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Office of Research and Graduate Education

NEH Funding Opportunities

Collaborative Research

The Collaborative Research program aims to advance humanistic knowledge by fostering rich scholarship that a single researcher could not accomplish working alone. The program supports sustained collaboration by teams of two or more scholars. Teams may propose research in a single field of study or interdisciplinary work. NEH encourages projects that incorporate multiple points of view and pursue new avenues of inquiry in the humanities.

Collaborators may come from one or more institutions. NEH encourages partnerships with researchers from the natural and social sciences, but projects must address humanistic questions and employ humanistic methods. International collaboration is welcome, but scholars at U.S. institutions must contribute significantly to the project. Collaboration among different types of institutions is welcome.

Proposed projects must aim to result in tangible and sustainable outcomes, such as a co-authored or multi-authored book; a themed issue of a peer-reviewed journal; a series of peer-reviewed articles; a born-digital publication; or an open-access website or other digital resource. All project outcomes must incorporate collaboration and interpretation to address significant humanities research questions.

The program includes four project categories: Planning International Collaboration, Convening, Manuscript Preparation, and Scholarly Digital Projects. The categories support different project types or stages and have different performance periods and award ceilings. Applicants must specify only one project category for support.

  • Maximum Award amount: Up to $250,000 (depending on funding category)
  • Application available (anticipated): August 30, 2023
  • Deadline (anticipated): November 29, 2023
  • Expected notification date: August 31, 2024
  • Project start date: October 1, 2024; September 1, 2025

Humanities Connections

The Humanities Connections program seeks to expand the role of the humanities in undergraduate education at two- and four-year institutions by encouraging partnerships between humanities faculty and their counterparts in other areas of study. Awards support the planning or implementation of curricular projects connecting the humanities to the physical and natural sciences; pre-service or professional programs, including law and business; computer science, data science, and other technology-driven fields; or other non-humanities departments or schools. Projects must incorporate the approaches and learning activities of both the humanities and the non-humanities disciplines involved.

Competitive Humanities Connections proposals will demonstrate:

  • how the proposed project expands the role of the humanities in the undergraduate curriculum at the applicant institution(s)
  • substantive and purposeful integration of the subject matter, approaches, and learning activities of two or more disciplines (with a minimum of one in and one outside of the humanities)
  • collaboration between faculty from two or more departments or schools (with a minimum of one in and one outside of the humanities)
  • a curricular structure that your institution could sustain over the long term, including interdisciplinary minors or certificates; curricular pathways such as concentrations within majors or general education programs; and other models appropriate to the institution

The Humanities Connections program includes two funding levels: Planning and Implementation

  • Maximum award amount: up to $50,000 for Planning; up to $150,000 for Implementation
  • Application deadline: September 7, 2023
  • Expected notification date: April 30, 2024
  • Project start date: June 1, 2024; September 1, 2024

Summer Stipends

The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Stipends program aims to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication. The program works to accomplish this goal by:

  • Providing small awards to individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both
  • Supporting projects at any stage of development, but especially early-stage research and late-stage writing in which small awards are most effective
  • Funding a wide range of individuals, including independent scholars, community college faculty, and non-teaching staff at universities

Summer Stipends support continuous full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two consecutive months. NEH funds may support recipients’ compensation, travel, and other costs related to the proposed scholarly research.

What’s new for 2022 and 2023

  • A new one-page attachment indicating your plan of work is required
  • The program will offer exemption from nomination for faculty at Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions (ANNHIs), Native American-Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTIs), and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs).

The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Stipends program aims to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication. The program works to accomplish this goal by:

  • Providing small awards to individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both
  • Supporting projects at any stage of development, but especially early-stage research and late-stage writing in which small awards are most effective
  • Furthering the NEH’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in the humanities by encouraging applications from independent scholars and faculty at Hispanic Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and community colleges

Summer Stipends support continuous full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two consecutive months. NEH funds may support recipients’ compensation, travel, and other costs related to the proposed scholarly research.

  • Maximum award amount: $6,000
  • Application available: April 7, 2022
  • Deadline: September 20, 2023
  • Expected notification date: April 15, 2024
  • Project start date: May 1, 2024; September 1, 2025

Fellowships

NEH Fellowships are competitive awards granted to individual scholars pursuing projects that embody exceptional research, rigorous analysis, and clear writing. Applications must clearly articulate a project’s value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both.

