Rigorous Evaluation of Community- and Societal-Level Primary Prevention Approaches to Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Expanding the Best Available Evidence

Overview:

Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are preventable, potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0–17 years). Examples of ACEs include neglect, experiencing or witnessing violence, or having a family member attempt or die by suicide. ACEs also include aspects of a child’s environment that can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding, such as living in a household where a parent or caregiver is negatively affected by substance use or an ongoing serious mental health condition, or when a child experiences instability due to prolonged separation from a parent or caregiver.

The purpose of this research announcement is to support investigator-initiated research to rigorously evaluate policies or programs for the primary prevention of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). In alignment with NCIPC’s ACEs Research Priorities, projects are expected to evaluate primary prevention approaches at the community- or societal-level that address the social or structural conditions that place some populations at greater risk for ACEs. Research conducted with these funds will rigorously evaluate existing primary prevention approaches (i.e., policies or programs that are already developed and implemented or have been shown to be ready for implementation in the community or population of interest) that have not yet undergone rigorous evaluation and are not currently undergoing rigorous evaluation for prevention of ACEs. 

Research funded under this announcement is intended to expand the evidence base for ACEs prevention in one or more of the following strategy areas identified in the CDC’s ACEs Prevention Resource for Action.

Purpose of Program
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is soliciting investigator-initiated research that will help expand and advance our understanding about what works to prevent ACEs. In alignment with NCIPC’s ACEs Research Priorities, this initiative is intended to support the evaluation of existing community- or societal-level primary prevention policies or programs that address social and health inequities that place some populations at greater risk for ACEs. 

There are three specific research objectives for this NOFO: 

1. Research Objective 1: Effectiveness research to evaluate existing primary prevention approaches that address societal- or community-level conditions and ensure a strong start for children.
2. Research Objective 2: Effectiveness research to evaluate existing primary prevention approaches that address societal- or community-level conditions and promote social norms and narratives that protect against violence and adversity.
3. 
   Research Objective 3: Effectiveness research to evaluate existing primary prevention approaches that address societal- or community-level conditions and strengthen economic supports to families.
4. 
   Applicants must clearly indicate which of these objectives the research proposal intends to address. Applicants must demonstrate that the selected approach is currently being implemented or ready for implementation in the community or population of interest (e.g., through formative research evidence, pilot data, or community letters of support) and is ready for rigorous evaluation. 
5. 
   Applicants must propose rigorous evaluation designs, which for the purposes of this funding opportunity can include those that utilize experimental designs (i.e., randomized controlled trials) or quasi-experimental designs (e.g., comparative interrupted time series design with multiple time points). 
6. 
   Applicants are required to address the prevention of at least one form of child abuse and/or neglect (CAN) and at least one additional ACE (additional details in Approach section). Applicants are strongly encouraged to evaluate impacts of the selected approach on several ACEs. 

All applicants are required to address how the selected approach will address the social or structural conditions that put some populations at greater risk for ACEs and to empirically examine the health equity implications of their selected approach.

Performance Period: The period of performance for this award is expected to run from 9/30/2025 to 9/29/2028.

Budget and Period of Performance: The maximum award amount will be $450,000 per award for the first 12-month budget period. This includes both direct and indirect costs. An applicant may request a period performance of up to three years. The maximum total project funding amount is $1,350,000 (including both direct and indirect costs) over the expected period of performance length, with a maximum of $450,000 per award per year. 

Key Dates 
Letter of Intent Due Date: 11/01/2024 While a letter of intent is not mandatory, nor is it binding or a factor in the review of an application, the details it provides help NCIPC staff to plan for the scientific and technical merit peer review process. 
Application Due Date: 12/02/2024

Solicitation limitations:

You may not apply for both funding levels simultaneously.
You may submit multiple applications for separate and distinct projects under this notice.
Recipients of open Humanities Connections awards may apply.

