Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund Grant

Overview:

Through the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund, we support U.S. and Canadian communities where we have a significant presence or business interest. These communities range from rural to metropolitan, each with unique priorities and needs. Our employees serve on local advisory committees for our Giving Fund and help develop funding priorities within seven focus areas to support their communities: affordable housing; education and youth development; environmental stewardship; human services; civic and cultural growth; workforce development; and inclusion. These focus areas provide a strong companywide framework for giving while allowing flexibility to meet specific needs in our different communities.

Through the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund, we concentrate the majority of our funding in seven focus areas:

• Affordable Housing
• Education and Youth Development
• Environmental Stewardship
• Human Services
• Civic and Cultural Growth
• Workforce Development
• Inclusion

To learn more about our giving focus areas, view our community grantmaking framework.

In considering requests for support, preference is given to projects and programs that meet the following criteria:

• Serve a broad range of community residents
• Meet an important community need within our key areas of focus
• Show strong support from community leaders and other funders
• Are sustainable and managed competently with a history of accountability, results, cost-effectiveness, strong leadership and innovation
• Provide a significant and measurable impact on quality of life

Other information:

• Geographic area served in AZ: Phoenix
• Award(s): Grants vary in scale in relationship to our presence in the community and the philanthropic budget available for the year. The minimum grant awarded is $1,000.
• Applications are generally reviewed on an ongoing basis, throughout the year.
• Our giving is local and specific to each of our communities. We do recommend making a local connection with our employee advisory committee members in your area.   

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. The Foundation is particularly focused on supporting projects that are consistent with a strength-based perspective and have the potential to inform future educational research, practice, major philanthropic giving, and/or public policy.

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.

RESEARCH PROJECT (RP) Proposals
Primary and secondary aims:

• The Primary and any secondary aims must educational research that will inform future education research, practice, philanthropic funding, and/or public policy.

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. We welcome applications that include both early career scholars and more experienced scholars in the leadership team (PI / co-PI level).
• For Existing Program Evaluations, specifically:
  • Projects that evaluate programs consistent with strength-based approaches rather than deficit models.
  • Projects for which operational funding for the program is already secured so that funding from the Foundation is used only for evaluation activities.
  • 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 baseline equivalence between groups can be assessed and strong efforts are made to control for potential confounding variables (e.g., due to selection effects).
  • Projects that evaluate programs that show promise of being feasible, accessible, and sustainable
  • Projects that evaluate effects on measurable child outcomes.

Solicitation limitations:

Funding must be through the Principal Investigator’s home institution (i.e., the home institution of the PI of the team conducting the evaluation). Grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations only.

Other information:

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 [email protected] 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.
Duration: The proposed project may span up to three years (this applies to both Existing Program Evaluations and to Research Project proposals).
Awards: Past awards in 2024 ranged from $100,000 to over $350,000. 
Duration: The proposed project may span up to three years.
Submission Timetable: Stage 1 Applications are accepted three times throughout the year: April 1, 2025; August 1, 2025; December 1, 2025

U.S. Mission to the Kingdom of Bahrain Annual Program Statement

Overview:

The Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U.S. Embassy in Manama is pleased to announce its Public Diplomacy Small Grants Program.  This is an annual program statement, outlining our funding priorities, our strategic themes of focus, and the procedure for submitting requests for funding for fiscal year 2025 (October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025).

PAS invites proposals from individuals, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, government institutions, and academic institutions for projects that strengthen bilateral ties between the United States and the Kingdom of Bahrain.  All programs must include a connection with U.S. culture, experts, organizations, or institutions.  Grants should address and advance the mutual strategic priorities of the United States and Bahrain. 

 In Fiscal Year 2025, priority programming areas include:

• Promoting scientific and technological cooperation, particularly in emerging technologies;
• Building supply chain resilience and trusted telecommunications networks;
• Building digital literacy and combating disinformation;
• Enhancing economic opportunities, entrepreneurship, and skills for youth;
• Fostering regional security, economic integration, and mutual cooperation;
• Cultural heritage conservation and preservation projects;
• Professional and academic exchanges and projects;
• Space cooperation, research, and education.

Applications outside of these priority areas are welcome, but may not be ranked as highly when making funding decisions.

Other information:

Length of performance period:  1 to 12 months.

Cost Sharing or Matching: When cost sharing is offered, it is understood and agreed that the applicant must provide the amount of funds stipulated in their proposal.  PAS strongly encourages, but does not mandate, that applicants include cost-sharing elements from additional sources in their proposals.

