The U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access is pleased to announce the release of the 2020 Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Research and Development grant program (https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/research-and-development).  

The deadline for submission is May 15, 2020.

A free information webinar will be hosted by NEH on April 1, 2020 at 2pm ET.

You may register for the webinar here:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1472710468990843661.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The Research and Development program supports 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 organizing, searching, discovering, and using such materials.

This program supports projects at all stages of development, from early planning and stand-alone studies, to advanced implementation.  Research and Development projects contribute to the evolving and expanding body of knowledge for heritage practitioners, and for that reason, outcomes may take many forms.  Projects may produce any combination of laboratory datasets, guidelines for standards, open access software tools, workflow and equipment specifications, widely used metadata schema, or other products.

Research and Development supports work on the entire range of humanities collection types including, but not limited to, moving image and sound recordings, archaeological artifacts, born digital and time-based media, rare books and manuscripts, material culture, and art.  Applicants must demonstrate how advances in preservation and access through a Research and Development project would benefit the cultural heritage community by supporting humanities research, teaching, or public programming.

WHAT’S NEW FOR 2020

Research and Development projects are encouraged-but not required-to address one or more of the following areas of special interest:

* Preserving our audiovisual and digital heritage.  Research and Development supports ongoing work to address the needs of collection formats most at risk of obsolescence.  Projects may consider addressing issues such as format degradation, preservation work at scale, algorithmic and machine learning methodologies, storage, data appraisal, and curation.

* Conserving our material past.  Research and Development supports the scientific work to improve the conservation treatment and preventive care of cultural heritage.

* Protecting our cultural heritage.  Research and Development supports the development of tools, methods, technologies, or workflows for documenting, sharing, visualizing, and presenting lost or imperiled cultural heritage materials.  Learn more about Protecting our Cultural Heritage.

* Reaching under-represented communities. Research and Development supports work in making preservation and access activities more accessible, sustainable, and manageable for institutions with limited capacities and access to humanities collections, including persons with disabilities.  NEH especially encourages projects that address and/or include as lead applicants and project partners institutions representing minority and indigenous communities.

CONTACTING NEH

Program officers will review draft proposals submitted by April 10, 2020.

Program staff cannot respond to drafts submitted after this deadline.  Although this optional preliminary review is not part of the formal review process and has no bearing on the final outcome of the proposal, previous applicants have found it helpful in strengthening their applications.  If you choose to submit a draft proposal, send it as an attachment to preservation@neh.gov<mailto:preservation@neh.gov>.

For additional information about the program, please visit https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/research-and-development or contact preservation@neh.gov<mailto:preservation@neh.gov>.