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Grant Announcement (Initial):
Electronic Records Projects
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission promotes the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage essential to understanding our democracy, history, and culture.
The following grant application information is for Electronic Records Projects.
Funding Opportunity Number: ELECTRONIC-10
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 89.003
NHPRC support begins no earlier than January 1, 2010.
Grant Program Description
The NHPRC supports efforts by archivists and records managers to meet the challenges of electronic records. Projects must involve institutions that have already established archives and records management programs.
We seek applications for start-up or collaborative projects:
- Start-up projects: Develop the capacity of institutions to prepare to capture and preserve electronic records, through program planning; or
- Collaborative projects: Establish and/or improve electronic records archives by engaging in effective and innovative collaborations.
Most electronic records archives depend upon collaboration among archivists, record managers, and information technology specialists. Only a few organizations have all the required expertise, making training, collaboration and recruitment of new personnel essential components of electronic records archives. We strongly encourage applicants to include professional development components necessary for the success of the project. These may consist of basic or advanced electronic records and digital preservation training for archives staff, agency records managers, high level administrators, information technologists, and others.
Projects in this category cannot digitize historical records. Applicants who wish to digitize records should refer to the Digitizing Historical Records announcement. In addition, projects cannot establish electronic document management systems that only manage born-digital records with limited retention periods. Applications requesting support for these activities will be considered ineligible in this program.
Award Information
A grant normally is for 1 to 3 years and up to $300,000. The Commission expects to make up to 6 grants in this category, for a total of up to $600,000.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants:
- Nonprofit organizations or institutions with IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt status
- Colleges, universities, and other academic institutions
- State or local government agencies
- Federally-acknowledged or state-recognized Native American tribes or groups
Ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
Cost Sharing
Cost sharing is required. It is the financial contribution the applicant pledges to the cost of a project. Cost sharing can include both direct and indirect expenses, in-kind contributions, non-Federal third-party contributions, and any income earned directly by the project. The NHPRC will provide up to 50 percent of the total project costs for Electronic Records Archives projects.
Application and Submission Information
You must submit your application via Grants.gov. See How to Apply for information on how to fill out the application forms.
A complete application includes the Application for Federal Assistance (Standard Form 424), Assurances -- Non-Construction Programs (Standard Form 424B), a Project Narrative, Summary, Supplementary Materials, and Budget.
Before beginning the process, applicants should review the Federal grant administration rules and regulations governing grants from the NHPRC listed in the Administering an NHPRC Grant section.
Project Narrative
The Project Narrative is a description of your proposal. The narrative should be no more than 20 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with standard margins. Please organize your narrative in sections following the specific directions for your type of project:
Electronic Records Archives Start-up Projects
Under this category, archives and other repositories may apply for grants of up to $75,000 to develop organizational and financial structures and technical requirements for electronic records archives. Projects will normally last up to eighteen months.
I. Introduce the overall goal of your project. Explain the project's relationship to your strategic plan, organizational goals, and archival collection management plans. Establish that the participating organization has functioning archival and records management programs.
Discuss the nature of your preliminary planning and your review of existing standards and methods regarding electronic records preservation. A starting point might be the InterPARES guidelines for creators and preservers of electronic records: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_documents.cfm?cat=pg.
Describe the nature of the electronic records you expect to manage in terms of content, number of files, and bytes. Explain which of these electronic records have permanent value according to records retention policies, legal status, or historical value.
II. Describe in detail your plan of work in intervals of, at most, six months. Use specific months and identify the person(s) on the project team who will be responsible for each part of the project. Explain how your approach reflects your organizational structure, planning, and research. Who are the key stakeholders that you will reach? Refer specifically to what has helped your organization change in response to previous technological challenges. Explain why the proposed approach is likely to result in the ongoing development of the electronic records archives.
III. Describe the products you will produce for the completed project. Describe assessments, manuals, specifications, and other documentation that you plan to complete during the project. Indicate if you plan to present the results of the project to external audiences through professional newsletters, conference presentations, journal articles, or on the Internet.
IV. Provide a narrative explanation of the qualifications of the staff named in the project budget, both for those already on staff and for those to be hired. Explain any special training planned for members of the project staff to help them support the project. In supplementary materials, provide a résumés of not more than two pages per person for all staff named in the project budget and job descriptions or call for consultants for those staff or consultants to be hired for the project.
V. List four to six objectives by which we can measure your performance. Focus in this section on quantifying what you intend to accomplish and complete. For example, how many more people understand electronic records management processes within your organization(s) or outside; how many new policies have been adopted; how many partnerships have been formed to preserve electronic records; what evidence of increased institutional support have you received.
Electronic Records Archives Collaborative Projects
Under this category, applicants may propose projects that will establish or improve electronic records archives by working in collaborations. Grants are for up to $300,000.
I. Introduce the overall goal of your project and explain its expected impact on electronic records preservation. Explain the reason for including each partner in the collaboration. Establish that at least one of the participating organizations has functioning archival and records management programs and has responsibility for born-digital records of permanent value.
