Limited Submission: THE NEH Summer Stipends Campus Competition

Dates:

Internal Intent Deadline: August 27, 2018

Fund Deadline Date: September 26, 2018

Submissions Allowed: 2

Guidelines:

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will soon issue its call for proposals for the NEH Summer Stipends Program. The deadline for NEH proposal submission is September 26, 2018. The stipend provides support to faculty to pursue uninterrupted research during the summer months.

The University may submit applications from two faculty members. Each can be either a junior or a senior faculty member.

Each Summer Stipend provides $6,000 for two consecutive and uninterrupted months of full-time research and writing. Recipients must work full-time on their projects for these two months, and may hold other research grants supporting the same project during this time. Persons who have held any major fellowship or research grant (postdoctoral research stipend of at least $15,000) within the last three academic years are ineligible. Persons who have previously received Summer Stipends may apply to support a new stage in their projects.

UNC Charlotte’s Proposal Nomination Process

The process and schedule for selecting this year’s two nominees will be as follows:

1. Prospective applicants will submit proposals electronically to Susan Robinson, Office of Proposal Development (OPD), by Monday, August 27, 2018. Proposals must be submitted as one electronic file and should be named Lastname_neh. Proposals must include the following:

  • a resume, in outline form and not to exceed two single-spaced pages
  • a project narrative, not to exceed three single-spaced pages
  • a bibliography for the project, not to exceed one single-spaced page
  • an appendix is optional and should be used only for applications that require visual materials and proposals for editions, translations, or database projects. If your proposal requires visual materials, you may include one page of visuals in pdf format. If you are proposing an edition or a translation, you must provide a sample of the original text and your edited/translated version. Neither the original text nor the translation should exceed one single-spaced page. For database projects, provide a sample entry not to exceed one single-spaced page.

2. OPD will review proposals for overall completeness and distribute copies to members of the UNC Charlotte Faculty Competitive Grants Committee.

3. During the second week of September, the UNC Charlotte Faculty Competitive Grants Committee, with the assistance of additional faculty expert consultants as appropriate, will meet to conduct an internal proposal review in accordance with the following NEH-stated criteria:

  • the intellectual significance of the proposed project, including its value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both;
  • the quality or the promise of quality of the applicant’s work as an interpreter of the humanities;
  • the quality of the conception, definition, organization, and description of the project and the applicant’s clarity of its expression;
  • the feasibility of the proposed plan of work, including, when appropriate, the soundness of the dissemination and access plans; and
  • the likelihood that the applicant will complete the project

4. After the review, OPD will notify the two nominees and provide them with recommendations for revising and strengthening their proposals. OPD will provide editorial support. Nominees will be reminded of the short turn-around time between proposal revision and submission to NEH. Applicants whose proposals are not selected to move forward to NEH will be notified as well. OPD will offer to search for alternative sources of funding for those whose proposals aren’t selected.

5. While the proposals will be submitted to the NEH electronically using Grants.gov, the nominees are still expected to follow normal UNC Charlotte proposal routing and approval procedures. Draft proposals must be uploaded to NORM (UNC Charlotte’s proposal and award management system). Proposals must be approved by your chair and dean prior to submission to Grants.gov. Faculty who require assistance with NORM or with Grants.gov should contact their College-Based Research Officer: Peter Szanton in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences or Stafford Farmer for proposals in the College of Arts + Architecture. Final proposals must be submitted to Grants.gov on or before Wednesday, September 26, 2018; however, NEH strongly recommends against trying to submit your application on the day of the deadline.

Note: Detailed application instructions, including sample applications, may be found on the NEH web site.

For questions, contact Lesley Brown, Director of Proposal Development, via email or phone at 704-687-1880.