Deadlines for Applications: Grants applications will be accepted three times annually. Grants must be submitted before the program start date.  Applicants are recommended to submit grant applications at least three months before the program start date.

July 15, 2025, 16:00 – Third application submission deadline.

Science of Learning and Augmented Intelligence

Overview:

Science of Learning and Augmented Intelligence (SL) supports potentially transformative research that develops basic theoretical insights and fundamental knowledge about principles, processes and mechanisms of learning, and about augmented intelligence — how human cognitive function can be augmented through interactions with others or with technology, or through variations in context. 

The program supports research addressing learning in individuals and in groups, across a wide range of domains at one or more levels of analysis, including molecular and cellular mechanisms; brain systems; cognitive, affective and behavioral processes; and social and cultural influences. 

The program also supports research on augmented intelligence that clearly articulates principled ways in which human approaches to learning and related processes, such as in design, complex decision-making and problem-solving, can be improved through interactions with others or through the use of artificial intelligence in technology. These could include ways of using knowledge about human functioning to improve the design of collaborative technologies that have the capacity to learn to adapt to humans.

For both aspects of the program, there is special interest in collaborative and collective models of learning and intelligence that are supported by the unprecedented speed and scale of technological connectivity. This includes emphasis on how people and technology working together in new ways and at scale can achieve more than either can attain alone. The program also seeks explanations for how the emergent intelligence of groups, organizations and networks intersects with processes of learning, behavior and cognition in individuals.   

Projects that are convergent or interdisciplinary may be especially valuable in advancing basic understanding of these areas, but research within a single discipline or methodology is also appropriate. Connections between proposed research and specific technological, educational and workforce applications will be considered as valuable broader impacts but are not necessarily central to the intellectual merit of proposed research. The program supports a variety of approaches, including experiments, field studies, surveys, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence or machine learning methods.

Other information:

To get some feedback on alignment of project ideas to the Program priorities, please send in a 1 page summary of the proposed project that addresses both NSF merit review criteria – Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts. These resources can be helpful as potential applicants develop projects: 

• NSF merit review criteria: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/merit-review#our-merit-review-criteria-f24
• NSF broader impacts framework: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/learn/broader-impacts

Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12)

Overview:

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. 

1. Teaching Strand
   Effective STEM learning requires a well-prepared, skilled, and knowledgeable STEM teacher workforce. As advances in STEM continue to unfold, teachers need support to learn about new discoveries in the STEM disciplines and how to integrate contemporary and dynamic content from STEM fields into their classroom practice. The DRK-12 program invites proposals that advance current understanding of pre- and in-service teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practices related to STEM content and that demonstrably enhance teaching practice. The overarching goal of the Teaching Strand is to contribute to the development of a science of teaching that addresses the complexity of how people facilitate other people's STEM learning. Submissions to the Teaching Strand should describe how the proposed innovation or approach aligns with current STEM education frameworks (e.g., curriculum, pedagogies, standards). In doing so, proposals should also provide a compelling argument for how the innovation or approach would be an improvement relative to current practice, and why and how it would lead to improved teacher practices and related outcomes for teachers and students. Teaching Strand proposals should focus primarily on teacher knowledge, beliefs, and practices as the unit of analysis. Student learning outcomes can be assessed and framed as evidence of the effectiveness of innovative approaches to supporting teacher practice.
    
2. Learning Strand
   Like their teachers, students need support to learn about new discoveries in the STEM disciplines and how to integrate contemporary and dynamic STEM content into their developing understandings of the world and their place in it. The program invites proposals that seek to understand how and why novel and potentially transformative STEM education innovations or approaches may improve student learning and interest in STEM. Further, the program invites proposals that aim to provide all students with STEM learning experiences that prepare them to understand and use scientific information, to serve their communities, and prepare students for potential post-secondary education opportunities and workforce participation. Proposals submitted to the Learning Strand should describe how the proposed STEM education innovation or approach aligns with current curricular frameworks, understandings of child and youth development, and evidence of how students engage with and learn STEM content. Moreover, proposals should demonstrate how a proposed innovation would be an improvement relative to students' current opportunities to learn. Learning Strand proposals should focus primarily on student learning and other characteristics as the unit of analysis. Teacher professional development and related outcomes can also be assessed and framed as part of the innovation's efforts to support student outcomes.

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

Other information:

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

Funding levels for other project types are as follows: 
Partnership Development proposals are up to $100,000 for one year; 
Synthesis proposals are up to $600,000 and three-years duration;
Workshop /Conference proposals are up to $200,000 and one-year duration.

