The U.S. National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. NSF was established in 1950 by Congress to promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare, and secure the national defense.
The grant program, a collaboration between NSF and NEH, focuses on projects that contribute to the development of knowledge regarding dynamic language infrastructure in the context of endangered languages. The program is driven by the critical situation of approximately half of the world's 7000 languages being at risk of extinction. The grant aims to leverage advancements in information technology to support endangered language research, focusing on data management, archiving, and the cultivation of the next generation of researchers in this field. Projects eligible for funding include fieldwork, digital recording, documentation, analysis, and the archiving of endangered language data, as well as the preparation of essential language resources like lexicons and grammars. Grant forms include senior research grants for one to three years, fellowships ranging from six to twelve months, and conference proposals, with the advice that conference proposals should be submitted a year in advance.