SOH NOFO 2025 - 030625.pdf

Notice of Funding Opportunity

State and Impact of the Humanities

Funding Opportunity Number: 20250416-XO

Funding Opportunity Type: New

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 45.159

Application Deadline: April 16, 2025

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.

Office of Data and Evaluation Email: odeprograms@neh.gov Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1

OMB control number 3136-0134, expiration date October 31, 2027 mailto:odeprograms@neh.gov

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Executive Summary The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Office of Data and Evaluation is accepting applications for the State and Impact of the Humanities program. This program supports data-grounded research studies that investigate the state, impact, and value of the humanities in the United States. Research designs may be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed, and should involve the active participation of people working in the humanities.

Funding Opportunity Title State and Impact of the Humanities Funding Opportunity Number 20250416-XO Federal Assistance Listing Number 45.159 Deadlines for Optional Draft February 14, 2025, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Application Deadlines April 16, 2025, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Anticipated Award Announcements December 2025 Anticipated FY 2026 Funding Approximately $600,000 Estimated Number and Type of Awards Approximately 4-8 grants Award Amounts Level 1: Up to $75,000

Level 2: Up to $150,000 Cost Sharing/Match Required No Period of Performance Level 1: Up to 12 months

Level 2: Up to 24 months Projects must start between February 1, 2026, and April 1, 2026.

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/program/state-and-impact-humanities

Pre-Application Webinar A prerecorded webinar is available at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-V0DvoWnhY A live Q&A session will be held on February 4, 2025, at 2pm Eastern.

State and Impact of the Humanities Q&A

Published Modified

Modified

January 17, 2025 February 10, 2025: A2. Background, and D6. Funding Restrictions March 6, 2025: D6. Funding Restrictions https://www.neh.gov/program/state-and-impact-humanities https://www.neh.gov/program/state-and-impact-humanities https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dx-V0DvoWnhY&data=05%7C02%7Cjingram%40neh.gov%7C6a9d7da26d7a499fb9f008dd364b1a0a%7C93b06459c77d44b6af7fe813cddcdcc3%7C0%7C0%7C638726418361494315%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=HR5L24BMv%2FGro%2BoJcdk9Jx1iforVrkCCC9IKDtPESl0%3D&reserved=0 https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fevents.gcc.teams.microsoft.com%2Fevent%2Fa9d141b4-f5da-4e9b-80ff-ef78fdf04257%4093b06459-c77d-44b6-af7f-e813cddcdcc3&data=05%7C02%7Cjingram%40neh.gov%7Cdf226e4031e343c8dd8d08dd36532e6d%7C93b06459c77d44b6af7fe813cddcdcc3%7C0%7C0%7C638726453073707842%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=f%2BoNpi2wjU578jhHGqAhs%2F%2F6%2B0AVrdXt8wSva1yy7eA%3D&reserved=0

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Table of Contents

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 State and Impact of the Humanities program.

State and Impact of the Humanities supports data-grounded research studies that investigate the state, impact, and value of the humanities in the United States. For the purposes of this program, the humanities are broadly defined as activities associated with exploring, interpreting, and preserving the diversity of human cultures, ideas, practices and experiences, past and present. See Section 2. Background for a more detailed legislative definition of the humanities.

Proposed studies must seek to understand the state, impact, or value of the humanities in one or more of the following research categories. Note that projects should not primarily be conducting work within these categories, but rather about them. This program does not fund evaluation of a single humanities program, product, or event, such as an educational initiative, podcast, or exhibition.

1. Humanities Education: Elementary (K-5), middle (6-8), and secondary (9-12) education;

post-secondary education (associates, undergraduate, and graduate programs); and educational programming outside of degree-granting learning environments.

2. Humanities Research: Scholarship (for academics, general audiences, or both) conducted within and across humanities disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary research involving humanities questions in the sciences, medicine, law, and other fields.

3. Public Humanities: Humanities work intended to engage with large and diverse public audiences through a broad range of public-facing and publicly accessible formats such as interpretive museum exhibitions, historic site interpretation, public dialogues, public-facing projects led by educational or cultural organizations, and co-creative community collaborations.

