NEH Summer Stipends

NEH encourages all faculty, especially with junior faculty, to apply. Although this is a very competitive program, the relatively short application and the focused time period make it a good way for junior faculty to lay the foundation for future grant applications. We have found that Summer Stipends are an excellent entry point for the NEH and its many awards programs. About forty percent of recent Stipends awardees are first-time applicants. 

Internal Limited-Submission Deadline: Friday, August 18, 2023 by 5:00 p.m.

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Description

• The NEH Summer Stipends program provides $6,000 to support continuous full-time work (research and writing) on research-based projects in the humanities for a period of two consecutive months.
• NEH funds may support recipients’ compensation, travel, and other costs related to scholarly research.
• Project start dates must be between May 1, 2024 to September 1, 2025.
• NEH invites research applications from scholars in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences, and it encourages submissions from independent scholars and junior scholars.
• Tenure-line faculty members (unless otherwise exempt) must be nominated by their home institution, and only two nominations from each institution are permissible (see below for Limited Submission process).

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NEH Webinars

There will be a webinar for administrators and prospective applicants, introducing the program, describing the application and nomination process, and offering application-writing suggestions. There will be a chance to ask questions, captions will be available, and the webinar will be recorded so others can watch it later. 

Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Time: 2:00-3:00 PM (Eastern time)  

To join the webinar, click on this link.  

Please review the NEH Summer Stipend guidelines (page 17) for examples of projects and activities that are not supported by NEH. Full guidelines, application materials, and sample application narratives can be found at the program web page, along with examples of funded projects.

As a taxpayer-supported federal agency, NEH endeavors to make the products of its awards available to the broadest possible audience. The goal is for scholars, educators, students, and the American public to have ready and easy access to the wide range of NEH award products. All other considerations being equal, NEH gives preference to those that provide free access to the public.

Faculty members with tenured or tenure-track positions who teach full-time at (unexempted) institutions of higher education must be nominated by their institutions to apply for a Summer Stipend. Only two nominations (at any rank) may be made to NEH by each university.

If you are a full-time tenure-stream faculty member, please do not submit an application directly to NEH; you must apply first to the internal competition (procedures below), and only if you are selected as a campus nominee, can you proceed to apply to NEH.

Emeritus/retired faculty, non-tenure-track faculty, university staff members who are not faculty and who will not be teaching during the academic year prior to the award, as well as independent scholars, community college faculty, and faculty at certain federally recognized minority-serving institutions are all exempt from campus nomination and may apply directly to NEH.)

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Application Deadline Date

Fri, 08/19/2022 - 5:00pm

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Eligibility

All applicants must have completed their formal education by the application deadline. U.S. citizens are eligible to apply. Foreign nationals who have been living in the U.S. or its jurisdictions for at least three years immediately prior to the application deadline are also eligible. (Foreign nationals who take up permanent residence outside the United States any time between the application deadline and the end of the period of performance will forfeit their eligibility. Leaving the U.S. on a temporary basis is permitted.) Specialized faculty, academic professionals, and unaffiliated scholars may apply directly to NEH. Applicants who have satisfied all requirements for a degree but are awaiting its conferral may apply, but require additional documentation; see the NEH guidelines (PDF) page three. While applicants need not have advanced degrees, individuals currently enrolled in a degree-granting program are ineligible to apply. Please consult the NEH Notice of Funding Opportunity (PDF) for further eligibility details.

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Application Guidelines

Internal Application Procedure (For Tenured and tenure-track faculty)

Submit your application through Lehigh’s InfoReady portal no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 18, 2023. 

Please submit a three-page (maximum) narrative that outlines your project, goals and relevance to the NEH’s guidelines, and a recent CV. 

NEH Application Process

All applicants must submit their own applications through grants.gov. Nominated applicants must include in their applications the name and email address of the appropriate nominating official. 

If applicants have questions, we encourage them to contact a member of the Summer Stipends program staff, at stipends@neh.gov or 202-606-8200.  

NEH strongly recommends completing the registration at least two weeks before the application deadline. If you fail to allow sufficient time to complete registration with Grants.gov, you will not be eligible for a deadline extension or waiver of the online submission requirement.

Applications are due to NEH by September 20, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. NEH also recommends submitting by noon Eastern time on the day of the deadline.

Applicants will be notified of the results of their applications by email in April 2024. Notice will be sent to the email address supplied in the application. All applicants may obtain the evaluations of their applications by sending an email message to stipends@neh.gov.

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Contact

Tenure-line faculty members who are planning to apply may contact Kate Bullard or Jenny Chao at vpresearch@lehigh.edu with questions regarding the internal application process.