes. Both public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education are listed as eligible.
Are nonprofits eligible?
Yes. Nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status are listed as eligible, with the note that this nonprofit category excludes higher education institutions.
What was the closing date for the cycle described in the provided information?
The opportunity lists an original closing date of June 8, 2017.
When was this opportunity created (based on the source data provided)?
The opportunity is shown as created on March 27, 2017.
Is this information tied to a specific funding cycle?
Yes. The dates provided (created March 27, 2017, closing June 8, 2017) indicate the specific cycle referenced in the source data.
Could a similar NEH program appear again with different dates or requirements?
Yes. The information notes that similar NEH programs may reappear in future cycles with updated dates and requirements.
What kinds of institutions are the intended beneficiaries of project outcomes?
The opportunity emphasizes strengthening the ability of libraries, archives, museums, and related organizations to protect and open up humanities collections for long-term public and scholarly use.
What does the program suggest about scale and complexity?
The opportunity targets challenges where current tools or workflows are not adequate for the scale or complexity of modern preservation and access needs, and encourages work that can support large or complex collections.
What are examples of digital preservation approaches mentioned in the opportunity?
The opportunity mentions strategies such as sustainable digital preservation, migration, emulation, integrity checking, and scalable workflows.
What elements are typically found in the strongest proposals, according to the opportunity description?
The description notes that the strongest proposals typically (1) frame a clearly defined challenge, (2) explain why current practices are insufficient, (3) outline a credible interdisciplinary plan to develop and assess a solution, and (4) show how the outputs will help cultural heritage organizations preserve and provide access to humanities collections for long-term use.
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