National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): Humanities Collections and Reference Resources (HCRR) - FY 2025
| Agency: | U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities |
|---|---|
| CFDA: | 45.149 |
| Federal FON: | 20240716-PW |
| Office: | Division of Preservation and Access |
| Multipart Grant: | No |
| Next Due: | 07/16/2024 (Application) |
|---|---|
| Solicitation Date: | 04/01/2024 |
| Match Required: | Yes |
| Match Type: | Cash/In-Kind |
| Actual Funds: | $7,500,000 (Estimated) |
| Number of Awards: | 35 (Estimated) |
Summary:
The purpose of this program is to advance scholarship, education, and public engagement in the humanities by helping libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations across the country steward important collections of books and manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art and material culture, and digital objects. This program will strengthen efforts to make the content of such materials accessible through digitization and description. Funding will also support the creation of reference resources that facilitate the use of cultural materials, from works that provide basic information quickly to tools that synthesize and codify knowledge of a subject for in-depth investigation.
Funding will support projects at the following levels:
- Planning: support for assessment, planning, and pilot projects that incorporate cross-disciplinary expertise in the foundational stages of preserving and creating access to humanities collections or producing reference resources; planning activities may include:
- Analyzing and evaluating the content areas, intellectual control requirements, and preservation needs of significant humanities collections
- Identifying and prioritizing humanities materials for digitization, developing project-specific selection criteria, evaluating technical requirements for digital preservation and access, reformatting test-bed items, and/or exploring third-party service arrangements
- Developing plans and protocols to ensure the preservation of digital humanities content
- Creating editorial plans, locating and assembling resources, devising strategies for technological and programmatic sustainability, and producing content exemplars for reference resources
- Developing plans for and/or conducting collection surveys to inform future repatriation efforts, sustainable and inclusive collection development, or deaccessioning
- Formalizing partnerships between organizations and developing strategic plans to aggregate digital collections or resources
- Implementation: support for projects that preserve and create access to humanities collections or produce reference resources; implementation activities may include:
- Arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections
- Cataloging collections of printed works, photographs, recorded sound, moving images, art, and material culture
- Digitizing and reformatting collections
- Preserving and improving access to born-digital sources, including updating existing digital resources
- Developing indexes, databases, digital collections, or other project-specific tools to codify information on a subject or to provide integrated access to selected humanities materials
- Creating encyclopedias
- Preparing linguistic resources, such as historical and etymological dictionaries, corpora, and reference grammars
- Producing resources for spatial analysis and representation of humanities data, such as atlases and geographic information systems (GIS)
This program encourages open access, collaboration, and sustainable strategies for managing digital collections and resources. To the extent that the condition of the materials, intellectual property rights, and privacy and cultural considerations allow, applicants should make the resources they develop publicly available. Applicants should prioritize methods that allow for sharing and the interoperability of information and resources to ensure their long-term availability.
The funding agency is especially interested in supporting projects that advance humanities-related work in the following areas:
- American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future: this initiative encourages humanities projects that elevate the role of civics in schools and public programs, advance knowledge of the country's history and political institutions, and examine threats to its democratic principles
- United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture: this initiative encourages humanities projects that further the understanding of the nation's racial, ethnic, gender, and religious diversity; examine the sources of hate and intolerance in the United States; and explore progress toward greater inclusiveness
- NEH's partnership with the Department of the Interior on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative: this initiative encourages projects that further public understanding and knowledge of the federal Indian boarding school system
Last Updated: June 13, 2025
Eligibility Notes:
Eligible applicants are:
- 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations
- Public or nonprofit accredited institutions of higher education
- State or local governments or one of their agencies
- Federally recognized Native American tribal governments
An eligible applicant may apply on behalf of a consortium of collaborating organizations. If selected for funding, the applicant will be programmatically, legally, and fiscally responsible for the award.
Applicants seeking a planning award should complete the preliminary stages of project development before applying. Those stages may include initial collections appraisal and accessioning, conceptualization of scope and audience for reference resources, or consortium partner contact and cooperation.
Applicants are not required to obtain a planning award prior to applying for an implementation award.
The funding agency encourages collaboration between smaller and larger repositories, as well as between humanities experts, information professionals, and community stakeholders to expand participation in cultural heritage and promote engagement with primary sources.
The funding agency also encourages projects that include Native American organizations and communities as applicants and project partners.
Applicants may submit multiple applications for separate and distinct projects, and collaborating organizations may participate in multiple applications. Applicants must not include the same project costs in more than one application; however, applicants may submit multiple applications for complementary aspects of the same overall project.
Applicants may revise and resubmit previously rejected applications.
Applicants that have received a prior award from the funding agency may request support for a new or subsequent stage of that project.
Ineligible applicants include:
- For-profit entities
- Entities functioning solely as a fiscal agent for another entity
- Federal entities
- Entities with a project that is so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity's own authorized activities
Previous award recipients include:
- University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
- New York Public Library (New York, NY)
- Humanities Washington (Seattle, WA)
- George Mason University (Fairfax, VA)
- Presbyterian Historical Society (Philadelphia, PA)
Refer to the Award file for additional information about previous award recipients.
Eligible Applicants:
Local GovernmentAcademic Institutions
Consortia
Native American Tribe
Non Profits
State Government
Application Notes:
Applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. ET on July 16, 2024.
Applications must be submitted online at www.ecivis.com/grants.gov.