An application may name more than one PD/PI; their names must appear on the face page of the application. However:

• One (1) principal investigator must be designated as the contact PD/PI for all correspondence related to the application.
• All PD/PIs must include their eRA Commons Identification in the Credential Field of the Senior/Key Person Profile Component of the SF-424 (R&R) Application Package.
• Institutions/organizations proposing multiple PDs/PIs must visit the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator Policy and submission details in the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Component of the SF-424 (R&R) Application Guide.

Science and Technology Studies

Overview:

Science and Technology Studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the conceptual foundations, historical developments and social contexts of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), including medical science. The STS program supports proposals across a broad spectrum of research that uses historical, philosophical and social scientific methods to investigate STEM theory and practice. STS research may be empirical or conceptual; specifically, it may focus on the intellectual, material or social facets of STEM including interdisciplinary studies of ethics, equity, governance and policy issues.

STS research encompasses a wide range of methods and disciplines. Some researchers rely on primary data collected during fieldwork or on existing sources of secondary data. Others use data from historical or governmental archives, while others develop conceptual or social analyses to answer theoretical or ethical questions. STS researchers draw on the resources and methods of a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, communication studies, economics, history, philosophy, political science, psychology and sociology. They come from an even broader range of fields, in addition to those already mentioned, including the natural and physical sciences, engineering, liberal arts and humanities. The range of STS research is reflected by the primary STS professional societies, including the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), the History of Science Society (HSS), the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA), the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM), the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH), the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP) and the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB). 

STS research seeks to understand how scientific knowledge is produced and sanctioned, and how it is challenged and changes. It examines the theoretical foundations of science, brings to light underlying presuppositions and alternative interpretations, and assesses the reliability of research methods. It investigates how materials, devices and techniques are designed and developed; how and by whom they are diffused, used, adapted and rejected; how they are affected by social and cultural environments; and how they influence quality of life, culture and society. It also considers how socio-cultural values are embedded in science and technology, and how issues of governance and equity evolve with the development and use of scientific knowledge and technological artifacts. In addition, it explores relationships between STEM and fundamental social categories including race and gender, poverty and development, trust and credibility, participation and democracy, health and pathology, risk and uncertainty, globalization and environmental concerns. 

Traditional STS Focus Areas 

The program encourages research that furthers STS as a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field, including, but by no means limited to the following: 

1. Research on the social organization of scientific work and how this shapes the production of knowledge and its intellectual and social impacts. 
2. Research on the historical, conceptual and methodological foundations of any of the natural, social or engineering sciences including their foundations, origins or place in modern society. 
3. Mixed methods approaches and other approaches that integrate multiple STS perspectives with each other or with innovative approaches from the arts or humanities. 
4. Interdisciplinary projects on topics of broad societal concern that engage in integrative, collaborative research involving at least one STS expert and at least one expert in some other STEM field, with prospective outcomes that serve to advance both fields. 
5. STS projects that contribute to NSF's research-focused Big Ideas, or that contribute to other pertinent initiatives such as Ethical and Responsible Research (ER2), Science of Broadening Participation and ADVANCE.

New Areas of Emphasis for STS 
The STS program strongly encourages research that addresses complex socio-technical and techno-scientific problems from multiple perspectives that capture the different social facets of the problem. These social facets may include ethics, policy, governance, justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, race, gender, trust, reliability, risk and uncertainty, sustainability, user-centeredness, and globalization. The goal is to bring different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives to the problem and thereby make use of a variety of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. Some examples of questions that address such problems may include, but are by no means limited to, the following: 

1. How can emerging technologies such as machine learning systems, gene drives or quantum computers be developed and implemented so that they can benefit everyone? How are people interacting with these emerging technologies and how will they affect culture, society and norms?  
2. What are the best approaches for maintaining and developing the built environment while respecting the natural environment as well as local cultures and values? What factors need to be considered to ensure that technologies work well within social and cultural contexts?  
3. How can major technological shifts in energy, algorithm usage, transportation or communication be accomplished in ways that are transparent and consistent with societal values, engage diverse perspectives in all phases of development and benefit broad sectors of society? 
4. How can justice, equity, inclusion and diversity (JEDI) impact STEM and change the practice and quality of STEM research?

