American Council for Learned Societies
Collaborative Research Fellowships
Deadline: This program will not be offered in 2018-19. Deadline is typically in September.
Award Range: Varies based on number of collaborators; capped at $201,000.
Match Required: none.
ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowships support small teams of two or more scholars collaborating intensively on a single, substantive project in the humanities and related social sciences. The goal of the project should be a tangible research product (such as joint print or web publications) for which at least two collaborators will take credit. The program is funded by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Deadline: Annually in January. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: Varies; capped at $150,000.
Match Required: none.
ACLS Digital Extension Grant Program supports digitally based research projects in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences. It is hoped that these grants will help advance humanistic scholarship by enhancing established digital projects, extending their reach to new communities of users, and supporting teams of scholars at all career stages as they participate in digital research projects.
Baltimore National Heritage Area
Deadline: May 9, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $15,000 for non-capital programmatic support. Up to $10,000 for general operating support.
Match Required: 1:1 (cash only).
Heritage Investment Grants supports non-capital cultural heritage tourism projects and organizations within the boundaries of the Baltimore National Heritage Area. Eligible activities include planning, interpretation, programming and operating expenses that align with the 2013 Baltimore National Heritage Area Comprehensive Management Plan.
Institute for Museum and Library Services
Activating Community Opportunities Using Museums/Libraries as Assets
Deadline: May 14, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $150,000.
Match Required: 1:1.
This special call for proposals invites projects that will help library, archive, and museum (LAM) fields and their communities learn together how to build upon the unique abilities of LAMs to achieve positive change. Successful projects will exemplify how LAMs can provide trusted spaces for ongoing community dialog and exploration of the intersections between individual narratives. In addition, successful projects will demonstrate the viability of using and adapting existing approaches gleaned from the collective impact, social well-being, and community development arenas.
Deadline: Applications accepted annually from November to February. Exact 2018/2019 dates TBA.
Award Range: up to $3,900 cap per assessor.
Match Required: Institution is required to pay remaining assessment fees that exceed the award cap.
The CAP program provides small and mid-sized museums with partial funding toward a general conservation assessment. The assessment is a study of all of the institution’s collections, buildings, and building systems, as well as its policies and procedures relating to collections care. Participants who complete the program receive an assessment report with prioritized recommendations to improve collections care. CAP is often a first step for small institutions that wish to improve the condition of their collections.
Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
Deadline: Annually in September (pre-proposal); Annually in February (full proposal, invitation only). Exact 2018 and 2019 dates TBA.
Award Range: Planning Grants: up to $50,000 (up to one year). National Forum Grants: up to $100,000 (up to one year). Research Grants: up to $500,000 (up to three years). Project Grants: $50,000–$1,000,000 (up to three years).
Match Required: None for requests up to $250,000; 1:1 match for higher asks (non-federal sources).
The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (LB21) supports professional development, graduate education, and continuing education to help libraries and archives develop a diverse workforce of librarians to better meet the changing learning and information needs of the American public. Projects must designate one of the following project categories: (1) Community Anchors; (2) National Digital Platform; or (3) Curating Collections.
Museums Empowered: Professional Development and Capacity Building Opportunities for Museums
Deadline: Annually in March. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: $5,000-$250,000 (up to three years).
Match Required: None for requests up to $25,000; 1:1 match for requests above $25,000.
To support and empower museums of all sizes and disciplines in responding to the evolving needs of the museum profession and changes in their communities, this MFA special initiative has four areas of focus for professional development and capacity building: (1) Digital Technology: training and professional development learning opportunities for museum staff to fully explore, understand and optimize the use of digital technology in museums; (2) Diversity and Inclusion: staff professional development and museum capacity building projects that explore proactive and inclusive ways to invite, connect, engage and strengthen ties with diverse communities; (3) Evaluation: training and professional development opportunities in audience research and evaluation for museum staff to help a museum expand its evaluation capacity; and (4) Organizational Management: training and professional development opportunities for museum staff to learn best practices in organizational management, strategic thinking, embracing innovation and managing change in order to foster continued growth, relevancy and vitality.
Potential projects will address one of these four priority areas and help strengthen the capability of an individual museum to better serve its public.
National Leadership Grants for Libraries
Deadline: Annually in September (pre-proposal); Annually in January (full proposal, invitation only). Exact 2018 and 2019 dates TBA.
