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.

Personnel Development To Improve Services and Results for Children With Disabilities-Personnel Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Personnel at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled...

Overview:

The purposes of this program are to (1) help address State-identified needs for personnel preparation in special education, early intervention, related services, and regular education to work with children, including infants, toddlers, and youth with disabilities; and (2) ensure that those personnel have the necessary skills and knowledge, derived from practices that have been determined through scientifically based research, to be successful in serving those children.

This competition includes one absolute priority and two competitive preference priorities.

Absolute Priority: Personnel Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Personnel at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, and Minority Serving Institutions..

The purpose of this priority is to prepare scholars who are fully credentialed to serve children, including infants, toddlers, and youth, with disabilities (children with disabilities). The Department is committed to promoting equity for children with disabilities in accessing educational resources and opportunities. The Department also places a high priority on increasing the number of personnel, including increasing personnel from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds and personnel who are multilingual, who provide services to children with disabilities. Further, the Department seeks to fund applications from new potential grantees that prepare special education, early intervention, and related services leadership personnel. To support these goals, under this absolute priority, the Department will fund projects within Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) that prepare special education, early intervention, and related services personnel at the bachelor’s degree, certification, master’s degree, educational specialist degree, or clinical doctoral degree levels to serve in a variety of settings, including natural environments (the home and community settings in which children with and without disabilities participate), early learning programs, child care, classrooms, and schools.

Competitive Preference Priority 1: Applications from New Potential Grantees

(a) Under this priority, an applicant must demonstrate that the applicant ( e.g., the IHE) has not had an active discretionary grant under the ALN 84.325M, 84.325K, or 84.325R, including through membership in a group application submitted in accordance with 34 CFR 75.127-75.129, in the last five years before the deadline date for submission of applications under ALN 84.325M. 

(b) For the purpose of this priority, a grant is active until the end of the grant's project or funding period, including any extensions of those periods that extend the grantee's authority to obligate funds.

Competitive Preference Priority 2: Promoting Equity in Student Access to Educational Resources and Opportunities

Under this priority, an applicant must demonstrate the project will be implemented by or in partnership with one or both of the following entities:

(a) HBCUs (as defined in this notice).

(b) TCCUs (as defined in this notice).

Estimated Range of Awards: $150,000-$350,000 per year. 
Estimated Average Size of Awards: $250,000 per year. 
Maximum Award: We will not make an award exceeding $1,250,000 per project for a project period of 60 months or an award that exceeds $350,000 for any single budget period.
Estimated Number of Awards: 12. 
Project Period: Up to 60 months.

Solicitation limitations:

Applicants under this priority may not submit the same proposal under Preparation of Early Intervention and Special Education Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs, ALN 84.325K. Applicants may submit substantively different proposals under ALN 84.325M and ALN 84.325K. OSEP will not fund similar personnel preparation projects within the same IHE across ALN 84.325K and ALN 84.325M competitions. 

Eligible applicants may submit only one application under this competition.

DOEd:OSERS:OSEP: Personnel Development To Improve Services and Results for Children With Disabilities—Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Leadership Personnel

Overview:

The purposes of this program are to (1) help address State-identified needs for personnel preparation in special education, early intervention, related services, and regular education to work with children, including infants and toddlers, with disabilities; and (2) ensure that those personnel have the necessary skills and knowledge, derived from practices that have been determined through scientifically based research and experience, to be successful in serving those children.

Priority: This competition includes one absolute priority and, within that absolute priority, two competitive preference priorities. 

• The Absolute priority is: Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Leadership Personnel. The purpose of this priority is to support doctoral degree programs to prepare and increase the number of personnel who are well-qualified for, and can act effectively in, leadership positions as researchers and special education/early intervention/related services personnel preparers in IHEs, or as leaders in SEAs, LAs under Part C of IDEA, LEAs, or EIS programs, including increasing the number of multilingual leadership personnel and leadership personnel from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds at the doctoral level in special education, early intervention, and related services. Proposed projects must be designed to prepare graduates to be well-qualified for, and act effectively in, leadership
  positions as researchers and special education/early intervention/related services personnel preparers in IHEs, or as leaders in SEAs, LAs, LEAs, or EIS programs. Projects must support a program that culminates in a doctoral degree (Ph.D. or Ed.D.)
  