NSF Implementation of Recent Executive Orders 

Clif Family Foundation Open Call Grants Program

Overview:

We believe that much of our nation's needed innovation will spring from grassroots organizations' daily efforts in local communities. The foundation has been proud to support hundreds of nonprofits that are working tirelessly to transform our food system, revitalize the environment, and enhance community health. We aspire to transform food systems, revitalize the environment, and enhance community health. We envision a healthy, just, ecologically thriving world for all people. 

Clif Family Foundation currently offers two types of grants, Open Call and By Invitation Only. 

Priority is given to applicants that:
•    Advance our strategic priorities and align with our values
•    Focus their work primarily in the United States and its unincorporated territories 
•    Demonstrate strong community ties 
•    Have operating budgets under $3MM 
•    Operate at the grassroots level to implement change at the local, state or national stage 

Values:
•    People Power: People most impacted by health, climate, and food systems challenges are foremost to design, develop, and implement solutions. 
•    Transformation: Systemic change is needed to address the root causes of societal problems and enable people to reach their full human potential. 
•    JEDI: Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are essential to the effectiveness, long-term health, and well-being of all people. JEDI compels us to continuously progress toward a deeper understanding of the fundamental roles played by oppression. 
•    Collaboration: Partnerships are essential to achieve the mission, foster learning, and enable trusting relationships. 
•    Creativity: Ingenuity and imagination, coupled with listening and learning, generate effective new ideas and help solve long-standing problems. 
•    Joy: Joyful approaches in our philanthropic work enliven positive human potential that furthers efforts for change. 
•    Nature: Diverse connections with the natural world inspire us to learn from, respect, and support regenerative solutions. 

Priorities:
•    Regenerative and Organic Farming--Accelerate the adoption of regenerative farming practices, including organic, climate-resilient, equitable, and agroecological approaches. 
•    Food Production Workers’ Health and Safety--Amplify efforts to secure healthy, safe, just, and empowering working and living conditions for food production workers. 
•    Climate Justice--Expand community-centered solutions to climate change that build resilience and empower those who have been historically marginalized. 
•    Healthy Food Access--Advance food systems’ changes that make healthy and sustainably produced food accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate. 
•    Inclusive Outdoor Access--Catalyze solutions that expand access to safe places to enable healthy physical activity and improve mental health. 
•    Indoors and Outdoors Safe from Pollution--Promote preventative health approaches by identifying and eliminating toxics from our air, water, soil, and human-made materials.

Other information:

he Foundation reviews applications twice a year. Deadlines are March 1 and August 1.

Grant announcements occur approximately four months after the deadline. Typical grants range from $5,000 - $50,000 and last for one year.

Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE)

Overview:

The purpose of the POSE program is to support a new pathway for translating research or innovation results by supporting managing organizations that facilitate the creation and growth of sustainable, high-impact OSEs around already-developed open-source products, tools, and artifacts. The POSE program aims to grow the community of researchers who develop and contribute to OSE efforts, and enable pathways to intentionally transition promising, robust open-source innovations into self-sustaining OSEs that could lead to new technology products or services with broad societal impacts.

This solicitation seeks two types of proposals, allowing teams to propose specific activities to scope and plan the establishment of an OSE (Phase I), and to establish a sustainable OSE based on a robust open-source product that shows promise in the ability to both meet an emergent societal or national need and build a community to help develop it (Phase II).

Phase I: OSE Scoping and Planning Proposals
Phase I projects are for open-source research products with a small community of external users though the product may not necessarily have external content developers. The objectives of Phase I projects are to: (1) enable scoping activities that will inform the transition of promising research products that are already available in open-source formats into sustainable and robust OSEs that will have broad societal impacts, and (2) provide training to teams interested in building such an OSE.

Each Phase I proposal must describe the current context and, to the extent known at the time of the Phase I proposal, the long-term vision and potential impact of the proposed OSE. The proposals should also include specific scoping activities that will inform plans for ecosystem discovery; organizational and governance structure; continuous development, integration, and deployment of the open-source product(s); and community building for users and intellectual content developers. Phase I scoping activities are intended to help teams determine (a) whether their open-source product is suitable and ready to be transitioned into an OSE; (b) whether there is a user base that is ready to serve as early adopters; and (c) whether there is a distributed intellectual content developer community that can help develop and maintain the core product going forward.

