NEH Digital Humanities Start-up Grants

The National Endowment for the Humanities is inviting applications to the Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program, which is designed to encourage innovations in the digital humanities. By awarding relatively small grants to projects in the planning stages, NEH aims to encourage the development of innovations that promise to benefit the humanities.

Proposals should be for the planning or initial stages of digital initiatives in any area of the humanities. Projects may involve research, new approaches, or best practices in the study of the digital humanities; planning and developing prototypes of new digital tools for preserving, analyzing, and making accessible digital resources, including libraries' and museums' digital assets; scholarship or studies that examine the philosophical or practical implications and impact of the use of emerging technologies in specific fields or disciplines of the humanities, or in interdisciplinary collaborations involving several fields or disciplines; innovative uses of technology for public programming and education utilizing both traditional and new media; and new digital modes of publication that facilitate the dissemination of humanities scholarship in advanced academic as well as informal or formal educational settings at all levels.

Applicants must propose an innovative approach, method, tool, or idea that has not been used before in the humanities. Grants should result in plans, prototypes, or proofs of concept for long-term digital humanities projects prior to implementation.

Two levels of awards are available:

Level I awards are small grants (ranging from $5,000 to $25,000) designed to fund brainstorming sessions, workshops, early alpha-level prototypes, and initial planning. In addition to early planning toward an innovative prototype, Level I proposals should identify a problem or research question, explore a research agenda, or discover appropriate methodologies or technologies. Outcomes for Level I projects would likely include reports, position papers, and plans for subsequent steps and future research or development. Level I grants may also fund conferences or workshops addressing specific topics related to the impact of technology on the humanities. Proposals should include specific plans for broad dissemination of project outcomes.

Level II awards are larger grants (ranging from $25,001 to $50,000) that can be used for more fully formed projects that are ready to be implemented or demonstrate proofs of concept. Level II proposals should therefore include a more articulated plan of work leading to concrete and tangible outcomes, such as working prototypes, test beds, or demonstration projects.

Grants will support full- or part-time activities for periods of up to eighteen months. Support is available for various combinations of scholars, consultants, and research assistants; project-related travel; and technical support and services. Up to 20 percent of the total grant may be used for the acquisition of computing hardware and software.

DUE DATE: February 23, 2011

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Collaborative Research (NEH)

Collaborative Research Grants support original research undertaken by a team of two or more scholars, for full-time or part-time activities for periods of at least one year up to a maximum of three years. Support is available for various combinations of scholars, consultants, and research assistants; project-related travel; field work; applications of information technology; and technical support and services. All grantees are expected to communicate the results of their work to the appropriate scholarly and public audiences.

Eligible projects include:

• research that significantly adds to knowledge and understanding in the humanities;
• conferences on topics of major importance in the humanities that will benefit scholarly research;
• archaeological projects that include the interpretation and communication of results (projects may encompass excavation, materials analysis, laboratory work, field reports, and preparation of interpretive monographs); and
• research that uses the knowledge and perspectives of the humanities and historical or philosophical methods to enhance understanding of science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences.

These grants support full-time or part-time activities for periods of one to three years.

Amount: $300,000

Date due: October 28, 2010

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NEH Summer Stipends Program

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources. Summer Stipends support full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two months. Summer Stipends support projects at any stage of development.

Summer Stipends are awarded to individual scholars. The Summer Stipends program welcomes projects that respond to NEH’s new Bridging Cultures initiative. Such projects could focus on cultures internationally or within the United States. International projects might seek to enlarge Americans’ understanding of other places and times, as well as other perspectives and intellectual traditions. American projects might explore the great variety of cultural influences on, and myriad subcultures within, American society. These projects might also investigate how Americans have approached and attempted to surmount seemingly unbridgeable cultural divides, or examine the ideals of civility and civic discourse that have informed this quest.

