Humanities Collections and Reference Resources 2024 NOFO DRAFT.pdf

Notice of Funding Opportunity

Humanities Collections and Reference Resources

Funding Opportunity Number: 20240716-PW

Funding Opportunity Type: New

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 45.149

Application Deadline: July 16, 2024

Ensure your SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations and passwords are current.

It may take several weeks to register with SAM.gov and Grants.gov.

NEH will not grant deadline extensions for lack of registration.

Division of Preservation and Access Email: preservation@neh.gov Telephone: 202-606-8570 Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1

OMB control number 3136-0134, expiration date October 31, 2024 mailto:preservation@neh.gov

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Executive Summary The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Preservation and Access is accepting applications for the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program. The program supports projects that facilitate the discovery and use of humanities collections for research, teaching, and public engagement. Primary activities include digitizing and describing collections, as well as creating reference resources to synthesize humanities information.

Funding Opportunity Title Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Funding Opportunity Number 20240716-PW Federal Assistance Listing Number 45.149 Deadline for Optional Draft June 4, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Application Deadline July 16, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Anticipated Award Announcement April 2025 Anticipated FY 2025 Funding Approximately $7,500,000 Estimated Number and Type of Awards Approximately 35 grants Award Amounts Planning: up to $50,000

Implementation: up to $350,000 Cost Sharing/Match Required No, unless you request federal matching funds Period of Performance Planning: up to two years

Implementation: up to three years

Projects must start between June 1, 2025, and September 1, 2025.

Eligible Applicants • nonprofit organizations recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

• accredited institutions of higher education (public or nonprofit)

• state and local governments and their agencies

• federally recognized Native American Tribal governments

See C. Eligibility Information for additional information.

Program Resource Page https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/humanities-collections-and-reference-resources

Published https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/humanities-collections-and-reference-resources

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Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................ i Table of Contents ................................................................................................... ii A. Program Description

1. Purpose

2. Background

B. Federal Award Information

1. Type of Application and Award

2. Summary of Funding

C. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Applicants

2. Cost Sharing

3. Other Eligibility Information

D. Application and Submission Information

1. Application Package

2. Content and Form of Application Submission

3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management

4. Submission Dates and Times

5. Intergovernmental Review

6. Funding Restrictions

E. Application Review Information

1. Review Criteria

2. Review and Selection Process

3. Assessment of Risk and Other Pre-Award Activities

4. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates

F. Federal Award Administration Information

1. Federal Award Notices

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

3. Reporting

G. Agency Contacts H. Other Information

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A. Program Description

1. Purpose This notice solicits applications for the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program (HCRR).

HCRR advances scholarship, education, and public engagement in the humanities by helping libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations across the country steward important collections of books and manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art and material culture, and digital objects. The program strengthens efforts to make the content of such materials accessible through digitization and description. Awards also support the creation of reference resources that facilitate the use of cultural materials, from works that provide basic information quickly to tools that synthesize and codify knowledge of a subject for in-depth investigation.

The HCRR program encourages open access, collaboration, and sustainable strategies for managing digital collections and resources. To the extent that the condition of the materials, intellectual property rights, and privacy and cultural considerations allow, you should make the resources you develop publicly available. NEH encourages collaboration between smaller and larger repositories, as well as between humanities experts, information professionals, and community stakeholders to expand participation in cultural heritage and promote engagement with primary sources. You should prioritize methods that allow for sharing and the interoperability of information and resources to ensure their long-term availability.

Funding Levels Awards are available at two levels: Planning and Implementation. You are not required to obtain a Planning award prior to applying for an Implementation award.

Planning Planning-level awards (up to $50,000 for up to two years) support assessment, planning, and pilot projects that incorporate cross-disciplinary expertise in the foundational stages of preserving and creating access to humanities collections or producing reference resources.

Experts may include humanities scholars, curators, archivists, librarians, collections and preservation specialists, local historians, and community elders or knowledge bearers, depending on your project goals.

