Publishing Historical Records in Collaborative Digital Editions

Application Information

You must use Grants.gov to submit your proposal (see the right-hand menu for a direct link to the application for this opportunity). All information necessary to apply is included in this announcement, the Application Instructions, and the forms on Grants.gov. If you need the information supplied in an alternative format, please email the NHPRC at nhprc@nara.gov.

In the event that Grants.gov is experiencing technical difficulties that prevent submission, applicants must resolve the issue with the Grants.gov Support Center (call 1-800-518-4726 or go to www.grants.gov/support). If Grants.gov cannot solve the problem, applicants may request an alternative. To make use of the NHPRC backup system, applicants must contact Jeff de la Concepcion (jeff.delaconcepcion@nara.gov) no later than 3:00 Eastern Time on the day of the deadline with their valid Grants.gov SupportCenter trouble-ticket number. Applications that fail to meet deadlines for reasons other than those noted will not be considered for funding.

 

Preparing Your Application

In the Grants.gov application package, you will be required to fill out SF-424: Application for Federal Assistance. In the Attachments form, you will need to upload a Project Narrative, a completed copy of the NHPRC Budget Form, and Supplementary Materials.

 

SF-424: Application for Federal Assistance

Provide all the information requested, including the following items:

• For question #8a, provide your institution's legal name as recorded in your SAM registration. 
• For #8c, be sure to provide the correct UEI as recorded in your SAM registration. 

 

Project Narrative

The Project Narrative is a description of the proposal. It should be no more than 20 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with standard margins. Please organize your narrative in sections, as follows:

Statement of Purpose: In one or two sentences, please state the project's purpose, the collaborating institutions involved, and the amount you are requesting from NHPRC. For example: The [Institution] is seeking a grant of [$ amount] to form [or continue] a collaborative with [other institutions] to [what purposes]. 

Overview: Begin with a brief overview of your edition, including its conceptual scope, purpose, and goals, and its collaborative team; a summary description of the relevant historical records collections and/or other documentary sources; its means of providing intellectual access to the historical materials; the products and online publications to be completed during the grant period; and accomplishments to date.  State when you began your editorial project and when you expect it to be completed in full.

Historical Overview: First, provide an overview of the historical importance of the subjects, developments, organizations, individuals, events, and/or places whose history is documented by the project, and demonstrate how the project’s corpus of historical records will pose new questions and perspectives that go beyond the extant literature.. Second, describe, with reference to existing scholarship, the research value of the specific documents and/or other materials to be edited during the proposed grant period. Explain how increased access to these materials will advance research in the relevant field(s) of study, and enhance public understanding of U.S. history, society and culture.

Project Methods: State whether the edition follows ADE or MLA guidelines, and outline your editorial procedures with reference to these guidelines. Specify the methods, criteria, tools, and related workflow you will use for document collection and control, selection and arrangement, transcription, annotation, encoding and metadata creation, indexing, and/or other apparatus--to enhance discovery, provide historical context, and facilitate understanding of the project’s source materials. Describe what you have done to secure the necessary permission for publication of materials (online and in print) from holders of literary rights or copyright. 

Publishing Methods: Explain your respective choices for the digital methods and related front-end and back-end platform(s) you will employ to provide online access to the materials and work results. If applicable, describe plans for retrospective digital conversion of previously published print volumes. For online publication, please also identify the technical standards you will use in digitizing, controlling, encoding, and linking materials. How will these online materials be made broadly discoverable for researchers and the general public?  

If you are also producing a print edition, describe plans for simultaneous or subsequent online publication of the material. (Some projects now prepare digital files that can serve both print and digital publication simultaneously.) 

For new projects also publishing print volumes, please include in the Supplementary Materials a copy of your publication contract containing the necessary permissions or assignment of rights to publish all of the edition’s content (transcription, annotation, and other apparatus) in a searchable, online edition accessible to the public.

Preservation Standards and Long-Term Sustainability: The Commission expects the final products of funded projects to be maintained in their entirety for long-term discovery and access. Describe your digital preservation plans that will preserve your collaborative digital edition and provide continued discovery and access. How will the edition be sustained technically and financially, long after its final completion? Provide a link, if available, to your institution’s digital preservation plan. For print publication, indicate your publishing standards.

Plan of work: Outline each stage of the planned work within the grant period, identifying which staff members are responsible for which tasks. You may clarify details of complex work plans in the Supplemental Materials. Describe the total number of documents you expect to work on at each stage, the number of volumes you expect to publish, and/or other products you plan to produce, including the number of  transcribed and annotated documents that will be published online during the grant period. In addition, specify how much more work is necessary to complete the project after this grant period. (Your work plan should be clearly aligned with your proposed budget.)

Ongoing projects: Explain how any performance shortfalls during the past two grant cycles have been addressed in terms of management changes or staffing reallocations. In addition, the proposal must detail any changes from previous projections of the scope of work and anticipated completion date for the entire project since your previous grant award from the NHPRC (supplemental materials may be used for charts if more appropriate).

Impact of Project:  Projects should describe how they plan to track the impact of their work, including published reviews; citations in scholarly books, articles; other media such as film or television programs, and websites; or use in exhibits, classrooms, textbooks, or curricula; and other forms of public engagement. If your project makes use of student workers, indicate how this work is advancing their professional development and enhancing the educational goals of your institution. 