Award Range: Sparks Grants: up to $25,000 (up to one year). Planning Grants: up to $50,000 (up to one year). National Forum Grants: up to $100,000 (up to one year). Project and Research Grants: up to $2,000,000 (up to three years).
Match Required: None for requests up to $250,000; 1:1 match for higher asks (non-federal sources).
National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG) support projects that address significant challenges and opportunities facing the library and archive fields and that have the potential to advance theory and practice. Successful proposals will generate results such as new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used, adapted, scaled, or replicated to extend the benefits of federal investment. Projects must designate one of the following project categories: (1) Community Anchors; (2) National Digital Platform; or (3) Curating Collections.
Deadline: Annually in December. Exact 2018 date TBA.
Award Range: $50,000-$500,000 for up to 3 years.
Match Required: None for requests up to $25,000; 1:1 match for higher asks.
National Leadership Grants for Museums support projects that address critical challenges facing museums and provide solutions that advance practices to better meet the public’s needs. Project categories for funding include Learning Experiences, Community Anchors and Collections Stewardship.
Maryland Historical Trust
Non-Capital Historic Preservation Grants
Deadline: July 9 (Intent to Apply); September 10 (completed applications).
Award Range: Up to $75,000.
Match Required: None.
Non-Capital grants provide support for a wide variety of research, survey, planning, and educational activities involving architectural, archaeological, or cultural resources.
National Center for Preservation Technology and Training
Preservation Technology and Training
Deadline: Annually in January. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: Up to $40,000.
Match Required: None.
2017 Preservation Technology and Training (PTT) Grants are intended to create better tools, better materials, and better approaches to conserving buildings, landscapes, sites, and collections. PTT Grants will support the following activities: (1) Innovative research that develops new technologies or adapts existing technologies to preserve cultural resources (typically $25,000 to $40,000); (2) Specialized workshops or symposia that identify and address national preservation needs (typically $15,000 to $25,000); (3) How-to videos, mobile applications, podcasts, best practices publications, or webinars that disseminate practical preservation methods or provide better tools for preservation practice (typically $5,000 to $15,000). Grants are not for brick and mortar projects.
National Endowment for the Arts
Deadline: Annually in October. Exact 2018 dates TBA.
Award Range: $10,000-$100,000.
Match Required: 1:1 (non-federal sources).
Based on its 2017-2021 research agenda, the NEA is interested in research seeking to identify and to examine: Factors that enhance or inhibit Arts Participation or Arts/Cultural Assets; Detailed characteristics of Arts Participation or Arts Cultural/Assets, and their interrelationships; Individual-level outcomes of Arts Participation; and Societal or community-level outcomes.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Deadline: December 5, 2018.
Award Range: $25,000-$100,000 (up to three years).
Match Required: None.
Collaborative Research Grants support the following projects: research that significantly adds to knowledge and understanding of the humanities; conferences on topics of major importance in the humanities that will benefit scholarly research; and archaeological projects that include the interpretation and dissemination of results.
Digital Humanities Advancement Grants
Deadline: June 5, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $325,000 (for up to 3 years).
Match Required: None.
Digital Humanities Advancement Grants (DHAG) support digital projects throughout their lifecycles, from early start-up phases through implementation and long-term sustainability. DHAG may involve: (1) creating or enhancing experimental, computationally-based methods or techniques that contribute to the humanities; (2) pursuing scholarship that examines the history, criticism, and philosophy of digital culture and its impact on society, or explores the philosophical or practical implications and impact of digital humanities in specific fields or disciplines; or (3) revitalizing and/or recovering existing digital projects that promise to contribute substantively to scholarship, teaching, or public knowledge of the humanities.
Deadline: April 10, 2019
Award Range: Fellowships cover periods lasting from 6 to 12 months at a stipend of $4,200 per month. The maximum stipend is $50,400 for a 12-month period. Awarded to individuals, not institutions.
Match Required: None.
Fellowships program supports valuable, individual humanities research. Awards are granted to individual scholars who are expected to produce new scholarly resources.
Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions (FPIRI)
Deadline: August 8, 2018.
Award Range: $4,200/month stipend and up to $7,000 in direct costs related to selecting fellows.
Match Required: None unless federal matching funds are awarded.
FPIRI supports fellowships at institutions devoted to advanced study and research in the humanities. Specifically sponsors fellowships that provide scholars with research time, a stimulating intellectual environment, and access to resources that might not otherwise be available to them.