4. Preservation and Access: Preserving and providing access to humanities collections, including community and grassroots preservation initiatives.

5. Humanities Infrastructure: Buildings, institutions, and communities and the financial and other resources that support them.

NEH welcomes applications that address topics such as:

• trends in humanities research, teaching, and practice;

• economic, civic, and social impact of the humanities;

• labor and careers in the humanities;

• public perceptions of the humanities;

• humanities infrastructure and funding;

• the humanities and individual or collective well-being;

• broadening participation in the humanities;

• digital technology and the humanities; and

• the coronavirus pandemic and the humanities.

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Multinational studies that include the United States are welcome. All projects should inform understanding of some aspect of the humanities in the United States.

Project Design and Research Methods Projects may draw on diverse research fields and should employ at least one empirical study design. Potential approaches may be based on social science paradigms, which include quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research designs.

Examples of quantitative approaches include – but are not limited to – experimental (e.g., randomized control trials), quasi-experimental (e.g., difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, matching), exploratory, and descriptive designs. In addition to standard (frequentist) econometric methods, NEH welcomes non-standard approaches such as those based in Bayesian and machine learning frameworks.

Examples of qualitative approaches include, but are not limited to, observation, interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. Qualitative work may take any number of theoretical approaches (e.g., case study, ethnography, phenomenology).

Mixed-methods approaches should seek to incorporate all quantitative and qualitative aspects of the project into a unified whole.

Projects that exclusively rely on humanities approaches are unlikely to be competitive, but projects may incorporate humanities research as part of a mixed-methods approach by including methods such as archival research, oral history collection, close reading, critical theory, and critical making. See H. Related Funding Opportunities for NEH programs that fund humanities projects without a significant data component.

NEH especially welcomes impactful research that can help with the development, testing, and standardization of humanities-related programs, practices, models, or tools.

Data Sources and Analysis Projects supported under this program can draw on data acquired during the grant period as well as pre-existing or external data sets, but they must involve data analysis activities that occur during the period of performance. This program does not fund projects that focus exclusively on data acquisition. Projects that involve data collection should follow ethical standards including Institutional Review Board (IRB) oversight as required by the applicant institution and other affiliated institutions.

Data analysis may include quantitative, qualitative, and/or mixed-methods approaches. Data sources may include, but are not limited to surveys, censuses, observations, interviews, focus groups, social media activity, administrative data, and transactional/financial data. Other examples of data sources include archived materials such as written documents, audio/video recordings, or photographs and images.

Team and Activities Project teams may be from a single institution or multiple institutions and may include international and interdisciplinary collaborators. Please note that only one institution may serve as the institution of record for this program.

bookmark://_Related_funding_opportunities/

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Teams should include people with the expertise necessary to implement the proposed research methods such as social scientists, program evaluators, and statisticians, either as team members or as outside consultants or contractors.

Teams must include at least one person actively working in the humanities (such as a scholar or practitioner, broadly construed). Projects investigating a specific aspect of humanities practice are encouraged to incorporate the active participation of practitioners. If your project involves a specific community such as a religious, racial, ethnic, or regional group, you should include one or more members of that community as part of the project team.

Projects may include an advisory board. The role of the advisory board should be clearly described in Attachment 4: Biographies and in Attachment 3: Work Plan.

Activities supported through this program may include, but are not limited to:

• Planning: meetings, convenings, and community events

• Data collection: archival research, interviews, focus groups, web scraping, and surveys

• Digitization: scanning, metadata, storing, and publication of digital materials

• Data analysis: cleaning, coding, visualization, and statistical analysis

• Communication: writing, publication, social media, podcasts, and conferences

• Dissemination: workshops, seminars, forums, and public lectures

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.

Funding categories

Level 1 Level 1 awards (up to $75,000 and up to 12 months) are intended to support projects that have clearly defined research questions, data, and scopes, but that are in the planning or testing stages. Level 1 activities might include cataloging and assessing humanities-relevant data sets;

preliminary assessment, planning, and relationship building; preliminary analysis of pre-existing data sets; and pilot studies. Outputs might include meeting proceedings, documentation, and release of preliminary data or results.