  To be considered for funding under this absolute priority, applicants must meet the application requirements
  contained in the priority. All projects funded under this absolute priority also must meet the programmatic and administrative requirements specified in the priority.
• Competitive Preference Priority 1—Applications from New Potential Grantees (0 or 3 points). 
• Competitive Preference Priority 2—Partnership Applications that Include Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) (0
  or 3 points).

Estimated Average Size of Awards: $1,200,000 for an individual IHE; $2,400,000 for a two-IHE group application; and $3,600,000 for a three- IHE group application.

Note: Eligible applicants include partnerships 1 that are comprised of two or three IHEs with doctoral  programs that prepare scholars 2 and otherwise meet the eligibility requirements. 
Note: Project periods under this priority may be up to 60 months. Projects should be designed to ensure that all proposed scholars successfully complete the program within 60 months from the start of the project. The Secretary may reduce continuation awards for any project in which scholars are not on track to complete the program by the end of that period.

Note: Preparation programs that lead to clinical doctoral degrees in related services (e.g., a Doctor of  audiology degree or Doctor of Physical Therapy degree) are not included in this priority. These types of preparation programs are eligible to apply for funding under the Preparation of Early Intervention and Special Education Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs (84.325K), Preparation of Related Services Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs priority (84.325R), or the Personnel Preparation of Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services Personnel at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, and other Minority Serving Institutions priority (84.325M) that the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) intends to fund in FY 2024.

DOEd: OSERS: Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities--Preparation of Early Intervention and Special Education Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs

Overview:

The Department of Education (Department) is issuing a notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY) 2025 for Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities—Preparation of Early Intervention and Special Education Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs. The purposes of this program are to:
(1) help address State-identified needs for personnel preparation in special education, early intervention, related services, and regular education to work with children, including infants and toddlers, with disabilities; and

(2) ensure that those personnel have the necessary skills and knowledge, derived from practices that have been determined through scientifically based research and experience, to be successful in serving those children. 
This competition includes one absolute priority and one competitive preference priority.
Priorities

•The Absolute Priority for FY25 is: Preparation of Special Education, Preparation of Early Intervention and Special Education Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs. The Department is committed to promoting equity for children with disabilities to access educational resources and opportunities.

The purpose of this priority is to prepare scholars who are fully credentialed to serve children, including infants, toddlers, and youth with disabilities (children with disabilities) who have high-intensity needs. The Department is committed to promoting equity for children with disabilities to access educational resources and opportunities. A priority for the Department is to increase the number of personnel, including increasing the number of multilingual personnel and personnel from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, who provide services to children with disabilities.
 

•    Competitive Preference Priority Is: Applications from New Potential Grantees (0 or 5 points). 
(a) Under this priority, an applicant must demonstrate that the applicant has not had an active discretionary grant under the ALN 84.325K, 84.325M, or 84.325R, including through membership in a group application submitted in accordance in the last five years before the deadline date for submission of applications under this program (ALN 84.325K).
(b) For the purpose of this priority, a grant is active until the end of the grant’s project or funding period, including any extensions of those periods that extend the grantee’s authority to obligate funds.

Applicants may not submit the same proposal under more than one focus area.

Pre-Application Webinar Information: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services will post details on pre-recorded informational webinars designed to provide technical assistance to interested applicants. Link to the webinars and PowerPoint Presentation may be found here: https://www.ed.gov/grants-and-programs/discretionary-grants/grants-special-populations/grants-students-disabilities/personnel-serving-children-with-disabilities-who-have-high-intensity-needs-84-325k#Resources 
 

Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards

Overview:

Our commitment to enriching the research skills and professional growth of young faculty members at ORAU member institutions is embodied in the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards Program. These competitive research awards provide seed money for junior faculty members that often result in additional funding from other sources.

This award can include funds for faculty summer salary, graduate student salary, travel, equipment, or other assistance relevant to the faculty member’s research.

