![]() The deadline for this program has passed. Updated guidelines will be posted in advance of the next deadline. In the meantime, please use these guidelines to get a sense of what is involved in assembling an application.
Date posted: July 13, 2011
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.163
Questions?
Contact the staff of NEH’s Division of Education Programs at enduringquestions@neh.gov and 202-606-8380. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.
The NEH Enduring Questions grant program supports the development of a new course that will foster intellectual community through the study of an enduring question. This course will encourage undergraduates and teachers to grapple with a fundamental question addressed by the humanities, and to join together in a deep and sustained program of reading in order to encounter influential thinkers over the centuries and into the present day.
What is an enduring question? The following list is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive but serves to illustrate. In addition, please also consider the questions raised in the sample funded projects.
Enduring questions are questions to which no discipline, field, or profession can lay an exclusive claim. In many cases they predate the formation of the academic disciplines themselves. Enduring questions can be tackled by reflective individuals regardless of their chosen vocations, areas of expertise, or personal backgrounds. They are questions that have more than one plausible or compelling answer. They have long held interest for
young people, and they allow for a special, intense dialogue across generations. The Enduring Questions grant program will help promote such dialogue in today’s undergraduate environment.
The course is to be developed by one or more (up to four) faculty members, but not team taught. Enduring Questions courses must be taught from a common syllabus and must be offered during the grant period at least twice by each faculty member involved in developing the course. The grant supports the work of a faculty member in designing, preparing, and assessing the course. It may also be used for ancillary activities that enhance faculty-student intellectual community, such as visits to museums and artistic or cultural events. An Enduring Questions course may be taught by faculty from any department or discipline in the humanities or by faculty outside the humanities (e.g., astronomy, biology, economics, law, mathematics, medicine, psychology), so long as humanities sources are central to the course.
An NEH Enduring Questions course
Enduring Questions grants may not be used for
The Enduring Questions program welcomes projects that respond to the theme of Bridging Cultures, an agency-wide initiative encouraging exploration of cultures from around the globe, as well as the myriad subcultures within America’s borders and their influence on American society. Such projects could focus on cultures internationally or within the United States. NEH welcomes projects that enhance understanding of diverse countries, peoples, and cultural and intellectual traditions worldwide. Bridging Cultures projects might also investigate how Americans have approached and attempted to surmount seemingly unbridgeable cultural divides, or examine the ideals of civility and civic discourse that have informed this quest.
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 award products. For the Enduring Questions grant program, such products may include online course materials. For projects that lead to the development of Web-based resources, all other considerations being equal, NEH gives preference to those that provide free access to the public.
NEH Enduring Questions grants can provide up to $25,000 in outright funds for projects serving a single institution. The grant period may run between eighteen and thirty-six months. Recipients may begin their grants as early as May 1, 2012, but must begin no later than January 1, 2013.
Cost sharing
Cost sharing is not required in this program.
Any U.S. nonprofit IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt college or university is eligible.
The Enduring Questions program accepts applications from American two- and four-year colleges and universities on behalf of faculty members who carry a full-time teaching load or its equivalent. Part-time teaching positions at different colleges or universities may amount to the equivalent of a full-time teaching load.
Project directors may be tenured, tenure-track, non-tenure-track, or adjunct faculty members at a two-year or four-year college or university. Graduate students may not serve as project directors, unless they are teaching full-time or its equivalent. Individuals are not eligible to apply.
When more than one faculty member is involved in designing the course, one and only one of them must be listed in the application as the official project director of record.
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.
Late, incomplete, or ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR APPLICATION
Application advice
Prior to beginning, applicants should review the evaluation criteria listed below in Section V.
NEH staff members do not read and comment on draft proposals in the Enduring Questions program. However, potential applicants may discuss with the staff specific questions not covered in the Frequently Asked Questions document that arise during the preparation of their proposals. Contact NEH’s Division of Education Programs at (202) 606-8380 or via e-mail at enduringquestions@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.
You will prepare your application for submission via Grants.gov. Please keep these important matters in mind as you prepare the application:
In addition to the three forms described below (the Application for Federal Domestic Assistance—Short Organizational, the Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs, and the Project/Performance Site Location(s) Form), your application should consist of the following seven parts (attached via the Attachments Form):
Please include the following information:
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION VIA GRANTS.GOV
Register or Verify Registration with Grants.gov
Applications for this program must be submitted via Grants.gov. Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register with the website to create an institutional profile. Once registered, your organization can then apply for any government grant on the Grants.gov website.
