• http://www.neh.gov

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities.

We have recently launched the Digital Humanities Initiative (DHI)--aimed at supporting projects that utilize or study the impact of digital technology. DHI is particularly interested in helping the development of cyberinfrastructure for the humanities as described in Our Cultural Commonwealth, the ACLS report on cyberinfrastructure.

Collaboration is one key area of cyberinfrastructure--getting people with different backgrounds and disciplines together to work on projects of mutual concern. Many of our DHI programs encourage such collaborations among grant recipients. Another way the NEH is helping to facilitate collaboration is by cooperating with other funding organizations. For example, we have put in place several joint grant programs with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, designed to encourage collaborations among libraries, museums and scholars. Such collaborations help to bring different constituents to the table. We are actively engaged in discussions with many other funding and educational organizations to try to promote these kinds of collaborations.  

Since launching DHI, the NEH has put five new digital humanities grant programs in place designed to address cyberinfrastructure needs. For the coming year, we have many other programs, conferences, and events in the planning stages.

For more information, please see our website at:  http://www.neh.gov/grants/digitalhumanities.html or contact us at dhi@neh.gov.
 
Brett Bobley is the Chief Information Officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities.