Category: Grants and Government Funding

IMLS and Partners Launch Fourth Digging into Data Challenge

The Institute of Museum and Library Services and 15 national funding agencies have launched the Fourth Digging into Data Challenge.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This year's competition is presented under the auspices of the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP), a consortium of sixteen international funders of social sciences and humanities research from Europe, South America, and North America. U.S. funding agencies are IMLS, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation. With new funders from Europe and, for the first time, South America, research teams will have opportunities for more diverse collaborations and subjects of inquiry. . . .

The Digging into Data funding opportunity is open to international projects that consist of teams from at least three member countries, and must include partners from both sides of the Atlantic. Projects must address a research question in humanities and/or social sciences disciplines by using large-scale, digital data analysis techniques, and show how these techniques can lead to new insights. Research partners will receive funding from their own national funding agencies for projects that can last for up to 36 months.

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NEH Grants: Humanities Collections and Reference Resources

The National Endowment for the Humanities has released guidelines for Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grants.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Humanities Collections and Reference Resources (HCRR) program supports projects that provide an essential underpinning for scholarship, education, and public programming in the humanities. Thousands of libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations across the country maintain important collections of books and manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art and material culture, and digital objects. Funding from this program strengthens efforts to extend the life of such materials and make their intellectual content widely accessible, often through the use of digital technology. Awards are also made to create various reference resources that facilitate use of cultural materials, from works that provide basic information quickly to tools that synthesize and codify knowledge of a subject for in-depth investigation.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

IMLS Releases Four National Digital Platform Grant Proposals

IMLS has released four national digital platform grant proposals for projects it awarded grants to.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

  • Fostering a New National Library Network through a Community-­Based, Connected Repository System (LG-70-15-0006): The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), Stanford University, and DuraSpace will foster a greatly expanded network of open-access, content-hosting "hubs" that will enable discovery and interoperability, as well as the reuse of digital resources by people from this country and around the world. The three partners will engage in a major development of the community-driven open source Hydra project to provide these hubs with a new all-in-one solution, which will also allow countless other institutions to easily join the national digital platform.
  • Museum Hub for Open Content (LG-70-15-0002): ARTstor, in collaboration with the El Paso Museum of Art, the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Staten Island Museum, and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) will create and implement software to enable museums to contribute digital image collections for open public access. The project will lower barriers to museum contributions to the DPLA by producing enhanced metadata tools, intellectual property rights decision support tools, and a direct-to-DPLA publishing capacity.
  • Combining Social Media Storytelling with Web Archives (LG-71-15-0077): Old Dominion University and the Internet Archive will collaborate to develop tools and techniques for integrating "storytelling" social media and web archiving. The partners will use information retrieval techniques to (semi-)automatically generate stories summarizing a collection and mine existing public stories as a basis for librarians, archivists, and curators to create collections about breaking events.
  • Repository Services for Accessible Course Content (LG-72-15-0009): This planning project, led by Tufts University, will bring together experts from disability services, including librarians, IT professionals, advocates, and legal counsel, to develop work plans for shared infrastructure, within which universities can support their students with disabilities. The intention is to create specifications and a business model that will complement existing platforms and services.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

University of Rochester Libraries Get $100,672 Mellon Grant for Digital Humanities Institute for Mid-Career Librarians

The University of Rochester Libraries has received a $100,672 Mellon Grant for a "21st Century Skills: Digital Humanities Institute for Mid-Career Librarians" pilot program.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The pilot institute will provide a three-day residential immersion experience and a yearlong online component for 20 mid-career librarians. Participants will develop proficiency in three core competencies-project management, copyright and fair use, and metadata literacy-while enhancing their technology toolkits and exploring diverse areas of digital humanities scholarship. University of Rochester faculty, River Campus Libraries staff, UR Mellon fellows in digital humanities, and CLIR postdoctoral fellows will serve as instructors. Interested mid-career librarians from across the United States and Canada are invited to apply to the institute through a competitive process.

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Indiana University Libraries and Partners Get $931,000 in Mellon Grant Money

Indiana University Libraries and its partner libraries have received a total of $931,000 from two Mellon Foundation grants.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The first of these grants provides $750,000 to the IU Libraries and Northwestern University Library to support continuing development of the Avalon Media System, an open-source software product designed to help libraries and archives provide long-term online access to audio and video collections for primarily academic audiences. . . .