2024 Important Information And Revision Notes

Revision Summary

1. The STS program description has been streamlined and clarified considerably and it now includes guidelines for developing an effective STS proposal.
2. The STS program encourages research on complex socio-technical and techno-scientific problems that are best confronted using a distributed approach by multiple collaborative teams.
3. The STS program has updated the funding caps for most types of grants that are supported by the program.
4. One grant type, the Professional Development Grant, is no longer supported.
5. Subfields of STS are now specified as those recognized by the primary STS professional societies, and these societies are listed in the solicitation.
6. A new section has been added on "Guidelines for Developing Effective STS Proposals."

Award information: Approximately $6,200,000 were made available in FY 2023 to support an estimated 40 awards

Estimated number of awards: 40

STANDARD RESEARCH GRANTS and GRANTS FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH 

Due to budgetary constraints, the Requested Amount will rarely exceed $750,000 including indirect costs. The duration is typically two to three years. Proposals exceeding the suggested time frame or budget must have extraordinary justification and merit for eclipsing the requested guidelines.

SCHOLARS AWARDS

Due to budgetary constraints, the requested amount will rarely exceed $350,000. The duration is usually one year. Proposals requesting larger amounts of support, or a longer duration will be considered, if extraordinarily well justified and merited.

RESEARCH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

Due to budgetary constraints, the Requested Amount will rarely exceed $300,000.

CONFERENCE GRANTS

The requested amount for conferences and workshops is expected to be under $50,000.

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH IMPROVEMENT GRANTS (DDRIGs)

Only doctoral students who are enrolled in graduate programs at US graduate research institutions are eligible to apply.
Due to budgetary limitations, the requested amount for DDRIG proposals should not exceed $25,000

Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12)

Overview:

Program Characteristics and Priorities
Situated at the intersection of fundamental and applied research and development, the DRK-12 program supports research projects that seek to transform and strengthen formal preK-12 STEM education through innovative approaches, tools, and practices. Studies at the intersection of fundamental and applied research will address both generalizable scientific knowledge and applied classroom strategies (Stokes, 1997). As a research program, DRK-12 aims to support continuous accumulation of knowledge about STEM teaching and learning, in particular knowledge that is relevant to, or is instrumental for, practical innovations. 

Innovations can include but are not limited to teacher preparation and professional development programs, potentially transformative teaching practices, curriculum development, development and testing of formative or summative assessment systems, instructional technologies, models of collaborative partnerships between teachers and researchers, and combinations of approaches that improve STEM learning and learning environments for students and their teachers, and provide the foundation to generalize to other contexts. Proposals are encouraged to adapt ideas, concepts, theories, practices and test them across contexts and populations. Proposals can address any STEM subject matter; interdisciplinary proposals that focus on two or more STEM domains are welcomed. The DRK-12 program invests in projects with potential to immediately address longstanding challenges, inequities, and opportunities in formal education. It also invests in proposals that anticipate and provide the foundation for preK-12 STEM education as it could be in future decades. 

Given the importance of early learning in students' STEM trajectories, the program is particularly interested in supporting research and innovations that promote high-quality and innovative STEM education in the preschool years and early elementary grades. Proposals that focus on this developmental span are encouraged to draw from knowledge and practice of teaching and learning in out-of-school and informal settings, such as families and community organizations, to enhance preK-12 formal education. DRK-12 proposals must have clear implications for and ties to learning in formal K-12 settings. Proposals situated solely in informal contexts will be returned without review. Proposals situated in informal contexts should be submitted to the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program. 

