Research and Development 2024 Mod Deadline.pdf

Notice of Funding Opportunity

Research and Development

Funding Opportunity Number: 20240521-PR

Funding Opportunity Type: New

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 45.149

Application Deadline: May 28, 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

20240521-PR i

Executive Summary The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Preservation and Access is accepting applications for the Research and Development program. This program supports projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources. Research and Development offers two funding tiers to address projects at all stages of development and implementation.

Funding Opportunity Title Research and Development Funding Opportunity Number 20240521-PR Federal Assistance Listing Number 45.149 Deadline for Optional Draft April 9, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Application Deadline May 28, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Anticipated Award Announcement December 2024 Anticipated FY 2025 Funding Approximately $1,500,000 Estimated Number and Type of Awards Approximately 7-8 grants Award Amounts Tier I: up to $100,000

Tier II: up to $350,000 Cost Sharing/Match Required No Period of Performance Tier I: up to two years

Tier II: up to three years

Projects must start between March 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/research-and-development

Pre-Application Webinar A pre-recorded webinar will be posted to the program resource page by 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on March 14, 2024.

Published Modified

February 29, 2024 May 7, 2024 to reflect extended deadline https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/research-and-development https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/research-and-development

20240521-PR ii

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

20240521-PR

A. Program Description

1. Purpose The Research and Development program supports projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources. Projects may seek better ways to preserve materials of critical importance to cultural heritage and to organize, search, discover, and use such materials.

The program supports projects at all stages of development, from early planning and standalone studies to advanced implementation. The program benefits the cultural heritage community by supporting work on the entire range of humanities collection types, including moving image and sound recordings, archaeological artifacts, born-digital and time-based media, rare books and manuscripts, archival records, material culture, and art.

Projects may focus on, but are not limited to, the following:

• Furthering theory and practice in core heritage collections work such as appraisal, arrangement, description, cataloging, knowledge organization, and digital curation.

• Preserving audiovisual and digital heritage collections, especially those in formats most at risk of obsolescence.

• Applying artificial intelligence to collections-based activities by heritage institutions such as libraries, museums, and archives.

• Conserving the material past by supporting scientific work to improve the conservation treatment and preventive care of cultural heritage materials.

• Protecting imperiled cultural heritage affected by armed conflict, war, looting, natural disasters, economic development, or tourism.

• Stewarding collections by and with underrepresented communities, including minoritized and Indigenous communities and persons with disabilities.

• Responding to the impact of climate change on the sustainability and resilience of heritage collections, institutions, or communities.

Given the complexities of preserving and providing access to humanities collections, NEH recognizes the importance of forming interdisciplinary teams with expertise in the humanities, preservation, information and computer science, and the natural sciences. The exact mix of specialists will depend on the nature of your project. Your team may include a project co-director, a consultant, an advisory committee, or other experts who contribute to a well-defined humanities perspective, frame your objectives, and guide the project to successful completion.

Funding categories The Research and Development program offers two funding tiers to address projects at all stages of development and implementation.

Tier I: Planning, Basic Research, or Prototyping Tier I provides awards up to $100,000 for a period of performance of up to two years. This tier supports activities such as:

• Planning and preliminary work for large-scale research and development projects.

• Discrete research projects such as case studies or laboratory experiments. While such projects may or may not involve planning or preliminary research for a larger project, they must address research issues or problems in the cultural heritage field.

• Prototype or modest updates to established or emerging standards, methodologies, tools and equipment, or workflows.

Tier II: Advanced Implementation Tier II provides awards up to $350,000 for a period of performance of up to three years. This level supports activities such as:

• Development of new or existent standards, protocols, practices, methodologies, or workflows for preserving and creating access to humanities collections.

• Applied research addressing preservation and access issues concerning humanities collections.

• Topic or area study in heritage preservation and access. NEH encourages you to involve multi-institutional and community stakeholders working to achieve substantial national or international impact via any combination of convenings, data collection, and analysis.

