09/08/2023 Edition 105
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NSF Research Coordination Networks
NSF Research Coordination Networks, NSF 23-529. CFDA #s 47.041, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.083, and 47.084. Proposal Deadline: Continuous.

Supports networks that foster communication and new collaborations among scientists, engineers and educators who share a common interest in a new or developing area of science or engineering.

The goal of the RCN program is to advance a field or create new directions in research or education by supporting groups of investigators to communicate and coordinate their research, training and educational activities across disciplinary, organizational, geographic, and international boundaries. The RCN program provides opportunities to foster new collaborations, including international partnerships where appropriate, and address interdisciplinary topics. Innovative ideas for implementing novel networking strategies, collaborative technologies, training, broadening participation, and development of community standards for data and meta- data are especially encouraged. RCN awards are not meant to support existing networks; nor are they meant to support the activities of established collaborations. RCN awards also do not support primary research. Rather, the RCN program supports the means by which investigators can share information and ideas; coordinate ongoing or planned research activities; foster synthesis and new collaborations; develop community standards; and in other ways advance science and education through communication and sharing of ideas.

Proposed networking activities directed to the RCN program should focus on a theme to give coherence to the collaboration, such as a broad research question or a particular technology or a unique approach to address a current challenge. PIs are encouraged to consider approaches that enhance the geographic diversity of participation in the chosen theme.

NSF Smart & Connected Communities
NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC), NSF 22-529. CFDA #s 47.041, 47.070, 47.075, and 47.076. Proposal Deadline: Accepted Anytime up to 04/01/2024.

Supports use-inspired research that addresses communities' social, economic and environmental challenges. Projects must work with community stakeholders on pilots that integrate intelligent technologies with the natural and built environments.

Communities in the United States (US) and around the world are entering a new era of transformation in which residents and their surrounding environments are increasingly connected through rapidly-changing intelligent technologies. This transformation offers great promise for improved wellbeing and prosperity but poses significant challenges at the complex intersection of technology and society. The goal of the NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, accessibility and inclusivity, and overall quality of life. For the purposes of this solicitation, communities are defined as having geographically-delineated boundaries—such as towns, cities, counties, neighborhoods, community districts, rural areas, and tribal regions—consisting of various populations, with the structure and ability to engage in meaningful ways with proposed research activities. A “smart and connected community” is, in turn, defined as a community that synergistically integrates intelligent technologies with the natural and built environments, including infrastructure, to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, learn, or travel within it.

The S&CC program encourages researchers to work with community stakeholders to identify and define challenges they are facing, enabling those challenges to motivate use-inspired research questions. For this solicitation, community stakeholders may include some or all of the following: residents, neighborhood or community groups, nonprofit or philanthropic organizations, businesses, as well as municipal organizations such as libraries, museums, educational institutions, public works departments, and health and social services agencies. The S&CC program supports integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Importantly, the program is interested in projects that consider the sustainability of the research outcomes beyond the life of the project, including the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions.

NIEHS ViCTER

The purpose of the ViCTER program is to use the R01 mechanism to foster and promote early-stage transdisciplinary collaborations and/or translational research efforts to address fundamental research among basic (technology and mechanism oriented), clinical (patient-oriented) and population-based researchers in the environmental health field. The newly established collaborative teams will come together in common interest to investigate potential linkages between human health and one or more environmental stressor(s). The ViCTER program is intended to support innovative high-risk, high-reward transdisciplinary/translational research projects that are more difficult to achieve in a typical R01 application. Collaboration among investigators at different institutions through a virtual consortium arrangement is encouraged.

CDC Preventing Violence
CDC Research Grants for Preventing Violence and Violence Related Injury, RFA-CE-24-030. CFDA# 93.136. Up to $400,000. Application Deadline: 12/01/2023.


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 understanding of approaches to prevent community violence and eliminate racial and ethnic inequities in risk for community violence. This initiative is intended to support effectiveness research to evaluate innovative programs, practices, or policies to address risk for violence and inequities in risk for violence among groups experiencing a high burden of community violence. Innovative approaches are those that have not been rigorously evaluated for effectiveness in reducing community violence. Consistent with CDC’s commitment to achieving health equity, investigation of inequities in exposure to and uptake of the selected approaches, and/or stratified analyses examining the differential impacts of the approach across populations disproportionately impacted by violence is a priority. Funds are available to conduct studies focused on preventing all forms of community violence involving youth or young adults (ages 10-34 years), including assaults, homicides, violence between groups, and threats/use of weapons.

The primary objectives we wish to achieve with this initiative are:
  • Objective One: Effectiveness research to evaluate innovative approaches with the potential for immediate or near immediate benefits (i.e., within 6 months) for reducing community violence and racial/ethnic inequities in risk for community violence.
  • Objective Two: Effectiveness research to evaluate innovative place-based prevention approaches for reducing community violence and racial/ethnic inequities in risk for community violence.
  • Objective Three: Effectiveness research to evaluate approaches that improve the social or structural conditions that contribute to community violence and racial/ethnic inequities in risk for community violence.

Althea Sheets, Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities Development Manager, Office of Sponsored Programs, althea.sheets@unlv.edu, 702-895-1880