Finally, the program welcomes proposals that connect prekindergarten (PreK) through grade 12 formal education to STEM workforce development. Proposers choosing to focus on workforce development should note the following differences between the Teaching and Learning strands. Proposals submitted to the Teaching Strand that choose to focus on workforce development aspects such as teacher preparation, learning, and continuing education should align their aims and content to professional teaching and curricular standards. Proposals submitted to the Learning Strand that focus on workforce development should demonstrate

DRK-12 Program Strands 

DRK-12 proposals must be submitted to one of the program's two strands: Learning or Teaching. The program recognizes that there is overlap and interdependence among the two strands; however, each proposal should have a clear, foregrounded focus on only one strand. (See full funding announcement for details.)

DRK-12 Research Project Types (See full funding announcement for details.)

1. Exploratory
2. Design and Development
3. Impact Studies
4. Implementation and Improvement Studies
5. Measurement and Assessment
6. Syntheses

Other DRK-12 Project Types (See full funding announcement for details.)

1. NEW: Partnership Development
2. Workshops & Conferences

Funding level ranges for research projects are as follows:

Level I = requests up to $450,000 with a duration of up to three years;

Level II = up to $3,000,000 with a duration of up to four years; and

Level III = up to $5,000,000 with a duration of up to five years.

U.S. Mission Sweden PDS Annual Program Statement

Overview:

The Embassy encourages the submission of unique and creative proposals from a wide variety of sources. All programs must include a link to the United States and/or an element that builds understanding of the United States including, but not limited to U.S. policy, people, culture and/or perspectives. Programs must be focused on Swedish or regional audiences/participants.

Goals and Objectives
Embassy Stockholm’s public diplomacy programs are directly tied to our Mission goals and support our joint efforts to address today’s most pressing challenges. 

This year, PD Sweden identified four main campaigns of focus: 

•    SECURITY: Programs that support or promote regional issues such as, but not limited to: regional security, cybersecurity, combatting trans-national crime, combating violent extremism, responding to global health crises, combatting malign influence and/or disinformation, multilateral cooperation, enhancing stability in the region, and a rules-based order.

•    SUSTAINABILITY: Programs that support or promote sustainable economic ties and regional environmental issues such as, but not limited to: climate change mitigation, food security, biodiversity sustainability, blue/green technology, youth engagement, entrepreneurship and innovation, and cooperation on Arctic issues, including engaging indigenous communities.

•    PROSPERITY: Programs that support shared prosperity including but not limited to: promoting tech innovation, expanding research partnerships, business/research security, building entrepreneurship, supporting open and fair trade, and promoting deepening economic ties between the United States and Sweden and/or the region.

•    UNDERSTANDING: Programs that deepen connections between the United States and Swedish communities such as, but not limited to: expanding understanding of U.S. policies, culture, and values to Swedish and regional audiences, supporting or promoting cross-cultural ties, and education and exchange opportunities. Also programs that promote our diversity and our shared commitment to inclusion and integration such as, but not limited to: supporting underrepresented communities; promoting human rights; promoting mutual understanding across communities; supporting shared democratic values; and combatting mis- and disinformation.

Evaluation Criteria
•    Preference will be given to institutions and individuals with a proven track record of executing superior events, workshops, and programs.
•    Applications should have a U.S. component and be directed at Swedish and/or regional audiences/participants.
•    Projects which incorporate one of our priority areas are often considered stronger
Examples of PDS Grants Program projects include, but are not limited to:
•    Academic and professional lectures, seminars, and speaker programs;
•    Skill building training programs;
•    Artistic and cultural workshops, joint performances, and exhibitions; or
•    Professional and academic exchanges and projects.
The Embassy encourages the submission of unique and creative proposals from a wide variety of sources.  
 

Funding Instrument Type:  Grants, Grants to individual, Fixed amount awards (FAA), or cooperative agreements.

Cost Sharing or Matching: Cost sharing is not required although encouraged.

Program Performance Period: Proposed projects should be completed in 2 years or less. 

Multiple requests from the same applicant will be considered. Applicants should be aware that the total amount granted to any one organization will be considered when additional applications are considered.

The Department of State will entertain applications for continuation grants funded under these awards beyond the initial budget period on a non-competitive basis subject to availability of funds, satisfactory progress of the program, and a determination that continued funding would be in the best interest of the U.S. Department of State.

Climate Change and Human Health Seed Grants

Overview:

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund aims to stimulate the growth of new connections between thinkers working in largely disconnected fields who might together change the course of climate change’s impact on human health. In the three years between Fall 2023 and Summer 2026, we will dedicate $1M to supporting small, early stage grants of $2,500–$50,000 toward achieving this goal.

We are mainly but not exclusively interested in activities that build connections between basic/early biomedical scientific approaches and ecological, environmental, geological, geographic, and planetary-scale thinking, as well as with population-focused fields, including epidemiology and public health, demography, economics, and urban planning. Also of interest is work piloting new approaches or interactions toward reducing the impact of health-centered activities, such as developing more sustainable systems for health care, care delivery, and biomedical research systems.

Another area of interest is preparation for the impacts of extreme weather and other crises that can drive large-scale disruptions that will immediately impact human health and the delivery of health care. Public outreach, climate communication, and education efforts focused on the intersection of climate and health are also appropriate for this call. This program supports work conceived through many kinds of creative thinking. Successful applicants include academic scientists, physicians, and public health experts, community organizations, science outreach centers, non-biomedical academic departments, and more.

Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis through July 2026. A review will be conducted quarterly. Deadline dates for the upcoming year are: 
Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis through July 2026. A review will be conducted quarterly. Deadline dates for the upcoming year are:
•    January 23, 2025
•    April 24, 2025
•    July 24, 2025

Solicitation limitations:

Applicant organizations may submit multiple proposals, but an individual may only serve as a principal investigator/project director on one application during each review period. 

Early Childhood Welfare, Early Childhood Education and Play, and Parenting Education

Overview:

The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood is an incubator of promising research and development projects that appear likely to improve the welfare of young children, from infancy through 7 years, in the United States.

Welfare is broadly defined to support, acculturation, societal integration and childcare. Grants are only made if a successful project outcome will likely be of significant interest to other professionals, within the grantee’s field of endeavor, and would have a direct benefit and potential national application.

The Foundation’s goal is to provide seed money to implement those imaginative proposals that exhibit the greatest chance of improving the lives of young children, on a national scale. Because of the Foundation’s limited funding capability, it seeks to maximize a grant's potential impact.

The Foundation provides funding in the following areas:
Early Childhood Welfare - Providing a safe and nurturing environment is essential as is imparting the skills of social living in a culturally diverse world. Therefore, the Foundation supports projects that seek to perfect child rearing practices and to identify models that can provide creative, caring environments in which all young children thrive.

Early Childhood Education and Play - We seek to improve the quality of both early childhood teaching and learning, through the development of innovative curricula and research based pedagogical standards, as well as the design of imaginative play materials and learning environments.

Parenting Education - To help parents create nurturing environments for their children, we support programs that teach parents about developmental psychology, cultural child rearing differences, pedagogy, issues of health, prenatal care and diet, as well as programs which provide both cognitive and emotional support to parents.

There are many proposals that we do not consider because they do not meet the criteria stated in our website. We strive to fund ideas that are adventurous, thoughtful and challenge the status quo. They should have a fresh concept (not rehash an older idea) and a defined method of implementation that promotes new approaches and understanding of early childhood and pushes the boundaries of academic, social and cultural studies and practices.

Prior awards have ranged between $25,000 and $100,000

The Foundation employs a two-step grant application process that includes the submission of both a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) and a Full Proposal–the latter only by those applicants requested to do so. This ensures that consideration of Full Proposals is limited to those applications that strictly comply with the Foundation’s programmatic guidelines.

