NEH Grant Programs
Summer Seminars and Institutes, Receipt Deadline: March 2, 2010 (for seminars and institues to be held in summer of 20011)
Date posted: December 11, 2009
Date modified: February 5, 2010 *
Draft proposals (optional): Program staff recommends that draft proposals be submitted at least four weeks before the deadline. Time constraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after that date.
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.163
Questions?
Contact the staff of NEH’s Division of Education Programs at 202-606-8463 or sem-inst@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.
Grant Program Description
These grants support faculty development programs in the humanities for school teachers and for college and university teachers. NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes may be as short as two weeks or as long as six weeks. The duration of a program should allow for a rigorous treatment of its topic.
NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes
  • extend and deepen knowledge and understanding of the humanities by focusing on significant topics, texts, and issues;
  • contribute to the intellectual vitality and professional development of participants;
  • build a community of inquiry and provide models of excellent scholarship and teaching; and
  • promote effective links between teaching and research in the humanities.
An NEH seminar or institute may be hosted by a college, university, school system, learned society, center for advanced study, library or other repository, or a cultural or professional organization. The host site must be appropriate for the project, providing facilities for scholarship and collegial interaction.
Program formats
  • Seminar for school teachers—sixteen participants (NEH Summer Scholars): A seminar enables sixteen participants (of whom two may be full-time graduate students who intend to pursue a K-12 teaching career) to examine an important text, study works of well-known authors, or review significant scholarship on an important historical period or event. The principal goals are to engage teachers in the humanities; deepen their understanding through reading, discussion, reflection, and writing; and sustain their intellectual commitment to teaching. The director, an expert in the field, guides discussion of common readings and provides mentoring for individual study and projects.
  • Institute for school teachers—twenty-five to thirty participants (NEH Summer Scholars): An institute, which is typically guided by a team of core faculty and visiting scholars, presents the best available scholarship on important humanities issues and works taught in the nation’s schools. Participants (of whom three may be full-time graduate students who intend to pursue a K-12 teaching career) may compare and synthesize the various perspectives offered by the faculty and make connections between the institute content and classroom teaching. The emphasis throughout is on teaching the specific humanities subject matter and not on pedagogical theory and approaches.
  • Seminar for college and university teachers—sixteen participants (NEH Summer Scholars): A seminar enables participants (including two full-time graduate students in the humanities) to conduct scholarly research or focused study under the direction of a scholarly expert. The director designs a program of study to articulate key issues and focus discussion in seminar meetings. The director also advises participants on individual research and teaching projects.
  • Institute for college and university teachers—twenty-five participants (NEH Summer Scholars): An institute focuses on a topic of major importance in undergraduate curricula. Guided by a team of scholars, participants (including three full-time graduate students in the humanities) explore a challenging and complex subject. The primary goal is to deepen understanding of a subject in order to advance humanities teaching.
These four models allow for considerable variation. For example, seminars may be co-directed or they may include one or more visiting scholars who contribute additional viewpoints or scholarly expertise. Institutes may provide time for individual research, reading, or writing. Variations in format should be explained in the proposal and time and resource allocations fully justified.
NEH encourages Summer Seminars and Institutes in the following areas:
  • projects for school teachers or college and university faculty designed to strengthen foreign language instruction at the advanced level through the use of humanistic sources;
  • projects for school teachers that focus on one or more of the artists or artworks featured in the NEH Picturing America program;
  • projects intended primarily for community-college faculty; and
  • projects that respond to NEH's new Bridging Cultures initiative. Such projects could focus on cultures internationally, or within the United States. International projects might seek to enlarge Americans’ understanding of other places and times, as well as other perspectives and intellectual traditions. American projects might explore the great variety of cultural influences on, and myriad subcultures within, American society. These 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.
Seminars and institutes for school teachers should begin no earlier than late June and end before the middle of August. Projects for college and university teachers typically begin no earlier than the middle of June.
Participants must be chosen by a selection committee convened by the project director. Seminar selection committees customarily consist of three members: the director; one or two colleagues of the director who have special knowledge of the subject under study; and, in the case of school teacher seminars, a K-12 teacher, preferably someone who has participated in a previous seminar. Institute selection committees may be drawn from the scholars and teachers who will contribute to the project and may include more than three members. NEH staff will provide general eligibility and selection criteria, along with guidelines for applications to participate in a seminar or institute.
