Apply Now for NEH’s Collections Stewardship Program

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Collections & Infrastructure is accepting applications for Collections Stewardship, a program to advance the preservation and availability of physical and digital collections important for research, teaching, and public engagement in the humanities. Awards support the work of libraries, archives, and museums; colleges and universities working on collections access; and organizations that provide preservation services or educate and train students and professionals in collections stewardship. Award amount ranges from $50,000 to $500,000.

Applications may be submitted for projects that address one or more of the following activities:

• conducting assessments for physical or digital preservation, and creating plans and policies for collections stewardship
• conducting conservation assessments and implementing treatment plans
• purchasing storage and preservation supplies to rehouse collections (see funding restriction on high density storage systems)
• managing collection storage environments and other preventive care strategies (see funding restriction on building systems)
• arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections
• cataloging collections of rare books, maps, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art and material culture, and digital objects
• digitizing or reformatting collections and making them available for public use through websites or digital repositories
• transcribing, translating, or indexing primary source materials (see funding restriction on preparing scholarly editions)
• enhancing long-standing digital resources that are widely used in the humanities in order to preserve the information and improve access
• providing preservation services or educating and training undergraduate and graduate students and professionals who preserve and provide access to humanities collections (financial support for students and participants is allowed, including stipends and travel costs but not tuition remission).

Application deadlines are May 11, 2026, and December 15, 2026. NEH staff are available to answer questions but will not review drafts (see link below for contact information).