NEH Division of Public Programs: Media Makers Development Grants for Humanities Content Creation

NEH offers two categories of grants for media projects: Development Grants and Production Grants. Development grants enable media producers to collaborate with scholars to develop humanities content and format and to prepare programs for production. These grants cover a wide range of activities that include, but are not limited to, meetings and individual consultations with scholars, research, preliminary interviews, preparation of program scripts, designs for interactivity and digital distribution, and the creation of partnerships for outreach activities and public engagement with the humanities. Development grants should culminate in the refinement of a project’s humanities ideas, a script, or a design document for (or a prototype of) digital media components or projects. Before applying, applicants must have a solid command of the major humanities scholarship on their subject, have clarified the ideas that the project will consider, and have consulted with a team of scholarly advisers to work out the intellectual issues that the program will explore. Applicants must also have made preliminary decisions about the format and storyline and located essential materials for the program(s). Finally, they must have recruited the appropriate media professionals, especially the producer, writer, or interactive designer.
Production grants support the preparation of a program for distribution. Applicants must submit a script for a radio or television program, or a prototype or storyboard for a digital media project, that demonstrates a solid command of the humanities ideas and scholarship related to a subject. NEH also supports Chairman’s Special Award projects. These projects are more complex and of national visibility that would be of compelling interest to the general public, show exceptional promise for examining important humanities ideas in new ways, and reach large audiences. These goals can often be accomplished through combining a variety of program formats, forming creative collaborations among diverse institutions, and expanding the scope and reach of the project. The Chairman’s Special Award is offered at the production stage, but not at the development stage. See application guidelines for Production Grants.

Applications may be submitted for any phase of a project. Applicants are not required to obtain a development grant before applying for a production grant. Applicants may not, however, submit multiple applications for the same project at the same deadline. An applicant must choose whether to apply for development or production of a particular project. If an application for a project is already under review, another application for the same project cannot be accepted.

NEH encourages radio, television, and digital media projects that
combine radio or television programs with complementary projects using emerging technologies, museum exhibitions, reading and discussion programs, and other formats that expand and enhance programs’ humanities content, deepen the audiences’ experience of the content, engage audiences in new ways, and expand the distribution of programs;
advance the role of cultural repositories in online teaching, learning, and research for public audiences, teachers, students, and scholars;
culminate in products such as DVDs, Web sites, games, virtual environments, streaming, video on demand, and podcasts, as well as user-generated content;
simultaneously produce a broadcast program and interactive companion content in order to extend the educational experience of the program’s audience, use resources efficiently, and keep the humanities ideas at the center of the project as the broadcast program and the interactivity are designed;
engage public audiences interactively in exploring humanities ideas and questions by using new ways to contextualize, interpret, and distribute content;
result in large-scale, collaborative programs featuring multiple formats; and
build new programs around previously funded NEH projects using complementary formats that will add new dimensions to the original project and take advantage of new formats and technologies to reach audiences that were not served by the original project.

NEH offers two categories of grants for media projects: Development Grants and Production Grants. Development grants enable media producers to collaborate with scholars to develop humanities content and format and to prepare programs for production. These grants cover a wide range of activities that include, but are not limited to, meetings and individual consultations with scholars, research, preliminary interviews, preparation of program scripts, designs for interactivity and digital distribution, and the creation of partnerships for outreach activities and public engagement with the humanities. Development grants should culminate in the refinement of a project’s humanities ideas, a script, or a design document for (or a prototype of) digital media components or projects. Before applying, applicants must have a solid command of the major humanities scholarship on their subject, have clarified the ideas that the project will consider, and have consulted with a team of scholarly advisers to work out the intellectual issues that the program will explore. Applicants must also have made preliminary decisions about the format and storyline and located essential materials for the program(s). Finally, they must have recruited the appropriate media professionals, especially the producer, writer, or interactive designer.
Production grants support the preparation of a program for distribution. Applicants must submit a script for a radio or television program, or a prototype or storyboard for a digital media project, that demonstrates a solid command of the humanities ideas and scholarship related to a subject. NEH also supports Chairman’s Special Award projects. These projects are more complex and of national visibility that would be of compelling interest to the general public, show exceptional promise for examining important humanities ideas in new ways, and reach large audiences. These goals can often be accomplished through combining a variety of program formats, forming creative collaborations among diverse institutions, and expanding the scope and reach of the project. The Chairman’s Special Award is offered at the production stage, but not at the development stage. See application guidelines for Production Grants.

Applications may be submitted for any phase of a project. Applicants are not required to obtain a development grant before applying for a production grant. Applicants may not, however, submit multiple applications for the same project at the same deadline. An applicant must choose whether to apply for development or production of a particular project. If an application for a project is already under review, another application for the same project cannot be accepted.

NEH encourages radio, television, and digital media projects that
combine radio or television programs with complementary projects using emerging technologies, museum exhibitions, reading and discussion programs, and other formats that expand and enhance programs’ humanities content, deepen the audiences’ experience of the content, engage audiences in new ways, and expand the distribution of programs;
advance the role of cultural repositories in online teaching, learning, and research for public audiences, teachers, students, and scholars;
culminate in products such as DVDs, Web sites, games, virtual environments, streaming, video on demand, and podcasts, as well as user-generated content;
simultaneously produce a broadcast program and interactive companion content in order to extend the educational experience of the program’s audience, use resources efficiently, and keep the humanities ideas at the center of the project as the broadcast program and the interactivity are designed;
engage public audiences interactively in exploring humanities ideas and questions by using new ways to contextualize, interpret, and distribute content;
result in large-scale, collaborative programs featuring multiple formats; and
build new programs around previously funded NEH projects using complementary formats that will add new dimensions to the original project and take advantage of new formats and technologies to reach audiences that were not served by the original project.