If your organization has already registered and you have verified that your registration is still valid, you may skip this step. If not, please see the Grants.gov checklist to guide you through the registration process. We strongly recommend that you complete or verify your registration at least two weeks before the application deadline, as it takes time for your registration to be processed. If you have problems registering with Grants.gov, call the Grants.gov help desk at 1-800-518-4726.
As part of the Grants.gov registration process, applicants are required to register with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). Grantees are also required to maintain the currency of their information in the CCR by reviewing and updating their information at least annually after the initial registration, and more frequently if required by changes in information.
Download the Free Adobe Reader Software
To fill out a Grants.gov application package, you will need to download and install the current version of Adobe Reader. The latest version of Adobe Reader, which is designed to function with PCs and Macintosh computers using a variety of popular operating systems, is available at no charge from the Adobe website (www.adobe.com). Click on “Get Adobe Reader” and then “Download Now.”
Once installed, the current version of Adobe Reader will allow you to view and fill out Grants.gov application packages for any federal agency. If you have a problem installing Adobe Reader, it may be because you do not have permission to install a new program on your computer. Many organizations have rules about installing new programs. If you encounter a problem, contact your system administrator.
Download the Application Package
To submit your application, you will need to download the application package from the Grants.gov website. You can download the application package at any time. (You do not have to wait for your Grants.gov registration to be complete.) Click the button at the right to download the package.
Save the application package to your computer’s hard drive. To open the application package, select the file and double click. You do not have to be online to work on it.
You can save your application package at any time by clicking the “Save” button at the top of your screen. Tip: If you choose to save your application package before you have completed all the required forms, you may receive an error message indicating that your application is not valid. Click “OK” to save your work and complete the package another time. You can also use e-mail to share the application package with members of your organization or project team.
The application package contains four forms that you must complete in order to submit your application:
To assist applicants, Grants.gov provides a helpful troubleshooting page.
How to Fill Out the Application for Federal Domestic Assistance—Short Organizational
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. In items 6, 7, 8, and 9 below, NEH recommends that the project title, brief project description, project director’s name, primary contact/grants administrator’s name, and authorized representative’s name be typed directly onto the form, instead of being pasted in; pasted-in quotation marks, diacritics, and other symbols are often converted into question marks during transmittal.
Please provide the following information:
How to Fill Out the Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the following information:
How to Fill Out the Project/Performance Site Location(s) Form
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the requested information. Instructions for the form can be found here: http://www.grants.gov/assets/SF424Site_Location_Instructions.pdf. Alternatively, instructions for each requested data element may be viewed by positioning your cursor over the blank field. How to Use the Attachments Form
You will use this form to attach the files that make up your application.
Your attachments must be in Portable Document Format (.pdf). We cannot accept
attachments in their original word processing or spreadsheet formats. If you don’t already have software to convert your files into PDFs, many low-cost and free software packages will do so. To learn more, go to
www.neh.gov/grants/grantsgov/pdf.html.
When you open the Attachments Form, you will find fifteen attachment buttons, labeled “Attachment 1” through “Attachment 15.” By clicking on a button, you will be able to choose
the file from your computer that you wish to attach. You must name and attach your files
in the proper order so that we can identify them. Please attach the proper file to the
proper button as listed below:
ATTACHMENT 1: To this button, please attach your project narrative. Name the file “narrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 2: To this button, please attach your bibliography. Name the file “bibliography.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 3: To this button, please attach your core reading list. Name the file “readings.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 4: To this button, please attach your budget. Name the file “budget.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 5: To this button, please attach the résumé(s) of the faculty who would develop the course. Name the file “resume.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 6: To this button, please attach your letter of institutional commitment. Name the file “letter.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 7: To this button, please attach your abstract. Name the file “abstract.pdf”.
No other attachments should be included. Applications submitted with additional attachments or with attachments that exceed the length limitations will not be reviewed.
Uploading Your Application to Grants.gov
When you have completed all four forms, use the right-facing arrow to move each of them to the “Mandatory Documents for Submission” column. Once they have been moved over, the “Submit” button will activate. You are now ready to upload your application package to Grants.gov.
