NEH Summer Stipends
Applications are invited for the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend Program for summer 2025. The purpose of this program is to stimulate new research in the humanities and its publication.
Please note the limited submission deadline for summer 2025 has passed. The information below is for reference.
The Summer Stipends program provides $8,000 to support continuous full-time work on a research-based humanities project for a period of two consecutive months. NEH funds may support recipients’ compensation, travel, and other costs related to scholarly research. Projects may begin as early as May 1, 2025 and must commence by September 1, 2026. 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. Tenured/tenure-track faculty members (unless otherwise exempt) must be nominated by their home institution, and only ONE nomination from each institution is permissible (see below for the Urbana campus limited submission process).
WEBINARS
NEH held a webinar for nomination officials and prospective applicants on July 10, 2024. View a recording
NEH will hold an application writing tips webinar on August 21, 2024 at 1 p.m. Central/2 p.m. Eastern. Register for August 21 webinar
Summer Stipends support individuals to pursue projects at any stage of development, but especially early-stage research and late-stage writing in which small awards are most effective. Awardees must work full-time on their project and may hold other non-NEH sources of support (for example, sabbaticals and supplementary funding) or grants for the same project during the period of performance. Applicants may seek funding for projects based on completed dissertations; please see page one of the application guidelines/official notice of funding opportunity [PDF] for specific guidance in this case.
An individual may not hold more than one NEH individual award at the same time, nor may an individual work on a project supported by an NEH institutional award while holding an NEH individual award. (NEH Summer Stipends do not require cost sharing and do not include indirect costs. Summer Stipends are awarded to individual scholars; organizations are not eligible to apply.) The Summer Stipends program is designed primarily for individuals and may not be divided. For a list of what types of work/activities this program does not fund, see pages 17-18 of the guidelines [PDF].
NEH will give all applications equal consideration in accordance with the program’s review criteria. NEH is especially interested in supporting projects that advanced humanities-related work in the following areas:
- American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present and Future
- United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture
- NEH’s support for the Indian Boarding School Initiative
Full guidelines, application materials, and sample application narratives can be found at the program web page along with examples of funded projects. The outputs of a successful Summer Stipends award may include, but are not limited to, articles, books, digital resources and publications, archeological reports, critical editions, translations (with annotations or critical apparatus), and other scholarly resources, or research intended to be disseminated in one or more of those formats. NEH strives to make the product of its awards available to the broadest possible audience by providing ready and easy access to its grant products to scholars, educators, students, and the American public. All other considerations being equal, NEH gives preference to projects 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 one nomination (at any rank) may be made to NEH by each university; self-nominations are not allowed. If you are a full-time tenure-stream University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty member, please do not submit an application directly to NEH; you must apply first to the internal Urbana campus 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 (specialized) faculty, university staff members (but not faculty), as well as independent scholars not affiliated with higher education institutions, community college faculty, and faculty at certain federally recognized minority-serving institutions are all exempt from campus nomination and may apply directly to NEH.)
Application Deadline Date
Eligibility
The Summer Stipends program limits eligibility to individuals who have not previously held an NEH award in any of its programs for individuals. 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 (due September 18, 2024). Applicants who have satisfied all requirements for a degree but are awaiting its conferral may apply, but require additional documentation; see the NEH guidelines, page five. 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 for further eligibility details.
Application Guidelines
Internal Application Procedure (For Tenure-line Urbana Campus Faculty)
One digital copy of the application, consisting of the following, all with one-inch margins and a font size no smaller than 11 points):
- a project narrative (prepared exactly as specified in NEH guidelines pages 9–11 and using NEH’s headings) and not to exceed three single-spaced pages;
- a work plan (prepared as specified in the NEH guidelines, p. 11) not to exceed one page;
- a bibliography, not to exceed one page single-spaced (guidelines page 12);
- and a résumé of no more than two single-spaced pages (prepared according to page 12 of NEH guidelines)
Materials must be submitted to the Humanities Research Institute (HRI) by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 16, 2024. Send all materials as one pdf attachment to apply-hri@illinois.edu. HRI will review the submissions—with an ad hoc review panel—and make the nominations in early September 2024. N.B.: While letters of recommendation are not required for the internal campus competition, they are part of the NEH application. As the turnaround time for submission to NEH after the campus selection is complete is quite brief, HRI recommends applicants apprise their potential referees of their interest in applying to NEH prior to the internal campus deadline. (The campus nominee’s reference letters must be submitted online to NEH no later than October 11, 2024.) In the event a U. of I. tenure-line applicant is selected as a campus nominee for the NEH Summer Stipends but does not ultimately receive an NEH Summer Stipend award, that nominee will receive an HRI Summer Faculty Fellowship for summer 2025 (without having to resubmit to that HRI competition).
NEH Application Process
Following their selection, the U of I nominee must submit their complete application to NEH via Grants.gov Workspace. If they have not already done so, nominees must create a Login.gov user account to register and log in to Grants.gov. Login.gov is a secure sign in service used by the public to sign in to participating government agencies.
The application must be submitted via Grants.gov Workspace. Register with Grants.gov. After registering, one must add an “individual applicant” profile to apply to programs for individuals. Click on the “My Account” link, then on “Manage Profiles” and “Add Profile.” Refer to Grants.gov’s instructions for adding a profile and Creating an Individual Profile in Grants.gov.
Grants.gov may assign a number for the Unique Entity Identifier. Do not change this number. You will not be able to apply until you have added an individual profile. If you previously registered with Grants.gov and created an “individual applicant” profile, you will not need to re-register. However, NEH encourages you to confirm that your account is active and that your password is current.
NEH strongly recommends that you complete your registration at least two weeks before the application deadline. If you fail to allow sufficient time to register with Grants.gov, NEH will not extend the deadline or waive the online submission requirement. If you have problems registering with Grants.gov or adding an “individual applicant” profile, contact Grants.gov Applicant Support at 1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov. Please be sure to use a Grants.gov individual profile. Summer Stipend applications may not be submitted through institutional accounts.
Applications are due to NEH by September 18, 2024 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 2025. 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.
Information can be found at the NEH website, including examples of previously funded projects and sample application narratives.
Application Deadline Details
Completed applications are due to HRI no later than Friday, August 16, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. Send all materials as a PDF attachment to apply-hri@illinois.edu. The nominee will be notified by September 9, and all applicants will be notified when the selection process is concluded. The applicant who is chosen as the campus nominee must submit their materials to the NEH by September 18, 2024 (11:59 P.M. Eastern Time).
Contact
Tenure-line U of I faculty members who are planning to apply may contact HRI Deputy Director Nancy Castro with questions regarding the internal application process.
Please be aware, also, that the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, through the Office of Research Advising and Project Development (RAPD), offers summer proposal writing groups for those preparing applications for the fall. They are also glad to meet individually and/or provide feedback on drafts via email. Interested parties may contact Maria Gillombardo, Research Development Manager - RAPD, at gillomba@illinois.edu.
For more information about the NEH Summer Stipends internal Urbana Campus nomination process, please contact Nancy Castro at ncastro@illinois.edu or (217) 244-7913.