Notice of Funding Opportunity: Digital Projects for the Public (United States)

Deadline: 12-Jun-24
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is currently inviting submissions for Digital Projects for the Public program to support projects that interpret and analyze humanities content in primarily digital platforms and formats, such as websites, mobile applications and tours, interactive touch screens and kiosks, games, and virtual environments.

NEH seeks proposals that explore a range of interpretive possibilities. Competitive proposals include collaboration with multiple scholars offering diverse perspectives. Projects that depend on input from a single scholar are not competitive.

NEH also welcomes applications for digital projects that enrich the users’ experience and engagement with a larger project. For example, if your request is for a mobile experience that would operate within a museum or would work in conjunction with a film, explain how this element will enhance the audience’s humanities learning experience. The digital component must enhance the project and not serve merely as promotion for it.

Areas of Interest

• NEH is especially interested in supporting projects that advance humanities-related work in the following areas:
  • American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future 
    • American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future is a wide-ranging special initiative at NEH that leverages the humanities to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of the time: strengthening the democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing the changing climate. The 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. The initiative also encourages projects that explore the untold stories of historically underrepresented groups and build capacity at cultural and educational institutions to benefit underserved communities. Finally, the initiative welcomes projects that promote research into the historical roots and cultural effects of climate change and support the cultural and educational sectors in building climate resilience. By supporting humanities projects that align with these three themes – strengthening the democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing the changing climate – the American Tapestry initiative seeks to tell the country’s history in all its complexity and diversity.
  • United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture 
    • Hate must have no safe harbor in America – especially when that hate fuels the kind of violence we’ve seen from Oak Creek to Pittsburgh, from El Paso to Poway, and from Atlanta to Buffalo. When ordinary Americans cannot participate in the basic activities of everyday life – such as shopping at the grocery store or praying at their house of worship – without the fear of being targeted and killed for who they are, the security as well as democracy are at risk. In coordination with the White House “United We Stand” Summit in September 2022, NEH launched a new initiative titled United We Stand: Connecting through Culture that uses the humanities to combat hate-motivated violence and promote civic engagement, social cohesion, and cross-cultural understanding. As a part of this initiative, NEH 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 towards greater inclusiveness. NEH especially welcomes projects that explore the Muslim American and/or the Jewish American experience, including the history of Islamophobia and/or antisemitism.
  • NEH’s Support for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative 
    • As a part of NEH’s partnership with the Department of the Interior on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, NEH encourages projects that further public understanding and knowledge of the Federal Indian boarding school system. From 1819 through the 1970s the government of the United States operated a system of schools for Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children premised on a policy of coerced cultural assimilation. Native children were forcibly separated from their families and sent to attend federal Indian boarding schools, where they were frequently subject to harsh treatment and abuse. A number of these students died, and others never returned to their families and communities. Many were also deprived of their cultural inheritance. NEH encourages projects that document and explore the history of the federal Indian boarding schools as well as projects that contribute to Native and Indigenous cultural and language revitalization.

Funding Categories

• The Digital Projects for the Public program includes three funding categories:
  • Discovery, to collaborate on preliminary research (up to $30,000)
    • The Discovery category supports the exploratory stages of a digital project, bringing together humanities scholars, content experts, and digital media experts to determine which approaches a project might take. The Discovery phase should emphasize collaboration among these groups to identify the combination of content and platform that will most effectively communicate the humanities ideas to public audiences. To be successful at this level, the project team should have a solid grasp of the content and collections with which they will work and be looking for a platform, or the team should have chosen a subject and a platform and be looking to assess and interpret the humanities content. In either case, the project team must include humanities content experts and media experts. Projects intended for classroom use must also include an education consultant. In addition to consultations with humanities scholars and digital media experts, activities may include:
      • content research and narrative development
      • consultation with educational or curriculum consultants
      • platform research and selection
      • identification or digitization of production assets
      • preliminary design
      • audience evaluation
      • user experience mockups
      • storyboarding
  • Prototyping, to design or create prototypes (up to $100,000) 
    • The Prototyping category supports the creation of a proof-of-concept prototype.
    • Activities may include:
      • refinement of humanities content
      • consultation with humanities scholars, content experts, educational consultants, and digital media experts
      • finalization of the platform
      • scripting
      • creation or digitization of audiovisual assets that will engage public audiences
      • user interface and backend development
      • testing (including early launches) and de-bugging
      • final design
      • user testing and audience evaluation
    • other activities that will advance the project towards the production stage
  • Production, to produce the final version of the project (up to $400,000)
    • The Production category supports the production and distribution of humanities projects that have a primarily digital format.
    • Activities may include:
      • ongoing consultation with scholars
      • additional research and writing
      • fine-tuning the hardware, software, and platform
      • the final design, production, and distribution of digital media projects
      • finalization of the script and audiovisual assets
      • securing rights and licensing fees for audiovisual assets
      • production of complementary components such as museum displays
      • publication of complementary materials, such as catalogs or curriculum guides
      • publicity, outreach activities, and public programs
      • user testing and project evaluation

Duration

• You may request a period of performance of one to two years for Discovery and Prototyping awards. You may request a period of performance of one to three years for Production awards.
• Your period of performance must start between February 1, 2025, and September 1, 2025.

Program Outcomes and Outputs 

• The output of Discovery awards is a written design document that details fundamental aspects of the project such as the content, format, technical specifications, budget, work plan, intended audience, and learning objectives. The design document serves as a roadmap for further work on the project.
• The output of a prototyping awards is a digital prototype that explains the key digital features and humanities content of the project and demonstrates the project’s technical feasibility and design through screenshots, videos, mockups, or other illustrations.
• The output of a Production award is a completed project that has been (or will be) distributed for widespread public use. NEH strongly encourages partnerships with organizations and individuals who can assist you in distributing your project to the public.
• You will describe your project outcomes and outputs, and how they would support the overall purpose of the Digital Projects for the Public program.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Applicants 
  • To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following:
    • a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code
    • an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit)
    • a state or local government or one of their agencies
    • a federally recognized Native American Tribal government
  • Individuals and other organizations, including foreign and for-profit entities, are ineligible.
  • If your organization is eligible, you may apply on behalf of a consortium of collaborating organizations. If NEH selects your proposal for funding, you will be programmatically, legally, and fiscally responsible for the award.
• Cost Sharing 
  • NEH does not require cost sharing in this program.
  • Cost sharing refers to project costs that are covered with non-NEH funds. You may contribute voluntary cost share if the total project costs exceed the amount awarded by NEH. Voluntary cost share includes:
    • cash contributions made to the project by you or a third party
    • your unrecovered indirect costs
    • in-kind contributions (non-cash contributions, such as property or services, that benefit the project and are contributed without charge) by you or a third party
• Other Eligibility 
  • You may submit multiple applications for separate and distinct projects under this notice. An individual may serve as project director for multiple proposed projects under this notice.
  • You may revise and resubmit previously rejected applications. Submissions are subject to the application requirements and review criteria of the current competition.
  • If NEH has previously made an award in support of your project, you may apply for a new or subsequent stage of the project, which NEH will assess using the review criteria of the current competition.

For more information, visit NEH.