About

The U.S. Embassy in Amman, with the Cultural Heritage Center in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State, is pleased to announce the start of the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) Grants Program (Round 1). 

The AFCP Grants Program supports the preservation of archaeological sites, historic buildings and monuments, museum collections, and forms of traditional cultural expression, such as indigenous languages and crafts.  AFCP projects strengthen civil society, encourage good governance, and promote political and economic stability around the world.  

Funding Priorities

• The most successful AFCP projects have been designed as part of a greater PD programming arc promoting specific U.S. policy goals and host-country or community goals.  Accordingly, in Fiscal Year 2024, ECA will prioritize projects that do one or more of the following:

  • Directly support U.S. treaty or bilateral agreement obligations.

  • Directly support U.S. policies, strategies, and objectives as stated in the National Security Strategy, Integrated Country Strategy, or other U.S. government planning documents.

  • Support risk reduction and resilience for cultural heritage in disaster-prone or politically and economically unstable areas, or post-disaster cultural heritage recovery.

  • Complement other ECA or public diplomacy programs.

• Are conducted in an eligible country that has not previously received an AFCP award.

Funding Information

• Floor on Amount of Individual Awards:  US $10,000 per project

• Ceiling on Amount of Individual Awards: US $500,000 per project

• Length of Performance Period: 12 to 60 months

Activities

• Appropriate project activities may include:

  • Anastylosis (reassembling a site from its original parts)

  • Conservation (addressing damage or deterioration to an object or site)

  • Consolidation (connecting or reconnecting elements of an object or site)

  • Documentation (recording in analog or digital format the condition and salient features of an object, site, or tradition)

  • Inventory (listing of objects, sites, or traditions by location, feature, age, or other unifying characteristic or state)

  • Preventive Conservation (addressing conditions that threaten or damage a site, object, collection, or tradition)

  • Restoration (replacing missing elements to recreate the original appearance of an object or site, usually appropriate only with fine arts, decorative arts and historic buildings)

  • Stabilization (reducing the physical disturbance of an object or site)

Ineligible

• AFCP does not support the following:

  • 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 proposal submission.

  • Preservation of natural heritage (physical, biological and geological formations, paleontological collections, habitats of threatened species of animals and plants, fossils, etc.).

  • Preservation of hominid or human remains.

  • Preservation of news media (newspapers, newsreels, radio and TV programs, etc.)

  • Preservation of published materials available elsewhere (books, periodicals, etc.).

Eligibility

• The following foreign and U.S. organizations are eligible to apply:

  • Foreign Institution of Higher Education; Foreign-based non-profit organizations/nongovernment organizations (NGOs); Foreign Public Entity where permitted; U.S. Non-Profit Organization (IRC section 501 (c) (3)); and U.S. Institution of Higher Education. 

  • The AFCP further defines eligible applicants are reputable and accountable entities that can demonstrate that they have the requisite capacity and permission to manage projects to preserve cultural heritage in the specified country.

Post Date: November 28, 2023