The second of these grants, providing $181,000 to the IU Libraries and the University of Michigan Library, is a key component in a range of investigations underway to analyze the viability of alternative sustainable financial models for university presses and other nonprofit book publishers.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

UC Press and the CDL Given a $750,000 Mellon Grant to Develop OA Monograph Publication System

The University of California Press and the California Digital Library have been given a $750,000 grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation "to develop a web-based, open source content and workflow management system to support the publication of open access (OA) monographs in the humanities and social sciences."

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The proposed system will increase efficiency and achieve cost reduction by allowing users to manage content and associated workflows from initial authoring through manuscript submission, peer review, and production to final publication of files on the open web, whether via a publishing platform or an institutional repository. The system will streamline production so publishers can redirect resources back into the editorial process and disseminate important scholarship more widely.

During this two-year period, the system will be designed and built to support the new open access models being pursued by UC Press as well as CDL's current publishing programs. Throughout the two-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, UC Press and CDL will engage other university presses and library publishing units to ensure the system will meet the needs of a range of organizations. UC Press and CDL have built in a plan for long-term sustainability to ensure that this resource will continue to serve these communities and will realize its potential to re-invigorate the domain of monographic publishing within the humanities and social sciences.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

NEH Division of Preservation and Access Research and Development Grants

The NEH Division of Preservation and Access has released guidelines for its latest Research and Development Grants program.

Here's an excerpt:

The Research and Development program is now offering grants of up to $75,000 for planning and basic research (Tier I). The grants support planning and preliminary work for large-scale research and development projects, and stand-alone basic research projects (such as case studies, experiments, and the development of iterative tools).

The program (formerly known as Preservation and Access Research and Development) continues as well to offer grants of up to $350,000 for advanced implementation (Tier II): the development of standards, practices, methodologies, or workflows for preserving and creating access to humanities collections; and applied research addressing preservation and access issues concerning humanities collections. Applicants for Tier II grants will need to provide a separate one- to two-page detailed plan for dissemination of project results.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Penn Receives $7 Million Gift to Create Price Lab for Digital Humanities"

The University of Pennsylvania has released "Penn Receives $7 Million Gift to Create Price Lab for Digital Humanities."

Here's an excerpt:

Funded by a generous $7 million gift from alumnus and SAS Overseer Michael J. Price and his wife, Vikki, the Price Lab for Digital Humanities will be the centerpiece of the "Humanities in the Digital Age" initiative of SAS's recently released strategic plan, and will provide the technological hardware and technical support staff necessary for a robust program that reaches across the University. . . .

The Price Lab will facilitate collaborations with the Penn Libraries; the Penn Museum; the Digital Media Design program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science; the Center for Visualization of Digital Information; the Penn Institute for Computational Science; Penn Medicine's Cartographic Modeling Lab; and SAS's Linguistic Data Consortium.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Notice of Funding Opportunity: Second Round of Funding for FY 2015 National Leadership Grants for Libraries"

IMLS has released a "Notice of Funding Opportunity: Second Round of Funding for FY 2015 National Leadership Grants for Libraries."

Here's an excerpt:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announces the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the second round of FY 2015 National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG). The IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program invests $12 million annually in projects that improve professional library and archive practice, drive innovation, and have a national impact.

This year, IMLS offered two opportunities to apply for FY 2015 National Leadership Grants for Libraries. This NOFO announces the February 2, 2015 deadline and is a call for two-page preliminary proposals. From the proposals, we will select applicants and invite them to submit full proposals in June. Applicants who were not invited to continue from the first round of funding are welcome to submit new preliminary proposals during this round.

We encourage applications that address two project categories. They were identified in a series of IMLS Focus meetings held earlier this year: 

  • National digital platform, with support to bridge gaps between disparate pieces of the existing digital library infrastructure for increased efficiencies, cost-savings, access, and services. Note: the program cannot support the digitization of content.
  •  Learning spaces in libraries, including work that builds institutional capacity, develops STEM learning, engages community, and encourages partnerships to support all types of learning and inquiry, including participatory and hands-on learning in libraries.