Describe (if applicable) the status of the electronic records programs including the extent of staff, archival holdings, and the expected rate of growth. Provide examples of institutional support in terms of financial support, policy statements, workflows, and record creator cooperation. Describe the nature of the electronic records you expect to manage in terms of content, number of files, and bytes. Explain which of these electronic records have permanent value according to records retention policies, legal status, or historical value.
Explain your current or expected methods of preserving authentic electronic records and providing access to the records. Demonstrate an understanding of the major technical and human issues related to operating electronic records archives by referring to your experiences and to expert studies.
Discuss how this collaborative project will change your electronic records archives. Some possibilities: developing more partnerships with records creators; a focus on particular types of records with special preservation issues that requires study of emerging standards; building specific access methods for the electronic records archives. More generally, will the project improve your institutional capacity? Will it provide others, including those in the federal government, with needed tools or approaches?
Explain the nature of your collaboration with other organizations with expertise in electronic records archives. Consortia of organizations may want to work together to leverage different skills and capacities. We strongly encourage applicants to explore the possibility of working with established electronic records service providers; for example there are two such service providers that have been established in part with NHPRC support (www.MetaArchive.org or www.dcape.org). Another possibility is collaboration with NARA's Electronic Records Archives Private Sector Research Partners (http://www.archives.gov/era/research/partners.html). In general, proposals that involve collaborations outside of a single institution will be more competitive.
II. Describe in detail your plan of work in intervals of, at most, six months. Identify the person(s) on the project team who will be responsible for each part of the project. Explain how your approach reflects the different capacities of your collaborators. Refer specifically to what you see as effective workflows for responding to technological challenges. Explain why the proposed approach is likely to result in ongoing development of the electronic records archives.
III. Describe the products you will produce for the completed project. Describe assessments, manuals, specifications, and other documentation that you plan to complete during the project. Explain how you will disseminate the project to external audiences through professional newsletters, conference presentations, journal articles, or on the Internet. Successful applicants are expected to maintain websites with information about the project's procedures and results.
IV. Provide a narrative explanation of the qualifications of the staff named in the project budget, both for those already on staff and for those to be hired. Explain any special training planned for members of the project staff to help them support the project. In supplementary materials, provide a résumé of not more than two pages per person for all staff named in the project budget and job descriptions or call for consultants for those staff or consultants to be hired for the project.
V. List four to six objectives by which we can measure your performance. Focus in this section on quantifying what you intend to accomplish and complete. For example, how many electronic records (in bytes) have you accessioned and preserved, how many more people use improved electronic records management processes within your organization(s) or outside; how many partnerships have been formed to preserve electronic records; what methods have you developed that reduce the cost of managing and preserving electronic records.
Project Summary
The Project Summary should be no more than 3 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type with standard margins, and it must include these sections:
- Purposes and Goals of the Project
- Methods
- Plan of Work for the Grant Period
- Products and Publications to be completed during the Grant Period
- Names, Titles, Institutions, Phone Numbers, and E-Mail Addresses of the Project Director and Key Personnel
- Performance Objectives
Supplementary Materials
You may attach up to 20 pages of Supplementary Materials to your Narrative, such as:
- Résumés of named staff members (required)
- Position descriptions for staff to be hired with grant funds (required, if applicable)
- Detailed work plan charts that supplement the Narrative
- Statements of commitment to the project by partners, including records creators
- Summaries of your institution's pertinent policies on records management, collections development, processing, and digitial preservation
If these materials are available on a web site, please provide the URLs.
Project Budget
Applicants will be asked to compute the project costs to be charged to grant funds as well as those that will be supported by the applicant through cost sharing, which includes both direct and in-direct expenses, in-kind contributions, non-Federal third-party contributions, and any income earned directly by the project. All of the items listed, whether supported by grant funds or cost-sharing contributions, must be reasonable and necessary to accomplish project objectives, allowable in terms of the applicable federal cost principles, auditable, and incurred during the grant period. Applicants should review the appropriate Office of Management and Budget circulars on cost principles.
Charges to the project for items such as salaries, fringe benefits, travel, and contractual services must conform to the written policies and established practices of the applicant organization.
- You must submit a budget on the the NHPRC Budget Form available on the Application Instructions page. Note that the form itself contains additional instructions. You may include with your application a narrative budget supplement for budget categories not otherwise explained in the project narrative.
- Provide specific budget figures, rounding to the nearest dollar.
Budget Categories
In preparing the budget, please follow the suggestions below in each of the categories:
Salaries: List each staff position and the full salary to be charged to the project and show the percentage of time each staff member will devote to the project. Indicate which positions are to be filled for the proposed project and which personnel are already on the staff of the applicant institution. Grant funds may be used to pay the salaries of only those individuals actually working on the project. You may count the time provided to the project by advisory board members.
Fringe Benefits: Include employee benefits using your organization's standard rates. No separate benefits should be included for positions that are computed at a daily rate or using honoraria.
Consultant Fees: Include payments for consultant services and honoraria. Provide justification for large or unusual consultant fees. Include consultant travel expenses in the "Travel" category.
Travel: Include transportation, lodging, and per diem expenses. The NHPRC does not fund staff travel to professional meetings unless the travel is essential to accomplish the goals of the project.
