On May 15, in a joint initiative, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the United Kingdom’s (U.K.) Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) released a new notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the NEH/AHRC New Directions for Digital Scholarship in Cultural Institutions program.  The international grant program aims to advance digital research and scholarship in cultural institutions such as museums, galleries, archives, and libraries.  U.S. entities are eligible to receive grants up to $150,000 from NEH, with U.K. partners eligible for up to £250,000. 

The agencies note that the unprecedented times of the pandemic have demonstrated the importance of using digital scholarship to “develop new methods of sharing culture and heritage with global audiences, opening new research frontiers, and advancing collections-based research methods.” Proposals are encouraged to either address new areas of digital scholarship or address the themes identified in the 2019 workshop, UK-US Collaboration for Digital Scholarship in Cultural Institutions, which include machine learning and artificial intelligence, digitally-enabled participation, developing enhanced information on cultural institution visitors, and the creation and interrogation of all document types and unlocking new data.

Applications must be submitted by teams, composed of at least one organization from the U.S. and one from the U.K., in which each country is represented by at least one cultural institution.  Applicants will compose a single, joint narrative but will prepare two separate budgets, one for NEH (for funds requested by the U.S. organization) and one for AHRC (for funds requested by the U.K. organization).

Eligibility: Eligible applicants include U.S. nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, accredited public and 501(c)(3) institutions of higher education, state and local governmental agencies, and federally recognized Native American tribal governments.

Award Information: Maximum funding at Level I: $50,000 from NEH; Maximum funding at Level II: $150,000 from NEH

Deadlines:

• Application available: May 15, 2020
• Applications due: August 18, 2020 AT 11:59 p.m. EDT / August 18, 2020, 7:59 p.m. BST
• Expected notification date: December 31, 2020
• Project start date: February 1, 2021

Sources and Additional Information:

• The full NOFO can be found here.
• The funding guidelines can be found here.