Phase II: Establishment and Expansion Proposals Phase II projects are for open-source research products with a small community of external users and external content developers. The objective of Phase II projects is to support the transition of a promising open-source product into a sustainable and robust OSE. Phase II proposals are expected to have conducted the scoping activities (not necessarily via a Phase I award) needed to develop a detailed project plan to support the community-driven distributed development and deployment of successful open-source tools into operational environments. The proposals must include a community outreach plan that outlines activities to engage the intended intellectual content developer community that will further develop and maintain the technology and identifies user communities and/or organizations that will serve as early adopters of the technology.

Each Phase II proposal must describe the current context and the long-term vision and impact of the proposed OSE. The proposal should also include a well-developed, cohesive plan for building an OSE, including ecosystem establishment/growth, organizational and governance structure, a framework for continuous development, integration, and deployment of the technology, methods for evaluating the OSE's effectiveness, and activities to ensure security and privacy, build the community, and sustain the ecosystem.

Solicitation limitations:

By the submission deadline, any PI, co-PI, or other senior project personnel must hold either:

• a tenured or tenure-track position, or
• a primary, full-time, paid appointment in a research or teaching position

Phase I awardees are not obligated to submit Phase II proposals in the future.
An NSF POSE Phase I award is not required for the submission of a Phase II proposal.

Other information:

Phase I proposals are limited to a total budget of $300,000 with durations of up to one year.  

Phase II proposals are limited to a total budget of $1,500,000 with durations of up to two years.

Importantly, the POSE program is not intended to fund the development of open-source products, including tools and artifacts. The POSE program is also not intended to fund existing well-resourced, open-source communities or ecosystems. Instead, the program aims to support new managing organizations to catalyze distributed, community-driven development and growth of new OSEs.

2025 Research Grants on Reducing Inequality

Overview:

This program funds research studies that aim to build, test, or increase understanding of programs, policies, or practices to reduce inequality in the academic, social, behavioral, or economic outcomes of young people ages 5-25 in the United States, along dimensions of race, ethnicity, economic standing, language minority status, or immigrant origins.

We fund:

• Descriptive studies that describe, explore, or explain how programs, practices, or policies reduce inequality
•  Intervention studies that provide causal evidence on the effectiveness of programs or policies for reducing inequality
• Measurement development studies that can enhance the work of researchers, practitioners, or policymakers to reduce inequality

Background 
Our focus on reducing inequality grew out of our view that research can do more than help us understand the problem of inequality—it can generate effective responses. We believe that it is time to build stronger bodies of knowledge on how to reduce inequality in the United States and to move beyond the mounting research evidence about the scope, causes, and consequences of inequality. 
 
Research Interests 
Our research interests center on studies that examine ways to reduce inequality in youth outcomes. We welcome descriptive studies that clarify mechanisms for reducing inequality or elucidate how or why a specific program, policy, or practice operates to reduce inequality. We also welcome intervention studies that examine attempts to reduce inequality. Finally, we welcome studies that improve the measurement of inequality in ways that can enhance the work of researchers, practitioners, or policymakers.

Recognizing that findings about programs and practices that reduce inequality will have limited societal impact until the structures that create inequality in the first place have been transformed, the Foundation is particularly interested in research to uproot systemic racism and the structural foundations of inequality that limit the life chances of young people.

Applications for research grants on reducing inequality must:

1. Identify a specific inequality in youth outcomes. We are especially interested in research to reduce inequality in academic, social, behavioral, or economic outcomes. 

• Show that outcomes are unequal in a brief discussion of existing literature. 

2. Highlight the main explanations for the unequal outcomes that are relevant for your study. 

• Make a convincing case for the dimension(s) of inequality the study will address. We are especially interested in research to reduce inequality along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, economic standing, sexual or gender minority status, language minority status, or immigrant origin status. 
• Be very specific in naming the groups on which the study will focus. Avoid vague terms such as “at-risk youth” or “vulnerable youth.”
• Offer a well-developed conceptualization of inequality. Avoid treating dimensions of inequality (e.g., race, economic standing) as variables without providing conceptual and/or theoretical insight into why and how the identified inequality exists. 

• Research that focuses on a dimension other than race, ethnicity, economic standing, sexual or gender minority status, language minority status, or immigrant origins must be in intersection with one of these dimensions. 

3. Articulate how findings from your research will help build, test, or increase understanding of a program, policy, or practice to reduce the specific inequality that you have identified. 

• Draw on extant theoretical and empirical literature to provide a rationale for why the specific programs, policies, or practices under study will equalize outcomes between groups or improve outcomes of a particular group. In other words, specify your theory of change. 
• Identify how the study will investigate this rationale to determine whether it holds up to empirical scrutiny.