Planning activities may include:

• analyzing and evaluating the content areas, intellectual control requirements, and preservation needs of significant humanities collections, including the development and distribution of collection-level descriptive information (projects to process or catalog collections at more detailed levels should apply instead for an Implementation award);

• identifying and prioritizing humanities materials for digitization, developing project-specific selection criteria, evaluating technical requirements for digital preservation and access, reformatting test-bed items, and/or exploring service arrangements;

• developing plans and protocols to ensure the preservation of digital humanities content (previously digitized or born digital), which could include preliminary testing and evaluation of institutional and/or distributed digital repository systems;

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• creating editorial plans, locating and assembling resources, devising strategies for technological and programmatic sustainability, and producing content exemplars for reference resources such as databases, encyclopedias, dictionaries, or atlases;

• developing plans for and/or conducting collection surveys to inform future repatriation efforts, sustainable and inclusive collection development, or deaccessioning; or

• formalizing partnerships between organizations and developing strategic plans to aggregate digital collections or resources.

You should complete the preliminary stages of project development before applying. Those stages may include initial collections appraisal and accessioning, conceptualization of scope and audience for reference resources, or consortium partner contact and cooperation.

Implementation Implementation level awards (up to $350,000 for up to three years) support projects that preserve and create access to humanities collections or produce reference resources.

Implementation activities may include:

• arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections;

• cataloging collections of printed works, photographs, recorded sound, moving images, art, and material culture;

• digitizing and reformatting collections;

• preserving and improving access to born-digital sources, including updating existing digital resources;

• developing indexes, databases, digital collections, or other project-specific tools to codify information on a subject or to provide integrated access to selected humanities materials;

• creating encyclopedias;

• preparing linguistic resources, such as historical and etymological dictionaries, corpora, and reference grammars (separate funding is available for endangered language documentation projects in partnership with the National Science Foundation); or

• producing resources for spatial analysis and representation of humanities data, such as atlases and geographic information systems (GIS).

Because ensuring the longevity of humanities sources is critical to enabling their ongoing use, you may request support for implementing preservation measures – such as rehousing, item-level stabilization, and conservation treatment – in the context of projects that also create or enhance access to humanities collections.

In recognition of the time-sensitive nature of reformatting sound recordings and moving images stored on degrading and obsolescent media, this program encourages applications that address the need to preserve and access these critically endangered sources.

Program Outcomes and Outputs The outputs of a successful Planning award may include, but are not limited to:

• detailed evaluation reports to guide decision making for preserving and creating access to humanities collections;

• descriptions of prioritized sources and technical requirements for future digitization;

• strategic planning documents for digital preservation efforts;

https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/documenting-endangered-languages https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/documenting-endangered-languages

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• memorandums of understanding between organizations and strategic planning documents for aggregating digital collections or resources; or

• editorial policy, procedure, and scheduling guidelines; tables of contents; and sustainability and dissemination plans for reference resources.

The outputs of a successful Implementation award may include, but are not limited to:

• finding aids and catalog records;

• digital surrogates of humanities collections;

• indexes, databases, digital collections and resources;

• encyclopedias;

• historical and etymological dictionaries, corpora, and reference grammars; or

• atlases and geographic information system representations of humanities data.

You will describe your project outcomes and outputs in Attachment 1: Narrative and quantify them in Attachment 3: Project deliverables. If you receive an award, NEH will assess your performance based on the outputs you identify in the proposal. See F.3 Reporting.

See D6. Funding Restrictions for unallowable activities. Applications unrelated to the purpose of this program or that include unallowable costs or activities may be judged nonresponsive and returned without review.

See E1. Review Criteria for the standards NEH will use to evaluate applications under this notice.

2. Background NEH offers this funding opportunity under the authority of 20 U.S.C. § 956. Awards are subject to 2 CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, and the General Terms and Conditions for Awards to Organizations (for grants and cooperative agreements issued January 1, 2022 or later).

Under Section 3(a) of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, as amended, “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 the 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.”

Use the Funded Projects Query Form to find examples of NEH-supported projects.

Learn more about NEH.

NEH Areas of Interest NEH is especially interested in supporting projects that advance humanities-related work in the following areas. NEH will give all applications equal consideration in accordance with the program’s review criteria.

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?hl=false&edition=prelim&req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title20-section956 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=236bb02f01d2e050f7a5b60c88a67066&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=236bb02f01d2e050f7a5b60c88a67066&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5 https://www.neh.gov/general-terms-and-conditions-awards-organizations-grants-and-cooperative-agreements-issued-january-2022 https://www.neh.gov/general-terms-and-conditions-awards-organizations-grants-and-cooperative-agreements-issued-january-2022 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-1998-title20/pdf/USCODE-1998-title20-chap26-subchapI-sec952.pdf https://securegrants.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx https://www.neh.gov/about

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NEH encourages projects that include Native American organizations and communities as applicants and project partners.