Amount: $6,000

Date due: September 30, 2010

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Canada Conference Grant Program

The Canada Conference Grant Program supports conferences that address important and timely issues about Canada, its relationship with the United States, and its international affairs. The Conference Grant is designed to assist an institution in holding a conference and publishing the resulting papers and proceedings in a scholarly fashion. We welcome conferences that engage local government representatives, NGOs, the business sector, students and the general public as well as promote linkages with Canadian academics and institutions.

The Conference Grant program is particularly interested in projects that have policy relevance for Canada and Canada-U.S. relations. Topics that are highly relevant to Canada-U.S. relations include smart and secure borders; North American economic competitiveness; regulatory cooperation; Canada-U.S. trade and investment partnership; energy security and sustainability; environmental sustainability; emergency planning and management; Canada-U.S. security and defense cooperation; Canada in Afghanistan; global health policy; and changing demographics in North America. We strongly encourage projects that include collaboration with researchers at Canadian institutions.

Amount: $15,000

Date due: June 30, 2010

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Program Enhancement Grant (Canada)

The Program Enhancement Grant is designed to encourage scholarly inquiry and multidisciplinary professional academic activities that contribute to the development or expansion of a program dedicated to the study of Canada or Canada-U.S. relations. We are particularly interested in innovative projects that promote awareness among students and the public about Canada and Canada-U.S. relations. We strongly encourage programs that foster student mobility (exchanges, study tours, internships, scholarships) to Canada and that promote institutional linkages and research collaboration in priority areas with Canadian institutions.

Institutions must demonstrate their funding support for the program and that they are bringing innovative ideas to the program.

Grants are provided to help defray only direct costs related to professional activities initiated by the institution. These costs include travel, honoraria, research and promotion materials, printing, website development, student mobility, linkages and research collaboration with Canadian universities, and faculty and course development. Faculty and student first-time membership fees for the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States or a Canadian academic association are allowable budget items.

Amount: $18,000

Date due: June 15, 2010

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Research Grant Program (Canada)

The Research Grant Program promotes research that contributes to a better knowledge and understanding of Canada, its relationship with the United States, and its international affairs. The grant is designed to assist individual scholars, or a team of scholars, in writing an article-length manuscript of publishable quality and reporting their findings in a scholarly publication and at scholarly conferences, thus contributing to the development of expertise on Canada in the United States. We welcome efforts to integrate the research findings into the applicant's teaching load.

The program is particularly interested in projects that have policy relevance for Canada and Canada-U.S. relations. Topics that are highly relevant to Canada-U.S. relations include smart and secure borders; North American economic competitiveness; regulatory cooperation; Canada-U.S. trade and investment partnership; energy security and sustainability; environmental sustainability; emergency planning and management; Canada-U.S. security and defense cooperation; Canada in Afghanistan; global health policy; and changing demographics in North America. We strongly encourage projects that include collaboration with researchers at Canadian institutions.

Amount: $15,000 - $20,000

Date due: November 1, 2010

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Bridging Cultures Initiatives

As part of its recently announced Bridging Cultures initiative, the National Endowment for the Humanities is inviting proposals to plan and implement a program consisting of a forum and workshop on one of two humanities themes — "Civility and Democracy" or "The Muslim World and the Humanities."

Project proposals for both program themes should consist of two elements — a forum that engages scholars and humanities practitioners in discussion among themselves and with a public audience; and a workshop at which humanities practitioners, scholars, and teachers collaborate to devise content, formats, training strategies, and education and dissemination methods for a nationwide or regional program that engages people in communities across the country in reflection on, and discussion of, the forum theme.

Successful applicants will be responsible for planning and implementing all aspects of the forum and workshop, including, at the program's outcome, a plan for a public program designed to engage a broad, diverse regional or national audience in discussion of the forum theme. Successful applicants will each be awarded a grant ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 in outright or matching funds. All forum and workshop programs should take place between October 1, 2010, and March 30, 2011.

Amount: $100,000 - $250,000

Date due: June 1, 2010

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