Deadline: September 15, 2023

The Caribbean Digital Scholarship Collective (CDSC) is pleased to launch its second annual micro-grant program to support digital scholarship in and about the Caribbean and its diasporas.

About the Grant

The CDSC welcomes applications from original digital humanities and digital scholarship projects at any stage, from inception to currently in development. Check out the 2022-23 microgrant recipients and read the program page for details.

The CDSC will support at least five projects from January to December 2024, offering grants ranging from USD $1,000 to $20,000. The proposed project should be completed within 12 months. Applicants need to apply for a micro-grant in one of three tiers:

• TIER 1 ($15,000 – $20,000): Tier 1 grants are for medium to large projects that require significant expenses. For example, projects that imagine creating an artisanal tech solution that does not exist yet, such as an original cartographic interface or visualization, or projects with expensive labor and technology requirements.
• TIER 2 ($5,000 – $15,000): Tier 2 grants are for small to medium-sized projects with readily available technology. For example, digital archives, exhibits built with Omeka or Wax, or maps created with Carto or Google Maps, which need funds to pay for data curation, management, and training.
• TIER 3 (less than $5,000): Tier 3 grants support one or two individuals as they pursue small to medium-sized digital scholarship, pedagogical or public humanities projects that they are developing themselves. Projects in Tier 3 are usually at their early stages and require further funding to come to fruition or grow in scale later.

The funding tiers are flexible. If a tier does not apply to your project needs, explain in your proposal why you are applying for a different tier than the one we would have assigned to your project.

Requirements

Applicants must submit their proposals using our Online Submission Form by September 15, 2023, at 11:59 pm EST. The evaluation committee will not review applications submitted after the deadline.. Applicants can submit their applications in Spanish, English, or French.

Submit a single document (Word or PDF) with the following:

1. Title.
2. Summary (250 words).
3. Narrative (1000-1200 words) that includes:
   1. Project description.
   2. Intellectual Contributions to Caribbean Digital Scholarship:
      1. The project's relationship to existing literature/projects; and/or early conversations in the literature about the project (where appropriate).
      2. The project engagement with digital methods and tools to advance research, teaching, learning, and/or public engagement.
   3. The project's current stage, technologies, and early signs of process-derived knowledge.
   4. A plan of execution for a 12-month period, including deliverables, expected outcomes, potential partners, and data management.
4. An itemized budget and a brief budget rationale.
5. One-page resume(s) of the principal investigator(s).

Our team will be happy to answer questions about your proposal before submission. If you need to hire an outside vendor to provide technology for your project, we encourage you to contact them to prepare a data management, scope, and budget plan.

Budget information

The micro-grant program can cover expenses such as:

• salaries and stipends;
• travel and training;
• outreach activities;
• consultants and professional services (e.g., developers, instructional designers, programmers, digital scholarship);
• infrastructure (e.g., software purchase and licensing, software development, IT services, server/hosting, platform maintenance).

The micro-grant program cannot cover fringe benefits or indirect costs.

Grant awards are subject to federal, state, and local tax regulations. Each grantee is responsible for reporting taxable stipend payments and remitting any tax due with their personal or institutional income tax return. For specific questions about your tax responsibilities, contact the Internal Revenue Service, an accountant, or an income tax service.

Eligibility, Evaluation and Selection

Before submitting your application, please read the micro-grants page for details.

Important dates

The CDSC will host an informational webinar to answer applicants' questions on Thursday, July 20, 2023, at 10 am EST. Registration required. The committee will announce the winners by November 30, 2023.

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