Tier II applicants must demonstrate evidence of prior planning and preliminary research.

Support for that planning might have come from NEH, other federal or foundation awards, or your institution’s own funds.

A Tier I award is not a prerequisite for applying for a Tier II project.

Program Outcomes and Outputs Projects may produce any combination of data, publications, guidance, software, tools, equipment, or other resources in service of advancing knowledge in cultural heritage preservation and access.

You should communicate the results of your work to appropriate scholarly and public audiences.

For Tier II projects, you must also submit a white paper documenting lessons learned, so that others can benefit from your experiences. NEH will post white papers on its website. See E1.

Reporting Requirements.

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

• Documentation, such as an agenda or work plan, preparing for a large-scale research and development project.

• Draft of a standard, practice, or workflow.

• Published quantitative or qualitative datasets from a discrete case study or laboratory experiment.

• Prototypes or modest modifications to new or existing open-source tools, equipment, software, databases, or metadata schema.

• Scholarly publication(s).

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

• Development of new or existing standards, protocols, methodologies, or workflows (may include publication of supporting quantitative and/or qualitative datasets).

• Significant development or modifications to new or existent open-source tools, equipment, software, databases, or metadata schema plus relevant documentation for use by cultural heritage practitioners.

• Report, proceedings, guidelines, or other resources derived from area or topic study.

• Scholarly publication(s).

You will describe your project outcomes and outputs, and how they would support the overall purpose of the Research and Development program, in Attachment 1: Narrative.

See D6. Funding Restrictions for unallowable activities.

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.

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

Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most powerful technologies of our time and will have profound consequences for civil rights and civil liberties, safety and security, and democratic values. Questions about the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI are fundamentally rooted in the humanities, which include ethics, law, history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, media studies, and cultural studies. Indeed, NEH’s founding legislation tasks the agency with making the American people “masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants.” In October 2023, NEH launched a new agency-wide initiative, Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence, to support research projects that seek to understand and address the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI. NEH is particularly interested in projects that explore the impacts of AI-related technologies on truth, trust, and democracy;

safety and security; and privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. This grant program is one of eight NEH programs that are part of NEH’s Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence initiative. To learn more about the initiative, and to ensure you are applying for the most appropriate program, please see our page about the AI initiative.

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 If you are applying for a Tier I award, you may request up to $100,000. If you are applying for a Tier II award, you may request up to $350,000. This includes the sum of direct and indirect costs.

NEH anticipates awarding approximately $1,500,000 among an estimated seven to eight recipients.

NEH will award successful applicants outright funds, which are not contingent on additional funding from other sources.

NEH will not determine the amount available until Congress makes 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.

https://www.neh.gov/AI https://www.neh.gov/AI

Period of performance You may request a period of performance up to two years for Tier I awards and up to three years for Tier II awards, with a start date between March 1, 2025, and September 1, 2025.

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.

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.

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.

Cost sharing refers to project costs that are covered with non-NEH funds. 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.

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

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Learn about types of funds NEH offers.

3. Other Eligibility Information You may submit multiple applications for separate and distinct projects under this notice. An individual may serve as project director for multiple proposed projects under this notice. If an individual will serve as project director on multiple applications, you should explain in the narratives how the project director would allocate their time between the awards.

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.

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

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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 20240521-PR. 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.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

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.

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.

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

You must submit all required components and conditionally required components relevant to your proposal. NEH will not review applications missing any required documents or relevant conditionally required documents.

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.