Types of projects not supported
The NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes program does not support
  • empirical social scientific research;
  • specific policy studies;
  • educational or technical impact assessments;
  • work undertaken in the pursuit of an academic degree;
  • the preparation or publication of textbooks;
  • projects that focus on pedagogical theory, research on educational methods, tests, or measurements;
  • cognitive psychology;
  • projects that seek to promote a particular political, philosophical, religious, or ideological point of view; or
  • projects that advocate a particular program of social action.
III. Award Information
NEH anticipates that awards for seminars will range between $60,000 and $140,000 in outright funds for a grant period of twelve months.
Awards for institutes range from $80,000 to $200,000 in outright funds for a grant period of fifteen months.
(Learn more about different types of grant funding.)
Cost sharing consists of the cash contributions made to a project by the applicant, third parties, and other federal agencies, as well as third party in-kind contributions, such as donated services and goods. Cost sharing also includes gift money raised to release federal matching funds. Cost sharing is not required in this program.
Grant period
Seminars (twelve months): 10/1/10-9/30/11
Institutes (fifteen months): 10/1/10-12/31/11
Eligibility
Any U.S. nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status is eligible, as are state and local governmental agencies and tribal governments. Individuals are not eligible to apply.
A director who submitted his or her first successful NEH seminar or institute application in 2009 is not eligible to reapply in 2010. First-time directors must instead complete their seminar or institute, and receive evaluations from the NEH Summer Scholars, before they can submit proposals to direct future summer programs.
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, and ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
Application and Submission Information
Applicants are encouraged to contact program officers who may offer advice about preparing the proposal, provide samples of recently funded projects, and review preliminary proposal drafts, if they are submitted at least four weeks before the deadline. Responses to late-arriving drafts cannot be guaranteed. Although this preliminary review is not part of the formal process and has no bearing on the final outcome of the proposal, previous applicants have found it helpful in strengthening their applications.
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR APPLICATION
You will prepare your application for submission via Grants.gov just as you would a paper application. Your application should consist of the following parts:
  1. Table of contents
    List all parts of the application and page numbers.
  2. Narrative description
    Narrative descriptions are limited to fifteen double-spaced pages. The font size should be no smaller than twelve point and all pages should have one-inch margins. Appendices should be used to provide concise supplementary material directly germane to the project.
    Provide a detailed description of the project, consisting of the following sections.
    • Intellectual rationale
      Describe what will be studied and its significance for teaching and scholarship in the humanities. Place the project in its scholarly and educational context and identify the intended beneficiaries. The intellectual rationale must justify in a clear and persuasive manner the specific readings and topics set forth in the study plan.
    • Project content and implementation
      Describe how the project will be structured, what will be expected of the participants, and how they will be actively engaged in the collegial intellectual inquiry of the seminar or institute. Summarize weekly presentations and discussion topics, include assigned and recommended readings, and identify other resources and materials to be used (a detailed schedule should be included in an appendix). Describe any writing or research components, as well as any other independent projects or any potential outcomes of the project that will be disseminated to other teachers, such as project Web sites. Give careful consideration to the dates of the project, in light of the variety of school schedules across the country.
    • Project faculty and staff
      Applications for seminars: Discuss the relationship between the seminar topic and the director’s own interests and accomplishments as a scholar and teacher. The use of co-directors and any guest speakers should be justified. Include in an appendix up-to-date letters of commitment and brief (two-page) résumés; alternatively, one- to two-page narrative biographies may be submitted. Seminar directors should provide résumés no longer than five pages in an appendix.
      Applications for institutes: Identify principal faculty, visiting lecturers, other humanities professionals, and support staff. Describe their roles, responsibilities, and qualifications. Employment of staff assistants is strongly encouraged. Include in an appendix up-to-date letters of commitment and brief (two-page) résumés; alternatively, one- to two-page narrative biographies may be submitted. The persons who bear primary intellectual responsibility for the institute should provide résumés no longer than five pages in an appendix.