Once a Letter of Inquiry is received by the Foundation, the Directors will determine if the proposed program fits the Foundation’s funding guidelines. Successful applicants will be invited via email to submit Full Proposals.

Glenn W. Bailey Foundation: STEM Initiative (LOI)

Overview:

The Mission of the Glenn W. Bailey Foundation is to foster pathways to success in globally competitive STEM careers for students in the United States. We support educational opportunities ranging in age from children through post-doctoral candidates and beyond to promote STEM learning and initiatives that seek to increase awareness and success in STEM careers in the United States. 

Our programs were designed with you, the grantee, in mind. We want to provide the simplest and most direct route to obtain seed and continuation funding for organizations seeking programmatic funding pertaining to STEM education at all levels. 

STEM Sprouts: An Early Education STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program designed to introduce young children, typically between the ages of 3 and 10, to the foundational concepts and skills within these four fields. Our program aims to foster curiosity, critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and a love for learning in children from a very early age. 

STEM Stars: Middle and High School Advanced STEM program funding. Programming can take place before, during, or after school. We want to encourage programs that are successfully preparing interested students who wish to be fully prepared for their intended college STEM major by exposing them to advanced topics in science, engineering, computer science, and more. 

Teen Tech Competition: As a Foundation, we are interested in supporting large STEM-related organizations that are interested in creating or continuing a tech competition for local youth. Organizations would be required to operate under certain (but flexible) parameters and are encouraged to let the participating students lead the way in building out the actual competition’s layout. We believe in the power of collaboration and competition and want to empower our future doctors, developers, and scientists to forge their own paths.

Glenn W. Bailey Research Fellowship: Research Fellowship Grants for Doctoral Candidates and Post-Doctoral Researchers

The STEM Scholars Program was created to promote and encourage colleges and universities to create or expand STEM programs. The program outline was created to give a wide range of funding options. Organizations can meet as little as one criteria if they are able to show a unique aptitude in the development and proven outcomes of the program for which they are requesting funding.

Award Information: The Grant awards for the STEM Scholars program are capped at either $25,000 or $50,000 per grant.

The Foundation considers requests on a monthly, rolling basis. Requests should be feasible, cost-effective, and central to the organization’s mission. There are no deadlines for submitting letters of inquiry or grant applications. 
The Letter of Inquiry should be used to share an idea for any project or program that 1) falls outside of the scopes of our programs and/or 2) requires funding above the $25,000 funding cap of our Foundation's named programs.
 

Research Grants on Education: Small

Overview:

The Small Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. Eligible investigators may also request additional supplemental funds for a course release. We accept applications three times per year.

This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method. Our goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. We seek to support scholarship that develops new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse.

We recognize that learning occurs across the life course as well as across settings— from the classroom to the workplace, to family and community contexts and even onto the playing field—any of which may, in the right circumstance, provide the basis for rewarding study that makes significant contributions to the field. We value work that fosters creative and open-minded scholarship, engages in deep inquiry, and examines robust questions related to education. To this end, this program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their career. We anticipate that proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that innovatively investigate questions central to education, including for example education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, or neuroscience, amongst others.

Moreover, we expect and welcome methodological diversity in answering pressing questions; thus, we are open to projects that utilize a wide array of research methods including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, ethnographies, design-based research, participatory methods, and historical research, to name a few. We are open to projects that might incorporate data from multiple and varied sources, span a sufficient length of time as to achieve a depth of understanding, or work closely with practitioners or community members over the life of the project.

Proposed budgets for this program are limited to $50,000 total and may not include indirect cost charges per Spencer’s policy. Eligible investigators may also request additional supplemental funds for a course release.

Solicitation limitations:

PIs and Co-PIs may only hold one active research grant from the Spencer Foundation at a time. (This restriction does not apply to the administering organization; organizations may submit as many proposals as they like as long as they are for different projects and have different research teams.

