Grants

Call for proposals for FEL grants

Submissions for 2010-11

Important dates

Deadline for submission of proposal: December 31, 2010
Announcement of results: now available here

The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for projects of work that will support, enable or assist the use of one or more endangered languages. These endangered languages may be anywhere in the world.

The Foundation is committed to raising awareness of endangered languages and supporting revitalization and preservation of endangered languages through all channels and media. The Foundation awards grants to projects that further its aims as and when its funds permit. The Foundation's funds remain limited this year and only an exceptional award will be greater than US $1,000. Smaller proposals will have a better chance of receiving funding.

Priority will be given to projects that focus on the revitalization of endangered languages and support the use of endangered languages in various spheres of community life (home, education, cultural and social life). Any language documentation proposals must have a clear and immediate relevance to prospects for language revitalization.

For further details, read the Guidance notes. Be sure to read them before filling in an application form. See also our Manifesto page to find out more about the Foundation's goals and values.

Conditions and Format for Submission

Only grant proposals from FEL members will be considered. If you are not a member then you will need to join before applying. Details of how to join are on our Membership page.

All proposals must be submitted in our standard format, to ensure comparability. Applicants must submit two documents:

an Application Form (AF)
a Case for Support (CS)

See the the Guidance notes for help on filling out the Application form and writing a Case for Support. The two documents should be named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the actual project language name for language.

Unless agreed with Nicholas Ostler in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English. Text with any special characters (non-ASCII) should be written using Unicode.

The Application Form (AF) and Case for Support (CS) are best submitted as Microsoft Word files attached to an e-mail message. Send your message, with attachments, to the following addresses:

Hakim Elnazarov <hakimelnazar@yahoo.com>
Nicholas Ostler <nicholas@ostler.net>

In general, it is not necessary to also send us hard copy of files, but we may request printed versions if we have difficulty reading the files.

For those without access to electronic communications, printed documents will also be accepted. Post them, to arrive by December 31, 2010, to:

Nicholas Ostler
172 Bailbrook Lane
Bath BA1 7AA
United Kingdom

Successful grant recipients are expected to submit to FEL a copy of their completed project materials (in the form of report, video, learning material, dictionary, etc), to be added to FEL resources, and to feature in the FEL newsletter and website.

Comments on Draft Proposals

FEL tries to keep procedures as simple as possible. But we recognize that they may be difficult for those without training in a western university. In the case of proposals from communities or community linguists, FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and to identify weaknesses and potential remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft proposals clearly marked "DRAFT" should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no later than November 15, 2010.