Supplies and Materials: Include routine office supplies and supplies ordinarily used in professional practices. Justify the cost of specialized materials and supplies in a supplemental budget narrative.
Services: Include the cost of duplication and printing, long-distance telephone, equipment leasing, postage, contracts with third parties, and other services that you are not including under other budget categories or as indirect-cost expenses. The costs of project activities to be undertaken by each third-party contractor should be included in this category as a single line item charge. Include a complete itemization of the costs in a supplemental budget narrative.
Other Costs: Include costs for necessary equipment above $5,000, stipends for participants in projects, and other items not included in previous grant categories. The NHPRC does not provide grant funds for the acquisition of routine equipment such as office furnishings and file cabinets, but we may allow for the purchase of archival equipment, such as shelving units, and technical equipment, such as computers and peripherals, essential for a project. Include specifications for equipment over $5,000 in a supplemental budget narrative.
Indirect Costs: Include reasonable or negotiated "overheard" costs. See the Budget Form instructions to determine how to calculate indirect costs.
- You should not include indirect costs that exceed your cost sharing obligation.
- You may waive indirect costs and instead include specific overhead costs in the appropriate budget categories.
- Draft (optional) Deadline: April 1, 2009
- Final Deadline: June 5, 2009
Applications must be submitted electronically by midnight Eastern Time on June 5, 2009.
NHPRC support begins no earlier than January 1, 2010.
Deadline Policy: Given that technical or administrative difficulties with Grants.gov may periodically delay the timely submission or receipt of applications, the Commission staff will make provisions for the receipt of such applications past the established deadline. Applications that fail to meet deadlines for reasons other than those noted will not be considered for funding.
Application Review Information
The NHPRC staff will acknowledge receipt of the application soon after we receive it. The following evaluation criteria and weights will be used by NHPRC staff and other reviewers to form recommendations.
Criteria for Electronic Records Archives Start-Up Projects
- The importance of the electronic records archives based on the records to be preserved. (30 percent)
- The likelihood that the project will result in a sustainable electronic records archives based on the applicant's analysis of the field and its work plan. (30 percent)
- The ability to complete the project's objectives based on the qualifications of the staff, the inclusion of appropriate work plans including professional development, and the reasonableness of the budget (including cost share). (25 percent)
- Effectiveness of the dissemination plans for the project's results. (15 percent)
Criteria for Electronic Records Archives Collaborative Projects
- The importance of the electronic records archives based on the records to be preserved and the potential for more effective electronic records management derived from the proposed methods. (30 percent)
- The likelihood that the effectiveness and innovativeness of the project's methods will improve the archival community's ability to efficiently store and manage electronic records. (30 percent)
- The ability to complete the project's objectives using the proposed methods, based on the qualifications of the staff, the inclusion of appropriate work plans, professional development, and collaborations, and the reasonableness of the budget (including cost share). (25 percent)
- Effectiveness of the dissemination plans for the project's results. (15 percent)
Application Review Process
After submitting a proposal, an applicant should not discuss the pending application to the NHPRC with any Member of the Commission.
- State Boards
Your State Historical Records Advisory Board may evaluate the application on technical merits as well as its relation to state plan priorities. - Peer Reviewers
We may ask 5 to 10 external peer reviewers to evaluate the proposal. - Commission Staff
Approximately three months after the submission deadline, the Project Director receives blind copies of reviewers' comments and questions from the Commission staff. Applicants have the opportunity to expand on the material provided in the application, clear up any misconceptions, and generally strengthen the proposal before the Commission meeting. Then, staff makes overall recommendations to the Archivist, who chairs the Commission, based on the appropriateness of the project in meeting the Commission's goals, the proposal's completeness, conformity to application requirements and overall eligibility, and answers to the questions letter. - The Commission
After reviewing proposals, the comments of peer reviewers, the applicants' responses to the reviews, and evaluations by the Commission staff, Commission members deliberate on proposals and make funding recommendations to the Archivist of the United States who, as Commission Chairman, has final statutory authority. Throughout this process, all members of the Commission and its staff follow conflict-of-interest rules to assure fair and equal treatment of every application.
Award Administration Information
Notification
Grants are contingent upon available appropriated funds. In some cases, the Commission will adjust grant amounts depending upon the number of recommended proposals and total budget. The Commission may recommend to the Archivist to approve the proposal and extend an offer of a grant with applicable terms and conditions, or it may recommend rejections of the proposal.
Grant applicants will be notified within 2 weeks after the Archivist’s decision.
Agency Contact
Applicants are encouraged to contact Lucy Barber, Deputy Executive Director, 202-357-5306, or lucy.barber@nara.gov at the NHPRC who may:
- Advise the applicant about the review process;
- Answer questions about what activities are eligible for support;
- Supply samples of successful applications;
- Read and comment on a preliminary draft. Applicants should submit a draft at least 2 months before the deadline.
Applicants may also contact your State Historical Records Advisory Board Coordinator about your proposal and seek the board's advice. Many state boards have requirements for submitting draft proposals with deadlines earlier than those of the NHPRC.
For more information on how to comply with Federal regulations, see our Administering a Grant section.
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