Humanities Connections Planning Grants
Deadline: September 18, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $35,000 for up to 12 months.
Match Required: None.
The Humanities Connections grant program seeks to expand the role of the humanities in undergraduate education at two- and four-year institutions. Grants will support innovative curricular approaches that foster productive partnerships among humanities faculty and their counterparts in the social and natural sciences and in pre-service or professional programs (such as business, engineering, health sciences, law, computer science, and other technology driven
fields).
Humanities Connections Implementation Grants
Deadline: September 18, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $100,000 for 18-36 months.
Match Required: None.
Humanities Connections grants seek to expand the role of the humanities in the undergraduate curriculum at two- and four-year institutions, offering students in all academic fields new opportunities to develop the intellectual skills and habits of mind that the humanities cultivate. Grants support the development and implementation of an integrated set of courses and student engagement activities focusing on significant humanities content.
Deadline: March 12, 2019.
Award Range: $50,000-$250,000 (up to three years).
Match Required: None.
Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities grants support national or regional (multistate) training programs for scholars and advanced graduate students to broaden and extend their knowledge of digital humanities.
Deadline: August 1, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $500,000 (for up to four years).
Match Required: 3:1 (non-federal sources).
The mission of this Challenge Grants program is to strengthen the institutional base of the humanities by enabling infrastructure development and capacity building. Grants aim to help institutions secure long-term support for their core activities and expand efforts to preserve and create access to outstanding humanities materials.
NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication
Deadline: April 10, 2019.
Award Range: Fellowships cover periods lasting from 6 to 12 months at a stipend of $4,200 per month. The maximum stipend is $50,400 for a 12-month period. (Awards are given to individuals, not institutions.)
Match Required: None.
Through NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication, the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation jointly support individual scholars pursuing research projects that require digital expression and digital publication. To be eligible for this special opportunity, an applicant’s plans for digital publication must be essential to the project’s research goals. That is, the project must be conceived as digital because the nature of the research and the topics being addressed demand presentation beyond traditional print publication. Successful projects will likely incorporate visual, audio, and/or other multimedia materials or flexible reading pathways that could not be included in traditionally published books.
Deadline: Annually in May. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: $100,000 (per year, for up to two years).
Match Required: None.
Preservation and Access Education and Training grants are awarded to organizations that offer national or regional (multistate) education and training programs. Grants aim to help the staff of cultural institutions, large and small, obtain the knowledge and skills needed to serve as effective stewards of humanities collections. Grants also support educational programs that prepare the next generation of conservators and preservation professionals, as well as projects that introduce the staff of cultural institutions to new information and advances in preservation and access practices.
Deadline: Annually in May. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: Up to $7,000 (for 18 months).
Match Required: None.
Preservation Assistance Grants help small and mid-sized institutions—such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, cultural organizations, town and county records offices, and colleges and universities—improve their ability to preserve and care for their significant humanities collections. These may include special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, decorative and fine art objects, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, furniture, historical objects, and digital materials. Applicants must draw on the knowledge of consultants whose preservation skills and experience are related to the types of collections and the nature of the activities on which their projects focus.
Deadline: February 6, 2019.
Award Range: $50,400 (maximum for a 12-month period; $4,200 per full-time month)
Match Required: None.
The Public Scholar Program supports well-researched books in the humanities intended to reach a broad readership. This program aims to encourage scholarship that will be of broad interest and have lasting impact. Such scholarship might present a narrative history, tell the stories of important individuals, analyze significant texts, provide a synthesis of ideas, revive interest in a neglected subject, or examine the latest thinking on a topic.The program is open to both individuals affiliated with scholarly institutions and independent scholars or researchers. Projects may be at any stage of development.
Deadline: June 7, 2018.
Award Range: Tier I (planning and basic research): up to $75,000 for up to 2 years. Tier II (advanced implementation): up to $350,000 for up to 3 years.
Match Required: None.
Research & Development grants support projects that offer innovative solutions to the significant challenges faced in preserving or accessing humanities collections and resources. All projects must demonstrate how advances in preservation and access would benefit the cultural heritage community in supporting humanities research, teaching, or public programming.
Deadline: December 5, 2018.
Award Range: $50,000-$100,000 (up to three years).
Match Required: None.
Scholarly Editions and Translations grants support the preparation of editions and translations of pre-existing texts of value to the humanities that are currently inaccessible or available in inadequate editions. Typically, the texts and documents are significant literary, philosophical, and historical materials; but other types of work, such as musical notation, are also eligible.