The Conrnerstone: Learning for Living

Overview:

The Cornerstone: Learning for Living initiative is inspired by a successful program model developed at Purdue University, which has a two-semester “Transformative Texts” sequence in their first year under the mentorship of tenure-track faculty.

Aims:
1.Reinvigorate the role of the humanities in general education, and in doing so, expose a broad array of students to the power of the humanities; 
2. Help students of all backgrounds build a sense of belonging and community; strengthen the coherence and cohesiveness of general education; 
3. Increase teaching opportunities for humanities faculty.

This initiative is dedicated to the proposition that transformative texts—regardless of authorship, geography, or the era that produced them—perform a democratizing function in giving students the analytical tools and historical awareness to interrogate themselves as well as the culture and society by which we are all partially formed.

Two curricular components of the Cornerstone program model are especially notable. 
1. Gateway courses aimed at incoming students that are anchored in a common set of transformative texts help build intellectual community among students as well as faculty through a common learning and teaching experience.

2. Thematically organized clusters of courses that bring humanistic inquiry to problems in business, health, engineering, and other technical fields help students appreciate that technical problems cannot be addressed exclusively through technical solutions.

Criteria
•    A faculty-led and faculty-owned initiative
•    A common intellectual experience anchored in transformative texts for incoming students
•    Coherent pathways through general education
•    Student reach, particularly for STEM and other pre-professional majors
•    Sustainability
•    Assessment
•    Dissemination

Requests for grant support will be considered following a two-stage application process. First, we ask that prospective grantees share brief concept papers, whether they are interested in planning or implementation support. After review of the concept papers, a limited number of applicants will then be invited to submit full proposals. 

All concept papers should list two co-PIs who are tenured or tenure-track faculty and include a provisional list of faculty members who are interested in teaching with transformative texts. (Institutions that do not have traditional tenure should name faculty who have renewable multi-year appointments.) There is no need to include a budget at the concept paper stage.

Application Process: Concept papers for planning and implementation awards must be submitted by December 1, 2024 to proposals@teagle.org. Applicants will receive status notifications by February 2025. Applicants who are invited to submit proposals will be expected to finalize their applications by early April 2025. Work supported by the grant may begin as early as summer 2025.

The concept paper should provide a sketch of the project, with an eye towards meeting the criteria discussed above for faculty-led curricular reform and longer-term sustainability. 

Award Information: Implementation grants of varying amounts, up to $300,000 over 24 months, will be made to each funded project participating in this initiative. The size of the implementation grant award will be based on the scope of the project. Implementation grants provide support for institutions to enact concrete plans for comprehensive and sustainable curriculum development or redesign efforts.
Planning grants up to $25,000 over 6-12 months. Planning grants may be used to cover such expenses as compensation for faculty members on the planning team and travel to annual faculty professional development institutes and other similar professional development opportunities.

Contact Information: Please contact Loni Bordoloi Pazich, program director for institutional initiatives at the Teagle Foundation, at bordoloi@teagle.org with questions about the Cornerstone: Learning for Living initiative.

Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Overview:

The goals of the HSI program are to enhance the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and to increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associates or baccalaureate degrees in STEM. Achieving these, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires additional strategies that support building capacity at HSIs through innovative approaches: to incentivize institutional and community transformation; and to promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Intended outcomes of the HSI Program include broadening participation of students that are historically underrepresented in STEM and expanding students' pathways to continued STEM education and integration into the STEM workforce.

The HSI program accepts proposals in the following tracks: 
(NOTE: This solicitation is for Track 1: Planning or Pilot Projects (PPP) and Track 2: Implementation and Evaluation Projects (IEP) only. Not accepting Track 3 (ITP) on this round.)