Applicants are encouraged to develop research collaborations with government, private-sector, and other academic researchers. Such alliances enrich and extend not only the reach of your efforts, but the nation’s research enterprise, overall.

This is a one-year grant (June 1 to May 31).

Research must fall within one of these five disciplines:

1. Engineering and Applied Science
2. Life Sciences
3. Mathematics/Computer Sciences
4. Physical Sciences
5. Policy, Management, or Education

Solicitation limitations:

Eligibility for the Powe Awards is open to full-time assistant professors at ORAU member institutions within two years of their tenure track appointment at the time of application.

The applicant’s institution is required to match the award with at least an additional $5,000

ORAU does not allow overhead charges or indirect costs on the ORAU grant award or the university match.

Only two nominations are allowed per institution. The internal application is available on InfoReady.

Global Innovation Fund Grants

Overview:

Evidence is essential to innovation and we are committed to promoting smart, evidence-led investing.

Research plays a central role: as a source of innovative ideas, and as a tool for assessing their impact, cost-effectiveness and scalability. We are very interested in supporting policy reforms that could improve the equity or efficiency of public sector performance. We support investments in public, private and non-profit activities, using all available financial instruments.

GIF construes “innovation” broadly, to include behavioural nudges and organisational innovations as well as hardware and software. Some examples include:
•    The Behavioural Insight Team’s work on improving tax compliance
•    A training system for skills and entrepreneurship developed by Educate!, an Ugandan organisation
•    Segovia’s system for facilitating cash transfers to vulnerable populations
•    Simprint’s rugged biometric identification system
•    Sparkmeter’s technologies to promote access to electricity
•    The role of research and evidence at GIF

Evidence is at the heart of GIF’s staged approach to investment. GIF takes well-informed risks in pursuit of high social benefits. To do so, we embed learning into each investment. We want to know things like: does this innovation improve poor people’s well-being? How? Under what conditions? By how much? Does it promote gender equality? Is it cost-effective? How sensitive is demand to income and price? The answers will guide decisions by GIF and others on whether and how to scale up the innovations.
Criteria for funding:
Innovation: Research should promote real world implementation of an innovative approach to an important development challenge. Innovations are things that make it easier, faster, less costly, or otherwise more feasible to achieve a development result than current practice. This includes testing to see if a result demonstrated in one context applies in others.

Potential impact: GIF is looking for innovations that make a big difference. These are innovations that, if scaled up or replicated, could make a substantial difference to millions of lives, or perhaps a transformative difference to hundreds of thousands. Target innovations have social benefits that far outweigh social costs.
Poverty focus: Target innovations are those that can improve the lives of those living at $5/day, and especially those subsisting on less than $2/day. This criterion is applied at the level of the beneficiary. So while GIF works mostly in low-income countries or provinces, it could consider, for instance, innovations that help impoverished slum-dwellers in a middle-income country.

Potential for and pathway to scale: GIF wants to support ideas that scale up. There are many potential paths to scale, including:
•    Organic growth of a for-profit or non-profit organization
•    Demonstration of an innovation that gets taken up by the public sector, e.g. in health or education delivery
•    Creation of an open-source innovation that is spontaneously emulated

Researchers are not necessarily expected to be the agents who scale up an innovation. However, research questions should be framed so that the answers inform decisions about whether and how to scale up the innovation. At the pilot stage, applicants should be able to specify one or more potential pathways to scale, but GIF recognises that there may be considerable uncertainty at this stage. At the Test & Transition stage, GIF expects applicants to specify potential pathways to scale, and more favourably views applicants with progress towards securing support from partners for scaling the innovation, should it test successfully.

The quality of the team is an important criterion for selection. Teams should be able to demonstrate strong knowledge of the problems they are addressing and an understanding of the setting in which the innovation will be tested. GIF encourages applications from women and from researchers and organizations based in developing countries.

Measuring success and sharing lessons learned. GIF is interested in assessing the causal impact of innovations on outcomes closely related to people’s well-being. GIF is also keenly interested in cost-effectiveness. GIF looks for a commitment to share results and lessons. While GIF’s research goal is improving people’s lives, not publication for its own sake, GIF encourages publication of results in academic journals where appropriate.