Digital Scholarship | "A Quarter-Century as an Open Access Publisher"

DataONE Gets $15 Million NSF Grant

DataONE has received a $15 million grant from the NSF.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Founded in 2009 by the National Science Foundation (NSF), DataONE was designed to provide both the tools and infrastructure for organizing and serving up vast amounts of scientific data, in addition to building an engaged community and developing openly available educational resources.

Accomplishments from the last five years include making over 260,000 publicly available data and metadata objects accessible through the DataONE search engine and building a growing network of 22 national and international data repositories. DataONE has published more than 74 papers, reached over 2,000 individuals via direct training events and workshops and connects with over 60,000 visitors annually via the website.

Digital Scholarship | "A Quarter-Century as an Open Access Publisher"

Institute of Museum and Library Services Funds 51 Library Projects

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has announced 51 grants.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced grants for 51 library projects, totaling $9,291,441, that will advance library and archives practice by addressing challenges in the field and by testing and evaluating innovations.

The projects were selected from 212 applications through the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries and Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries programs, requesting more than $14.6 million and matched with $7,154,135 in non-federal funds. This announcement includes three grants through the Laura Bush 21st Century Library Program, which total $647,821.

Digital Scholarship | "A Quarter-Century as an Open Access Publisher"

Digital Public Library of America Gets $594,000 Grant

The Digital Public Library of America Gets received a $594,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) announced today $594,000 in new funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to research potential sustainability models and to pursue the most promising option (or options). This two-year grant will allow DPLA to expand its staff to target opportunities for further development and revenue, without compromising its mission of open access to the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

National Leadership Grants for Libraries Guidelines

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has released the National Leadership Grants for Libraries 2014 Guidelines.

Here's an excerpt:

The NLG-Libraries program accepts applications under three categories:

  • Advancing Digital Resources: Support the creation, use, presentation, and preservation of significant digital resources, as well as the development of tools to enhance access, use, and management of digital assets.
  • Research: Support research that investigates key questions that are important to library or archival practice.
  • Demonstration: Support the development and evaluation of replicable models or practices that are usable, adaptable, or scalable by other institutions for improving services and performance.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

"Publishing Priorities of Biomedical Research Funders"

Ellen Collins has published "Publishing Priorities of Biomedical Research Funders" in BMJ Open.

Here's an excerpt:

Publicly funded and large biomedical research funders are committed to open access publishing and are pleased with recent developments which have stimulated growth in this area. Smaller charitable funders are supportive of the aims of open access, but are concerned about the practical implications for their budgets and their funded researchers. Across the board, biomedical research funders are turning their attention to other priorities for sharing research outputs, including data, protocols and negative results. Further work is required to understand how smaller funders, including charitable funders, can support open access.

Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap

Institute of Museum and Library Services Announces Recipients of 21 Sparks! Ignition Grants

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has announced the recipients of 21 Sparks! Ignition Grants.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced 21 awards totaling $496,978 matched with $408,150 of non-federal funds for Sparks! Ignition Grants. IMLS received 99 applications requesting just over $2.3 million.

Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums are small grants that encourage libraries and museums to test and evaluate innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide. Sparks! grantees demonstrate innovation and broad potential impact, often turning turn small investments of funds into nationally significant projects.

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"Science Europe Position Statement: Principles on the Transition to Open Access to Research Publications"

Science Europe has released "Science Europe Position Statement: Principles on the Transition to Open Access to Research Publications." Science Europe is an "association of 51 European national research organisations."

Here's an excerpt:

Therefore the Science Europe Member Organisations:

  • will continue to support any valid approaches to achieve Open Access, including those commonly referred to as the "green" and "gold" routes; . . . .
  • stress that research publications should either be published in an Open Access journal or be deposited as soon as possible in a repository, and made available in Open Access in all cases no later than six months following first publication. In Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the delay may need to be longer than six months but must be no more than 12 months; . . .
  • require that funding of Open Access publication fees is part of a transparent cost structure, incorporating a clear picture of publishers' service costs;. . . .
  • stress that the hybrid model, as currently defined and implemented by publishers, is not a working and viable pathway to Open Access. Any model for transition to Open Access supported by Science Europe Member Organisations must prevent "double dipping" and increase cost transparency;

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"Researcher, Beware!"

Jan Erik Frantsvåg has published "Researcher, Beware!" in the latest issue of ScieCom info (note: PDFs are in English).

