National Endowment for the Humanities: Collaborative Research

The National Endowment for the Humanities is funding collaborative humanities research teams through Project Grants under CFDA 45.035, with the most recent opportunity closing on September 16, 2026, and the most recent awards disbursed on October 1, 2026.

The program supports groups of two or more scholars advancing humanistic knowledge through manuscript preparation for print publication, creation of scholarly digital projects, or planning of international research collaborations. Recent awards span diverse humanities fields: manuscript preparation on the lasting impact of Martin Luther's anti-Judaism on biblical studies ($20,000), a comprehensive grammar of Late Biblical Hebrew ($23,249), terahertz imaging technology applied to reveal hidden texts in medieval Spanish book bindings ($25,000), Holocaust autograph albums as material culture ($139,914), 4,000-year-old Egyptian funerary boats under conservation study ($226,455), a ten-year bioarchaeological project analyzing over 1,000 individuals from an ancient Athenian cemetery ($179,293), ethnographic research on Black faculty experiences at HBCUs ($283,189), and a digital storytelling project documenting transgender older adults' narratives in the Pacific Northwest ($247,131). The program is exclusively Project Grants; all 16 awards in the portfolio are this assistance type.

NEH is the sole funder, having obligated $2.7 million across 16 awards. Award volume accelerated sharply—one award per year from 2020 through 2023, then seven in 2024 and six in 2026, signaling active program growth. Typical award magnitude ranges from $20,000 to $283,000, with a median in the $200,000–$250,000 range for manuscript-preparation and digital-project awards. Recipients must be U.S. nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, accredited institutions of higher education (public or private), state and local governmental agencies, or federally recognized Native American tribal governments. The most recent opportunity (posted July 7, 2026, closed September 16, 2026) limited competition to projects on American history and culture or Western civilization. NEH notification typically takes 9–12 months after the application deadline. Recipients may request one-year no-cost extensions 30 days before project completion and must retain fiscal documentation for three years following final expenditure report submission.