NEH Fellowships

I. Grant Program Description

Fellowships 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 in the humanities. Projects may be at any stage of development.

NEH encourages submission of Fellowships applications from faculty at Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.

Fellowships may not be used for

•     projects that seek to promote a particular political, religious, or ideological point of view;
•     projects that advocate a particular program of social action;
•     specific policy studies;
•     research for doctoral dissertations or theses by students enrolled in a degree program;
•     the preparation or revision of textbooks;
•     curriculum development;
•     the development of pedagogical tools (including teaching methods or theories);
•     educational or technical impact assessments;
•     the creation or enhancement of databases, unless part of a larger interpretive project;
•     empirical social science research, unless part of a larger humanities project;
•     inventories of collections;
•     works in the creative and performing arts (for example, painting, writing fiction or poetry, dance performance, etc.);
•     the writing of autobiographies and memoirs; or
•     the writing of guide books, how-to books, and self-help books.

Type of award

Fellowships support continuous full-time work for a period of six to twelve months. Successful applicants receive a stipend of $4,200 per month. The maximum stipend is $50,400 for a twelve-month period.

Questions?
Contact NEH’s Division of Research Programs at 202-606-8200 or fellowships@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930. [Or contact Courtney Guerra, who is happy to speak with the NEH on your behalf.]

Protecting our cultural heritage
In response to the destruction of cultural heritage materials worldwide, NEH encourages applications for projects that study, document, or create digital representations of lost or imperiled cultural heritage materials. Proposed projects should be based on scholarly work and follow standards and best practices. Projects must demonstrate the capacity to be sustained and must be widely accessible to the public. For more information click here. All applications will be given equal consideration in accordance with the program’s evaluation criteria, whether or not they respond to the Common Good initiative or the Standing Together initiative or focus on lost or imperiled cultural heritage materials.

Providing access to grant products
As a taxpayer-supported federal agency, NEH endeavors to make the products of its awards 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 Fellowships program, such products may include digital resources, 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. Additional guidance on access and dissemination matters can be found in Section IV, Final product and dissemination, below.
 

II. Award Information

Fellowships cover periods lasting from six to twelve months at a stipend of $4,200 per month. The maximum stipend is $50,400 for a twelve-month period. Applicants should request award periods that suit their schedules and the needs of their projects. Requesting an award period shorter than twelve months will not improve an applicant’s chances of receiving a fellowship.
Recipients may begin their awards as early as January 1, 2018, and as late as September 1, 2019.
The award period must be full-time and continuous. Teaching and administrative assignments or other major activities may not be undertaken during the fellowship period.
Prospective applicants who have questions are encouraged to contact the Fellowships staff at fellowships@neh.gov.
 

Cost sharing and indirect costs
Fellowships are awarded to individuals, not to institutions. They do not require cost sharing and do not include indirect costs.
Eligibility
The Fellowships program accepts applications from researchers, teachers, and writers, whether they have an institutional affiliation or not.
Citizenship
All U.S. citizens, whether they reside inside or outside the United States, are eligible to apply. Foreign nationals who have been living in the United States or its jurisdictions for at least the three years prior to the application deadline are also eligible.
Dissertation revisions
Applicants may seek funding for projects based on completed dissertations. Dissertation revisions should include a discussion of the ways in which the new project moves beyond the original dissertation.
Projects previously supported by NEH Fellowships
An applicant may apply for funding for a project that has previously received an NEH Fellowship. NEH will ask evaluators to review the accomplishments from the prior fellowship and determine if the project warrants additional support.
Concurrent grants from other organizations
Recipients of NEH Fellowships may simultaneously hold fellowships or grants from institutions other than NEH—including sabbaticals and grants from their own institutions—in support of the same project during their award period.
Multiple applications
Applicants may compete concurrently in the following programs for individuals in a given year:
    Summer Stipends;
    Awards for Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities;
    NEH and National Science Foundation - Fellowship Program for Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL);
    Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) - Fellowship Program for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan; and
    Library of Congress (LOC) - John W. Kluge Center Fellowships.
Successful Fellowships applicants who plan research at the Library of Congress may be offered a jointly funded NEH-LOC Kluge Center Fellowship.
Applicants may receive only one NEH individual award in the federal fiscal year (October 1 through September 30). Applicants may not participate in a project supported by an NEH institutional award while holding an NEH individual award that requires continuous, full-time work.

Late, incomplete, or ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
 

Application and Submission Information
Applications must be submitted before 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time) on April 12, 2017. All applicants must submit their proposals by means of an individual account at Grants.gov, the central federal government portal for all grant applications.
NEH suggests that you submit your application as early as possible, but not later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the day of the deadline. Doing so will leave you time to contact the Grants.gov help desk for support, should you encounter a technical problem of some kind. The Grants.gov help desk is now available seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day (except on federal holidays), at 1-800-518-4726. You can also send an e-mail message to support@grants.gov.

A. HOW TO PREPARE YOUR APPLICATION
Prior to beginning, applicants should review the evaluation criteria and consult the Frequently Asked Questions document.
Because of the large number of applications received, the Fellowships staff is not able to read and comment on draft proposals. However, potential applicants may discuss with staff specific concerns or questions that arise during the preparation of their proposals. Contact NEH’s Division of Research Programs at 202-606-8200 or fellowships@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.
Once an application has been submitted, staff will not comment on it except with respect to issues of completeness and eligibility. All applications must be downloaded, completed, and submitted via Grants.gov. Your application should include the following parts.

    Narrative—Not to Exceed Three Single-Spaced Pages
    The narrative should provide an intellectual justification for your project, addressing the four areas listed below: research and contribution; methods and work plan; competencies, skills, and access; and final product and dissemination. A simple statement of need or intent is insufficient. The narrative should not assume specialized knowledge and should be free of technical terms and jargon.

    Applicants should format pages with one-inch margins and with a font size no smaller than eleven point. Applications exceeding this page limit or violating the format guidelines will not be reviewed.

        Research and contribution
        Describe the intellectual significance of the proposed project, including its value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Provide an overview of the project, explaining the basic ideas, problems, or questions examined by the study. Explain how the project will complement, challenge, or expand relevant studies in the field.
        Methods and work plan
        Describe your method(s) and clarify the part or stage of the project that will be supported by the fellowship. Provide a work plan describing what will be accomplished during the award period. For book projects, explain how the final project will be organized. If possible, provide a brief chapter outline. For digital projects, describe the technologies that will be used and developed, and how the scholarship will be presented to benefit audiences in the humanities.
        Applicants requesting funding for the development, acquisition, preservation, or enhancement of geospatial data, products, or services must conduct a due diligence search on the Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) Portal (http://www.geodata.gov) to discover whether their needed geospatial-related data, products, or services already exist. If not, the proposed geospatial data, products, or services must be produced in compliance with applicable proposed guidance posted at http://www.fgdc.gov.
        Competencies, skills, and access
        Explain your competence in the area of your project. If the area is new to you, explain your reasons for working in it and your qualifications to do so. Specify your level of competence in any language or digital technology needed for the study. Describe where the study will be conducted and what research materials will be used. If relevant, specify the arrangements for access to archives, collections, or institutions that contain the necessary resources.
        Final product and dissemination
        Describe the intended results of the project and your intended audience. Explain how the results will be disseminated and why these means are appropriate to the subject matter and audience. If the project has a website, provide the URL.
        If the final product will appear in a language other than English, explain how access and dissemination will be affected.
        NEH expects grantees to provide broad access to all grant products, insofar as the conditions of the materials and intellectual property rights allow. 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.
    Bibliography—Not to Exceed One Single-Spaced Page
    The bibliography should consist of primary and secondary sources that relate directly to the project. Include works that pertain to both the project’s substance and its theoretical or methodological approaches. Evaluators will use the bibliography to assess your knowledge of the subject area.
    Résumé—Not to Exceed Two Single-Spaced Pages
    Your résumé should provide the following:
        Current and Past Positions.
        Education: List degrees, dates awarded, and titles of theses or dissertations.
        Awards and Honors: Include dates. If you have received prior support from NEH, indicate the dates of these grants and the publications that resulted from them.
        Publications: Include full citations for publications and presentations.
        Other Relevant Professional Activities and Accomplishments.
    Appendix—Only for Editions, Translations, or Database Projects, or for Proposals that Include Visual Materials
        Editions or Translations: Provide a sample of the original text (one page) and the edited or translated version (one page).
        Database Projects: Provide a sample entry (one page).
        Visual Materials: Provide a sample (one page) in PDF format, not .jpg or other common graphic format.
    Letters of Recommendation
    In addition to preparing the narrative, bibliography, résumé, and (if necessary) appendix, applicants are also asked to solicit two letters of reference. Provide the names, e-mail addresses, and affiliations for your two reference letter writers on the NEH Supplemental Information for Individuals Form. Please supply only one e-mail address for each referee in the relevant field. (The form is explained below, in the instructions for Form III.) Approximately one week after the deadline, NEH will contact your letter writers, requesting that they submit their letters online. Letters must be submitted online not later than May 17, 2017.