Fellowships provide recipients time to conduct research or to produce books, monographs, peer-reviewed articles, e-books, digital materials, translations with annotations or a critical apparatus, or critical editions resulting from previous research. Projects may be at any stage of development.

NEH invites research applications from scholars in all disciplines, and it encourages submissions from independent scholars and junior scholars.

Applicants interested in research projects that are either born digital or require mainly digital expression and digital publication are encouraged to apply instead for NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication.

What’s new for 2023

  • A one-page attachment indicating your plan of work is required
  • A writing sample is no longer required and should not be included
  • Maximum award amount: $60,000 ($5,000 per month)
  • Application available (anticipated): January 10, 2024
  • Application due: April 10, 2024
  • Expected notification date: December 15, 2024
  • Project start date: January 1, 2025–September 1, 2026

Fellowships for Digital Publication

Fellowships for Digital Publication are competitive awards granted to individual scholars to support interpretive research projects that require digital expression and digital publication. To be considered under this opportunity, an applicant’s plans for digital publication must be integral to the project’s research goals. That is, the project must be conceived as digital because the research topics being addressed and methods applied demand presentation beyond traditional print or audio-video publication. Stand-alone documentaries and podcasts are not allowed. Applicants interested in conducting research and writing leading to traditional print or e-book publications should apply to the NEH Fellowships program.

Competitive submissions embody exceptional research, rigorous analysis, and clearly articulate a project’s value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. All projects must be interpretive. Projects must advance a scholarly argument through digital means and tools. Stand-alone databases, tool development, digitization, and other projects that lack an explicit interpretive argument are not eligible.

Fellowships for Digital Publication provide recipients time to conduct research and prepare digital publications. Successful projects will likely incorporate images, video, audio, data, and/or other multimedia materials, interactive or manipulable elements, or flexible reading pathways that could not be included in traditionally published books, as well as an active dissemination plan. Products must be published in digital form and can include: monographs, peer-reviewed articles, websites, virtual exhibitions, translations with annotations or a critical apparatus, or critical editions. Projects may be at any stage of development.

*This grant was previously known as the NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication. Samples and materials from previous funding years will use this name.

  • Maximum award amount: $5,000 per month
  • Application available (anticipated): January 17, 2024
  • Next deadline (anticipated): April 17, 2024
  • Expected notification date: December 15, 2024
  • Project start date: January 1, 2025; September 1, 2025

Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities

Humanities Initiatives strengthen the teaching and study of the humanities at institutions of higher education by developing new or enhancing existing programs, resources (including those in digital format), or courses that explore, interpret, and preserve the diversity of human cultures, ideas, and practices, past and present.

Projects must address a core topic or set of themes drawn from humanities areas such as history, philosophy, religion, literature, or humanities-informed composition and writing skills.

NEH welcomes applications for projects that are modest in scope, duration, and budget, as well as applications for expansive, long-term projects.

Note: Narrative attachments may not exceed 8 single-spaced pages

  • Maximum award amount: $150,000
  • Application available (anticipated): February 7, 2024
  • Next deadline (anticipated): May 7, 2024
  • Expected notification date: December 31, 2024
  • Project start date: February 1, 2025; September 1, 2025

Digital Projects for the Public

The Digital Projects for the Public program supports projects that interpret and analyze humanities content in primarily digital platforms and formats, such as websites, mobile applications and tours, interactive touch screens and kiosks, games, and virtual environments.

All Digital Projects for the Public projects should

  • present analysis that deepens public understanding of significant humanities ideas;
  • incorporate sound humanities scholarship;
  • involve humanities scholars in all phases of development and production;
  • include appropriate digital media professionals;
  • reach a broad public through a realistic plan for development, marketing, and distribution;
  • create appealing digital formats for the general public; and
  • demonstrate the capacity to sustain themselves.

All projects should demonstrate the potential to attract a broad, general, nonspecialist audience, either online or in person at venues such as museums, libraries, or other cultural institutions. Applicants may also choose to identify particular communities and groups, including students, to whom a project may have particular appeal.

  • Maximum Award Amount: $30,000 (Discovery grants); $100,000 (Prototyping grants); $400,000 (Production grants)
  • Application available (anticipated): March 12, 2024
  • Next deadline (anticipated): June 12, 2024
  • Expected notification date: December 31, 2024
  • Project start date: February 1, 2025; September 1, 2025