04/21/2023 Edition 92
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Improving Undergrad STEM Ed: HSI Program

Supports projects that improve undergraduate STEM education and increase the rates of recruitment, retention and graduation of undergraduate STEM students at Hispanic-serving institutions.

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 associate's 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.

DOC 2023 STEM Talent Challenge
DOC 2023 STEM Talent Challenge, EDA-STEMTALENT-2023. CFDA # 11.023. Up to $500,000. Application Deadline: 06/12/2023.

EDA’s Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship is seeking applications from eligible applicants to create and implement innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) work-based learning models (such as Registered Apprenticeships) that complement their respective region’s innovation economy. The STEM Talent Challenge seeks to develop or expand regional workforce capacity to support high growth, high-wage entrepreneurial ventures, industries of the future (which usually includes industries that leverage emerging technologies), and other innovation—driven businesses that have a high likelihood of accelerating economic competitiveness and job creation in their respective regions and in the United States.

NSF EHR Core Research
NSF EHR Core Research (ECR:Core), NSF 21-588. CFDA # 47.076. Up to $2,500,000. Proposal Deadline: 10/05/2023.

Supports research on STEM education in one or more of three research areas: STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.

The EHR Core Research (ECR) program offers this ECR:Core solicitation and invites proposals for fundamental research (curiosity-driven basic research and use-inspired basic research) that contributes to the general, explanatory knowledge that underlies STEM education in one or more of the three broadly conceived Research Areas: Research on STEM Learning and Learning Environments, Research on Broadening Participation in STEM fields, and Research on STEM Workforce Development. Within this framework, the ECR program supports a wide range of fundamental STEM education research activities, aimed at learners of all groups and ages in formal and informal settings.

Fundamental research generates knowledge and understanding with the potential for broad relevance. The potential implications of ECR fundamental research for improving STEM education practice may be indirect and long-term rather than direct and immediate. Moreover, whether they include basic or use-inspired basic research, all successful ECR:Core proposals focus on the advancement or refinement of foundational knowledge for STEM education.

Workforce Development Cyberinfrastructure
NSF Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, NSF 23-520. CFDA #s 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.075, 47.076. Proposal Deadline: 01/18/2024.

Supports efforts to improve the adoption of cyberinfrastructure resources by the research community and integrate core literacy, skills in advanced cyberinfrastructure, and computational and data-driven methods into undergraduate and graduate education.

This program seeks to prepare, nurture, and grow the national scientific research workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) to enable and potentially transform fundamental science and engineering (S&E) research and education and contribute to the Nation's overall economic competitiveness and security. The goals of this solicitation are to (i) ensure broad adoption of CI tools, methods, and resources by the research community in order to catalyze major research advances and to enhance researchers’ abilities to lead the development of new CI, and (ii) integrate core literacy and discipline-appropriate advanced skills in advanced CI as well as computational and data-driven methods for advancing fundamental research, into the Nation’s undergraduate and graduate educational curriculum/instructional materials. Proposals responding to this solicitation may target one or both of the two solicitation goals. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the set of resources, tools, methods, and services for advanced computation, large-scale data handling and analytics, and networking and security for large-scale systems that collectively enable potentially transformative fundamental S&E research and education.

This solicitation calls for innovative, scalable training, education, and curriculum/instructional materials—targeting one or more of the solicitation goals—to address emerging needs and unresolved bottlenecks in the S&E research workforce development, from the postsecondary level to active researchers to CI professionals. The funded activities, spanning targeted, multidisciplinary communities, should lead to transformative changes in the state of research workforce preparedness for advanced CI-enabled research in the short- and long-term. This solicitation also seeks to broaden CI access and adoption by (i) increasing the adoption of advanced CI and computational and data-driven methods to a broader range of S&E disciplines and institutions and (ii) effectively utilizing the capabilities of individuals from a diverse set of underrepresented groups. Proposals from, and in partnership with, the aforementioned communities are especially encouraged.

Althea Sheets, Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities Development Manager, Office of Sponsored Programs, [email protected], 702-895-1880