National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation and Access Research and Development Grant

• Preservation and Access Research and Development Grant Website

Deadline

16 May

Objectives

Preservation and Access Research and Development grants support projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources. These challenges include the need to find better ways to preserve materials of critical importance to the nation’s cultural heritage—from fragile artifacts and manuscripts to analog recordings and digital assets subject to technological obsolescence—and to develop advanced modes of searching, discovering, and using such materials.

Applicants should define a specific problem, devise procedures and potential solutions, and explain how they would evaluate their projects and disseminate their findings. Project results must serve the needs of a significant segment of humanists.

Eligible projects include

• the development of technical standards, best practices, and tools for preserving and creating access to humanities collections;

• the exploration of more effective scientific and technical methods of preserving humanities collections;

• the development of automated procedures and computational tools to integrate, analyze, and repurpose humanities data in disparate online resources; and

• the investigation and testing of new ways of providing digital access to humanities materials that are not easily digitized using current methods.

NEH especially encourages applications that address the following topics:

• Digital Preservation: how to preserve digital humanities materials, including born-digital materials, for which there is no analog counterpart;

• Recorded Sound and Moving Image Collections: how to preserve and increase access to the record of the twentieth century contained in these formats; and

• Preventive Conservation: how to protect humanities collections and slow their deterioration through the use of sustainable preservation strategies.

Collaboration is a hallmark of research and development projects. Projects that present advanced models of collaboration, especially among humanities professionals, research scientists, and other technical experts, are welcome. Projects to develop standards or best practices should be guided by advisers representative of the profession.

Successful applicants will be expected to create a white paper that describes the lessons learned during the conduct of the project (both positive and negative). The white paper should also document any software or techniques resulting from the project. White papers will be posted on the NEH website so that others may benefit from the research.

Eligible fields

U.S. nonprofit organizations are eligible, as are state and local governmental agencies and federally recognized Indian tribal governments. Individuals are not eligible to apply.

NEH generally does not award grants to other federal entities or to applicants whose projects are so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities. This does not preclude applicants from using grant funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in their projects.

Late, incomplete, or ineligible applications will not be reviewed.

Tenure

The maximum award is $350,000 for up to three years. Applicants whose projects focus on any of the three areas of special interest noted above may request up to $400,000. Successful applicants will be awarded a grant in outright funds, federal matching funds, or a combination of the two, depending on the applicant’s preference and the availability of NEH funds. Matching funds are released when a grantee secures gift funds from eligible third parties.

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