    • Participant selection
      Explain how participants will be chosen by the selection committee. Applicants should indicate any special criteria pertinent to the proposed project, e.g., foreign language proficiency.
      Information about eligibility criteria for participants in an NEH seminar or institute can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions document.
    • Professional development for participants
      In projects for school teachers, many participants will want to obtain continuing education units (CEUs) or in-service credit. When appropriate, the application should discuss how the program will provide necessary documentation for teachers.
    • Institutional context
      Demonstrate that the mission and resources of the host institution support the proposed project. Discuss suitability of housing and supporting facilities as well as academic resources and technological capabilities.
  3. Budget
    Provide a budget. Sample budgets for seminars and institutes (each a one-page PDF) are available for guidance. All of the items listed must be reasonable, necessary to accomplish project objectives, allowable in terms of the applicable federal cost principles, auditable, and incurred during the grant period. Charges to the project for items such as salaries, fringe benefits, travel, and contractual services must conform to the written policies and established practices of the applicant organization. When indirect costs are charged to the project, care should be taken that expenses included in the organization’s indirect-cost pool are not charged to the project as direct costs.
    1. Participant stipends
      Each participant will receive a stipend according to the duration of the seminar or institute, whether two ($2,100), three ($2,700), four ($3,300), five ($3,900), or six ($4,500) weeks. The stipend is intended to help cover travel expenses to and from the project location, books and other research expenses, and living expenses for the duration of the period of residency. The sponsoring institution is expected to make provision for suitable housing for participants at reasonable rates.
    2. Operating costs Item 1: Salaries and wages
      Item 1a: List here the compensation for the project director. Project directors are generally compensated for the time required to conduct the residential portion of the project during the summer, oversee all arrangements, and recruit and select the participants. The following percentages of the base annual academic salary (the salary for the academic year prior to the summer of the seminar or institute) are recommended as appropriate compensation: 13.9 percent for a two-week session, 16.6 percent for a three-week session, 19.4 percent for a four-week session, 22.2 percent for a five-week session, and 25 percent for a six-week session. If two persons are directing a project together, each of the two project directors would receive 80 percent of the amounts generated by these formulas.
      The compensation formulas outlined above should apply only to project directors who also serve as principal faculty of the program. Project directors who do not serve as principal faculty should calculate their compensation in a manner consistent with their restricted duties. Seminar directors should assume no other commitments during the time the participants are in residence.
      Item 1b: List here other project faculty, lecturers, or professional administrative staff employed by the applicant institution. We recommend that applicants, especially those planning an overseas seminar or institute, employ an on-site coordinator. Depending on their assignments and duties, the compensation of other project faculty, lecturers, and professional staff may be calculated on the basis of an appropriate percentage of their full-time academic year or administrative salary or on a per diem basis. Costs charged to the project budget should be entirely justified by the role and duties to be performed.
      If one of the members of the participant selection committee (other than the project director) is employed by the applicant institution, a $250 stipend for that individual would be included in this line of the budget.
      Item 1c: List here clerical and secretarial support as well as any support to be provided by graduate assistants.
      Item 2: Fringe benefits
      Fringe benefits should be calculated for those individuals employed by the applicant institution and listed on lines 1 a, b, and c. Fringe benefits may include contributions for social security, employee insurance, pension plans, etc. Only those benefits that are not included in an organization's indirect-cost pool may be shown as direct costs. Also, fringe benefits for clerical, administrative, and part-time personnel may be calculated at different rates than for employees on academic-year appointments. The different rates should be reflected in the breakdown shown on the budget form.
      Item 3: Supplies and materials
      Include the cost of reasonable administrative and project charges for supplies (computer and instructional materials). Please note that these costs may be included only if they are not part of the indirect-cost pool.
      Item 4: Services
      Include the cost of duplication and printing, long-distance telephone charges, postage, museum admissions, rental of films and equipment such as buses and vans, and subcontracts of any kind. All services must be essential to the project. (See the section below for inadmissible budget items.) These requests should be justified in the budget narrative and normally should be modest. Include an itemization of subcontract costs.
