Deadline: 12-Jan-24
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Preservation and Access is accepting applications for the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program.
Purpose
- This notice solicits applications for the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (SCHC) program.
- The SCHC program helps cultural heritage institutions with humanities collections (libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations) meet the complex challenge of preserving diverse holdings of humanities materials (books and manuscripts, photographs, sound records and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic objects, art, and historical objects) for future generations. The SCHC program supports environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies to reduce energy consumption and costs and strengthen institutional resiliency in the face of a changing climate.
- The SCHC program supports environmentally sustainable preventive care, also referred to as preventive conservation or preservation, which includes measures and actions aimed at avoiding, minimizing, and slowing future deterioration or loss of cultural heritage collections, thereby sustaining them for future generations. Cultural heritage institutions may use SCHC awards to manage collections’ environment, including aspects such as temperature, relative humidity, pollutants, and light; provide protective storage enclosures and systems for collections; and safeguard collections from theft, fire, floods, and other disasters. Recipients should use environmentally sustainable methods that reduce reliance on fossil fuels and improve institutional resiliency from current and future disasters.
Funding Categories
- The SCHC program offers three levels of funding: Planning, Implementation Level I, and Implementation Level II.
- Planning
- The Planning category provides funding for institutions of any size to develop and assess environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies in collection spaces. These awards are up to $50,000 for a two-year period of performance.
- Planning projects require a professional team appropriate to the goals of the project, working in collaboration. The team should consist of consultants knowledgeable in environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies or disaster preparedness and members of the institution’s staff. Team members might include architects, building engineers, conservation scientists, conservators, curators, and facilities managers, among others. You must include a preservation/conservation professional who works with collections on the planning team. You must identify all members of the team in the application, and they should work collaboratively throughout the planning process.
- The outcomes of a successful Planning award may include, but are not limited to:
- plans and specifications to reduce energy consumption and costs
- energy reduction test data
- environmentally sustainable collections environmental management and preventive care plans
- Implementation Level I
- The Implementation Level I category provides funding for small to mid-sized institutions to implement environmentally sustainable preventive care projects that address specific, discrete preservation challenges that have been identified through an assessment. These awards are up to $100,000 for a period of performance of up to two years.
- Level I awards support projects that derive from a general preservation needs assessment, risk assessment, or other targeted collections assessment conducted by internal or consulting professionals who have identified preservation challenges and priorities and prepared an assessment report or summary. You should apply for this level of funding if you are ready to implement small-scale improvements to environmental conditions in collection spaces and other environmentally sustainable preventive care measures as a result of such assessments.
- You must include a preservation/conservation professional who works with collections on your implementation project team. The outcomes of a successful Implementation Level I award may include, but are not limited to:
- improved collections storage or display environment
- effective microclimates for vulnerable collections objects
- reduced energy consumption and costs
- Implementation Level II
- The Implementation Level II category provides funding for institutions of any size to implement environmentally sustainable preventive care projects that address large or multifaceted preservation challenges that have been identified through assessments and planning conducted by a multidisciplinary collaborative professional team appropriate to the goals of the project. These awards are up to $350,000 for a period of performance of up to three years.
- The planning team that informs the proposed project and the implementation team for Level II projects should consist of professionals from various disciplines appropriate to the goals of the project, working in collaboration. The team should consist of consultants knowledgeable in environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies or disaster preparedness and members of the institution’s staff. Team members might include architects, building engineers, conservation scientists, conservators, curators, and facilities managers, among others. You must include a preservation/conservation professional who works with collections on the planning and implementation team. You must identify all members of the implementation team in the application, and they should work collaboratively throughout the project.
- The outcomes of a successful Implementation Level II award may include, but are not limited to:
- improved collections storage or display environment
- effective microclimates for vulnerable collections objects
- reduced energy consumption and costs
- Planning
Eligibility Criteria
- 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.
- The recipient may not function solely as a fiscal agent but should make substantive contributions to the success of the project.
For more information, visit National Endowment for the Humanities.