Digital Humanities Start Up Grants | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Digital Humanities Start Up Grants program is a discretionary federal grant opportunity run by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and cosponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Its main purpose is to spark new, genuinely innovative work in the digital humanities by funding the earliest stages of project development. Instead of supporting large, fully built initiatives from day one, the program is geared toward helping applicants test ideas, build initial models, and work through the planning and design decisions that can later lead to bigger, long-term digital humanities projects. A major theme is collaboration, especially partnerships that connect scholars and educators with libraries, museums, and other cultural repositories, with the goal of strengthening online teaching, learning, and research.

Projects can be in any humanities area, as long as they are positioned as planning or start-up efforts rather than full implementation at scale. NEH and IMLS describe a wide range of eligible activities, including research that introduces new approaches or documents best practices in digital humanities work; planning and prototyping tools that help preserve, analyze, or expand access to digital resources (including library and museum digital collections); scholarship exploring the philosophical implications and broader impact of emerging technologies; and creative uses of technology for public humanities programming and education that blend traditional and newer media. The program also welcomes proposals for new forms of digital publication and for efforts that improve how humanities scholarship is shared, whether in advanced academic environments or in K-12 and other informal or formal educational settings.

Innovation is not optional in this program; it is the central requirement. Applicants are expected to propose an approach, method, tool, or idea that has not been used before in the humanities, and the program is explicitly framed as similar to the "high risk/high reward" model commonly used in science funding. The expectation is that strong proposals will take thoughtful risks in pursuit of meaningful advances, and that the grant will lead to tangible early outputs such as plans, prototypes, or proofs of concept that prepare a project for later implementation.

Two funding levels are available, and applicants must clearly state which level they are requesting in the project narrative. Level I awards are smaller and meant for very early-stage work such as brainstorming meetings, workshops, initial planning, and early alpha prototypes. Level II awards are larger and intended for projects that are more developed and ready to begin implementation activities or produce more robust working prototypes. NEH indicates it will reserve funds for both categories, but expects to make more awards at Level I, so applicants are encouraged to select the level that realistically matches the maturity of their idea and the scope of work they can complete in the period of performance.

Awards can support full-time or part-time work for up to eighteen months. Allowable costs include support for teams that may combine scholars, consultants, and research assistants, as well as project-related travel and technical services. Up to 20 percent of the total grant budget may be used to purchase computing hardware and software, reflecting the program's prototyping and development focus while still keeping the emphasis on planning and early experimentation rather than equipment acquisition.

Dissemination is also a built-in expectation. Grantees are expected to share results with relevant scholarly and public audiences, and applicants are strongly encouraged to use open-source and fully accessible software to increase reuse and long-term impact. A required deliverable for successful applicants is a "lessons learned" white paper that documents what the project did, what worked, what did not, and what others can take from the experience; NEH or IMLS will post this document on their website so it can inform future work across the field.

From the funding opportunity details provided, the opportunity number is 20090408 HD under CFDA 45.169 (Promotion of the Humanities) through NEH's Office of Digital Humanities. The posted date is January 8, 2009, with an application closing date of April 8, 2009, and an archive date of May 8, 2009. The anticipated number of awards is 10, with an award ceiling of $50,000 and no stated minimum award floor. No cost sharing or matching is required. Eligible applicants include individuals; nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (including but not limited to higher education institutions); private and public/state-controlled institutions of higher education; and certain governmental entities such as city/township governments, state governments, and federally recognized Native American tribal governments. For program questions, applicants are directed to contact NEH Office of Digital Humanities staff via email at odh@neh.gov, and additional guidance is referenced at http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/digitalhumanitiesstartup.html.

Browse more opportunities from the same agency: National Endowment for the Humanities

Browse more opportunities from the same category: Humanities (see Cultural Affairs in CFDA)

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