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

https://nehemail.sharepoint.com/teams/nofo/Shared%20Documents/NOFOs/Preservation%20&%20Access/Research%20and%20Development/2024/Disclosure#_Standard_Form-LLL,_

• 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 Application Component File Name Designation Page limit Attachments 1: Narrative narrative.pdf Required Tier I: 10

Tier II: 12 (mandatory)

2: List of project personnel personnel.pdf Required 3: Résumés for key personnel resumes.pdf Required 2 pages each

(suggested) 4: Work plan workplan.pdf Required 5: Bibliography and environmental scan bibliography.pdf Recommended

6: History of support history.pdf Recommended 7: Letters of commitment and job descriptions commitment.pdf Recommended

8: Letters of support support.pdf Recommended 9: Additional supporting documentation documentation.pdf Recommended 50 (mandatory)

10: Subrecipient budget(s) subrecipient.pdf Conditionally required 11: Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement agreement.pdf Conditionally required

12: Explanation of delinquent federal debt delinquentdebt.pdf Conditionally required

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

Required for recipients

Standard Form-LLL “Disclosure of Lobbying Activities”

Required for recipients

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.

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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 to ten (Tier I) or twelve (Tier II) single-spaced pages with one-inch margins and a font size of at least 11 points. 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.

Organize your narrative using the following section headings. Each section aligns with corresponding review criteria.

1. Significance to the humanities (aligns with review criterion 1) Explain the preservation and access research challenge your project would address and how the cultural heritage field would benefit from the proposed solution. Describe the types of humanities collections, resources, and institutions that your project would benefit. Identify the project outcomes and describe how they would enhance humanities research, education, or public programming. If applicable, indicate how project results might serve the humanities needs of underrepresented communities.

2. Impact (aligns with review criterion 1) Describe how your project relates to other work in the preservation field and how your proposed outcomes would contribute to advancing specific theories, practices, or overall knowledge about a particular topic or issue. Explain plans to disseminate project results and their anticipated adoption or integration by practitioners. If you request funding for extensive audience engagement to ensure adoption, you may include a detailed dissemination plan in Attachment 9: Additional supporting documentation. You may provide an optional bibliography and environmental scan in Attachment 4: Bibliography and environmental scan.

3. Project history, scope, and duration (aligns with review criteria 1 and 3) Summarize the project’s history, including prior research or preliminary planning. Indicate what you have accomplished in previous phases and the degree to which the project has met its established goals.

If you anticipate your project will contain phases that extend beyond the period of performance, describe how accomplishments or products intended for this phase would contribute to the overall effort.

4. Methodology (aligns with review criterion 2 and 3) Discuss the procedures and standards you will follow while carrying out the project, considering the following:

• Developmental or experimental methodology: Discuss the methodological approach that you will employ to accomplish objectives. Indicate programming languages, platforms, software, or other applications you will employ to help you execute this methodology.

• Collections handling: If you will work directly with a humanities collection as a test bed, discuss efforts to ensure proper handling and, if applicable, preservation.

• Data capture: Describe which instruments and tools you will use to capture or generate data and efforts to ensure data integrity.

• Intellectual property and privacy: Discuss how you will manage intellectual property or privacy permissions necessary to ensure the availability of the project’s results (e.g., proprietary technologies or licensed software). You should already have obtained permissions in matters concerning intellectual property, and you should provide pertinent documentation in Attachment 9: Additional supporting documentation.

5. Work plan (aligns with review criteria 2, 3, and 6) Summarize your work plan, including a high-level schedule indicating what you will accomplish during each stage of the project. Provide a detailed version of your work plan in Attachment 5:

Work plan.

6. Institutional profile and project staff (aligns with review criteria 4 and 6) Explain your institution’s capacity to conduct the project, including its possession of the necessary technical infrastructure and scientific facilities. Describe its experience in areas related to the project. Discuss the capabilities of collaborating organizations.

Describe the disciplinary and professional makeup of the project team as it pertains to the project’s objectives and proposed activities.

Describe the staff members’ duties and qualifications. Indicate the amount of time that the principal members of the project team will devote to the project.

If the project has an advisory board, explain its function, and identify the responsibilities of key members. Identify all project personnel, advisory board members, and consultants (including their affiliations) in Attachment 2: List of project personnel.