Level 2 Level 2 awards (up to $150,000 and up to 24 months) are intended to support projects that are at the implementation stage. Activities might include data collection, data analysis, and the development of outreach materials. Outputs for Level 2 might include meeting and convening proceedings, publication of data sets and scholarly research, and documentation. A Level 1 award is not a prerequisite for applying for Level 2 funding.

Program Outputs and Outcomes Outputs are the tangible products that result from the award. They are typically produced during the period of performance or draw directly on work completed during that time.

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Outcomes describe the impact that a project and its outputs will have on individuals, institutions, and the field(s) in which the project aims to intervene. Outcomes may occur after the conclusion of the period of performance.

Examples of outputs and outcomes for this program might include, but are not limited to:

Output Outcome Proceedings from a meeting or convening New relationships, new collaborations, more robust or inclusive partnerships Public release of open access data sets Expanded research into previously understudied or inaccessible research areas Publication and presentation of research and results

New pathways of study building on the results of these publications; reference to the research in journalism or policy documents

Community engagement and outreach events Increased awareness of the results of funded research

Documentation, tutorials, and toolkits Use of project resources to implement humanities best practices stemming from funded research

You will describe your project outputs and outcomes, and how they would support the overall purpose of the State and Impact of the Humanities program, in Attachment 2: Narrative. If you receive an award, NEH will assess your performance based on the outputs you identify in the proposal. See F3. Reporting.

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.

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.

B. Federal Award Information

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

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/grants/manage/organizations https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/organizations 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 will provide funding in the form of grants.

2. Summary of Funding Award amounts You may request up to $75,000 for Level 1.

You may request between $75,001 to $150,000 for Level 2.

This includes the sum of direct and indirect costs.

NEH anticipates awarding approximately $600,000 among an estimated 4-8 recipients.

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

NEH will not determine the exact amount available for funding until Congress makes official appropriations for FY 2026. 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 You may request a period of performance up to 12 months for a Level 1 project and up to 24 months for a Level 2 with a start date between February 1, 2026, and April 1, 2026.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Learn about types of funds NEH offers.

3. Other Eligibility Information You may submit multiple applications for separate and distinct projects under this notice, but individuals may not serve as a project director or co-director on more than one application to this program per deadline. They may serve as personnel (not in a leadership role) on more than one application to this program per deadline.

Degree candidates may not be project directors or co-directors but may serve in other project roles.

Per 2 CFR § 200.403(f), NEH does not permit overlapping costs on two or more awards for federal funding and/or approved federal award budgets. If you are submitting 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 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. Proposals for the construction of permanent improvements to lands or facilities that belong to another federal agency are typically ineligible for NEH support. 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 https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/types-funding https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRea20080eff2ea53/section-200.403 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=35fcd29238edd42c8b1f8b1628e39d47&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_11 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=b76712a585433486e57dafcd521c952e&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1331

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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 odeprograms@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.

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 20250416-XO. 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 odeprograms@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 attachments must be PDFs and 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 attachments 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) https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=35fcd29238edd42c8b1f8b1628e39d47&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1459 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=b76712a585433486e57dafcd521c952e&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1331 mailto:odeprograms@neh.gov https://www.neh.gov/grants/policy-on-late-submissions https://www.neh.gov/program/state-and-impact-humanities mailto:odeprograms@neh.gov

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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 must submit it if you receive an award if your proposal meets the specified conditions.

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.

Application Component File Name Designation Page limit Attachments 1: List of personnel personnel.pdf Required 2 (suggested) 2: Narrative narrative.pdf Required 6 (mandatory) 3: Work plan workplan.pdf Required 3 (mandatory) 4: Biographies biographies.pdf Required 1 paragraph per person (suggested)

5: Data management and sustainability datamanagement.pdf Required 2 (mandatory)

6: Letters of commitment letters.pdf Recommended 1 per letter (suggested)

7: Appendices appendices.pdf Recommended 5 (suggested) 8: Subrecipient budget(s) subrecipient.pdf Conditionally required

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

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

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Application Component File Name Designation Page limit 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

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: List of Personnel (required) List all project personnel and advisory board members along with the following information: job title, institutional affiliation, and project role (i.e., J.B. Smith, Assistant Professor of English, Smallville College, Project Co-Director and Humanities Expert; S.V. Perez, Metadata Librarian, Smallville Public Libraries, Research Assistant and Humanities Expert). Clearly identify the project director and any co-directors. Clearly identify the humanities expert(s).

