Promotion of the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access

 

Preservation and Access grants ensure the long-term and wide availability of primary resources in the humanities by funding projects that promote preserving and providing intellectual access to resources held in libraries, museums, archives, historical organizations, and other collections that are important for research, education, and public programming in the humanities. The Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program supports the digitization and description of humanities collections to make their content widely accessible and the creation of reference resources to facilitate the use of cultural materials. The National Digital Newspaper Program supports a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers. The Cultural and Community Resilience program supports community-based efforts to mitigate climate change, safeguard cultural resources, and foster cultural resilience. Dynamic Language Infrastructure Documenting Endangered Languages Senior Research Grants, a partnership between NEH and the National Science Foundation, supports the documentation of at-risk languages. Preservation Assistance Grants help small and mid-sized institutions improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections. The Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program supports environmentally sustainable preventive care measures that preserve collections, reduce energy consumption and costs, and strengthen resiliency to disasters. Preservation and Access Education and Training supports educational programs for professionals who preserve and provide access to humanities collections. The Research and Development program supports projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources.

Active 45.149 National Endowment For The Humanities, National Foundation On The Arts and The Humanities B - Project Grants Fiscal Year 2016 More than 200 grants were awarded that provided in excess of $16 million in humanities preservation support.
Fiscal Year 2020 See https://www.neh.gov/our-work/listing?f%5B0%5D=our_work_division_office%3A421&f%5B1%5D=content_type%3Aproject.
Fiscal Year 2022 Use the Funded Projects Query Form on the NEH website to search funded projects: https://securegrants.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx. National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, as amended, Public Law 89-209,, Part 20 U.S.C., Section § 956, et seq. Eligible applicants include U.S. nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, public and 501(c)(3) accredited institutions of higher education, state and local governmental agencies, and federally recognized Native American Tribal governments. U.S. nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, public and 501(c)(3) accredited institutions of higher education, state and local governmental agencies, and federally recognized Native American Tribal governments. Not applicable. Preapplication coordination is not applicable. 2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards applies to this program. Applicants must submit their applications to NEH must be via Grants.gov. NEH staff review all applications for eligibility, completeness, and responsiveness. The agency then conducts a peer review process for all applications that pass this initial screening. Peer reviewers are experts in their fields with knowledge and expertise relevant to the activities that the program supports. NEH instructs peer reviewers to evaluate applications according to established review criteria. Peer reviewers must comply with federal ethics rules governing conflicts of interest. NEH program officers supplement the peer reviewers' comments to address matters of fact or significant points that the peer reviewers have overlooked. They then make funding recommendations to the National Council on the Humanities. The National Council meets at least twice each year to review applications and advise the NEH Chair. By law, the Chair has the sole authority to make final funding decisions. Varies by program; see https://www.neh.gov/divisions/preservation. More than 180 days. Approximately seven months. Not applicable. NEH processes and awards renewal grants in competition with and in the same manner as new applications. NEH uses the following criteria o determine funding priorities: the significance and potential impact of the project, either for preserving and establishing intellectual access to important humanities resources or for improving the infrastructure for preservation and access activities in the country's academic and cultural institutions; the soundness of the project's methodology, including its adherence to accepted professional and technical standards or practice; the viability, efficiency, and productivity of the project's plan of work; the professional training and experience of the project's staff in relation to the activity for which support is requested; and the appropriateness of the project's budget. NEH gives preference to projects that provide free, online access to digital materials produced with grant funds. See E1. Review Criteria of the relevant Notice of Funding Opportunity for detailed criteria. Awards support: the digitization, arrangement and description, and preservation of archival collections, still and moving images, historical artifacts, and recorded sound collections; the documentation of collections of art and material culture; projects to produce research tools and reference works such as databases and electronic archives, bibliographies, dictionaries, and encyclopedias; professional training in preservation administration and in the care of collections; preventive conservation of humanities collections; the work of regional preservation services; general preservation assessments and special consultations for smaller cultural institutions; research and development projects to develop technical standards, best practices, and tools for preserving and creating access to humanities collections; projects to document endangered languages; and a national program for the digitization of historic U.S. newspapers. Expenses may include salaries and wages, consultant and other contract services, supplies and limited equipment purchases, travel and per diem. Not applicable. Awards are subject to inspection and audit by NEH and other federal officials. Recipients must retain documentation of expenditures and other fiscal records for three years following the submission of the final expenditure report. Statutory formula is not applicable to this assistance listing.

Matching is voluntary. The Preservation and Access Education and Training program includes a cost share requirement for graduate programs in art conservation. Other programs allow for voluntary cost share. See C2. Cost Sharing in the Notice of Funding Opportunity.

MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. Up to 36 months. See B. Federal Award Information in the relevant Notice of Funding Opportunity for program specific information. NEH will pay recipients through electronic funds transfer on an advance basis, unless otherwise specified in the award. Advance payments must be limited to the recipient's immediate cash requirements in carrying out the purpose of the approved program or project. None/Not specified. National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Preservation & Access
400 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, DC 20506 US
preservation@neh.gov
Phone: (202) 606-8570 http://www.neh.gov/divisions/preservation 59-0200-0-1-503 (Project Grants) FY 22$21,040,525.00; FY 23 est $23,628,800.00; FY 24 est $22,450,000.00; FY 21$19,041,475.00; FY 20$18,708,770.00; FY 19$19,346,417.00; FY 18$19,372,200.00; FY 17$14,700,000.00; FY 16$16,054,272.00; - Award amounts vary by program; for example the Preservation Assistance Grants program makes awards up to $10,000 while Humanities Collections and Reference Resources makes awards up to $350,000. In FY2022, the smallest award as $5,730 and the largest award was $350,000. The average award was $157,530. 45 CFR 1100 and 1105. NOFOs are available online at http://www.neh.gov/grants.html or upon request from National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, DC 20506. Fiscal Year 2023 You can find past recipients of Preservation & Access awards using the NEH's Funded Projects Query Form, available online at https://securegrants.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx.