National Historical Publications and Records Commission Grant: Digitizing Historical Records

To make these projects as widely useful as possible for archives, historical repositories, and researchers, the applications must demonstrate:

1. The national significance of the collections or records series to be digitized;
2. An effective work flow that repurposes existing descriptive material, rather than creating new metadata about the records;
3. Reasonable costs and standards for the project as well as sustainable preservation plans for the resulting digital records;
4. Well-designed plans that evaluate the use of the digitized materials and the effectiveness of the methods employed in digitizing and displaying the materials.

Projects may not use grant funds to create
* descriptive metadata or
* edited transcriptions of the digitized materials or
* develop websites where people will have to pay a fee to view the images.

For a comprehensive list of Commission limitations on funding, please see “What we do and do not fund” (http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/apply/eligibility.html).

A grant normally is for one to three years and up to $150,000. The Commission expects to make up to 8 grants in this category, for a total of up to $700,000.

The Commission requires that grant recipients acknowledge NHPRC grant assistance in all products that result from its support.

Eligible applicants:

* Nonprofit organizations or institutions
* Colleges, universities, and other academic institutions
* State or local government agencies
* Federally-acknowledged or state-recognized Native American tribes or groups

Applicant organizations must be registered in Central Contractor Registration (CCR) prior to submitting an application, maintain CCR registration throughout the application and award process, and include a valid DUNS number in their application. Details on CCR registration and requesting a DUNS number can be found at the Central Contractor Registration website.

Ineligible applications will not be considered.

Cost sharing is required. It is the financial contribution the applicant pledges to the cost of a project. Cost sharing can include both direct and indirect expenses, in-kind contributions, non-Federal third-party contributions, and any income earned directly by the project. The NHPRC will provide up to 50 percent of the total project costs.