NEWS

 

 

 

The annual National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend competition is underway. This stipend awards $6,000 to faculty members to support their scholarship during the summer months.

In order to compete, an SCSU faculty member must be nominated by SCSU. The internal deadline for nominations is September 25, 2009 and the NEH instructions should be followed when preparing the internal submission. Please check the SPAR website http://www.southernct.edu/spar/sparnews/ for updates on the internal process, or email ziblukp1@southernct.edu to receive email updates.

Summer Stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to scholars and general audiences in the humanities at any stage of development. Last year, SCSU faculty member Tilden Russell of the Music Department won a 2009 Summer Stipend for the translation and publication of the book, "The Complete Dancing Master: A Translation of Gottfried Taubert's Rechtschaffer Tantzmeister (1717).

NEH evaluation criteria can be found at: http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/stipends.html#review.

The NEH FAQ page is also an excellent resource: http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/SummerFaqs.html.  

Institutions are limited to two nominations, and an SCSU committee will peer-review faculty applications for submission to NEH. Please contact Ms. Patricia Zibluk at ziblukp1@southernct.edu or 203.392-6801 with general questions.  

Submission assistance (including editing) will be provided for the two proposals selected from the internal competition.

Please submit all the materials called for on the NEH website to SPAR at ziblukp1@southernct.edu  attached to an email, by midnight September 25. These materials include the following:

1.  Narrative-Not to Exceed Three Single-Spaced Pages

Applicants should provide an intellectual justification for their projects, conveying the ideas, objectives, methods, and work plan. A simple statement of need or intent is insufficient. Applications exceeding the page limit will not be reviewed. Format pages with one-inch margins and with a font size no smaller than eleven point.

The narrative should not assume specialized knowledge and should be free of technical terms and jargon. In the course of writing a narrative, applicants should address the following areas:

Research and Contribution

Describe the intellectual significance of the proposed project, including its value to scholars and general audiences in the humanities. Explain the basic ideas, problems, or questions examined by the study. If the area of inquiry is new to the applicant, provide reasons for working in it. Explain how the project will complement, challenge, or expand relevant studies in the field.

Methods and Work Plan

Clarify the part or stage of the project that will be supported by the Summer Stipend. Provide an overview of the project and describe what will be accomplished during the award period. Supply a brief work plan. For book projects, explain how the final project will be organized. If possible, provide a brief chapter outline. For digital projects, describe the technologies that will be used and developed, and how the scholarship will be presented to benefit audiences in the humanities.

Applicants requesting funding for the development, acquisition, preservation, or enhancement of geospatial data, products, or services must conduct a due diligence search on the Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) Portal (http://www.geodata.gov) to discover whether their needed geospatial-related data, products, or services already exist. If not, the proposed geospatial data, products, or services must be produced in compliance with applicable proposed guidance posted at http://www.fgdc.gov.

Skills and Materials

Specify the level of competence in the languages or digital technologies needed for the study. Describe where the study will be conducted and what research materials will be used. If relevant, specify the arrangements for access to archives, collections, or institutions that contain the necessary resources.

Final Product and Dissemination

Describe the intended audience and the intended results of the project. If relevant, explain how the results will be disseminated and why these means are appropriate to the subject matter and audience. For example, discuss publishing arrangements and publicity plans. If the project has a Web site, please provide the URL. If the final product will appear in a language other than English, explain how access and dissemination will be affected.

NEH expects grantees to provide broad access to all grant products, insofar as the conditions of the materials and intellectual property rights allow.  In the case of digital products NEH strongly encourages projects that will offer free public access to online resources.

For projects that lead to the development of Web sites, all other considerations being equal, NEH gives preference to those that provide free access to the public.  

2.  Bibliography-Not to Exceed One Single-Spaced Page

The bibliography should consist of primary and secondary sources that relate directly to the project. Include works that pertain to both the project's substance and its theoretical or methodological approaches. Evaluators will use the bibliography to assess your knowledge of the subject area.

3.  Résumé-Not to Exceed Two Single-Spaced Pages

Your résumé should provide the following:  Current and Past Positions. Education: List degrees, dates awarded, and titles of theses or dissertations. Awards and Honors: Include dates. If you have received prior support from NEH, indicate the dates of these grants and the publications that resulted from them. Publications: Include full citations for publications and presentations Other Relevant Professional Activities and Accomplishments.

4.  Appendix-Only for Editions, Translations, or Database Projects, or for Proposals that Include Visual Materials

Editions or Translations: Provide a sample of the original text (one page) and the edited or translated version (one page).

Database Projects: Provide a sample entry (one page).

Visual Materials: Provide a sample (one page) in pdf format, not .jpg or other common graphic format.

5.  The NEH application form, including SF424.

Applications for NEH Summer Stipends must be received by Grants.gov by 11:59 Eastern Time on October 1, 2009.  Grants.gov will date- and time-stamp your application after it is fully uploaded. Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted.

Community of Science (COS)

SPAR is pleased to announce that the University is now  a member of Community of Science (COS) which features the most comprehensive source of funding information available on the Web, with more than 25,000 records, representing over 400,000 funding opportunities, worth over $33 billion.

COS provides a full range of Internet-based services for the world's researchers.

Universities, corporations, societies, private institutions, government agencies and individual researchers all depend on COS Web-based products and services to find funding, promote their work, identify experts, manage resources, and collaborate with colleagues.

•    COS Funding Opportunities - an up-to-date database of announcements for grants, fellowships, awards and more from around the world, comprising more than 25,000 records worth over $33 billion.

•    COS Funding Alert - a weekly e-mail notification with a customized list of funding opportunities based on specified criteria provided by the individual COS member.

•    COS Expertise - a richly featured knowledge management system for individuals and institutions, containing more than 480,000 first-person profiles of researchers from over 1,600 institutions worldwide.

•    COS Scholar Universe - a searchable, editorially controlled database of nearly 2 million published scholars in a variety of disciplines.

•    COS Public View of Expertise (PVE) - a user-friendly interface to make selected information from an institution's research expertise available to key external constituencies and the general public.

•    COS Workbench - an easy-to-use Web workspace for Expertise profile holders, with many features to help you promote your work

SCSU Faculty & Staff can access COS Funding Opps and Funding Alert one of two ways:

1)  IP Access

From any on-campus computer, you can go right to http://www.cos.com/. Because SCSU's IP addresses will be recognized by RefWorks-COS, you can start searching the database right away.

2)  Username and Password

Faculty can log into http://www.cos.com/ with a COS username and password anytime, anywhere. Logging in this way will take the user to his or her COS Workbench. From the COS Workbench, the user can search for grant opportunities. Username and password access is necessary when a) a user is off-campus, or b) when a user needs to save a Funding record or search.

Getting a COS username and password is easy: SCSU faculty & staff can go to http://www.cos.com/ and click the "New User? Register Free" icon near the top left of the screen. You will gain access to Funding Opps and Alert by indicating that you are affiliated with SCSU.

We are certain that you will find many new and exciting opportunities available from the wide variety of funders featured in the searchable COS databases. As always, SPAR  looks forward to assisting you with your grant submissions in the upcoming year!