Explain how you would incorporate community perspectives and representation in the proposed activities and decision-making process. In the case of Native American groups, indicate how your staffing plan (and other project components) will facilitate adherence to the NEH Code of Ethics Relating to Native Americans.

7. Evaluation and sustainability (aligns with review criteria 5 and 6) Discuss in detail your plan to assess your project’s outcomes. Explain the methods that you will use to implement and evaluate your scientific, quantitative, or qualitative results.

Describe how you will sustain project deliverables over the long term.

Discuss how you will ensure appropriate storage, retrieval, and preservation for data generated during your project. As needed, describe personnel training, storage systems, data standards, migration plans, and infrastructural capacity. For data intensive projects, you may present this as a data management plan. You may include the plan in Attachment 9: Additional supporting documentation. Name the file narrative.pdf.

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Narrative Guidance

Each section of the narrative aligns with corresponding review criteria. Use the crosswalk to ensure you address all criteria.

Narrative Section Review Criteria

1. Significance to the humanities #1

2. Preservation and access research impact

#1

3. Project history, scope, and duration #1, 3

4. Methodology #2, 3

5. Work plan #2, 3, 6

6. Institutional profile and project staff #4, 6

7. Evaluation and sustainability #5, 6

Attachment 2: List of project personnel (required) List all project personnel, consultants, and if applicable, members of the project’s advisory board and authors of letters of support in alphabetical order, surnames first, along with their institutional affiliation. Name the file personnel.pdf.

Attachment 3: Résumés for key personnel (required) Include résumés for people occupying the key positions described in the budget, with a suggested length of two pages in length per person. Name the file resumes.pdf.

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

Detail the activities you will undertake during the period of performance. Use a timeline that includes each activity and identifies responsible staff. Separate complex procedures into a coherent set of activities. Explain how outcomes from one activity will carry over into the next.

For each activity, specify the project team members involved. For collaborative projects, discuss the distribution of responsibilities across each institution. As appropriate, identify meaningful support and collaboration with key stakeholders in planning, designing, and implementing all activities. Name the file workplan.pdf.

Attachment 5: Bibliography and environmental scan (recommended) You may include a brief bibliography of relevant sources, and/or an in-depth environmental scan (or a field or literature review). You may also list any publications that you have produced in current or previous phases of the project. Name the file bibliography.pdf.

Attachment 6: History of support (recommended) If the project has received internal or third-party support from any federal or nonfederal sources (including NEH), list the sources, dates, and amounts of these awards. If the project has a long history of support, you may group and summarize the sources and contributions. Name the file history.pdf.

Attachment 7: Letters of commitment and job descriptions (recommended) If your project involves partners or service providers, you are strongly encouraged to provide letters of commitment outlining the scope of work and anticipated costs. You may also include job descriptions for any additional project staff positions. Name the file commitment.pdf.

Attachment 8: Letters of support (recommended) You may include letters of support that address the project’s significance and the program’s review criteria, written by experts in the project’s subject area, proposed methodology, or technology. Authors of letters of support will not participate in the NEH review process.

Elected government officials, NEH staff, and current members of the National Council on the Humanities may not serve as letter writers. Name the file support.pdf.

Attachment 9: Additional supporting documentation (recommended) As relevant, you may include materials to further describe components of your project:

• a data management plan

• representative samples of the final or anticipated form of the work

• permissions in matters concerning intellectual property

• results from previous or preliminary work such as screenshots, reports, or collected data

• dissemination plan

• diversity plan

• scholarly publications (excerpts preferred)

Your additional supporting documentation in Attachment 9 must not exceed 50 pages.

Name the file documentation.pdf.

Attachment 10: 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.

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.”

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

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 signatures). Remove these features (or “flatten” these files) before merging them into a single PDF and uploading it to the Attachments Form.

Name the file subrecipient.pdf.