Personnel refers to all members of the project team conducting programmatic activities. The project director is responsible for programmatic aspects of the award and day-to-day management of the proposed project, including federal compliance and documentation. Other project roles vary widely, and may include positions such as team lead, principal investigator, graduate research assistant, consultant, and advisory board member.

The names on this list should match the names mentioned in Attachment 3: Work plan, Attachment 4: Biographies, and the Activities section of the narrative. NEH uses this list to ensure that prospective peer reviewers have no conflicts of interest with the proposals they evaluate.

This attachment has a suggested maximum length of two pages. Name the file personnel.pdf.

Attachment 2: 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.

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You must limit the narrative to six single-spaced pages. Do not include an executive summary, cover page, or table of contents. You may include images, charts, diagrams, footnotes, or endnotes if they fit within the page limit. These materials may alternatively be included in Attachment 7: Appendices.

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

Include all required and relevant details within the narrative. You may embed links to external sources, but NEH does not require peer reviewers to visit links.

Overview of the Project (approximately 1,000 characters) State if you are applying for Level 1 or Level 2 funding. Provide a concise overview of your project written for a non-specialist audience. State the main goal of your project, key activities that will take place during the period of performance, intended audiences, and expected outputs and outcomes.

Note that this section can be identical to the “Description of project” field in Section 6 (“Project Information”) of the SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational form. This field has a limit of 1,000 characters, including spaces.

Humanities Significance (approximately 2 pages) State the research question(s) that your project proposes to address and explain why this question fills an important need or gap in the humanities. Connect the project to NEH’s research priorities (listed in A1. Purpose) and to larger topics beyond your specific study’s concerns.

Situate your project within the related research. Summarize your project’s anticipated value for the field.

In this section, you must state which of the five research categories described in A 1. Purpose your project addresses. Your project may address more than one.

Data and Methods (approximately 1.5 pages) Describe your project’s research design, including the data, methodology, methods, and theoretical framework, as appropriate. Address any privacy or ethical concerns related to the project data. You may use Attachment 5: Data Management and Sustainability to detail the principles governing your data collection and management.

Activities (approximately 1 page) Summarize the primary activities you will accomplish during the period of performance, and how you will measure success and impact. Include a discussion of how the project will support and benefit all project staff, including students and contingent faculty, through project-based learning, mentoring, immersion in the activities of the institution, or other professional development opportunities.

This section should complement the work plan without being redundant by providing a narrative overview and context.

Outputs, Dissemination, and Outcomes (approximately 1 page) Explain the expected final outputs (tangible products) of the award and detail your plans to disseminate project results. Specify how you plan to ensure that the results of this work will be bookmark://_1.__Review/ bookmark://_1._Purpose/ bookmark://_1._Purpose/

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shared with the broadest possible relevant audience. Detail your plans for making open access and accessible outputs, as appropriate. Discuss anticipated mid- and long-term outcomes of this project.

The narrative must not exceed six pages. Name the file narrative.pdf.

Attachment 3: 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 specific and measurable project activities that will be completed over the course of the project. Include a detailed schedule of tasks and milestones and indicate the staff member(s) responsible for each component (if applicable, include advisory board member responsibilities). Specify how you will measure the progress of your project at key milestones.

You may use a Gantt chart or other schematic.

Briefly discuss any IRB review your project requires and the expected timeline. Identify risks such as staff attrition, data collection delays, and travel restrictions, and note how they might adversely affect the overall schedule. Describe strategies to mitigate these risks to keep the project on budget and on schedule.