Solicitation limitations:

The Foundation makes grants only to tax-exempt organizations. We do not make grants to individuals. 

We encourage proposals from organizations that are under-represented among grantee institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native Serving Institutions, Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions.

Other information:

LOI Required: The application process for all research grants begins with a letter of inquiry, a five-page proposal.

While we value research on the causes and consequences of inequality, we do not fund this work. Instead, we support research that informs or examines a policy, program, or practice response that can be implemented through an organization, institution, or system. 

Only studies that:

1. align with the stated research interests of this program and 
2. relate to the outcomes of young people between the ages of 5 and 25 in the United States are eligible for consideration.

We do not support non-research activities such as program implementation and operational costs, or make contributions to building funds, fundraising drives, endowment funds, general operating budgets, or scholarships.

Award Information
Major Research Grants 
• $100,000 to $600,000 over 2-3 years, including up to 15% indirect costs. 
• Projects involving secondary data analysis are typically at the lower end of the budget range, whereas projects involving new data collection and sample recruitment can be at the higher end. Proposals to launch experiments in which settings (e.g., classrooms, schools, youth programs) are randomly assigned to conditions are usually on the higher end. We encourage applicants pursuing cluster randomized designs to apply for additional sources of funding to ensure support for a sufficient sample. 

Officers’ Research Grants 
• $25,000–$50,000 over 1-2 years, including up to 15% indirect costs. 
• Studies may be stand-alone projects or may build off larger projects. The budget should be appropriate for the activities proposed.

Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)

Overview:

This program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.

All CAREER proposals should describe an integrated path that will lead to a successful career as an outstanding researcher and educator. NSF recognizes that there is no single approach to an integrated research and education plan, but encourages all applicants to think creatively about the reciprocal relationship between the proposed research and education activities and how they may inform each other in their career development as both outstanding researchers and educators. These plans should reflect the proposer's own disciplinary and educational interests and goals, as well as the needs and context of his or her organization. Because there may be different expectations within different disciplinary fields and/or different organizations, a wide range of research and education activities may be appropriate for the CAREER program. In addition, NSF recognizes that some investigators, given their individual disciplinary and career interests, may wish to pursue an additional activity such as entrepreneurship, industry partnerships, or policy that enhances their research and education plans.

View the funding announcement for important updates to the CAREER competition.

• The PI needs to meet all eligibility criteria as of the annual deadline
• Clarification regarding the minimum percentage appointment (tenure-track and tenure-track equivalent) for eligibility to the program 
• Only one annual deadline applies to all CAREER submissions, regardless of Directorate 
• Added guidance on the CAREER proposal submission timeline

Solicitation limitations:

An eligible Principal Investigator may submit only one CAREER proposal per annual competition. No co-PIs are permitted.

A Principal Investigator (PI) may submit only one CAREER proposal per annual competition. In addition, a Principal Investigator may not participate in more than three CAREER competitions. Proposals that are not reviewed (i.e., are withdrawn before review or are returned without review) do not count toward the three-competition limit.

Faculty members who are Associate Professors or in equivalent appointments, with or without tenure, are not eligible for the CAREER program. Faculty members who hold Adjunct Faculty or equivalent appointments are not eligible for the CAREER program

Other information:

The CAREER award, including indirect costs, is expected to total a minimum of $400,000 for the 5-year duration. Proposers must meet all of the following eligibility requirements as of the annual deadline:
•    Hold a doctoral degree in a field supported by NSF;
•    Be engaged in research in an area of science, engineering, or education supported by NSF;
•    Hold at least a 50% tenure-track (or tenure-track-equivalent) position as an assistant professor (or equivalent title);
•    Be untenured; and
•    Have not previously received a CAREER award. (Prior or concurrent Federal support for other types of awards for non-duplicative research does not preclude eligibility.)

Tenure-Track Equivalency 
For a position to be considered a tenure-track-equivalent position, it must meet all of the following requirements: 

1. the employee has a continuing appointment that is expected to last the five years of a CAREER grant; 
2. the appointment has substantial research and educational responsibilities; and 
3. the proposed project relates to the employee's career goals and job responsibilities as well as to the mission of the department or organization.

As stated in the Proposal Preparation Instructions, for non-tenure-track faculty, the Departmental Letter must affirm that the investigator's appointment is at an early-career level equivalent to pre-tenure status, and the Departmental Letter must clearly and convincingly demonstrate how the faculty member's appointment satisfies all the above requirements of tenure-track equivalency