Deadline: 30 November 2019

The U.S. Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic has announced a call for grant proposals aimed at preservation of cultural heritage through the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation.

The Fund was established in 2001 to help less developed countries preserve their cultural heritage and to demonstrate U.S. respect for other cultures. To date, the Ambassadors Fund has supported more than 700 projects, worldwide, totaling more than $33 million.

Funded projects include technical support for the restoration of historic buildings; assessment and conservation of museum collections; archaeological site preservation; documentation to save threatened traditional crafts; improved storage conditions for archives and manuscripts; recording oral history; and documentation of indigenous languages.

Funding Areas

• Cultural Sites
  • Conservation of an ancient or historic building, preservation of an archaeological site, or documentation of cultural sites in a region for preservation purposes.
• Cultural Objects and Collections
  • Conservation needs assessments and treatment, inventory of a collection for conservation purposes, the creation of safe environments for storage or display of collections, or specialized training in the care and preservation of collections.
• Forms of Traditional Cultural Expression
  • Documentation and audiovisual recording of traditional music, indigenous languages and dance forms for broad dissemination as the means of teaching and further preserving them, or support for training in the preservation of traditional applied arts or crafts in danger of extinction.

Applications for Projects that do one or more of the following will receive additional consideration in FY 2020:

• • Support disaster risk reduction for cultural heritage in disaster-prone areas;
  • Support post-disaster cultural heritage recovery;
  • Preserve World Heritage sites.

Eligibility Criteria

• AFCP considers applications from non-governmental organizations, museums, ministries of culture, or similar institutions and organizations, including U.S.-based organizations;
• The AFCP will not award grants to individuals, commercial entities, or past award recipients that have not fulfilled the objectives or reporting requirements of previous AFCP awards;
• All submitted documents must be in English.

Ineligible Activities

• Preservation or purchase of privately or commercially owned cultural objects, collections, or real property, including those whose transfer from private or commercial to public ownership is envisioned, planned, or in process but not complete at the time of application;
• Preservation of natural heritage (e.g., physical, biological, and geological formations, paleontological collections, habitats of threatened species of animals and plants, fossils);
• Preservation of hominid or human remains;
• Preservation of news media (e.g., newspapers, newsreels, radio and TV programs);
• Preservation of published materials available elsewhere (e.g., books, periodicals);
• Development of curricula or educational materials for classroom use;
• Archaeological excavations or exploratory surveys for research purposes;
• Historical research, except in cases where the research is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project;
• Acquisition or creation of new exhibits, objects, or collections for new or existing museums;
• Construction of new buildings, building additions, or permanent coverings (over archaeological sites, for example);
• Commissions of new works of art or architecture for commemorative or economic development purposes;
• Creation of new or the modern adaptation of existing traditional dances, songs, chants, musical compositions, plays, or other performances;
• Creation of replicas or conjectural reconstructions of cultural objects or sites that no longer exist;
• Relocation of cultural sites from one physical location to another;
• Removal of cultural objects or elements of cultural sites from the country for any reason;
• Digitization of cultural objects or collections, unless part of a larger, clearly defined conservation or documentation effort;
• Conservation plans or other studies, unless they are one component of a larger project to implement the results of those studies;
• Cash reserves, endowments, or revolving funds (funds must be expended within the award period [up to five years] and may not be used to create an endowment or revolving fund);
• Costs of fund-raising campaigns;
• Contingency, unforeseen, or miscellaneous costs or fees;
• Costs of work performed prior to announcement of the award unless allowable per 2 CFR 200.458 and approved by the Grants Officer;
• International travel, except in cases where travel is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project;
• Travel or study outside the host country for professional development;
• Individual projects costing less than US $10,000 or more than $200,000;
• Independent U.S. projects overseas.

How to Apply

Applicants can download the application form via given website.

Eligible Countries: Kyrgyz Republic, United States.

For more information, please visit https://kg.usembassy.gov/education-culture/cultural-programs/afcp/