Notes on Humanities Connections Grant Application

http://www.neh.gov/files/grants/humanities-connections-edit.pdf
 
Things to look out for/Questions for St. Ed's Grant Director

• Are we registered with Grants.gov?
• What is an Entity record, and is ours up-to-date?
• Do we have an indirect-cost rate that has been federally negotiated? If so, what is it?

 
Purpose of Grant
"Humanities Connections grants seek to expand the role of the humanities in the undergraduate curriculum at two- and four-year institutions, offering students in all academic fields new opportunities to develop the intellectual skills and habits of mind that the humanities cultivate" (2).
 
Not required, but gives special encouragement to "projects that foster collaboration between humanities faculty and their counterparts in the social and natural sciences and pre-service or professional programs in business, engineering, health sciences, law, computer science, and other non-humanities fields" (2).
 
Core Features of Grant:

1. Faculty from at least two separate departments or schools at a single institution must collaborate to devise new curricular arrangements; and
2. Projects must include provisions for high-impact student engagement activities that relate directly to the topic(s) of the linked courses. These activities could include individual or collaborative undergraduate research projects; opportunities for civic engagement; or a structured experience with community-based, project-based, or site-based learning. Community organizations and cultural institutions can play key roles in this regard.

 
Grant Requirements:

• Must support collaborative teams of faculty members from two or more departments or disciplines, at least one of which must be within the humanities;
• Must result in a coherent set of at least three new or substantially revised undergraduate courses;
• Must integrate the subject matter and perspectives of multiple disciplines, either within the humanities or (more broadly) with fields outside the humanities; and
• Must encourage student engagement through structured opportunities for undergraduate research or experiential learning.

 
Grantees may not use funding for:

• the development of courses for a graduate degree or non-degree program; textbook research or revision;
• promotion of a particular political, religious, or ideological point of view;
• advocacy for social action; or
• projects focused primarily on the creation or performance of art.

 
Grantees may use the funding to:

• engage faculty in joint study,
• bring in outside experts,
• organize seminars on substantive issues, and
• bring relevant parties together to plan the student engagement activities.

 
Connected to the NEH's "The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square" initiative. (look for more info about that initiative).
 
They specifically state that the proposals will be evaluated according to the program's criteria and not in terms of how they correspond to the initiative.
 
"NEH endeavors to make the products of its awards available to the broadest possible audience" (4). In other words, to the extent that the project may be replicable, resulting documents and such need to be made available to the public.
 
up to $100,000 with a grant period of 18-36 months to begin no later than Sept 2017