Applications must include:
- SF 424 - short organizational
- Supplementary cover sheet for the funding agency's grant programs
- Project/performance site(s) location form
- Research and related budget and budget justification
- Certification regarding lobbying (if applicable)
- SF LLL (if applicable)
- Attachments:
- Narrative (10 pages max for planning awards; 15 pages max for implementation awards)
- History of awards (if applicable; 1 page max suggested)
- Project deliverables (1 page max suggested)
- Work plan
- List of project personnel
- Resumes for key personnel (2 pages max each suggested)
- Letters of commitment and support (recommended)
- Additional supporting documentation (recommended)
- Subrecipient budget(s) (if applicable)
- Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (if applicable)
- Explanation of delinquent federal debt (if applicable)
Applications must be formatted on standard-sized pages with at least one-inch margins on all sides and must use a font size no smaller than 11-point. Applicants are encouraged to use single-spacing, any standard citation style, and a readable font such as Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, or Times New Roman. Attachments must be submitted as .pdf files and titled according to the specifications detailed on page 13 of the NOFA file.
The following are required in order to submit an application:
- Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number
- SAM (System for Award Management) registration
Applicants may obtain a UEI number and verify or renew SAM registration status at www.ecivis.com/sam.
Optional draft applications must be emailed to the appropriate address provided in the Contact section by 11:59 p.m. ET on June 4, 2024.
Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Project's significance for supporting scholarly research, education, or public engagement in the humanities
- Soundness of proposed methods, including the selection criteria and the project’s adherence to accepted national standards and professional practices
- Specificity and utility of the proposed activities and outcomes, and the viability of the project
- Quality of the project's plans for providing access to humanities collections or resources, sustaining project outcomes, and engaging with relevant audiences
- Qualifications of the project’s staff and suitability of the staffing arrangements
- Reasonableness of the budget in relation to the activities and the proposed outcomes
Refer to the NOFA and AppUpdate files for additional application information.
| Match Required: | Yes |
|---|---|
| Match Type: | Cash/In-Kind |
| Actual Funds: | $7,500,000 (Estimated) |
| Number of Awards: | 35 (Estimated) |
|---|
Match Notes:
Matching funds are not required for this program unless an applicant is requesting federal matching funds. In this case, applicants must raise a one-to-one match of third-party nonfederal gifts.
Applicants may also contribute a voluntary cost share for projects in which the total costs exceed the amount awarded. Voluntary cost share may include:
- Cash and/or in-kind contributions made to the project by the applicant or by a third party
- Unrecovered indirect costs
Applicants may use funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in their projects; however, such resources may not be used as gifts to release matching funds from the funding agency.
Funding Notes:
Approximately $7.5 million is anticipated to be available to support an estimated 35 awards through this program. Award amounts and project periods will vary according to funding level, as follows:
- Planning: awards of up to $50,000 for project periods of up to two years
- Implementation: awards of up to $350,000 for project periods of up to three years
Award announcements are expected to be made in April 2025.
The project period must begin between June 1, 2025, and September 1, 2025. The project period must begin on the first day of a month and end on the last day of a month.
Program income generated as a result of awarded funds must be used for approved project-related activities.
Funds may not be used for:
- Issuing subawards to foreign organizations
- Attendance at regularly occurring professional meetings, unless the purpose of attendance is to disseminate project-related findings
- Miscellaneous and contingency costs
- Meals or refreshments at receptions or networking events
- Alcoholic beverages
- The purchase of collections, including appraisal for acquisition or monetary purposes
- The creation of oral history interview collections
- The restoration of historic structures, the preservation of the built environment, or the stabilization of archaeological sites
- The preservation, organization, or description of materials that are not regularly accessible for research, education, or public engagement
- The digitization of U.S. newspapers
Refer to pages 35-36 of the NOFA file for additional information regarding unallowable costs.
In 2025, a total of $6.3 million was distributed via 23 awards ranging from $49,920 to $350,000 through this program. In 2023, 38 awards were issued. In 2022, 40 awards were issued. Refer to the Award file for details.
Contacts:
Primary Contact:
Program Staff
(202) 606-8570
preservation@neh.gov
Administrative Requirements and Allowable Costs Contact:
Program Staff
(202) 606-8494
grantmanagement@neh.gov
Agency Address
Division of Preservation and Access
National Endowment for the Humanities
400 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20506
Contact Notes:
Questions should be directed to the appropriate program contact.
Applications must be submitted online at www.ecivis.com/grants.gov.
Optional draft applications must be emailed to [email protected].
The agency address provided is for reference purposes only.
Files:
NOFA File: US2334_NOFA_FY2025.pdf (641.5 Kb)Other Pre-Award File: US2334_AppUpdate_FY2025.pdf (56.2 Kb)
Award File: US2334_Award_FY2025.pdf (3.4 Mb)
File Notes:
The NOFA file contains the full solicitation for this program. The AppUpdate file contains information regarding how upcoming changes to Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards may impact applications for this program. The Award file contains information on previous award recipients. Sample application narratives are available online at www.neh.gov and may be used for reference purposes only.
June 13, 2025
Information regarding awards through this program has been released and appended to the Award file. A sample of award recipients has been added to the Eligibility section, and a brief summary of the awards has been added to the Financial section.
July 5, 2024
Information regarding how upcoming changes to Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards may impact applications for this program has been released and attached as the AppUpdate file.
| Project: | Department of Photography - Collection, Conservation, and Online Publication Overhaul (2.8 Mb) |
|---|---|
| Applicant: | Art Institute of Chicago |
| Summary: |
The purpose of this program is to furnish essential underpinnings of scholarship, education, and public programming in the humanities. The Art Institute of Chicago requested and received $350,000 to fund "Department of Photography - Collection, Conservation, and Online Publication Overhaul," a project that aims to overhaul and reorient the 60-year-old photography collection by publishing a large amount of the collection online, as well as re-presenting the overhauled collection to museum patrons. The Art Institute provided a cost share of $383,619. |
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Arts & CultureEducation
Information Technology/Telecommunications
Libraries