Summer Seminars and Institutes
Deadline: February 14, 2019.
Award Range: Seminars ($50,000-$135,000; up to 12 months). Institutes ($60,000-$225,000; up to 15 months).
Match Required: None.
NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes support professional development programs in the humanities for school teachers and for college and university faculty. These initiatives may be as short as one week or as long as four weeks. NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes: (1) provide models of excellent teaching; (2) provide models of excellent scholarship; (3) broaden and deepen understanding of the humanities; (4) focus on the study and teaching of significant topics, texts, and other sources; (5) contribute to the intellectual vitality of participants; and (6) build communities of inquiry. An NEH Summer Seminar or Institute may be hosted by a college, university, learned society, center for advanced study, library or other repository, cultural or professional organization, or school or school system. These programs are designed for a national audience of participants.
Deadline: September 26, 2018.
Award Range: $6,000 (for two months).
Match Required: None.
Summer Stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Eligible projects usually result in articles, monographs, books, digital materials and publications, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources.
National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Public Engagement with Historical Records
Deadline: Annually in October. Exact 2018 date TBA.
Award Range: $50,000 to $150,000 (up to 3 years).
Match Required: 50% of total direct project costs.
Public Engagement with Historical Records grants support create models and technologies that other institutions can freely adopt. Projects might create and develop programs to engage people in the study and use of historical records for institutional, educational or personal reasons. For example, an applicant can: (1) Enlist volunteer “citizen archivists” in projects to accelerate access to historical records, especially those online. This may include, but is not limited to, efforts to identify, tag, transcribe, annotate, or otherwise enhance digitized historical records; and (2) Develop educational programs for K-16 students or community members that encourage them to engage with historical records already in repositories or that are collected as part of the project.
OCLC/ALISE
Library & Information Science Research Grant Program (LISRGP)
Deadline: September 15, 2018.
Award Range: $25,000 (up to one year).
Match Required: None.
The LISRGP promotes independent research that helps integrate new technologies that offer innovative approaches and contributes to a better understanding of the information environment and user expectations and behaviors. Research related (but not limited) to the following areas is encouraged: (1) OCLC Research themes; (2) impact of digital technology on libraries, museums, and archives; (3) social media, learning, and information-seeking behavior; and (4) new developments in knowledge organization (metadata, social tagging, linked data, etc.). Full-time academic faculty in schools of library and information science or related fields are eligible to apply.
National Science Foundation
Each year, NSF provides more than $5.5 billion in funding to colleges, universities and academic consortia through more than 11,000 award programs. Links to relevant research/funding areas are listed below:
Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Active Funding Opportunities
The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering has four goals:
-To enable the U.S. to uphold a position of world leadership in computing, communications, and information science and engineering
-To promote understanding of the principles and uses of advanced computing, communications and information systems in service to society
-To support and provide advanced cyberinfrastructure to enable and accelerate discovery and innovation across all disciplines
-To contribute to universal, transparent and affordable participation in an information-based society.
Education and Human Resources Active Funding Opportunities
The mission of EHR is to achieve excellence in U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels and in all settings (both formal and informal) in order to support the development of a diverse and well-prepared workforce of scientists, technicians, engineers, mathematicians and educators and a well-informed citizenry that have access to the ideas and tools of science and engineering. The purpose of these activities is to enhance the quality of life of all citizens and the health, prosperity, welfare and security of the nation.
Integrative Activities Active Funding Opportunities
The Office of Integrative Activities (OIA) works across disciplinary boundaries to lead and coordinate strategic programs and opportunities that: advance research excellence and innovation; develop human and infrastructure capacity critical to the U.S. science and engineering enterprise; and promote engagement of scientists and engineers at all career stages.
Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Active Funding Opportunities
NSF’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences supports basic research on people and society. The SBE sciences focus on human behavior and social organizations and how social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental forces affect the lives of people from birth to old age and how people in turn shape those forces.
National Trust for Historic Preservation
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Grants
Deadline: Annually in January. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: $50,000 – $150,000.
Match Required: None; however, projects that leverage additional investments are strongly preferred.
Grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund are designed to advance ongoing preservation activities for historic places such as sites, museums, and landscapes representing African American cultural heritage. The fund supports Capital Projects, Organizational Capacity Building, Project Planning, and Programming and Interpretation.