Promotion of the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities

The Office of Digital Humanities supports innovative humanities projects that utilize or study the impact of digital technology. The Digital Humanities Advancement Grants program (DHAG) supports innovative, experimental, and/or computationally challe

In a short period of time, digital technology has changed our world. The ways we read, write, learn, communicate, and play have fundamentally changed due to the advent of networked digital technologies. These changes are being addressed in fascinating ways by scholars from across the humanities, often working in collaboration with scientists, librarians, museum staff, and members of the public. The Office of Digital Humanities offers grant programs that address these cultural changes. This would include projects that explore how to harness new technology for humanities research as well as those that study digital culture from a humanistic perspective. To best tackle the broad, interdisciplinary questions that arise when studying digital technology, NEH works closely with the scholarly community and with other funding agencies in the United States and abroad, to encourage collaboration across national and disciplinary boundaries.

Eligible applicants include U.S. nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, public and 501(c)(3) accredited institutions of higher education, state and local governmental agencies, and federally recognized Native American Tribal governments.

U.S. nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, public and 501(c)(3) accredited institutions of higher education, state and local governmental agencies, and federally recognized Native American Tribal governments.

Awards support professional development institutes on advanced topics in the digital humanities that explore new technology-driven methodologies; innovative start-up projects that are in the first phases of planning, brainstorming, and creating prototypes that explore the use or impact of digital technology for the humanities; the broader implementation of innovative projects in the digital humanities that have moved beyond the start-up phase; projects that explore and enrich humanities materials using digital technology, thereby enhancing teaching, research, and public access.

Varies by program; see B2 in the relevant Notice of Funding Opportunity.

Prior to submitting a proposal, applicants are encouraged to contact program officers who can offer advice about preparing the proposal, and review draft proposals. These comments are not part of the formal review process and have no bearing on the final outcome of the proposal, but applicants in other programs have found them helpful in strengthening their applications. Program staff recommend that draft proposals be submitted six weeks before the deadline. Time restraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after that date. Draft proposals may be submitted by E-mail attachment (odh@neh.gov).

See review criteria in the Notice of Funding Opportunity detailed criteria.

NEH staff review all applications for eligibility, completeness, and responsiveness. The agency then conducts a peer review process for all applications that pass this initial screening. Peer reviewers are experts in their fields with knowledge and expertise relevant to the activities that the program supports. NEH instructs peer reviewers to evaluate applications according to established review criteria. Peer reviewers must comply with federal ethics rules governing conflicts of interest. NEH program officers supplement the peer reviewers' comments to address matters of fact or significant points that the peer reviewers have overlooked. They then make funding recommendations to the National Council on the Humanities. The National Council meets at least twice each year to review applications and advise the NEH Chair. By law, the Chair has the sole authority to make final funding decisions.

See https://www.neh.gov/divisions/odh.

If NEH has previously made an award in support of your project, you may submit an application for a new or subsequent stage of the project, which NEH will assess using the same criteria as other applications in the current competition.

Applicant may request written reasons for rejection and reapply with revised proposal to a subsequent deadline.