Attachment 11: Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (conditionally required) If your organization is claiming indirect costs and has a current federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement, provide a copy of the agreement. If applicable, provide the indirect cost rate agreements for subrecipients claiming indirect costs. If you and your subrecipients are requesting the de minimis rate, you do not need to submit this attachment.

Name the file agreement.pdf.

Attachment 12: Explanation of delinquent federal debt (conditionally required) If your organization is delinquent in the repayment of any federal debt, explain why. Provide evidence that you have entered into a repayment agreement with the Internal Revenue Service, if applicable, and that you are current on all payments due. Examples of relevant debt include delinquent payroll or other taxes, audit disallowances, and benefit overpayments. See OMB Circular A-129.

Name the file delinquentdebt.pdf.

Application Components: Grants.gov Forms

SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance – Short Organizational (Grants.gov form) This form requests basic information about your institution, the proposed project, and key contacts. Items 1, 2, and 4 will be automatically filled in; leave item 3 blank.

5. Applicant Information a-d. Provide your organization’s legal name, address, and web address. Select the applicant type that best describes your organization from the drop-down menu.

e-f. Provide your organization’s employer/taxpayer identification number (EIN/TIN), and Unique Entity Identifier assigned by the System for Award Management. If you do not know your identifier, contact your grant administrator or chief financial officer. See D3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management.

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=d22b09774a679ad264cf0098635dabb8&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1414 https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_drupal_files/omb/circulars/A129/a-129.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_drupal_files/omb/circulars/A129/a-129.pdf

g. Provide your congressional district with your two-character state abbreviation followed by your three-character district number. For example, if your institution is located in the 5th congressional district of Alabama, enter “AL-005.” If your institution is in a state or U.S.

jurisdiction that does not have districts, enter “000” in place of the district number. If your institution is outside the U.S., enter “00-000.”

6. Project Information

a. Provide your project’s title. It should be brief (no more than 125 characters, including spaces), descriptive of the project, and easily understood by the general public. If NEH funds your project, the agency may retitle your project for clarity in internal and external communications, including the public announcement of awards. Regardless, you may use your preferred title when carrying out the project.

b. Provide a brief description of your project (no more than 1,000 characters, including spaces).

You should write the description for a nonspecialist audience, clearly stating the importance of the proposed work and its relation to larger issues in the humanities. This description will appear on the cover sheet of your application and will serve as a project abstract during the review process. If funded, this description will also appear in NEH’s database of funded projects.

c. State your project’s period of performance start and end dates. Your project must start on the first day of a month and end on the last day of a month. See B2. Summary of Funding for allowable periods of performance.

7. Project Director Provide the project director’s name, title, and contact information. The project director is responsible for the programmatic aspects and day-to-day management of the proposed project.

You must notify the NEH Office of Grant Management immediately if you need to change project directors.

If the project director is not employed by the applicant organization, you must have a formal written agreement with the project director that specifies an official relationship between the parties even if the relationship does not involve a salary or other form of remuneration.

8. Primary Contact/Grant Administrator Provide the name, title, and contact information for the official responsible for the administration of the award (e.g., negotiating the budget and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of the award).

As a matter of NEH policy, the project director and primary contact/grant administrator must not be the same person.

The grant administrator (also called the “institutional grant administrator”) functions as the representative of the recipient organization. This individual should have authority to act on the organization’s behalf in matters related to the administration of the award. The institutional grant administrator must sign or countersign financial reports and prior approval requests such as budget revisions, extensions to the period of performance, and changes in key personnel.

NEH will address official correspondence (for example, the offer letter or Notice of Action) to the institutional grant administrator and copy the project director.

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

9. Authorized Representative Provide the name, title, and 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 someone from the Office of Sponsored Projects, or the institution’s president, vice president, executive director, or board chair. The institution’s Grants.gov E-Business Point of Contact must designate the AOR. The AOR’s signature must match the contact’s name. See the Grants.gov Online User Guide.

Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs (Grants.gov form)

1. Project Director Select the project director’s major field of study from the drop-down menu.

2. Institutional Information Select your institution type from the drop-down menu.

3. Project Funding

• Under “Outright Funds,” enter the amount of outright funds you are requesting.

• Under “Federal Match,” enter the amount of federal matching funds you are requesting.

• Under “Cost Sharing,” enter the required cost share you will provide to release the federal matching funds (dollar-for-dollar). Do not include voluntary cost share.

Learn more about the types of funding NEH offers.

4. Application Information Indicate whether you or others will submit complementary proposals to other NEH programs, government agencies, or private entities. If so, specify when and to whom. NEH will not consider this information when evaluating the merits of your proposal. See C3. Other Eligibility Information for restrictions regarding overlapping costs.

For type of application, check “new.”

Select the project’s primary discipline from the drop-down menu. If applicable, select the project’s secondary and tertiary disciplines.

Project/Performance Site Location(s) Form (Grants.gov form) Provide the primary location and any other locations where you will conduct project activities during the period of performance.

Enter congressional districts using the two-letter state abbreviation followed by your three-character district number. For example, if your institution is in the 5th congressional district of Alabama, enter “AL-005.” If your institution is in a state or U.S. jurisdiction that does not have districts, enter “000” in place of the district number. If your institution is outside the U.S., enter “00-000.”

The form has space for 300 sites. If your project includes additional locations, list them in a separate document. Save the document as a PDF named additionallocations.pdf and attach it under “Additional Locations.”

https://apply07.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm?callingApp=custom#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/types-funding https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Research and Related Budget (Grants.gov form) You must submit a project budget using the Research and Related Budget form included in the Grants.gov application package and attach a budget justification. Complete the SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational form prior to completing your Research and Related Budget.

Complete a separate detailed budget for each 12-month span of the period of performance. The form will generate a cumulative budget.

The form indicates required fields in yellow. Round all costs to the nearest whole dollar. The inclusion of a cost category on the Research and Related Budget form does not automatically indicate that an expense is allowable in this program. See D6. Funding Restrictions to ensure that proposed costs are allowable.

If you only request outright funds, your budget should include only the funding you are requesting from NEH. If you request federal matching funds, your budget must equal the total funding requested from NEH (outright and federal matching funds) and the one-to-one required third party cost share for the federal matching funds. Refer to the NEH Federal Matching Funds Guidelines regarding the allowability of gifts for matching purposes.

The total federal matching funds and cost share should equal the amounts indicated on the Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs in the “Federal Matching” and “Cost Sharing” fields. Learn about types of funds NEH offers.

If you provide voluntary cost share, do not include it on the Research and Related Budget form.

You may describe it in your budget justification.

All costs, whether supported by NEH funds or required cost sharing contributions (if applicable), must be reasonable, necessary to accomplish project objectives, allowable in terms of 2 CFR 200 Subpart E - Cost Principles, auditable, and incurred during the period of performance. Costs are subject to audit, record retention, and other requirements set forth in 2 CFR 200 Subpart F - Audit Requirements.

You should only include your own employees under A. Senior/Key Person and B. Other Personnel. Include team members in leadership roles in the project under A. Senior/Key Person.

Include other team members under B. Other Personnel. Include costs for non-employees under F3. Consultant Services or F5. Subawards/Consortium/Contractual Costs, as appropriate.

If you charge indirect costs to the project, you must not charge the same costs to the project as direct costs. See H. Indirect Costs.

Introductory Fields Your SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational form should pre-populate introductory fields. If not pre-populated, indicate your organization’s Unique Entity Identifier, name, and the period of performance. This should match the information you provide on your SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational. Your period of performance must start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month. For budget type, check “project.”

https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/federal-matching-funds-guidelines https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/federal-matching-funds-guidelines https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/types-funding https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-E https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=236bb02f01d2e050f7a5b60c88a67066&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#sp2.1.200.e https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#subpart-F…