Solicitation limitations:

Funding  Amount: up to $15,000,000.00. 

There are several ways for researchers to get involved:
•    If you have an innovative idea that you’d like to test for proof of concept, you can apply for a pilot grant (up to $230,000). If you’re past the pilot stage and ready to rigorously test impact and cost-effectiveness, you can apply for a test and transition grant (up to $2.3 million)
•    If you are interested in evaluating an innovation being implemented by a government, business, or NGO, team up with them and apply for funding. The application could come either from the implementer or the researcher. For innovations that already have good supporting evidence and want to generate further learning as they expand and evolve, total funding can go up to $15 million

•    If you’ve already evaluated an innovation and found it to be promising, let us know about it, and encourage the innovator to apply to GIF for scale-up
•    GIF is also eager to hear from researchers with innovative approaches to reducing the cost and improving the utility of monitoring and evaluation, including promotion of feedback for adaptive implementation of projects

Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EDU)

Overview:

The IUSE: EDU program supports projects designed to contribute to a future in which all undergraduate students are fully engaged in their STEM learning. The IUSE: EDU program promotes (1) Engaged Student Learning: the development, testing, and use of teaching practices and curricular innovations that will engage students and improve learning, persistence, and retention in STEM, and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation: the transformation of colleges and universities to implement and sustain highly effective STEM teaching and learning.
NOTE: This announcement is for Institutional and Community Transformation (Capacity-Building and Level 1) proposals and Engaged Student Learning (Level 1) proposals only.

All projects supported by IUSE: EDU must: 

• Demonstrate a strong rationale for project objectives or incorporate and build on educational practices that are demonstrably effective 
• Contribute to the development of exemplary undergraduate STEM education 
• Add to the body of knowledge about what works in undergraduate STEM education and the conditions that lead to improved STEM teaching and learning 
• Measure project progress and achievement of project goals.

To accomplish these goals, IUSE: EDU projects may focus their activities at any level, including the student, faculty, institutional or community 5 levels. Development, propagation, adaptation, and transferability of evidence-based practices are also important considerations. Projects should consider designing materials and practices for use in a wide variety of institutions or institutional types. Topics of interest to the IUSE: EDU program include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• Development and study of the efficacy of innovative teaching and learning practices and resources 
• Development, testing, and dissemination of instruments for measuring student outcomes 
• Efforts to increase the diversity of the STEM workforce including K-12 teachers and/or the faculty and institutions engaged in work to improve undergraduate STEM education 
• Faculty professional development to increase the use of evidence-based teaching practices 
• Implementation of and research on sustained change processes involved in adopting evidence-based and effective instruction within or across departments, disciplines, or institutions 
• Efforts to achieve STEM educational goals through innovative partnerships, for example with community organizations, local, regional, or national industries, centers for teaching and learning, professional societies, or libraries, 
• Propagating and sustaining transformative and effective STEM teaching and learning through institutional practices or involvement of professional societies

The IUSE: EDU program features two tracks:

• Track 1: Engaged Student Learning (see full guidelines for descriptions of varying levels and their corresponding due dates)
  
  The Engaged Student Learning (ESL) track focuses on design, development, and research projects that involve the creation, exploration, or implementation of tools, resources, and models. Projects must show high potential to increase student engagement and learning in STEM. Projects may focus directly on students or indirectly serve students through faculty professional development or research on teaching and learning. Whatever the focus, all projects should be both evidence-based and knowledge-generating, with well-developed plans to study student experiences and evaluate student outcomes. 

Track 2: Institutional and Community Transformation (see full guidelines for descriptions of varying levels and their corresponding due dates) 

• The Institutional and Community Transformation (ICT) track funds innovative work applying evidence-based practices that improve undergraduate STEM education and research on the organizational change processes involved in implementing evidence-based practices. The emphasis of this track is on systemic change that may be measured at the departmental, institutional, or multi-institutional level, or across communities of STEM educators and/or educational researchers.