      Note on publicity. NEH posts lists of the seminars and institutes on its Web site; it also distributes this information to teachers through electronic bulletin boards, e-mail discussion lists, individual e-mail messages, and printed posters distributed at professional conferences. To supplement this general publicity, project budgets should include a modest amount of money (up to $5,000) for expenses such as developing a project Web site, hiring a communications intern, project dissemination, and publicity efforts to constituencies unique to the specific seminar or institute.
      Item 5: Consultant fees
      List those individuals who are not employed by the applicant institution but will contribute to the project as visiting lecturers, leaders of study sessions, etc. The honoraria for visiting faculty and other consultants should be no higher than $750 per person per day or $3,000 per person per week. Travel and subsistence reimbursement for consultants should be entered below on line 6.
      Note: A $250 stipend for any member of the participant selection committee (other than the project director) who is not employed by the applicant institution would be included in this line of the budget.
      Item 6: Professional travel and subsistence
      Participant travel is covered by the stipend awarded to each participant. List here travel and accommodation expenses for visiting consultants listed in Item 5 and the costs likely to be incurred by the project director(s) who would be invited to attend an annual two-day project directors’ meeting held in Washington, D.C. A project director’s travel to and from a seminar or institute site away from the director’s home institution is allowed, as are accommodation expenses at this site.
      Costs should be calculated in accordance with the applicant institution’s policy, and the method of calculation should be provided.
      Item 7: Total direct costs are calculated by adding items 1 through 6.
    3. Indirect costs (overhead)
      These are costs incurred for common or joint objectives that cannot be readily identified with a specific project or activity of an organization. Items that would be regarded as indirect costs include the salaries of executive officers, the costs of operating and maintaining facilities, local telephone service, office supplies, and accounting and legal services.
      Indirect costs are computed by applying a negotiated indirect-cost rate to a distribution base (typically a portion of the direct costs of the project). Organizations that wish to include overhead charges in the budget but do not have a current federally negotiated indirect-cost rate or have not submitted a pending indirect-cost proposal to a federal agency may choose one of the following options:
      1. NEH will not require the formal negotiation of an indirect-cost rate, provided that the charge for indirect costs does not exceed 12 percent of direct costs, less distorting items (including, but not limited to, capital expenditures, participant stipends, fellowships, and the portion of each individual subgrant or subcontract in excess of $25,000). This option is not available to sponsorship (umbrella) organizations. Applicants who choose this option should understand that they must maintain documentation to support overhead charges claimed as part of project costs.
      2. If your organization wishes to use a rate higher than 12 percent, an estimate of the indirect-cost rate and the charges should be provided on the budget form. If the application is approved for funding, instructions will be provided in the award document on how to negotiate an indirect-cost rate with NEH.
    4. Amount requested from NEH
      Amount requested includes items A, B, and C.
    4. Budget narrative
    When requested costs are unusual or not clearly related to the proposed project, a brief budget narrative may be included. Justifications for equipment rentals and purchases should be provided here.
    Inadmissible budget items
    The following costs are not allowable and may not appear in project budgets:
    • The cost of replacement teachers or compensation for faculty members performing their regular duties.
    • The rental of recreational facilities and costs related to social events such as banquets, receptions, and entertainment.
    • Tuition fees for participants. At the discretion of the applicant institution, credit may be awarded to participants who seek it. If any filing fee or tuition must be charged, it should be charged directly to those participants wishing to receive credit and should be fixed at the lowest possible rate. Such fees should not be deducted from the participants’ stipends.
  4. Reference letters and evaluations
    Applicants who have not previously directed an NEH seminar or institute must solicit two reference letters, addressing the qualifications of the principals and the merits of the project. Referees should send their letters directly to NEH either by e-mail (sem-inst@neh.gov), fax (202-606-8394), or commercial delivery service within one week of the March 2 application deadline. Applicants should attach a list of the names of referees, their titles, e-mail addresses, and mailing addresses in an appendix.
    Applicants are responsible for providing referees with relevant materials (e.g., the application). Letters of reference are more highly regarded if they address the specific proposed activity and how well the candidate is suited to undertake it.