American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future is a wide-ranging special initiative at NEH that leverages the humanities to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time: strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate. The initiative encourages humanities projects that elevate the role of civics in schools and public programs, advance knowledge of the country’s history and political institutions, and examine threats to its democratic principles. The initiative also encourages projects that explore the untold stories of historically underrepresented groups and build capacity at cultural and educational institutions to benefit underserved communities. Finally, the initiative welcomes projects that promote research into the historical roots and cultural effects of climate change and support the cultural and educational sectors in building climate resilience. By supporting humanities projects that align with these three themes – strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate – the American Tapestry initiative seeks to tell our country’s history in all its complexity and diversity.

United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture

Hate must have no safe harbor in America – especially when that hate fuels the kind of violence we’ve seen from Oak Creek to Pittsburgh, from El Paso to Poway, and from Atlanta to Buffalo.

When ordinary Americans cannot participate in the basic activities of everyday life – such as shopping at the grocery store or praying at their house of worship – without the fear of being targeted and killed for who they are, our security as well as democracy are at risk. In coordination with the White House “United We Stand” Summit in September 2022, NEH launched a new initiative titled United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture that uses the humanities to combat hate-motivated violence and promote civic engagement, social cohesion, and cross-cultural understanding. As a part of this initiative, NEH encourages humanities projects that further our understanding of the nation’s racial, ethnic, gender, and religious diversity; examine the sources of hate and intolerance in the United States; and explore progress towards greater inclusiveness. NEH especially welcomes projects that preserve and extend the reach of collections chronicling Muslim American and/or Jewish American experiences, including the history of Islamophobia and/or antisemitism in the United States.

NEH’s Support for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative As a part of NEH’s partnership with the Department of the Interior on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, NEH encourages projects that further public understanding and knowledge of the Federal Indian boarding school system. From 1819 through the 1970s the government of the United States operated a system of schools for Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children premised on a policy of coerced cultural assimilation. Native children were forcibly separated from their families and sent to attend federal Indian boarding schools, where they were frequently subject to harsh treatment and abuse. A number of these students died, and others never returned to their families and communities. Many were also deprived of their cultural inheritance. NEH encourages projects that document and explore the history of the federal Indian boarding schools as well as projects that contribute to Native and Indigenous cultural and language revitalization.

https://www.neh.gov/news/american-tapestry-weaving-together-past-present-and-future https://www.neh.gov/unitedwestand https://www.neh.gov/bsi https://www.neh.gov/bsi

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B. Federal Award Information

1. Type of Application and Award NEH seeks new applications in response to this notice.

NEH will provide funding in the form of grants.

2. Summary of Funding

Award amounts You may request up to $50,000 for Planning awards and up to $350,000 for Implementation awards. Award totals include direct and indirect costs.

NEH anticipates awarding approximately $7,500,000 among an estimated 35 recipients.

NEH will not determine the exact amount available for funding until Congress makes official appropriations for FY 2025. NEH will issue awards subject to the availability of appropriated funds. NEH is publishing this notice as a contingency to ensure that NEH can process applications and issue awards in a timely manner, should sufficient funds become available.

Period of performance The period of performance is the time during which you may incur expenses to carry out the work under the award. It must start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.

You must request a period of performance up to two years for Planning awards and up to three years for Implementation awards with a start date between June 1, 2025, and September 1, 2025.

C. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Applicants To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following:

• a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

• an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit)

• a state or local government or one of their agencies

• a federally recognized Native American Tribal government

Individuals and other organizations, including foreign and for-profit entities, are ineligible.

If your organization is eligible, you may apply on behalf of a consortium of collaborating organizations. If NEH selects your proposal for funding, you will be programmatically, legally, and fiscally responsible for the award.

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/search-for-tax-exempt-organizations https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/search-for-tax-exempt-organizations https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/01/28/2022-01789/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of

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The recipient may not function solely as a fiscal agent but should make substantive contributions to the success of the project.

2. Cost Sharing NEH does not require cost sharing in this program unless you request federal matching funds.

Cost sharing refers to project costs that are covered with non-NEH funds. NEH distinguishes between two types of cost sharing: voluntary cost sharing and federal matching funds.