Important Information And Revision Notes and Update: (Replaces: NSF 21-579)

The IUSE: EDU program team will host webinars in which key features and expectations of the IUSE: EDU program will be discussed. Information about the webinars will be posted to the IUSE: EDU program webpage: https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/improving-undergraduate-stem-education-education.

DUE DATES
Deadline of January 15, 2025 is for Institutional and Community Transformation (Capacity-Building and Level 1) proposals and Engaged Student Learning (Level 1) proposals only

AWARD INFORMATION
ESL Level 1 projects have a maximum award of $400,000 and a maximum duration of three years.
ICT Level 1 proposals have a maximum award size of $400,000 and a maximum duration of three years.

ICT Capacity-Building proposals may be submitted as individual or collaborative projects. The maximum award size is $200,000 for a single institution proposal or $400,000 for a multi-institution proposal. The maximum duration of both single and multi-institutional proposals is two years.

The IUSE: EDU program team will host webinars in which key features and expectations of the IUSE: EDU program will be discussed. Information about the webinars will be posted to the IUSE: EDU program webpage: https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/improving-undergraduate-stem-education-education.

Solicitation limitations:

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: 3
An individual may serve as PI or co-PI on no more than three IUSE: EDU proposals submitted during the period of October 1 through September 30. This eligibility constraint will be strictly enforced. In the event that an individual exceeds this limit, proposals will be accepted based on earliest date and time of proposal submission (i.e., the first three proposals will be accepted and the remainder will be returned without review). No exceptions will be made.

Research Grants on Education: Large

Overview:

The Large Research Grants on Education Program supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets ranging from $125,000 up through $500,000 for projects ranging from one to five years. We accept applications twice a year. 

This program is “field-initiated,” meaning 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, 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. In addition, we welcome proposals submitted by multidisciplinary and multigenerational teams who are positioned to both contribute to the project as well as contribute to the teaching and learning of fellow team members. 

Finally, we encourage teams to thoughtfully consider and describe plans regarding the trajectories of their project’s findings, implications, and potential effects, especially how the knowledge may be shared and utilized across the field in practice, policy making, or with broader publics.

Large Research Grant budget totals should be between $125,000 and $500,000, including up to 15% indirect cost charges. We anticipate funding proposals in the following funding tiers: $125,000 to 250,000; $250,001 to $375,000; and $375,001 to $500,000.

Projects proposed may not be longer than 5 years in duration.

Note: You must complete an Intent to Apply form by noon on the deadline if you intend to submit a Full Proposal for the upcoming review cycle.

Deadlines:

• Applications Open: December 2024
• Intent to Apply: January 14, 2025, 12:00 pm Noon (Central/Chicago Time)
• Full Proposal Deadline: February 11, 2025, 12:00 pm Noon (Central/Chicago Time)

Solicitation limitations:

Proposals to the Research Grants on Education program must be for academic research projects that aim to study education. Proposals for activities other than research are not eligible (e.g., program evaluations, professional development, curriculum development, scholarships, capital projects). Additionally, proposals for research studies focused on areas other than education, are not eligible.

Projects proposed may not be longer than 5 years in duration.

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.)

PIs and Co-PIs may not submit more than one research proposal to the Spencer Foundation at a time. This restriction applies to the Small Grants Program, Large Grants Program, Racial Equity Research Grants Program, and Research-Practice Partnership Program. If the PI or any of the Co-PIs currently have a research proposal under consideration in any of these programs, they are required to wait until a final decision has been made on the pending proposal before they can submit a new proposal.

Research on the Science and Technology Enterprise: Indicators, Statistics, and Methods

Overview:

NCSES welcomes proposals for research, conferences, and studies to advance the understanding of the S&T enterprise and encourage development of methods that will improve the quality of our data. Research could include: improved approaches to indicator construction and presentation, new S&T indicator development, strengthening of data collection methodologies and privacy protection to improve surveys that collect S&T data, investigations of alternate data sources to study S&T topics, analyses to inform STEM education and workforce policy, and innovations in the communication of S&T statistics. NCSES encourages proposals that analyze NCSES data or NCSES data in conjunction with those from other sources but does not limit the work to the analysis of the data it collects.