Qualifications of Staff: Briefly describe the qualifications and responsibilities of each of the project's staff members, including any staff members not funded by this grant, and indicate the percentage of time each will devote to the project. List the Names, Titles, Institutions, Phone Numbers, and E-Mail Addresses of the Project Director and Key Personnel (Please ensure that the project director listed in the Narrative is the same person listed in Section 8 (f), of the SF 424. If your institution requires a different contact person on the SF 424, please explain in one sentence.) In the supplementary materials, provide a résumé of not more than two pages per person for all staff named in the project budget. For those staff members to be hired for the project, provide job descriptions, specify the qualifications that will be sought in candidates for vacant positions, and summarize the roles to be played by all project staff, consultants, and contractors. Some projects benefit from advisory boards that provide special expertise. If you have an advisory board, identify the members and their area(s) of specialization.

Performance Objectives: List six to ten objectives (or more, as appropriate to your workflow) by which NHPRC can measure your performance. For example, the number of documents and/or document images to be acquired during the grant period; the number of documents you plan to transcribe, annotate and/or fact-check during the grant period; the number of volumes completed; the number of completed documents to be published, etc. Performance objectives should also be specified for technical work related to your edition’s digital infrastructure, such as creation of the project’s document control database, search and browse architecture, other discovery or analysis tools, and/or other aspects of the project’s web architecture and interface. You should focus on quantifying what you intend to accomplish and complete.

 

Supplementary Materials

Submit no more than 35 pages of the following Supplementary Materials:

• Résumés of named staff members (no more than two pages each; please use only institutional addresses and phone numbers)
• Position announcement for any new positions to be paid for by grant funds
• A detailed work plan (in either quarterly or six-month increments)
• A supplemental budget narrative
• Sample document facsimile(s) accompanied by transcription and annotation from the digital edition or volumes to be worked on during the proposed period.
• Statements of commitment from all collaborating partners detailing their participation in the project timeline, workplan, and associated responsibilities to the collaboration

If these materials are available on a web site, please provide the URL(s). Reviewers appreciate applications with fewer supplemental pages.

 

Project Budget

You must submit a budget on the NHPRC Budget Form available on the Application Instructions page. Note that the form itself contains additional instructions. You may include with your application a Narrative Budget Supplement for budget categories that require further detail.  

---

Submission Dates and Times

This funding category has two application deadlines:

 

First Deadline

Funding Opportunity Number:   EDITIONS-202505

• Draft (optional):  February 18, 2025
• Final Deadline: May 7, 2025

NHPRC support begins no earlier than January 1, 2026.

 

Second Deadline

Funding Opportunity Number:   EDITIONS-202511

• Draft:  August 15, 2025
• Final Deadline:   November 5, 2025

NHPRC support begins no earlier than July 1, 2026.

 

Application Review Information

The NHPRC staff will acknowledge receipt of the application soon after we receive it. The following evaluation criteria and weights will be used by NHPRC staff and other reviewers to form recommendations.

Criteria for Publishing Historical Records in Collaborative Digital Editions

1. Quality and feasibility of the project’s conceptual scope and the proposed edition’s ability to support new research and teaching in U.S. history, including African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American history and studies. (35 percent)

2. Quality and extent of the proposed collaboration, including qualifications of staff, and its ability to enhance, build upon, and include the capacities of all participants. (25 percent) 

3. Coherence, effectiveness, and reasonableness of the proposed work plan and budget, including strategies, methods, and plans for online publication. (25 percent) 

4. Quality and extent of community and end-user engagement and input. (15 percent) 

 

Review Process

After submitting a proposal, do not discuss the pending application to the NHPRC with any Member of the Commission. Commission members must ensure fair and equitable treatment of all applications and do not discuss proposals with individual applicants.

Peer Review

NHPRC will ask up to 5 external peer reviewers to evaluate and score the proposal.

Applicant Response

Approximately 3 months after the submission deadline, we will provide the Project Director an opportunity to respond to an anonymous copy of the peer reviewers' comments.

Commission Recommendation
After reviewing proposals, reviewers’ comments, applicant responses, and evaluations by the Commission staff, the Commission members deliberate and make funding recommendations to the Archivist of the United States, who has final statutory authority and selects award recipients. Throughout this process, all members of the Commission and its staff follow conflict-of-interest rules to assure fair and equal treatment of every application.

---

Award Administration Information

 

Notification

Grants are contingent upon available appropriated funds. In some cases, the Commission will adjust grant amounts depending upon the number of recommended proposals and total budget. The Commission may recommend that the Archivist approve the proposal and extend an offer of a grant with applicable terms and conditions, or it may recommend rejection of the proposal. 

Commission staff will notify applicants of the Archivist's decision within two weeks following the meeting and will provide anonymous copies of reviewer comments to all applicants.

Successful applicants will receive an informal offer of award outlining the steps that must be accomplished to qualify for funding. Those steps include verification of their acceptance of general terms and conditions, completion of a survey on their Financial Capability and Accounting Systems, and finalization of performance objectives for their project. Once all requested documentation is received, reviewed and acceptable, the NHPRC will issue an official award notice.

For awards that meet or exceed the Federal government’s simplified acquisition threshold (currently $150,000), NHPRC staff will first review and consider any information about the applicant that appears in the designated integrity and performance system. This information is accessible through SAM (currently FAPIIS) (see 41 U.S.C. 2313). After this review, NHPRC staff will follow the procedures in 2 CFR 200, subpart F, Appendix I, part e.3.

 

Administrative Requirements

In order to ensure that you can manage a grant, applicants should review the Federal grant administration rules and regulations governing grants from the NHPRC listed in the Administering an NHPRC Grant section.

 

Reporting

In most cases, award recipients will report on their performance in narrative reports every six months and submit financial reports once a year.