Voluntary cost sharing You may contribute voluntary cost share if the total project costs exceed the amount awarded by NEH. Voluntary cost share includes:

• cash contributions made to the project by you or a third party

• your unrecovered indirect costs

• in-kind contributions (non-cash contributions, such as property or services, that benefit the project and are contributed without charge) by you or a third party

While you may describe voluntary cost share in your budget justification, you should not include it on your Research and Related Budget. The Research and Related Budget should only include funds you are requesting from NEH.

Peer reviewers will not consider any voluntary cost share in their evaluation of applications.

Federal matching funds While it is not required, you may request a portion of your award in federal matching funds to leverage third party funding. Funds to satisfy a matching requirement must be from sources outside of the applicant institution (a third party) consistent with the NEH Federal Matching Funds Guidelines. If you request federal matching funds, you must raise third-party non-federal gifts dollar-for-dollar (1:1 match ratio). Your total request, including both outright and matching funds, may not exceed the funding limits in section B.2 Award amounts.

Include third-party non-federal gifts on your Research and Related Budget and identify what project activities they will support in the budget justification.

Successful applicants will receive an offer of federal matching funds, subject to specific regulatory and other conditions. NEH will certify the allowability of these gifts and will issue the award only when you have met the conditions of the offer. The full amount of federal matching funds may not be available for release in the first year of a multi-year period of performance.

Typically, NEH distributes federal matching funds on an annual basis over the period of performance.

If NEH selects your project for funding, you must raise and certify all eligible gifts and pledges at least one year prior to the end of the period of performance. NEH advises applicants who are requesting matching funds to consider a period of performance that allows adequate time to raise and certify funds. If you fail to certify required gifts by the deadline, NEH may reduce or terminate your award. See NEH Federal Matching Funds Guidelines.

https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/federal-matching-funds-guidelines

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NEH will not release federal matching funds until you raise and certify eligible gifts. In-kind gifts and funds derived from the recipient organization are not eligible sources of certified gifts in this program.

You must maintain auditable records of the source and use of cost share. See 2 CFR § 200.306.

Learn about types of funds NEH offers.

3. Other Eligibility Information You may submit multiple applications for separate and distinct projects under this notice.

Collaborating organizations may participate in multiple proposals.

You may revise and resubmit previously rejected applications. Submissions are subject to the application requirements and review criteria of the current competition.

If NEH has previously made an award in support of your project, you may apply for a new or subsequent stage of the project, which NEH will assess using the review criteria of the current competition.

Per 2 CFR § 200.403(f), you must not include the same project costs in more than one application for federal funding or approved federal award budget. If one application to NEH is pending, a second application for the same project costs, even if to a different program, may be ruled ineligible. However, you may submit multiple proposals for complementary aspects of the same overall project. If you are submitting complementary proposals to other NEH programs or government agencies, specify when and to whom in the Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs. NEH may disallow costs or reject applications that include overlapping project costs. An individual’s level of effort cannot exceed 100% across multiple active federally funded awards.

NEH does not issue awards to other federal entities. If your project is so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities, it is ineligible. You may use funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in your project, but you may not use them as gifts to release federal matching funds.

NEH does not provide financial assistance to foreign institutions or organizations. If you are an eligible domestic entity, you may apply for collaborative projects involving foreign organizations provided you do not use NEH funds for the purpose of issuing subawards to any foreign organization, as defined in 2 CFR §§ 200.1 and .331(a). You may obtain the services of foreign individuals and consultants to carry out programmatic activities on a fee-for-service basis, as specified in 2 CFR § 200.459. You may obtain goods and services from foreign vendors, such as in-country transportation services, in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.331(b). If you plan to submit an application involving international collaboration, contact program staff at preservation@neh.gov.

Except for the rare cases covered by its late submission policy, NEH will not consider applications submitted after the deadline.

NEH will not consider incomplete, nonresponsive, or ineligible applications for funding.

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NEH will not consider applications that exceed mandatory page limits or deviate from formatting instructions. See the Application Components Table.

D. Application and Submission Information

1. Application Package You must apply using Grants.gov Workspace or a Grants.gov system-to-system solution. You can find this funding opportunity in Grants.gov under number 20240716-PW. There is also a link on the program resource page.

