NEH Collaborative Research Grants

I. Program Description

Collaborative Research Grants support interpretive research undertaken by a team of two or more scholars, for full-time or part-time activities for periods of a minimum of 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.

Sample narratives from successful grant applications are available under the Program Resources section of the sidebar on the first page of the guidelines. You may request additional samples by sending an e-mail message to collaborative@neh.gov.

Providing access to grant products

As a taxpayer-supported federal agency, NEH endeavors to make the products of its grants available to the broadest possible audience. Our goal is for scholars, educators, students, and the American public to have ready and easy access to the wide range of NEH grant products. For the Collaborative Research program, such products may include monographs, excavation reports, multi-authored volumes, websites, and the like. For projects that lead to the development of websites, all other considerations being equal, NEH gives preference to those that provide free access to the public. Detailed guidance on dissemination matters can be found in the Dissemination section below.
Previously funded projects

Applicants whose projects have received NEH support may apply for a grant for a new or subsequent stage of their projects. Proposals for these projects do not receive special consideration and are judged by the same criteria as others in the grant competition.

Collaborative Research Grants may not be used for:

• projects undertaken by individuals (without collaboration);
• specific policy studies or educational or technical impact assessments;
• projects that seek to promote a particular political, religious, or ideological point of view;
• projects that advocate a particular program of social action;
• editions or translations (see the note below);
• support for the preparation or publication of textbooks intended primarily for classroom use;
• development of tools, including digital tools, or any materials analysis whose primary goal is refinement of a method, unless the development contributes to the larger interpretive goals of the project;
• inventories of collections;
• empirical social science research;
• projects in cognitive psychology;
• creation and enhancement of databases unless part of an interpretive humanities project;
• collection of oral history interviews, unless part of interpretive humanities research;
• research in educational methods, tests, or measurements, or any projects primarily intended for students in formal learning environments;
• recurrent meetings of professional organizations, societies, and scholarly organizations;
• planning or putting on exhibitions;
• works in the creative and performing arts (e.g., painting, writing fiction or poetry, dance performance); or
• support for publication costs or publication subvention.

Note: Applicants for individual projects should apply to the Fellowships or Summer Stipends programs. Applicants who propose to develop digital tools should consult with the NEH Office of Digital Humanities at odh@neh.gov. Proposals for editions and translations should be submitted to Scholarly Editions and Translations. Proposals for preparing bibliographies, descriptive catalogs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, databases, or other research tools or reference works should be submitted to the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program in the NEH Division of Preservation and Access. Applicants planning exhibitions should consult with the NEH Division of Public Programs at 202-606-8269 and publicpgms@neh.gov.

Applicants proposing research in the social or behavioral sciences, linguistics, or economics are encouraged to consider the funding programs of the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at http://nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=sbe.

II. Award Information

Awards are made for a minimum of one year up to a maximum of three years and normally range from $25,000 to $100,000 per year. Successful applicants will be awarded a grant in outright funds, matching funds, or a combination of the two, depending on the applicant’s preference and the availability of funds. The use of federal matching funds is encouraged. Federal matching funds are released on a one-to-one basis when a grantee secures gift funds from eligible third parties.

(Learn more about different types of grant funding.)

Cost sharing

Cost sharing consists of the cash contributions made to a project by the applicant, third parties, and other federal agencies, as well as third party in-kind contributions, such as donated services and goods. Cost sharing also includes nonfederal gift money raised to release federal matching funds. Although cost sharing is not required, NEH is rarely able to support the full costs of projects approved for funding. In most cases, NEH Collaborative Research grants cover no more than 80 percent of project costs. The balance of the costs is to be borne by the applicant’s institution or other sources. Previously funded projects seeking further support should expect a progressively larger share of the costs to be assumed by the host institution or third parties.

III. Eligibility

Eligibility is limited to:

• institutional applicants, i.e., U.S. nonprofit organizations with IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and state and local governments and federally recognized Indian tribal governments; and
• project directors who are not affiliated with an eligible institution, i.e., U.S. citizens or foreign nationals who have been living in the United States or its jurisdictions for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline.
• Project directors affiliated with an eligible institution must apply through an institution, ordinarily their own institution. Only adjunct faculty, faculty at for-profit institutions, and scholars without an institutional affiliation may apply as unaffiliated project directors.

Degree candidates may not be project directors.

Project directors may submit only one application to either the Collaborative Research or the Scholarly Editions and Translations program, but not both. They may, however, apply for other NEH awards, including Fellowships or Summer Stipends.

NEH generally does not award grants to other federal entities or to applicants whose projects are so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities. This does not preclude applicants from using grant funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in their projects. Such resources may not, however, be used as gifts to release NEH matching funds.

Late, incomplete, or ineligible applications will not be reviewed. Find answers to your eligibility questions in the Frequently Asked Questions.

For application details please see the NEH website.