Collaborative Research Grants
CFP: Collaborative Research Grants 2024–25
Applications due February 18, 2024.
The Center for Digital Humanities seeks scholars interested in conducting innovative, computationally engaged, and collaborative humanities research. Princeton faculty and staff from any discipline are welcome to propose projects that integrate methods, sources, or critique from the humanities with computation, data science, machine learning and AI, and/or design.
This year, priority will be given to projects that explore the opportunities and/or limits of AI for humanities research.
Recent CDH collaborations have included projects using agent-based modeling to explore theories of risk and rationality in the context of group behaviors, computational text analysis of the history of versification, and geospatial analysis of the literary preferences of the “Lost Generation” in Paris. We are especially interested in projects that require the development of specialized software to answer humanities research questions.
Project Scope
Applicants must propose an idea, problem, or provocation that can be explored over the course of approximately six continuous months between July 2024 and June 2025.
Some types of projects ideas include:
- Computationally-grounded projects that examine or model cultural data in new ways by drawing on methods from text mining, natural language processing, machine learning and AI, and computer vision. Outcomes could include a set of visualizations, a set of code notebooks, research software, a machine learning model, and/or an article (academic or for the general public).
- Data-intensive projects that make arguments or tell stories with data of any kind—textual, geo-spatial, network, image, audio, etc. Outcomes could include a custom data representation (such as visualization, sonification, or physicalization), and/or an article (academic or for the general public).
- We welcome other creative or boundary-pushing project ideas.
Please note that project data must be ready for analysis at the time the collaboration starts. Data may be either custom-made or from an existing dataset. If using pre-existing data sets, any data-use agreements must be signed prior to the start of the project.
Creating a public-facing website is out of scope for this grant.
Princeton faculty and staff may apply as individuals or with a collaborator/team. Visiting affiliates are not eligible.
Award Details
Grantees receive $5,000 (award will be split if there are faculty co-PIs), and research funds up to $3,000 for student assistants ($25/hour for graduate students; $15/hour for undergraduates). Funds will be transferred to home departments for administration.
Collaboration Details
Grantees will be matched with CDH staff with relevant expertise, and will collaboratively develop a project charter that will guide the project development. Grantees are expected to be available for regular meetings (in person or on Zoom) with CDH staff during the course of the award.
Grantees will be required to submit a final report at the conclusion of their award, along with a spending report. Unused research funds will be returned to the CDH at the conclusion of the grant period.
Application Process
To apply, please submit a 1,000-word project proposal that includes:
- A clear statement of the concept or problem.
- The desired outcomes or project objectives.
- A clear explanation of the project’s intervention in your field, and for humanities research broadly. How is the approach innovative or unique? Has this approach been tried before?
- If the project is data-driven, briefly describe the data. Please submit a data sample, and provide documentation that you have the rights to use or publish studies based on this data. Consult staff at the Princeton Research Data Service if you have any questions about your data.
- The expertise needed from the CDH.
- An indication of your preferred start dates for the 6-month partnership (July 2024-January 2025).
- Funding request. Please also indicate any other funding secured or requested for this project.
We provide a Google Document template to help you to structure your proposals.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to attend a lunch-time information session on Wednesday, February 7 (in person, with Zoom available by request), or reach out to the CDH for consultations and dataset review before submission by using our consultation form. Requests for grant consultations must be submitted by February 5, 2024 to ensure that we can meet with you before the application deadline.
Application materials should be sent as a single PDF file to cdh-info@princeton.edu by 11:59 pm EST Sunday, February 18, 2024 with the subject line “Collaborative Research Grant Application.” Applications will be reviewed by CDH’s Faculty Executive Committee. Notifications will be sent out by April 1, 2023.