Once you have located the funding opportunity in Grants.gov, you will find the application package under the “Package” tab. It includes a series of required and conditionally required forms. You will upload additional application components using the Attachments Form.

You must complete a multistep registration process prior to submitting your application. See D3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management.

Contact preservation@neh.gov to request a paper copy of this notice.

2. Content and Form of Application Submission Your application will include a narrative, budget, and other forms and attachments. You will complete the forms within Grants.gov Workspace and upload other components into the Attachments Form. See the Application Component Table.

Application formatting Your application components must conform to the following formatting requirements, unless otherwise indicated:

• pages no larger than standard letter (8 ½" x 11”)

• at least one-inch margins on all sides for all pages

• a font no smaller than 11 points

In addition, NEH encourages you to format your components consistent with the following:

• single-spacing

• a readable font such as Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, or Times New Roman

• any standard citation style (include citations in page counts)

Application Component Table NEH has assigned each application component one of the following designations:

• Required: You must submit this component.

• Conditionally Required: You must submit this component if your proposal meets the specified conditions.

• Recommended: NEH encourages, but does not require, you to submit this component.

• Conditionally required for recipients: You are encouraged but not required to submit this component when you apply. You may submit it if you receive an award.

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NEH will not review applications missing any required documents or relevant conditionally required documents.

Do not include attachments other than those listed in the table in this notice. If you do, NEH will reject your application.

In addition, NEH has established page limits for some application components:

• Mandatory: You must not exceed the page limit.

• Suggested: NEH encourages, but does not require, you to abide by the page limit.

Note page limits and formatting instructions in this notice. NEH will not review applications that exceed mandatory page limits or deviate from formatting instructions.

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Application Component File Name Designation Page limit Attachments 1: Narrative narrative.pdf Required Planning: 10;

Implementation:

15 (mandatory)

2: History of awards awardhistory.pdf Conditionally required

1 page (suggested)

3: Project deliverables deliverables.pdf Required 1 page (suggested)

4: Work plan workplan.pdf Required 5: List of project personnel personnel.pdf Required 6: Résumés for key personnel resumes.pdf Required 2 pages each

(suggested) 7: Letters of commitment and support letters.pdf Recommended

8: Additional supporting documentation documentation.pdf Recommended

9: Subrecipient budget(s) subrecipient.pdf Conditionally required

10: Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement agreement.pdf Conditionally required

11: Explanation of delinquent federal debt delinquentdebt.pdf Conditionally required for recipients

Grants.gov forms SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational

Required

Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs

Required

Project/Performance Site(s) Location Form

Required

Research and Related Budget and Budget Justification

Required

Attachments Form Required Certification Regarding Lobbying

Conditionally

Standard Form-LLL “Disclosure of Lobbying Activities”

Conditionally

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Application Components: Attachments Each attachment must be a single PDF file. See the Attachments Form instructions for further guidance about file requirements. Read those instructions carefully, as Grants.gov will not accept files that do not meet the requirements.

Attachment 1: Narrative (required) Compose a comprehensive description of your proposed project. Your narrative should be succinct, well organized, and free of technical terms and jargon so that peer reviewers can understand the proposed project.

You must limit the narrative for Planning applications to ten single-spaced pages;

limit the narrative for Implementation applications to fifteen single-spaced pages.

Do not include an executive summary or a table of contents. You may include images, charts, diagrams, footnotes, and endnotes if they fit within the page limit. You may also include images, charts, diagrams, samples, and other materials in Attachment 8: Additional supporting documentation.

Organize your narrative using the following headings. Each section aligns with one or more review criteria NEH will use to evaluate your proposal.

Significance (aligns with review criterion 1) Justify the project’s importance based on its long-term benefits to research, education, or public engagement in the humanities. Discuss the central humanities themes, questions, or disciplines it would address.

For Planning projects involving humanities collections, describe the nature and importance of the sources that would be the focus of assessment or planning and describe examples of materials you would use in any pilot efforts. For Implementation projects involving humanities collections, describe the selection criteria, nature, size, and intellectual content of the selected collections; explain how they relate to similar collections, both within and external to your organization. Discuss the rationale for focusing on these particular sources.

For Planning projects involving reference resources, provide a clear conceptual vision of the scope and contents of the eventual product and its relationship to other pertinent works or tools.