    Project directors of previously funded seminars or institutes must include
    • copies of all NEH participant evaluations of their most recently offered seminar or institute; and
    • an explanation of how their experience as directors has shaped the project currently being proposed. This explanation may be woven into the narrative description of the project or included in the appendices.
  5. Appendices
    Limit your appendices to essential materials only, such as expanded study plans, detailed reading lists, the evaluations mentioned above, résumés, letters of commitment, and information about the authors of the two reference letters. Seminar directors and the persons who bear primary intellectual responsibility for institutes should provide five-page résumés. Other scholars should provide brief (two-page) résumés.
    The proposal narrative should refer to items in the appendices by page number.
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 Web site to create an institutional profile. Once registered, your organization can then apply for any government grant on the Grants.gov Web site.
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.
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 Web site (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 Web site. 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 to 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 it, 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:
  1. Application for Federal Domestic Assistance - Short Organizational (SF-424 Short)—this form asks for basic information about the project, the project director, and the institution.
  2. Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs—this form asks for additional information about the project director, the institution, and the budget.
  3. Project Performance/Site Location(s)—this form asks for information about the primary site(s) at which grant activities will take place.
  4. NEH Attachment Form—this form allows you to attach your narrative, budget, and the other parts of your application.
To assist applicants, Grants.gov provides a helpful troubleshooting page.
How to Fill Out the SF-424 Short Form
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, diacriticals, and other symbols are often converted into question marks during transmittal.
Please provide the following information:
  1. Name of Federal Agency: This will be filled in automatically with “National Endowment for the Humanities.”
  2. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: This will be filled in automatically with the CFDA number and title of the NEH program to which you are applying.
  3. Date Received: Please leave blank.
  4. Funding Opportunity Number: This will be filled in automatically.
  5. Applicant Information: In this section, please supply the name, address, employer/taxpayer identification number (EIN/TIN), DUNS number, Web site address, and congressional district of the institution. Also choose the “type” that best describes your institution (you only need to select one).
    If your institution is located, for example, in the 5th Congressional District of your state, put a “5.” If your institution doesn’t have a congressional district (e.g. it is in a state or U.S. territory that doesn’t have districts or is in a foreign country), put a “0” (zero).
    All institutions applying to federal grant programs are required to provide a DUNS number, issued by Dun & Bradstreet, as part of their application. Project directors should contact their institution’s grant administrator or chief financial officer to obtain their institution’s DUNS number. Federal grant applicants can obtain a DUNS number free of charge by calling 1-866-705-5711. (Learn more about the requirement.)
  6. Project Information: Provide the title of your project. Your title should be brief (no more than 125 characters), descriptive, and substantive. It should also be informative to a nonspecialist audience. Provide a brief (no more than one thousand characters) description of your project. The description should be written for a nonspecialist audience and clearly state the importance of the proposed work and its relation to larger issues in the humanities. List the starting and ending dates for your project.
  7. Project Director: Provide the name, title, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers for the project director.
  8. Primary Contact/Grants Administrator: Provide the contact information for the official responsible for the administration of the grant (i.e., negotiating the project budget and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of the award). This person is often a grants or research officer, or a sponsored programs official. Normally, the Primary Contact/Grants Administrator is not the same person as the Project Director. If the project director and the grants administrator are the same person, skip to Item 9.
  9. Authorized Representative: Provide the contact information for the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) who is submitting the application on behalf of the institution. This person, often called an “Authorizing Official,” is typically the president, vice president, executive director, provost, or chancellor. In order to become an AOR, the person must be designated by the institution’s E-Business Point of Contact. For more information, please consult the Grants.gov user guide, which is available at www.grants.gov/applicants/resources.jsp.
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:
  1. Project Director: Use the pull-down menu to select the major field of study for the project director.
  2. Institution Information: Use the pull-down menu to select your type of institution.
  3. Project Funding: Enter your project funding information. Note that applicants for Challenge Grants should use the right column only; applicants to all other programs should use the left column only.
  4. Application Information: Indicate whether the applications will be submitted to other NEH grant programs, government agencies, or private entities for funding. If so, please indicate where and when. NEH frequently cosponsors projects with other funding sources. Providing this information will not prejudice the review of your application.
