Humanities Toolbox

Welcome! This page compiles a variety of resources of most interest to faculty in the humanities and arts looking for support for their scholarly and creative work.

Below you will find a wide range of funding opportunities targeted to particular needs, and advice and guidance on preparing proposals. As always, please reach out to the Office of Sponsored Research staff for additional support you may need.

Funding Opportunities & Guidance

Additionally, please note that NEH Fellowships and NEH Public Scholar Program awards may have tenures as short as 6 months.

  • Seniors scholars should be chosen where possible.
  • Letter writers should be able to speak to (1) your qualifications and (2) the significance/importance of the project you are proposing (situated within the field). So be sure to equip your letter-writers with enough information to allow them to address these points.
  • Junior faculty should generally include no more than 1 letter-writer from your dissertation committee.
  • Once tenured, you should choose scholars who were not on your dissertation committee, demonstrating your engagement with scholars in your field more broadly. For this same reason, choosing scholars from outside of your home institution will often be better than someone from within your home institution (unless the guidelines request otherwise).


  • Grants.gov has published a Quick Start Guide for Applicants to help you register and apply for grants using Grants.gov. The guide covers creating workspaces, submitting your application, and more.
  • If you submitted an individual proposal via grants.gov, you can obtain a complete PDF of the submission for your records by doing the following:
  • Log into grants.gov
  • Access the Workspace you used for the application by clicking on Check Application Status on the left hand menu
  • When the Check Application Status Window opens, remove any dates that were auto-filled and click Search.
  • Click on the application you want to download. Click on the Details link for it.
  • Click on the download button that appears to the right of the screen.
  • Send the complete PDF to OSR for our records.

Completing your Proposal Routing Form – This form is the entry point for having your proposal entered into our institutional records, and for gathering institutional approvals and commitments.

  • When do I include a separate budget worksheet with my routing form?
  • For proposals involving only salary support (e.g., a fellowship that pays you for your time but nothing else), you do not need to include a separate budget worksheet.
  • For proposals with more involved budgets, a budget worksheet is required.
  • What is Salary Offset? This is the amount of the requested funding that you are specifically committing to the College to cover your salary (or a portion of your salary) during your leave.
  • What is Overhead? Overhead costs are real costs to the institution of hosting the research or scholarly work you propose. This can be things like IT infrastructure, hardware, software, facilities/office space, library services and holdings, and administrative support staff available to help you conduct the business of carrying out your work. These costs are also known as “indirect costs” or “facilities and administrative costs.” Some sponsors will reimburse the institution for a portion of these costs. If so, you are expected to include them in your budget. If a sponsor does not allow indirect costs, then you would not include them in your budget.

Submitting your Proposal

  • Some sponsors require an authorized representative of the institution to submit your proposal on your behalf. If so, please work in advance with OSR staff, who will submit your proposal.
  • Some sponsors require you to submit the application on your own. If so, please send a copy of your final submission to OSR so that we may enter it into our institutional records.