The work plan must not exceed three pages. Name the file workplan.pdf.

Attachment 4: Biographies (required) Provide a one-paragraph biography for all members of your project team. Use this biography to illustrate how each individual’s technical competence and/or humanities qualifications will enable them to fulfill their responsibilities on the project. Indicate if a person is a current degree candidate (student). You may indicate humanities expertise in the biography (i.e. “S.V. Perez is a humanities expert and metadata librarian…”). If you plan to hire new staff, provide a one-paragraph job description for any open positions.

If your project has an advisory board, provide a brief explanation of its function as well as a one-paragraph biography for each member.

You must not submit CVs or resumes, or NEH will deem your application nonresponsive and reject it. Name the file biographies.pdf.

Attachment 5: Data management and sustainability (required) Prepare a data management plan (DMP) for your project team to consult during and beyond the project’s period of performance.

For the purposes of the DMP, the data produced by your project may include, in addition to data collected and analyzed, software code, algorithms, digital tools, conference proceedings, reports, articles, research notes, or websites.

In your DMP, identify the types of data that your project will collect or generate, and explain:

• the format of the data

• where the data will be stored bookmark://_i.__Project/ bookmark://_ii.__Research/

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• what institution will be responsible for maintaining the data and metadata, and the minimum length of their commitment to data maintenance and storage

• whether the data will be shared publicly, how, and under what conditions

You may include this information as a table.

Explain the project’s policies on public access, privacy, security, and intellectual property.

Describe any legal or ethical concerns relating to the data your project will collect and produce, and any risks that might impact your project’s ability to achieve your data maintenance and storage goals. In the specific case that your project aims to create a dataset resulting from applied research, confirm that your preservation and access plan for that data adheres to FAIR Principles and the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance, as appropriate. See section F 2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements for information about NEH’s policies regarding providing access to NEH-funded products, copyright, protecting personal identifiable information, and consent for survey participation.

Finally, if applicable, briefly discuss your long-term plans for sustaining data produced by this project beyond the period of performance.

This attachment must not exceed two pages. Name the file datamanagement.pdf.

Attachment 6: Letters of commitment (recommended) If your project includes people outside the applicant institution, such as project team members, consultants, contractors, or advisory board members, you may include brief letters of commitment confirming their involvement and responsibilities. These letters help peer reviewers see evidence of commitment by named personnel.

Letters of commitment should not include a discussion of the overall value of the project or its potential impact. Do not include letters of support from people or institutions that are not actively involved in the proposed project.

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

Each letter should not exceed one page. Letters should be combined into a single file. Name the file letters.pdf.

Attachment 7: Appendices (recommended) Use the appendices, as appropriate, to provide:

• bibliography or endnotes

• lists of archives, collections, databases, datasets, or repositories for primary source research

• draft workshop or meeting agendas

• lists of committed participants and/or selection criteria for participants

• methodological workflow schematics

• sample source material

• results from preliminary research, experimentation, or community workshops

• sample permissions agreements, licenses, or proofs of informed consent

• examples of interview or survey questions

This file should not exceed five pages. Name the file appendices.pdf.

https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/ https://www.gida-global.org/care https://www.neh.gov/about/national-council-on-the-humanities https://www.neh.gov/about/national-council-on-the-humanities

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Attachment 8: 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.”

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 9: 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 10: Explanation of delinquent federal debt (conditionally required for recipients) 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.

https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/RR_Budget10_3_0-V3.0.pdf bookmark://_ii.__Research/ https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=d22b09774a679ad264cf0098635dabb8&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1414 bookmark://_Attachments_Form_1/ https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/circulars_a129_rev2013 https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/circulars_a129_rev2013

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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.

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 the month and end on the last day of the 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.

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.

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

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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.

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 Enter the amount requested under “Outright Funds.” Do not enter anything under “Federal Match” or “Cost Sharing.”

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.

https://apply07.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm?callingApp=custom#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm

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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.”

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.

All costs 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 include only 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.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative 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 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#subpart-F

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A. Senior/Key Person Include personnel who are employed by the applicant institution in leadership roles on the project.