AREAS OF INTEREST

Potential topics for consideration include but are not limited to:

• Improving analytical techniques to produce better indicators of issues related to:
  • the education and retention of scientists and engineers including minorities, women, or persons with disabilities as described in the NCSES publication Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 2023 | NSF - National Science Foundation,
  • the demand, supply, career pathways, and/or characteristics of science and engineering personnel, including those without bachelor’s degrees
  • outcomes and impacts of research and development (R&D) expenditures in various sectors, countries, and fields including emerging science and technology fields,
  • estimates of current and near-term future S&T resources; and (5) measures of U.S. competitiveness in S&T.

• Developing new and/or improved methods of measuring the inputs, outputs, interactions, and social or economic impacts of S&T activities. These methods could involve the use of administrative records, social media, or novel data extraction methods.

• Developing new data, analyses, and/or indicators of the globalization of science, engineering, and technology, as well as analyses leading to a better understanding of the changing global economy. This could include:
  • international comparisons of S&T capabilities and activities,
  • indicators of international education and mobility of scientists and engineers, and foreign investment in S&T activities.
• Improving data collection methodologies for S&T surveys and censuses, including those conducted by NCSES. Such studies could research improvements in the target population, sample frame, and sample design, focusing on coverage and sampling error. Also included are developments of new data collection techniques and operational efficiencies such as adaptive survey design and passive data collection. Studies focused on the respondent experience and reduction in respondent burden such as modular survey design are also relevant.

• Improving analysis and data processing methodologies for NCSES data by researching topics such as imputation techniques, privacy protections, or data consistency with related surveys or administrative data. This research could also involve investigations of linkage of alternate data sources to supplement NCSES data and reporting. Pursuing innovations in the dissemination of S&T statistics to encourage communication of the information in a timely and user-friendly fashion. This could include interactive visualizations, studies of user needs, and new reporting formats for indicators.

Broadening Participation In Stem:
NSF recognizes the unique lived experiences of individuals from communities that are underrepresented and/or underserved in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the barriers to inclusion and access to STEM education and careers. NSF highly encourages the leadership, partnership, and contributions in all NSF opportunities of individuals who are members of such communities supported by NSF. This includes leading and designing STEM research and education proposals for funding; serving as peer reviewers, advisory committee members, and/or committee of visitor members; and serving as NSF leadership, program, and/or administrative staff.

NSF also highly encourages demographically diverse institutions of higher education (IHEs) to lead, partner, and contribute to NSF opportunities on behalf of their research and education communities. NSF expects that all individuals, including those who are members of groups that are underrepresented and/or underserved in STEM, are treated equitably and inclusively in the Foundation's proposal and award process. NSF encourages IHEs that enroll, educate, graduate, and employ individuals who are members of groups underrepresented and/or underserved in STEM education programs and careers to lead, partner, and contribute to NSF opportunities, including leading and designing STEM research and education proposals for funding. Such IHEs include, but may not be limited to, community colleges and two-year institutions, mission-based institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), women's colleges, and institutions that primarily serve persons with disabilities, as well as institutions defined by enrollment such as Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs), Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).

"Broadening participation in STEM" is the comprehensive phrase used by NSF to refer to the Foundation's goal of increasing the representation and diversity of individuals, organizations, and geographic regions that contribute to STEM teaching, research, and innovation. To broaden participation in STEM, it is necessary to address issues of equity, inclusion, and access in STEM education, training, and careers. Whereas all NSF programs might support broadening participation components, some programs primarily focus on supporting broadening participation research and projects. Examples can be found on the NSF Broadening Participation in STEM website.

This announcement replaces: NSF 21-627
Anticipated Type of Award: Standard Grant or Continuing Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: 5 to 10

Solicitation limitations:

Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant proposals: The dissertation advisor must be listed as the Principal Investigator and the student must be listed as the co-Principal Investigator.

Research Project and Existing Program Evaluation Proposals

Overview:

The Brady Education Foundation seeks to close the opportunity gap between children living in under-resourced and/or under-represented communities and other children. The Foundation pursues its mission by promoting collaboration between researchers and educators via the funding of program evaluations in education that have the potential of informing public policy and private funding. The Foundation is particularly focused on the evaluation of programs that are consistent with a strength-based approach and show promise of being feasible, accessible, effective and sustainable.

The Foundation is currently accepting Research Project (RP) proposals and Existing Program Evaluation (EPE) proposals that have the potential to provide data that will inform how to address disparities in educational opportunities associated with race, ethnicity, and family income.

1. EXISTING PROGRAM EVALUATION (EPE) proposals:
Primary aim: 
What works: The primary aim must concern evaluating the effectiveness of programs designed to promote positive cognitive and/or achievement outcomes for children (birth through 18 years) with the goal of informing ways to close the educational opportunity gaps associated with race, ethnicity, and income.

Secondary aims may also focus on one or more of the following: What works for whom, under what conditions: Investigate variations in program effects; that is, test for moderation effects that inform whether effects are stronger for certain groups and/or under certain conditions than other groups or conditions.

Reasons for effects: Investigate mechanisms through which effects occur; that is, test for mediation effects that inform why the program is effective.

Cost-benefit analyses: Compare the total costs of the program (start-up and ongoing operational costs) with its estimated monetary benefits to determine the net cost or benefit associated with the program.

2. RESEARCH PROJECT (RP) proposals:
Primary and secondary aims:
The Primary and any secondary aims must concern obtaining information that will inform how to address disparities in educational opportunities associated with race, ethnicity, and/or family income.

The Foundation favors projects that:

• Represent strong collaborative relationships between researchers and practitioners and other community stakeholders (as appropriate).
• Projects that include a member of the team (not necessarily the PI) who has experience leading projects of similar or greater scope. Applicants at all career stages may apply; teams are evaluated in terms of their abilities to successfully carry out the proposed work.
• Projects that investigate ecocultural strengths (the set of sociocultural practices sustained by community values and beliefs and embedded in children’s daily life which enable the development of foundational skills in racially minoritized and linguistically diverse children).
• For Existing Program Evaluations, specifically:
  o    Projects that evaluate programs consistent with strength-based approaches rather than deficit models and consider the specific and unique assets and needs of children from diverse racial and ethnic groups and/or from low-income communities. Concerning race and ethnicity, the Foundation seeks to increase understanding of what works best for children from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds (e.g., Black / African Heritage, Latine*, Indigenous Peoples).
  
  o    Projects for which operational funding for the program is already secured so that funding from the Foundation is used only for evaluation activities.
  
  o    Projects that employ randomized control designs (including wait-list control designs when assignment to wait-list condition is randomized) to assess the impact of the program. Comparison group designs may also be employed when strong efforts are made to control for potential confounding variables (e.g., due to selection effects). The Foundation very rarely funds evaluation projects that employ neither randomized control nor comparison group designs.
  
  o    Projects that evaluate programs that show promise of being feasible, accessible, and sustainable
  
  o    Projects that evaluate effects on measurable child outcomes.

There is a two-stage application process:
Stage 1: Applications must be submitted using a Brady Education Foundation application form (either a Stage 1 Program Evaluation Application (EPE) or a Stage 1 Research Project Application (RP), depending on the study aims). Email applications@BradyEducationFoundation.org to request a Stage 1 Program Evaluation Application (EPE) or Research Project (RP) Application, as applicable. Applications that do not use either form will be disqualified and not reviewed by the Board.

Stage 2: Full Board review determines if applicant is approved to submit a Stage 2 application. If approved by the Full Board, the applicant will be invited to submit a Stage 2 application; Stage 2 applications are accepted by invitation only. Stage 2 application guidelines are provided when invited to submit.

Awards: [Past awards in 2024 ranged from $100,000 to over $350,00.] Grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations only.
Duration: The proposed project may span up to three years.
Submission Timetable: Stage 1 Applications are accepted throughout the year. [See Sponsor website for complete list of deadlines.]

Solicitation limitations:

The leadership team of the proposed work (at the PI / co-PI level) must include researchers who are representative of the populations included in the study sample in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity. The leadership team can also include researchers who are not representative of the populations included in the sample; co-PI leadership structures are permitted.