Deadline: 21 November 2019

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)-Cultural Heritage Center through the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines is seeking proposals for the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) 2020 Large Grants Program.

The program provides funding to projects in eligible countries that preserve cultural heritage in line with the U.S. foreign policy objective of protecting and promoting cultural heritage worldwide. Full implementation of the program will be contingent on the availability of FY 2020 funds and an approved congressional spend plan.

Award Information

Funding will be through the grant mechanism. The floor and ceiling amounts are US$200,000 and US$800,000 per project, respectively.

Funding Areas & Priorities

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. It gives top priority to project activities that are appropriate and in keeping with international cultural heritage preservation standards. 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 site);
• Consolidation (connecting or reconnecting elements of a site);
• Anastylosis (reassembling a site from its original parts); and
• Restoration (replacing missing elements to recreate the original appearance of a site, usually appropriate only with fine arts, decorative arts, and historic buildings).

Project Selection Criteria

• Round 1: The Center will screen all project abstracts for technical eligibility based on the objectives, priorities, requirements, ineligible activities, and unallowable costs contained in this funding opportunity. It will forward the technically eligible abstracts to the relevant regional bureaus for comment. The Center may forward project abstracts for advisory peer review to other federal agency personnel with relevant experience. On or around January 10, 2020, the Center will notify embassies of the Round 1 results and invite a subset to submit full applications.
• Round 2: The Center will convene a technical advisory panel of subject matter experts from elsewhere within the U.S. Government to review the applications and provide comment. It will also forward the applications to the relevant regional bureaus for comment. ECA will submit a comprehensive funding recommendation to the Department’s Bureau of Budget and Planning (BP) and request that BP make funds available to the embassies through the Department’s regional bureaus for the recommended AFCP projects.

How to Apply

Applications (i.e., Project Abstract) must be submitted electronically at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit https://ph.usembassy.gov/education-culture/cultural-heritage-preservation/us-afcp-large-grants-program/