Deadline: 9 December 2019
The Public Affairs Section at US Embassy Montevideo, on behalf of the US Department of State has announced an open competition for organizations to submit applications for funding through the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), at US Embassy in Uruguay, to carry out a project to preserve cultural heritage in this specific priority country.
Objectives
The AFCP Small Grants Competition supports the preservation of cultural sites, cultural objects and collections, and forms of traditional cultural expression in developing countries. Appropriate project activities may include:
- In the case of cultural sites: conservation of an ancient or historic building, preservation of an archaeological site, or documentation of cultural sites in a region for preservation purposes;
- In the case of cultural objects and collections: conservation treatment for an object or collection of objects from a museum, site, or similar institution—that include, but are not limited to, archaeological and ethnographic objects, paintings, sculpture, manuscripts, and general museum conservation needs; needs assessment of a collection with respect to its condition and strategies for improving its state of conservation; inventory of a
collection for conservation and protection purposes; the creation of safe environments for storage or display of collections; or specialized training in the care and preservation of collections; - In the case of forms of traditional cultural expression: documentation and audiovisual recording of traditional music, indigenous languages and dance forms for broad dissemination as the means of teaching and further preserving them, or support for training in the preservation of traditional applied arts or crafts in danger of extinction.
Funding Information
- Floor on Amount of each Award: US $10,000 per project;
- Ceiling on Amount of each Award: US $200,000 per project.
Funding Priorities
Applications for projects that do one or more of the following will receive additional consideration in FY 2020:
- Support U.S. treaty or bilateral agreement obligations;
- Support U.S. Embassy Integrated Country Strategies;
- Support disaster risk reduction for cultural heritage in disaster-prone areas;
- Support post-disaster cultural heritage recovery;
- Preserve World Heritage sites;
- Partner, connect with or feed into other ECA programs.
Eligibility Criteria
The following entities are eligible to apply:
- Foreign Institution of Higher Education;
- Foreign Organization Foreign Public Entity;
- U.S. Non-Profit Organization (501(c)(3));
- U.S. Institution of Higher Education.
- For this AFCP program, eligible project applicants are defined as reputable and accountable non-commercial entities that are registered and active in SAM.gov and able to demonstrate that they have the requisite experience and capacity to manage projects to preserve cultural heritage;
- This may include non-governmental organizations, museums, ministries of culture, or similar institutions and organizations, including U.S.-based organizations subject to Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code:
- They have the requisite experience and capacity to manage projects to preserve cultural heritage in Uruguay;
- They have official permission to undertake the project and the full endorsement and support of the national cultural authority in Uruguay;
- In the case of U.S.-based and other entities based outside Uruguay, they have a local partner or a pre-existing formal agreement with the national cultural authority Uruguay to conduct cultural heritage preservation activities.
- The AFCP will not award grants to individuals, commercial entities, or past award recipients that have not fulfilled the objectives or reporting requirements of previous AFCP awards;
- In order to be eligible to apply to these funds, all entities must have a unique entity identifier (UEI) or Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet), as well as a valid registration on www.SAM.gov.
Ineligible Activities
AFCP does not support the following activities or costs, and applications involving any of the activities or costs below will be deemed ineligible:
- Preservation or purchase of privately or commercially owned cultural objects, collections, or real property, including those whose transfer from private or commercial to public ownership is envisioned, planned, or in process but not complete at the time of application;
- Preservation of natural heritage (physical, biological, and geological formations, paleontological collections, habitats of threatened species of animals and plants, fossils, etc.);
- Preservation of hominid or human remains;
- Preservation of news media (newspapers, newsreels, radio and TV programs, etc.);
- Preservation of published materials available elsewhere (books, periodicals, etc.);
- Development of curricula or educational materials for classroom use;
- Archaeological excavations or exploratory surveys for research purposes;
- Historical research, except in cases where the research is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project;
- Acquisition or creation of new exhibits, objects, or collections for new or existing museums;
Construction of new buildings, building additions, or permanent coverings (over archaeological sites, for example); - Commissions of new works of art or architecture for commemorative or economic development purposes;
- Creation of new or the modern adaptation of existing traditional dances, songs, chants, musical compositions, plays, or other performances;
- Creation of replicas or conjectural reconstructions of cultural objects or sites that no longer exist;
- Relocation of cultural sites from one physical location to another;
- Removal of cultural objects or elements of cultural sites from the country for any reason;
- Digitization of cultural objects or collections, unless part of a larger, clearly defined conservation or documentation effort;
- Conservation plans or other studies, unless they are one component of a larger project to implement the results of those studies;
- Cash reserves, endowments, or revolving funds (funds must be expended within the award period [up to five years] and may not be used to create an endowment or revolving fund);
- Costs of fund-raising campaigns;
- Contingency, unforeseen, or miscellaneous costs or fees;
- Costs of work performed prior to announcement of the award unless allowable per 2 CFR 200.458 and approved by the Grants Officer;
- International travel, except in cases where travel is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project;
- Travel or study outside the host country for professional development;
- Individual projects costing less than US $10,000 or more than $200,000;
- Independent U.S. and foreign projects overseas that do not have a local partner or a preexisting formal agreement with the national cultural authority in the specified country to conduct cultural heritage preservation activities.
Evaluation Criteria
Each application forwarded to the AFCP Program Office will be evaluated and rated on the basis of the criteria outlined below.
- Purpose, Description, Importance: 25 points max;
- Urgency: 15 points max;
- Maintenance Plan: 10 points max;
- Rationale for U.S. Support (written by the U.S. embassy or consulate): 15 points max;
- Media Plan: 10 points max;
- Budget and Budget Narrative: 15 points max;
- Supporting Materials: 10 points max.
How to Apply
- The proposal clearly addresses the goals and objectives of this funding opportunity;
- All documents are in English;
- All budgets are in U.S. dollars;
- All pages are numbered;
- All documents are formatted to 8 ½ x 11 paper, and;
- All Microsoft Word documents are single-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, with a minimum of 1-inch margins;
- Interested applicants must submit their complete applications at the address given on the website.
Eligible Countries: Uruguay, United States.
For more information, please visit https://uy.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/113/MVD-FY2020-AFCP-SG.pdf