Deadline: 26 November 2019

The U.S. Mission in Turkey and the Cultural Heritage Center of the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Department of State has announced the 2020 call for proposals for the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) Competition.

AFCP was established to support countries in preserving their cultural heritage and to demonstrate U.S. respect for other cultures. The Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation Large Grants Program supports large scale, partnership-based projects to preserve significant cultural heritage sites in Turkey.

Special Priorities 

• Support U.S. treaty or bilateral agreement obligations, such as cultural property agreements;
• Support disaster risk reduction for cultural heritage in disaster-prone areas;
• Support post-disaster cultural heritage recovery;
• Preserve World Heritage sites.

Funding Information

• Floor on Amount of Individual Awards: $200,000 per project;
• Ceiling on Amount of Individual Awards: $800,000 per project.

Funding Areas

The AFCP Large Grants Program supports the preservation of major ancient archaeological sites, historic buildings and monuments, and major museum collections that are accessible to the public and protected by law in the host country. Appropriate project activities may include:

• Preventive conservation (addressing conditions that damage or threaten the site);
• Stabilization (reducing the physical disturbance [settling, collapse, etc.] of a site);
• Conservation (addressing damage or deterioration to a collection or sites);
• Consolidation (connecting or reconnecting elements of a site);
• Anastylosis (reassembling a site from its original parts);
• Restoration (replacing missing elements to recreate the original appearance of a site, usually appropriate only with fine arts, decorative arts, and historic buildings).

Eligibility Criteria

• Only reputable and accountable noncommercial entities, such as non-governmental organizations, museums, ministries of culture, or similar institutions and organizations, including U.S.-based organizations subject to Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, that are able to demonstrate that they have the requisite experience and capacity to manage projects to preserve cultural heritage can apply;
• The applicants are also required to have previous large-scale international project experience;
• AFCP does not award grants to individuals, commercial entities, or to embassies or past award recipients who have not fulfilled the objectives or reporting requirements of previous AFCP awards.

Ineligible Activities

AFCP does not support the following activities or costs, and the Center will deem applications involving any of these activities or costs ineligible:

• 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 (books, periodicals, etc.);
• 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 $200,000 or more than $800,000;
• Independent U.S. projects overseas.

How to Apply

• The application form must be filled in word format but attachments can be sent in jpeg and pdf;
• Application form and all the required attachments must be submitted in English in electronic format at the address given on the website.

Eligible Countries: Turkey, United States

For more infromation, please visit https://tr.usembassy.gov/education-culture/grant-opportunities/ambassadors-fund-for-cultural-preservation-afcp-large2020/