Research and Development | 20190515 PR

NEH Research and Development Grants - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the NEH Research and Development grant opportunity?

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Research and Development grant opportunity supports projects that address high-impact, difficult problems in preserving and improving access to humanities collections and resources. It is focused on efforts that move the field forward by developing, testing, or refining methods and tools that help cultural heritage organizations safeguard materials and make them more discoverable and usable for scholars, educators, and the public.

What types of projects is this program designed to fund?

This program is designed to fund work that goes beyond routine preservation or standard digitization. NEH emphasizes projects that tackle broader challenges requiring new approaches, research-driven experimentation, or innovative technical development. Supported work can include developing, testing, or refining preservation and access methods, as well as creating or improving tools and approaches that can be adopted by libraries, archives, museums, and related organizations.

What does NEH mean by "high-impact, difficult problems" in preservation and access?

In this context, "high-impact, difficult problems" refers to complex preservation and access challenges that affect the wider cultural heritage field and are not easily addressed through standard practices. These problems may involve fragility, degradation, technology obsolescence, evolving file formats, software dependencies, or the need for new technical and methodological solutions to improve discovery and usability of collections.

What kinds of materials are a central focus for preservation in this program?

A central focus is preserving materials essential to the nation's cultural heritage that are at risk due to fragility, degradation, or technological change. This includes physical items (such as artifacts and manuscripts), time-based and media formats (such as analog audio or video recordings), and digital materials (both born-digital and digitized) that face threats from changing formats, software dependencies, storage failures, and rapid shifts in technology.

Does the program support preservation of analog audio and video recordings?

Yes. The opportunity explicitly includes time-based and media formats like analog audio or video recordings, which can deteriorate over time or become difficult to play as equipment becomes obsolete.

Does the program support born-digital and digitized materials?

Yes. The opportunity includes born-digital and digitized materials, particularly where they are threatened by changing file formats, software dependencies, storage failures, and rapid shifts in technology.

Is this grant for routine preservation or standard digitization projects?

No. The opportunity is designed for work that goes beyond routine preservation or standard digitization. NEH is looking for projects that address broader, field-level challenges through research-driven experimentation, innovative technical development, or new approaches.

What does the program support related to improving access?

In addition to preservation, the opportunity supports projects that improve access by creating or advancing methods for organizing, searching, discovering, and using humanities collections. Examples mentioned include improved metadata practices, discovery systems, computational techniques, and other approaches that make collections easier to find and interpret.

What types of "access" improvements are included?

Access improvements can include methods or tools that enhance how collections are organized and discovered, such as better metadata practices, improved discovery systems, and computational techniques that help users find, interpret, and use humanities collections more effectively.

Why does NEH emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration for this program?

NEH emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration because preservation and access problems are often complex and may require expertise from multiple domains. Competitive projects typically combine humanities expertise with technical fields such as preservation science, information science, computer science, and natural sciences.

What kinds of expertise are typically involved in competitive projects?

Competitive projects often bring together humanities expertise and technical expertise from areas such as preservation science, information science, computer science, and natural sciences. NEH expects teams to be built based on the needs of the specific problem being addressed.

Does the project team need a clearly defined humanities perspective?

Yes. NEH requires a clearly defined humanities perspective that shapes the project's goals and keeps the work grounded in humanities needs and use cases. This perspective must be concrete and actively integrated into project decision-making and evaluation.

How can an applicant provide the required humanities perspective?

The humanities perspective can be provided through several roles, including a project co-director, consultants, or an advisory committee. Regardless of how it is structured, it must be actively integrated into decision-making and evaluation rather than being purely nominal.

What does NEH expect applicants to explain about benefits and outcomes?

Projects must clearly explain how proposed advances in preservation and access will benefit the cultural heritage community and support humanities research, teaching, or public programming. Applicants should describe who will use the outcomes, how results can be adopted or adapted by relevant organizations, and what humanities questions, learning experiences, or public engagement activities improved preservation or access will enable.

Who should benefit from the project outcomes?

The outcomes should benefit the cultural heritage community and support humanities research, teaching, or public programming. The opportunity highlights adoption or adaptation by libraries, archives, museums, and related organizations, and usability for scholars, educators, and the public.

What kinds of organizations are eligible to apply?

Eligible applicants include state, county, and local governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education institutions).

Are nonprofit organizations eligible to apply?

Yes. Nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status are eligible applicants, provided they are not higher education institutions (which are listed separately as eligible under public/state-controlled and private institutions of higher education).

Are tribal governments eligible to apply?

Yes. Federally recognized Native American tribal governments are listed as eligible applicants.

Are government entities eligible to apply?

Yes. State, county, and local governments, as well as special district governments, are eligible applicants under this opportunity.

What is the maximum award amount for this grant opportunity?

The maximum award amount listed for this opportunity is $350,000.

Is this a discretionary grant program?

Yes. The opportunity is described as a discretionary grant program.

What is the Funding Opportunity Number for this grant?

The Funding Opportunity Number listed is 20190515 PR.

What is the CFDA number and activity category associated with this opportunity?

The opportunity is under the humanities activity category and is associated with CFDA 45.149.

When was this funding opportunity created, and what was the original closing date?

The opportunity was created on March 27, 2019, and the original closing date was May 15, 2019.

What is the overall purpose of the program for the humanities community?

The overall purpose is to move the field forward by supporting research and development that improves preservation and access for humanities collections and resources, helping cultural heritage organizations protect at-risk materials and enabling broader discovery and use by scholars, educators, and the public.