    For Type of Application, check “new” if the application requests a new period of funding, whether for a new project or the next phase of a project previously funded by NEH. Check “supplement” if the application requests additional funding for a current NEH grant. Applicants requesting a supplement should provide the current grant number. Before submitting an application for a supplement, applicants should discuss their request with an NEH program officer.
    For Project Field Code, use the pull-down menu to select the humanities field of the project. If the project is multidisciplinary, choose the field that corresponds to the project’s predominant discipline.
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 each requested data element may be viewed by positioning your cursor over the blank field.
How to Use the NEH Attachment Form
You will use this form to attach the various 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 http://www.neh.gov/grants/grantsgov/pdf.html.
When you open the NEH Attachment 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 table of contents. Name the file “contents.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 2: To this button, please attach your narrative description. Name the file “narrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 3: To this button, please attach your budget form (to which you may attach your budget narrative). Name the file “budget.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 4: To this button, please attach your appendices (including the list of referees or the evaluations from the most recent seminar or institute, when appropriate). Name the file “appendices.pdf”.
Use the remaining buttons to attach any additional materials (if appropriate). Please give these attachments meaningful file names and ensure that they are PDFs.
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 to support@grants.gov.
Deadlines
Draft proposals: Program staff recommends that draft proposals (optional) be submitted at least four weeks before the deadline. Time constraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after that date.
Applications must be received by Grants.gov on or before March 2, 2010. Grants.gov will date- and time-stamp your application after it is fully uploaded. Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted.
Application Review
Applications are subjected to three general criteria of evaluation: intellectual quality and significance, impact, and feasibility.
1. Intellectual quality and significance
  • Is the proposal’s intellectual rationale clear and persuasive?
  • Does the study engage important humanities topics or texts?
  • Does it draw on sound humanities research?
  • Do the principal faculty members have strong scholarly records and a demonstrated commitment to excellent teaching?
2. Impact
  • Will the project’s objectives be met?
  • Will participants be actively engaged in collegial intellectual inquiry?
  • Will the experience stimulate teachers intellectually and professionally?
3. Feasibility
  • Is the program format appropriate to the ideas, themes, and audience?
  • Are the project personnel highly qualified?
  • Are project activities well planned and described in adequate detail?
  • Do letters from visiting scholars and consultants demonstrate interest and commitment?
  • Does the institutional setting support the project’s objectives, both in terms of access to scholarly resources and membership in a residential community?
  • Are the plans for administration sound and well developed? Are the costs of the project reasonable in view of its design and likely results?
Previously offered seminars or institutes
Proposals to repeat seminars or institutes previously offered are evaluated by the same criteria as new proposals. As noted earlier, former project directors should submit copies of all NEH participant evaluations of their most recently offered seminar or institute, and they should add evidence of growth and fine-tuning where appropriate. If other considerations are equal, NEH gives preference to new applicants.
A director who submitted his or her first successful NEH seminar or institute application in 2009 is not eligible to reapply in 2010. First-time directors must instead complete their seminar or institute, and receive evaluations from the NEH Summer Scholars, before they can submit proposals to direct another summer program.
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 Administration Information
Award notices
Applicants will be notified by mail by September 2010 of the decision. Institutional grants administrators and project directors of successful applications will also receive at that time award documents by mail. Applicants may obtain the evaluations of their applications by sending a letter or e-mail message to:
Summer Seminars and Institutes
Division of Education Programs
National Endowment for the Humanities
Room 302
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20506
or sem-inst@neh.gov.
Administrative requirements
Before submitting an application, applicants should review their responsibilities as an award recipient and the lobbying certification requirement.
Award conditions
The requirements for awards are contained in the General Terms and Conditions for Awards to Organizations, 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.
Interim and final performance reports 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.
Points of Contact
If you have questions about the program, contact:
Division of Education Programs
National Endowment for the Humanities
Room 302
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20506
202-606-8463
sem-inst@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/resources.jsp
Grant.gov support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726)
Grants.gov trouble shooting tips.
Other Information
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 Office of Publications, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C. 20506; and to 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.

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