Applications are evaluated according to the criteria detailed under Project Design. The questions that applicants should particularly keep in mind when putting together their proposals are

• Does the project uphold the highest standards of contemporary scholarship?
• Is the project truly based upon teamwork and collaboration?
• Does the project envisage an innovative output that either combines traditional outputs with new ones or devises new outputs altogether?

Reasons that past applications have been rejected include the following:

• The project was not truly grounded in the humanities.
• The project was unclear about the intended output, had no clear output in sight, or did not adequately consider how to achieve its aims.
• Student researchers were not envisaged as full-fledged academic team members but errand-runners, data-entry workers, etc.
• The proposed research team was ill-adapted to the project goals.
• There was no room for undergraduates on the team.
• The project goals did not carry humanistic thought forward but merely replicated past research.
• The applicants were unaware of research already done on the subject.
• The proposal did not communicate effectively the ways that it meets SHL criteria.