During the registration process, your institution designated one or more AORs (Authorized Organization Representatives). These AORs typically work in your institution’s Sponsored Research Office or Grants Office. When you have completed your application, you must ask your AOR to submit the application, using the special username and password that were assigned to him or her during the registration process.
To submit your application, your computer must have an active connection to the Internet. To begin the submission process, click the “Submit” button. A page will appear, asking you to sign and submit your application. At this point, your AOR will enter his or her username and password. When you click the “Sign and Submit Application” button, your application package will be uploaded to Grants.gov. Please note that it may take some time to upload your application package, depending on the size of your files and the speed of your Internet connection.
After the upload is complete, a confirmation page will appear. This page, which includes a tracking number, indicates that you have submitted your application to Grants.gov. Please print this page for your records. The AOR will also receive a confirmation e-mail message.
NEH suggests that you submit your application no 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.
To assist applicants, Grants.gov provides a helpful troubleshooting page.
Deadlines
Applications for NEH Enduring Questions grants must be received by Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on September 15, 2011. Grants.gov will date- and time-stamp your application after it is fully uploaded. Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted. Evaluators are asked to apply the following criteria when judging the quality of applications.
NEH expects grantees to provide broad access to all grant products, insofar as the conditions of the materials and intellectual property rights allow. In particular, NEH expects grantees to make the course syllabus (accompanied by the NEH logo) accessible to the public, and it reserves the right to disseminate information (such as syllabi and links to course websites) on its own website. 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.
Review and selection process
Knowledgeable persons outside NEH will read each application and advise the agency about its merits. NEH staff comments on matters of fact or on significant issues that otherwise would be missing from these reviews, then makes recommendations to the National Council on the Humanities. The National Council meets at various times during the year to advise the NEH chairman on grants. The chairman takes into account the advice provided by the review process and, by law, makes all funding decisions.
Award notices
Applicants will be notified of the decision by e-mail in April 2012. Institutional grants administrators and project directors of successful applications will receive award documents by e-mail in April 2012. Applicants may obtain the evaluations of their applications by sending an e-mail message to enduringquestions@neh.gov.
Administrative requirements
Before submitting an application, applicants should review their responsibilities as an award recipient.
Award conditions
The requirements for awards are contained in the General Terms and Conditions for Awards, the Addendum to it, any specific terms and conditions contained in the award document, and the applicable OMB circulars governing federal grants management.
Reporting requirements
A schedule of report due dates will be included with the award document. Reports must be submitted electronically via eGMS, NEH’s online grant management system.
Interim reports and a final performance report will be required. Further details can be found in Performance Reporting Requirements.
A final Federal Financial Report (SF-425) will be due within ninety days after the end of the award period. For further details, please see the Financial Reporting Requirements
Recipients will be expected to submit a course syllabus, a bibliography, and other relevant materials upon the completion of the grant. These materials may be posted on the NEH website.
If you have questions about the program, contact:
Enduring Questions
Division of Education Programs National Endowment for the Humanities Room 302 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20506 202-606-8380 enduringquestions@neh.gov If you need help using Grants.gov, contact:
Grants.gov: www.grants.gov
Grants.gov help desk: support@grants.gov Grants.gov customer support tutorials and manuals: www.grants.gov/applicants/app_help_reso.jsp Grant.gov support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726) Grant.gov troubleshooting page. Privacy policy
Information in these guidelines is solicited under the authority of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 956. The principal purpose for which the information will be used is to process the grant application. The information may also be used for statistical research, analysis of trends, and Congressional oversight. Failure to provide the information may result in the delay or rejection of the application.
Application completion time
The Office of Management and Budget requires federal agencies to supply information on the time needed to complete forms and also to invite comments on the paperwork burden. NEH estimates that the average time to complete this application is fifteen hours per response. This estimate includes time for reviewing instructions, researching, gathering, and maintaining the information needed, and completing and reviewing the application.
Please send any comments regarding the estimated completion time or any other aspect of this application, including suggestions for reducing the completion time, to the Chief Guidelines Officer, at guidelines@neh.gov; the Office of Publications, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C. 20506; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (3136-0134), Washington, D.C. 20503. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB number. |