Here's an excerpt:

The Wellcome Trust has not only showed themselves willing to fund OA, they also demand something in return for their funding. Authors are not allowed to use articles that should have been OA, but aren't, in their list of publication when applying for new grants. If the Trust find papers in reports, that do not comply with the OA policy, funding will be withheld. Non-compliant papers will also result in funding renewals or new grants being held back. . . .

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced chances to their procedures regarding OA compliance. If non-compliant papers are found in project reports, further payments will be withheld pending evidence of compliance or a satisfactory explanation. . . .

The European Union is rewriting their OA policy for Horizon 2010. In Framework Program 7 (FP7), a Special Clause 39, demanding Open Access, was attached to about 20 per cent of funds. In Horizon 2020 all funds will have an OA obligation attached. And while the OA obligation in FP7 had a "best effort" clause in it (enabling you to be let off the hook, if you could document that you had asked for, but been denied, permission to self-archive), Horizon 2020 leaves no escape. If you don't comply, you have not fulfilled your contract. This will lead to funds being withheld.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap |

NEH 2013 Preservation and Access Research and Development Grant Guidelines

The National Endowment for the Humanities has released its 2013 Preservation and Access Research and Development grant guidelines.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The 2013 guidelines for Preservation and Access Research and Development grants are now available. You will also find sample project descriptions, sample narratives, and a list of frequently asked questions. The deadline for applications is May 1, 2013.

These grants support projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources. Challenges include the need to find better ways to preserve materials of critical importance to the nation's cultural heritage—from fragile artifacts and manuscripts to analog recordings and digital assets subject to technological obsolescence—and to develop advanced modes of searching, discovering, and using such materials.

| Digital Curation Bibliography: Preservation and Stewardship of Scholarly Works (EPUB file, PDF file, paperback, and XHTML website; over 650 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

2013 Digging into Data Challenge Grants

JISC has announced the 2013 Digging into Data Challenge grant program.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Today, the third round of the Digging into Data Challenge, a grant competition designed to help develop digital research in the humanities and social sciences launches in Canada, the Netherlands, the UK and the United States. . . .

During the first two rounds of the Challenge, held in 2009 and 2011, nearly 150 teams, representing universities from across Canada, the Netherlands, the US, and the UK, competed to demonstrate how innovative research methods could be used to address questions in the humanities and social sciences. Twenty-two of those teams were awarded grants during those earlier rounds, each of them demonstrating new methods for analysing vast digital resources used for humanities and social science research, like digital books, survey data, economic data, newspapers, music, and other scholarly, scientific, and cultural heritage resources that are now being digitised on a huge scale.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the earlier rounds, two additional funders have joined for round three, enabling this competition to have a world-wide reach into many different scholarly and scientific domains.

| Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 2 (XHTML website; over 200 entries) | Digital Scholarship |

National Archives Announces Grant Awards for Historical Records Digitization Projects

The National Archives has announced its grant awards for historical records projects, including those for digitization and electronic records management and preservation.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Digitizing historical records grants, totaling $420,000, went to four projects: the University of Florida will digitize and make available more than 36,000 pages of diaries and manuscripts from the end of the Colonial period to the beginnings of the modern state; Princeton University will digitize more than 400,000 pages of six Cold War-related manuscript collections; Harvard University will digitize 189,074 pages, covering four generations of the Blackwell Family from 1784 to 1981, that cover abolition, temperance, women's suffrage, and education; and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation in Springfield, Illinois, will digitize the records of Richard Yates, Sr., governor of Illinois 1861-1865.

Three Electronic Records grants, totaling $235,000, went to: the Council of State Archivists for a two-year project to strengthen the capacity of states and territories to manage and preserve electronic records; an electronic records start-up project at the Guggenheim Museum in New York; and a planning grant for the Missouri Office of the Secretary of State to establish an electronic records archives.

| Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Digital Scholarship |

IMLS Issues Call for Applications for National Leadership Grants-Libraries

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has issued a call for applications for National Leadership Grants-Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The guidelines for National Leadership Grants-Libraries have changed this year. Because the program is no longer aligned with National Leadership Grants for Museums, it no longer includes a category for Library-Museum Collaboration. Museum applicants should see the National Leadership Grants for Museums guidelines on the IMLS website. Collaboration is still an important characteristic of successful grant applications, and partnerships with museums and other libraries and community organizations are encouraged, but not required. Collaborative partnerships can help demonstrate a broad need, field-wide buy-in and input, access to appropriate expertise, and sharing of resources.

