NEH Increases Award Amount for NEH Fellowships

Scholars and writers eligible to receive stipends of up to $60,000 for a year of advanced research in the humanities

WASHINGTON, (February 21, 2018)

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has increased the monthly stipend awarded through its fellowships program to $5,000 a month, for a maximum stipend award of $60,000 for a twelve-month fellowship project.

NEH Fellowships support advanced research in the humanities toward the production of articles, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources in the humanities.

The program accepts applications from individual researchers, teachers, and writers to pursue full-time, continuous humanities research projects for a period of six to twelve months. All successful applicants will receive a $5,000-a-month stipend—an increase of $800 a month over previous years—for a minimum stipend of $30,000 for a six-month project, and a maximum award of $60,000 for a twelve-month research period.

The increased stipend also applies to NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication, a fellowship program sponsored jointly by NEH and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support individual scholars pursuing interpretive research projects that require digital expression and digital publication. 

“NEH Fellowships are among the agency’s oldest and most important grant programs, supporting crucial research in the humanities,” said NEH Senior Deputy Chairman Jon Peede. “We are pleased to be able to increase the amount available to individual researchers to help support their significant contributions to our understanding of history, literature, philosophy, and other fields.”

NEH awards approximately 80 NEH Fellowships and 10 NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication a year. Recent NEH Fellowship awards supported research for a book on the Nazi-era plunder of musical instruments and manuscripts in Europe, a translation and critical edition of a newly discovered manuscript of Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy, a digital architectural history of the ancient Greek Temple of Hera at Olympia, and a study of the history of the U.S. Army during peacetime.  

Application guidelines for NEH Fellowships and the NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication are available at the NEH website. The next application deadline for both fellowship programs is April 11, 2018. Applicants may contact program staff in NEH’s Division of Research at 202-606-8200 or @email to discuss proposed research projects and questions about the application process.

Media Contacts:
Paula Wasley: (202) 606-8424 | pwasley@neh.gov