For Implementation projects to produce reference resources, define the selection criteria and explain how your project relates to existing resources. Demonstrate what benefit or utility the project would provide that existing resources cannot.

Discuss actual and anticipated use of the collection or reference work. Identify the audience(s) that the project would serve. Document use, when possible, through examples of outcomes such as scholarly publications, educational activities, exhibitions, or media programming.

History & Scope (aligns with review criteria 1 and 4) Summarize the project’s history, including information about preliminary research and planning, prior financial support, and available resources or research facilities. If relevant, describe the goals of the larger initiative of which this project is a part. If you anticipate that an Implementation project would take more than three years to complete, describe the scope and duration of the entire initiative, as well as the specific accomplishments you propose for this period of performance.

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If you propose to continue working on a long-standing reference resource, list any existing project-specific products or publications in print or digital form. When appropriate, indicate print runs, sales, and royalties relating to publications; in the case of online products, include the URL and provide user analytics. If NEH has previously supported the project, summarize what was accomplished with past awards. Describe how the next phase of work would adapt to or incorporate changes in technology and user expectations.

Methods & Activities (aligns with review criteria 2, 3 and 4) Explain how you would execute the project and how it would conform to any relevant national standards and accepted professional practices. If your methods depart from typical standards and practices common to humanities disciplines or in the library, archives, and museum fields, explain why the project requires such an approach.

Discuss any intellectual property, privacy, or cultural considerations that might affect the availability of collections or the dissemination of reference resources. Describe how you would address those issues during the period of performance and provide documentation of applicable permissions, donor agreements, licenses, or proofs of informed consent in Attachment 8:

Additional supporting documentation.

Provide an overview of the project activities. For multi-institutional projects, discuss the distribution of responsibilities among partners. Provide a detailed work plan in Attachment 4:

Work Plan.

Additional Considerations for Planning Projects Discuss the knowledge and skills that the project requires and explain how you chose the planning team to meet those needs. Describe how the team would gather relevant information and provide copies of any assessment tools in Attachment 8: Additional supporting documentation. Indicate the methods of communication and collaboration you would use and the framework for decision making. If your project involves organizational partnerships, explain how the project could enrich the broader mission and longer-term capabilities of each partner.

If you are developing plans for and/or conducting collection surveys to inform future repatriation efforts, sustainable and inclusive collection development, or deaccessioning, discuss your institution’s preparatory efforts and any relevant legal requirements, governing structures, or existing collection policies that would impact this work. We encourage you to provide relevant information in Attachment 8: Additional supporting documentation.

Additional Considerations for Implementation Projects: Collections Describe the present condition of the collections and the level of intellectual control. Discuss how you would organize or reorganize the physical materials or digital assets and how users would discover and access them. Reference pertinent strategies, policies, and procedures for collections stewardship.

Provide the following information, as relevant:

• For archival processing projects, discuss the rationale for the arrangement of the collections and the level of description proposed for the finding aids.

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• For cataloging projects, describe the level of detail of the records you will create; the formats, vocabularies, and systems you will use; and the extent to which the records involve original, enhanced, or copy cataloging. Describe how the metadata would be shared and any plans to support its re-use (for example, contributing to aggregated digital platforms or creating an API).

• For digitization projects, quantify the digital objects to be made available; the nature, formats, and quality of the sources from which they would be derived; and the handling and care of original materials during and after reformatting.

• For projects to preserve and provide access to born-digital sources, specify data formats; the current extent of accessibility or obsolescence; and strategies to ensure enduring use, such as migration, emulation, or data harvesting.

• For projects that involve item-level stabilization or conservation treatment, describe the amount, types, and condition of materials you will treat and discuss how access would be enhanced. Justify the chosen approach or method and identify applicable procedures and/or quality control measures. Include treatment proposals and cost estimates prepared by qualified conservators in Attachment 8: Additional supporting documentation.

Additional Considerations for Implementation Projects: Reference Resources Indicate the content, form, and length of entries or citations and describe the editorial procedures for writing entries and verifying information. Include a preliminary list of entries, organized by subject areas or topics, and the instructions provided to contributors in Attachment 8: Additional supporting documentation. For language dictionaries, describe the lexicographical principles you would employ. As applicable, indicate how you would update the work or tool, including the addition of new material and the revision of existing content. If relevant, discuss publishing arrangements, publicity plans, estimated prices, and user costs.

Additional Technical Considerations for All Projects When relevant, provide the following information:

• the hardware and software you would use or refine (note that for projects that entail software development, you are encouraged to use open-source code made publicly available through an online repository);

• preparations for and implementation of data processing (for example, digital imaging, data entry, optical character recognition, or conversion from another format);

• production, preservation, and distribution formats (for example, TIFF, JPEG, PDF/A, WAV), levels of resolution, compression, image enhancement, and the accuracy of textual conversion or transcription;

• provisions for ensuring quality control;

• schema for descriptive, administrative, preservation, and technical metadata, as well as the use of controlled vocabularies;

• system(s) used to manage and present digital content, including specifications that facilitate end use, as well as accessibility features;

• methods for enhancing discoverability, such as search engine optimization, open data harvesting, and/or inclusion in an aggregated resource such as a digital library or cooperative portal; and

• procedures for facilitating computational re-use of data for purposes such as text mining, visualization, topic modeling, geo-coding, or other digital methods.

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Outcomes & Sustainability (aligns with review criteria 3 and 4) Summarize your project outcomes and outputs; you will quantify them in Attachment 3: Project deliverables.

Consistent with NEH’s policy on providing access to NEH-funded products, recipients should provide access to all products through the internet, on-site use, interlibrary loan, or duplication of materials at cost, insofar as the condition of the materials, intellectual property rights, and privacy and cultural considerations allow. Explain how you might leverage open access online resources and use Creative Commons licenses, as possible and appropriate.

For Planning projects, discuss the next steps that you envision as an outgrowth of the award. For Implementation projects, summarize your organization’s approach to sustaining long-term access to collections or reference resources. Describe the staff workflows and technical systems in place to maintain the project’s results. As relevant, provide details on digital preservation infrastructure and policies, such as repository system capabilities, storage requirements and capacity, migration or emulation strategies, and collaborative or third-party arrangements.

Outreach (aligns with review criteria 4) Describe your plans to share the project with relevant communities. For Planning projects, this could include internal stakeholders, advisory boards, and partners, as well as the public if appropriate for the project’s stage of development. For Implementation projects, this could include both specialized and general public audiences. The HCRR program can support outreach activities within appropriate limits. Your budget may include staff time and other eligible expenses related to disseminating the NEH-funded product. In many cases, the outreach components accomplished during the period of performance would be preparatory and developmental; larger scale dissemination work would more likely occur after the project concludes. Applicants seeking to communicate project results through exhibits or other public humanities programs should consider funding opportunities offered by the NEH Division of Public Programs.

Project Team (aligns with review criterion 5) Identify the members of your project team, including consultants and/or personnel to be hired.

Summarize their relevant qualifications, individual roles and responsibilities, and the time they would devote to the project.

If the project has an advisory board, list the names and affiliations of its members, and explain its function. While having an advisory board is not a requirement, many projects benefit from consultation with scholarly advisers, as well as technical and community experts.

HCRR projects often broaden participation and authority in cultural heritage stewardship.

Discuss how you would include diverse perspectives, including those of any source or heritage communities that are the subjects of projects. As relevant, explain how you would incorporate them in the proposed activities and decision-making. In the case of proposed projects specific to Native American groups and cultural materials, indicate how your staffing plan (and other project components) would facilitate adherence to the NEH Code of Ethics Relating to Native Americans.

Separately, you will provide an alphabetical list of everyone involved with the project in Attachment 5: List of project personnel, as well as résumés for key personnel and consultants in Attachment 6: Résumés for key personnel.

https://www.neh.gov/divisions/public https://www.neh.gov/divisions/public https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/code-ethics-related-native-americans https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/code-ethics-related-native-americans bookmark://_bookmark47/ bookmark://_bookmark47/

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Name the file narrative.pdf.

Attachment 2: History of awards (conditionally required) If the project has received previous support from any federal or nonfederal sources, including NEH, list the sources, dates, and amounts of these funds. If the project has a long history of support, you may group and summarize the sources and contributions. This attachment has a suggested length of one page.

Name the file awardhistory.pdf.

Attachment 3: Project deliverables (required) Applicants for Planning projects must list the names of any reports, inventories, documents, or pilot work that would be produced.