Track 1: The Planning or Pilot Projects (PPP) track provides a funding opportunity for institutions that are new to NSF5 or are Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs6), including community colleges. The PPP has been designed to link with the other two tracks. The PPP track seeks to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at less-resourced institutions and to increase these institutions' ability to compete for NSF funding from other programs.

Planning projects in this track undertake the activities necessary to develop a future HSI program Track 2 or Track 3 proposal submission. Pilot projects in this track may be carried out to achieve a short-term, well-defined goal to enhance the availability of high-quality undergraduate STEM education at the HSI and gather preliminary data for future HSI program Track 2 or Track 3 proposals. Importantly, Pilot projects may also develop fundamental STEM education research capacity on student learning at HSIs, discovering effective means for diversifying and increasing participation in STEM. All PPP projects must include project evaluation and dissemination components.

Track 2: The Implementation and Evaluation Projects (IEP) track supports the implementation of evidence-based unit-, department-, or multi-department-level activities that will enhance the quality of undergraduate STEM education. All HSI institution types are encouraged to apply, especially PUIs (including community colleges). These projects may design and implement a new educational practice or practices, and/or adapt/replicate evidence-based practices that are already known to be effective.

IEP may conduct research that promotes one or more of the HSI program goals, including research on indicators of effective and successful undergraduate STEM education at HSIs. These projects must include both project evaluation and dissemination components, as well as an education research component. The IEP strategies are expected to be institutionalized and sustainable.

In addition to the core research of the proposed project, all tracks may support faculty research that is inter-, multi-, or transdisciplinary, discipline-specific research, STEM education research, discipline-based STEM education research, or broadening participation research. Research may be based at their home institution, an NSF-funded research center, another institution of higher education, and/or a national laboratory. Fundamental research is particularly encouraged on engaged student learning at HSIs, and on effectively diversifying and increasing participation in STEM at HSIs. Research-related funds may be requested for undergraduate student research, supplies, equipment required to carry out the research, and faculty research development activities.

Proposed faculty research outside of the core research of the proposed project should support the overarching goals of the HSI program which seek to improve and enhance undergraduate STEM education, including undergraduate student research experiences. Proposed research should also explain how it will catalyze new faculty research activity in addition to supporting ongoing faculty research activities as well as support opportunities to advance diverse students in STEM.

All projects must generate new knowledge through project evaluation activities and articulate a plan for dissemination of findings. Track 2 (IEP) and Track 3 (ITP) proposals must additionally generate new knowledge about how to improve access to and/or the quality of STEM education through a well-constructed STEM education research plan that is aligned with the project's goals. Additionally, under a specified heading, proposals must provide institutional data with a narrative explaining the institution's need for the project and its ability to enhance the quality of undergraduate STEM education.

Estimated Number of Awards: 30 to 60

The program estimates making:
20 - 40 Planning or Pilot Project awards,
    $200,000 - single institution
    $300,000 - collaborative
    Plus $100,000 incentive to partner with one or more community colleges
    For up to three-year-long projects
Up to 15 Implementation and Evaluation Project awards, and
    $500,000 - single institution
    $800,000 - collaborative
    Plus $200,000 incentive to partner with one or more community colleges
    For three- to five-year-long projects

NOFO Updates:

• Faculty Research Plans are no longer required as supplemental documents. However, faculty research outside of the core research of the project is still a supported activity in this program.
• The Institutional Data Narrative is required and must be included as part of the Project Description with its own heading. It may not be submitted as a supplemental document.
• Letters of Collaboration or Commitment are not required for Track 1 and Track 2 proposals, but they are strongly encouraged.

Solicitation limitations:

PPP track proposals will only be accepted from institutions new to NSF or Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) including community colleges. For PUI certification, a representative of the institution submitting as a PUI proposal must sign a Certification of PUI Eligibility (see Section V below for the required template) to be included in the Supplementary Documentation section of the proposal.

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: An individual may be listed as PI on only one proposal and Co-PI on at most two proposals per submission period.