Digital Projects for the Public

Overview

The Digital Projects for the Public program supports 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.

All Digital Projects for the Public projects must:

• provide public audiences with structured analysis that deepens public understanding of  significant humanities ideas
• incorporate sound humanities scholarship
• involve humanities scholars in all phases of development and production
• include appropriate digital media professionals
• reach a broad audience through a realistic plan for development, marketing, and distribution
• demonstrate the capacity for sustainability

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. You may identify particular communities and groups, including students, to whom a project may have particular appeal. Projects intended for K-12 students should include community partners to extend the project’s impact beyond the classroom.

Because the development and production of the project’s humanities content and technical design should be undertaken by a team of experts, NEH discourages the use of students, and especially undergraduates, in the development and production of a project’s humanities content and technical design. Projects intended as a classroom exercise, e.g., constructed by students over the course of a semester or academic year for course credit, are not competitive. NEH encourages audience evaluation throughout all stages of a project. Evaluation could include testing of the project’s concept, approach, and key components.

Funding categories
The Digital Projects for the Public program includes three funding categories:

• Discovery, to collaborate on preliminary research
• Prototyping, to design or create prototypes
• Production, to produce the final version of the project

Funding Levels
Maximum award amount $30,000 (Discovery grants)
$100,000 (Prototyping grants)
$400,000 (Production grants)
Expected output Game/Simulation; Mobile App; Virtual/Augmented Reality; Website

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.

You do not need to obtain a Discovery grant before applying for a Prototyping grant, or to obtain a Prototyping grant before applying for a Production grant. If you have received an award in one funding category you may not receive a second award for the same project in that funding category (i.e., you may receive a Prototyping award and a Production award for the same project but may not receive two Production awards).

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.