Applicants for Implementation projects must include the following information, as relevant:

• the total amount of linear feet to be arranged and described;

• the number of finding aids and/or collection-level descriptions to be produced;

• the total number and type(s) of items to be cataloged (for example, books, manuscripts, photographs, broadsides, maps, artworks, artifacts, audio or video tapes or disks);

• the total number and type(s) of items to be digitized;

• the total number of hours of sound recordings or moving images to be preserved and made available (provide separate numbers for each type);

• the total number of individual records or entries to be created for a database, encyclopedia, historical dictionary, or cartographic resource; or

• the number and type of any other quantifiable products expected as a result of the grant.

This attachment has a suggested length of one page.

Name the file deliverables.pdf.

Attachment 4: Work plan (required) Your work plan should reflect the major activities you describe in your narrative, the project dates on your SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational, and your Research and Related Budget.

Describe the activities that will take place during the period of performance to achieve each of the proposed objectives. Use a timeline that includes each activity and identifies the project team members involved. For multi-institutional projects, discuss the distribution of responsibilities across each institution.

Name the file workplan.pdf.

Attachment 5: List of project personnel (required) List all project personnel and their institutional affiliations, organized alphabetically by surname. If applicable, include advisory board members, consultants, and authors of letters of commitment and support. NEH will use this list to ensure that peer reviewers do not have conflicts of interest with proposed projects.

Name the file personnel.pdf.

bookmark://_i.__Project/

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Attachment 6: Résumés for key personnel (required) Include résumés for key personnel (suggested length is no more than two pages per person).

Include a biographical sketch or a job description for any individuals who will work on the project but who have not yet been hired.

Name the file resumes.pdf.

Attachment 7: Letters of commitment and support (recommended) Provide letters of commitment from your institution’s leadership, partners, consultants, or others who would work closely with you on your project, receive grant funds, or contribute funds to the completion of project activities.

Provide letters of support that address the project’s significance and the program’s review criteria by experts in the project’s subject area. Authors of letters of support will not participate in the NEH review process. We recommend no more than three letters of support.

Elected government officials, NEH staff, and current members of the National Council on the Humanities may not serve as authors of letters of support.

Name the file letters.pdf.

Attachment 8: Additional supporting documentation (recommended) The following documentation is strongly encouraged, as relevant to the project:

• copies of any tools to be used for assessment of collections;

• documentation of legal requirements, governing structures, or existing collection policies that would inform planning for future repatriation efforts, sustainable and inclusive collection development, or deaccessioning;

• images, charts, diagrams, sample materials and reports, or references (restrict these to summaries or excerpts where possible; you may also include hyperlinks in the narrative);

• documentation of permissions, donor agreements, licenses, or proofs of informed consent;

• treatment proposals and cost estimates prepared by qualified conservators (for projects that include conservation treatment);

• contractor quotes and equipment specifications; or

• a preliminary list of entries, organized by subject areas or topics, and the instructions provided to contributors (for projects to create reference works or research tools).

Name the file documentation.pdf.

Attachment 9: Subrecipient budget(s) (conditionally required) If your project includes subawards, you must provide a separate Research and Related Budget and budget justification for each subrecipient.

Download a fillable PDF of the Research and Related Budget form from the NEH website for each subrecipient. You must open and complete this form in Adobe Reader 8.0 or higher rather than in your web browser.

https://www.neh.gov/about/national-council-on-the-humanities https://www.neh.gov/about/national-council-on-the-humanities https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/RR_Budget10_3_0-V3.0.pdf

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Prepare a budget and budget justification for each subrecipient using the same instructions in this notice, with a few exceptions:

• Enter the subrecipient’s Unique Entity Identifier, organization name, and period of performance start and end date (these fields will not prepopulate).

• For “budget type,” check “Subaward/Consortium.”

If your subrecipients have a federally negotiated indirect cost rate, you must honor it. If they do not have a federally negotiated indirect cost rate, they may negotiate a rate with you consistent with 2 CFR § 200.414 or use the de minimis rate.

Rather than attaching related documents (budget justification, additional personnel, additional equipment) to the form itself, you will separately convert each document into a PDF and combine all subrecipients’ budget forms and related documents into a single document. Do not attach portfolios containing multiple PDFs.

NEH cannot accept security-enhanced PDFs (e.g., XFA files, PDFs that include password-protection, encryption, digital…