| Digital Scholarship's Digital/Print Books | Digital Scholarship

Digital Public Library of America Gets $250,000 Grant from IMLS for Digital Hubs Pilot Program

The Digital Public Library of America has been awarded a $250,000 grant by IMLS for its Digital Hubs Pilot Program.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced today a $250,000 grant to support the development of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The National Leadership Grant for Libraries in the Advancing Digital Resources category will help fund the launch of the DPLA's Digital Hubs Pilot Program, a project that will take the first steps to bring together existing U.S. digital library infrastructure into a sustainable national digital library system. . . .

Under the Digital Hubs Pilot Program, the DPLA will partner with existing statewide digital library projects (service hubs) and existing large content repositories (content hubs) to define, test, and implement digital services and participation agreements. Led by DPLA Director for Content Emily Gore, the Hubs Program will establish foundational sites in the DPLA, a distributed national network of connected service and content hubs.

This grant specifically will support the planning and implementation of a regional service hub pilot at the Mountain West Digital Library, including the set up and coordinated rollout of regional digital services, such as digitization services, metadata consultation, data aggregation, repository services, and community programming, as well as related workshops and meetings.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

Simons Foundation Gives arXiv Multi-Year Operating Grant

The Simons Foundation has given arXiv a multi-year matching operating grant from 2013 through 2017.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Thanks to an operating grant from the Simons Foundation, Cornell University Library has helped arXiv take a major step toward sustainability. Beginning in January and running through 2017, the Simons Foundation will provide up to $300,000 per year as a matching gift for the funds generated through arXiv's membership fees. The grant also provides $50,000 per year as an "unconditional gift" that recognizes the Library's stewardship of arXiv. . ..

The Library has been steering arXiv toward sustainability since January 2010, when it launched an initiative to create a business model that would engage libraries and research laboratories that benefit most from arXiv's service. A 2011 planning grant from Simons Foundation helped arXiv's leaders develop operating principles and establish a governing board for the new model.

Annual membership fees, paid by voluntary contribution from these institutions, help cover arXiv's costs—and, now, will provide a sum for the Simons Foundation to match.

The newly established model has garnered partners all over the globe. To date, more than 120 member institutions in over a dozen countries have pledged their support, totaling $285,000. Among the 100 institutions that use arXiv most heavily, nearly three-quarters committed to five-year pledges.

| Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals | Digital Scholarship |

Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants

The National Endowment for the Humanities is accepting applications for Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants. The application deadline is September 25, 2012 for projects that begin in May 2013.

Here's an excerpt announcement:

Proposals should be for the planning or initial stages of digital initiatives in any area of the humanities. Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants may involve

  • research that brings new approaches or documents best practices in the study of the digital humanities;
  • planning and developing prototypes of new digital tools for preserving, analyzing, and making accessible digital resources, including libraries' and museums' digital assets;
  • scholarship that focuses on the history, criticism, and philosophy of digital culture and its impact on society;
  • scholarship or studies that examine the philosophical or practical implications and impact of the use of emerging technologies in specific fields or disciplines of the humanities, or in interdisciplinary collaborations involving several fields or disciplines;
  • innovative uses of technology for public programming and education utilizing both traditional and new media; and
  • new digital modes of publication that facilitate the dissemination of humanities scholarship in advanced academic as well as informal or formal educational settings at all academic levels.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog | Digital Scholarship |

"De-Mystifying the Data Management Requirements of Research Funders"

Dianne Dietrich, Trisha Adamus, Alison Miner, and Gail Steinhart have published "De-Mystifying the Data Management Requirements of Research Funders" in the latest issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

Research libraries have sought to apply their information management expertise to the management of digital research data. This focus has been spurred in part by the policies of two major funding agencies in the United States, which require grant recipients make research outputs, including publications and research data, openly available. As many academic libraries are beginning to offer or are already offering assistance in writing and implementing data management plans, it is important to consider how best to support researchers. Our research examined the current data management requirements of major US funding agencies to better understand data management requirements facing researchers and the implications for libraries offering data management services for researchers.

| Research Data Curation Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |