The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement-Focused EPSCoR Collaborations Program (RII-FEC), formerly known as “EPSCoR Track-2 program”, builds interjurisdictional collaborative teams of EPSCoR investigators in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) focus areas consistent with the current National Science Foundation Strategic Plan. Projects are investigator-driven and must include researchers from at least two EPSCoR eligible jurisdictions (states) with complementary expertise and resources necessary to address challenges, which neither party could address as well or as rapidly independently. 

The new RFA for this program was released in mid-May announcing the renaming of the EPSCoR Track-2 program. NSF designates a focus area for this program typically announced in the annual RFA. Under the new RII-FEC program, the focus area will be announced in a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) every two years. The DCL for the current RII-FEC was released late in May. The focus area for this and next year is ‘Building capacity towards use-inspired research’."  NSF defines “Use-inspired research” as work whose rationale, conceptualization, and directions are inspired by potential use cases.  

This is a limited submission program with K-State allowed to submit only one proposal each year. Thus, if you are interested in submitting to this program, you must notify (working title, team list and a 2 to 3 sentence synopsis of the planned project) the Office of Research Development by 5 pm September 3, 2024 via ordlimitedsubs@ksu.edu. If there are two or more interested groups who notify, an internal competition will be required with preproposals due by 5 pm September 30, 2024. If you have questions, please contact Mary Lou Marino at mlmarino@ksu.edu.

The Microbial Innovations for Climate-Resilient Agriculture, or MICRA, an NSF funded Focused EPSCoR Collaboration project, is accepting now applications for its Career Seed Grant.



The grant provides funds to build and boost the research career of Kansas State University assistant professors in the area of climate resilient agriculture in the Central High Plains by providing up to $10,000 funds for research, professional development and/or professional travel. Awarded funds should be spent within 12 months.

Applicants must be a tenure-track assistant professor or a non-tenure track research assistant professor with a home department in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture or the College of Arts and Sciences and have an official research appointment.

Please apply through the online link. 

Applications are due June 15. 

The K-State Libraries is collaborating with the National Agricultural Library (NAL) to provide the following opportunity to all who assist awardees and contractors engaged in USDA-supported scientific research. We appreciate any assistance you can give us in getting this information out to interested parties. Please share the following as you deem appropriate:

Join Kansas State University and the National Agricultural Library on Friday, June 21 at 12 p.m. for a ‘train-the-trainer’ on USDA public access requirements!

The United States Office of Science and Technology Policy has released two memos providing guidelines on public access awareness and compliance. This informational presentation on Departmental Regulation (DR) 1020-006, involving public access to scholarly publication and digital scientific research data assets, will provide details on how to meet the requirement to submit final, peer-reviewed, accepted manuscripts to PubAg, the USDA public access archive system, and create catalog records for datasets in Ag Data Commons. This session will be of interest to all who assist awardees and contractors engaged in USDA-supported scientific research. DR 1020-006 makes all peer-reviewed, scholarly publications and digital scientific research data assets arising from unclassified scientific research, supported wholly or in part by the USDA, accessible to the public to the extent practicable. DR 1020-006 applies to NIFA grant awards, cooperative agreements and contracts having started on or after October 1, 2022.

Please register in advance for this meeting.

The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Summer Stipends program supports continuous full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two consecutive months. NEH funds may support recipients’ compensation, travel, and other costs related to the proposed scholarly research. This is a limited submission; thus, if you are interested in submitting to this program you must notify (working title and a short, two to three sentence synopsis of your project) the Office of Research Development by August 2, 2024 via ordlimitedsubs@ksu.edu. If two or more faculty members notify by this date, an internal competition will be held with preproposals due by August 16, 2024.

This program’s anticipated due date to NEH is September 18, 2024. The new 2024 application should be available on the NEH website by June 18. Typically, NEH hosts a webinar for this program in mid-August, but due to the changes NEH is making to this program the webinar will be July 10 at 1-2 p.m. CT. Again, remember that to apply to this program, you must first go through the internal process outlined above because K-State can only nominate one tenure-track/tenured faculty to apply to this program. However, non-tenure track faculty may apply without nomination and without going through this process, but the Office of Research Development (ord@ksu.edu) would like to know in this case if you will be submitting.

The Office of Research Development will again offer a month-long writing clinic that will use an iterative process to help interested faculty members develop and refine their submissions for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipends program. This clinic is based on the approach ORD has successfully offered for the National Science Foundation CAREER opportunity and has used for the last four years for the NEH Summer Stipends program.

The Writing Clinic steps will be as follows:

1. Prewriting Questions – submit by July 8; group meeting week of July 8.
2. Significance and contribution section as well as the Organization and methods section– based on answers to prewriting questions – submit by July 15; group meeting week of July 15
3. Competencies, skills and access; final product and dissemination sections as well as the work plan (1 page) and bibliography – submit by July 22; group meeting week of July 22
4. Full 3-page narrative section, 1 page work plan and resume – submit by July 29; group meeting week of July 29.

We will meet once a week via zoom to review and discuss the writing assignments. Participants agree to take part in all sessions and complete the assignments of the clinic.

If you are interested in participating in this Writing Clinic please send an email stating your interest to ord@ksu.edu by June 26. Please use “Summer Stipends” on the email subject line.

NOTE: You do not have to participate in this writing clinic to notify the Office of Research Development of your interest in being nominated for a submission to the Summer Stipends program and participate in the limited submission process. Please see the Summer Stipends program announcement included above for more information.

You’re invited to take part in a short survey to assist with NIFA’s Grants Modernization Initiative (GMI). Your participation in this survey is a crucial component in ensuring that our GMI is successful and that we can work to improve your experience over time. No matter where you fit into the NIFA grants management process, we want this to work for you!

This survey is designed to take less than 10 minutes to complete.

Take the survey.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science monthly virtual office hours are opportunities to share information and ask questions about our six research programs and two research and development and production offices. Researchers at all institutions are welcome to attend and learn more about our programs. Topics will vary each month.

Learn more about the programs, dates and times using the links provided below:

• Advanced Scientific Computing Research 
• Basic Energy Sciences 
• Biological and Environmental Research 
• Fusion Energy Sciences 
• High Energy Physics 
• Nuclear Physics 
• Accelerator R&D and Production 
• Isotope R&D and Production 

The office hour will be in the form of a zoom meeting, starting with a brief presentation on the monthly topic, followed by questions. 

Are you interested in serving as a reviewer for the Linguistics Program and/or the NSF Dynamic Language Infrastructure - NEH Documenting Endangered Languages Program?

We want to hear from you! Help us learn more about you and your area of expertise by taking a short survey.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is seeking subject matter experts to serve as peer reviewers to evaluate grant applications for the Fiscal Year 2024 grant cycle. AMS grant peer reviews bring together diverse individuals who provide fair, expert, and unbiased evaluations of grant applications. Reviewing applications will take approximately 6 weeks and non-federal reviewers will be compensated for their reviews.  

Current Programs Seeking Peer Reviewers:

• Acer Access and Development Program (Acer)
• Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP)
• Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP)
• Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP)
• Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP)

Learn more here.

June 6, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m.

Join NSF program directors from the Division of Research, Innovation, Synergies and Education in the Directorate for Geosciences regarding the new Focus on Recruiting Emerging Climate and Adaptation Scientists and Transformers (FORECAST) program in a virtual webinar to learn more about this new opportunity.

Registration is required.

June 10, 2024, 3 p.m.

June 13, 2024, 2 p.m.

Join U.S National Science Foundation program directors from the Division of Research, Innovation, Synergies and Education in the Directorate for Geosciences to learn more about the new Focus on Recruiting Emerging Climate and Adaptation Scientists and Transformers (FORECAST) program.

NSF program directors will provide a brief overview of the FORECAST program, which will be followed by discussion and a question-and-answer session. 

Register in advanced for the June 10 and June 13 sessions.

Representatives from NSF's Division of Enterprise Services will hold a technical webinar on system-related information to assist with CAREER proposal submission on Friday, June 7, 2024, from 1 - 2 p.m.

This webinar will include a review of the system-related requirements in the CAREER proposal submission timeline guidance, a demo of how to prepare a CAREER proposal in Research.gov, and a question and answer session. Submit question and answer session questions prior to the webinar to careerproposalprep@nsf.gov.  

Webinar registration link will be available in an advisory at the top of the Research.gov homepage on Monday, May 13. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with details about joining the webinar.

We invite you to submit your scientific images to be displayed in a professional art exhibition and then auctioned to support STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) programs in our region.

Your submission will ignite curiosity, inspire creativity, and support educational initiatives that empower future generations in STEAM fields.

How the program works:

1. Submit high-resolution artwork by Friday, June 7.

2. Artwork is selected by professional curators

3. Selected applicants will be notified in early July.

4. Chosen artwork will be:

• Professionally printed and framed
• Featured online and in the 2024 Science2Art video
• Featured in Science2Art exhibit at Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, MO

5. Auctioned online at BioNexusKC.org and at Annual Event in Fall 2024.

For more information or to submit artwork, visit the BioNexus KC website.

June 10, 2024, 2 – 3 p.m.

June 27, 2024, 12 – 1 p.m.

July 10, 2024, 3 – 4 p.m.

See additional dates and times on nsf.gov

Staff from the National STEM Teachers Corps program will be hosting a series of webinars.

Register here.

The Cybersecurity Workforce Data Initiative (CWDI), mandated by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and led by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), is assessing the feasibility of producing national estimates on the U.S. cybersecurity workforce. As part of this effort, CWDI is holding three virtual workshops in 2024. Through these workshops, the public has the opportunity to provide input that will shape a possible future federal data collection on the U.S. cybersecurity workforce.

• June 11, 2024, 12 - 2 p.m. - Aligning the Supply and Demand of Cybersecurity Professionals

Registration is now open.

June 11, 2024, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.

SBE CRISES Program Officers will host a series of office hours in May and June to address questions from PIs who were approved to submit a full proposal.

• All meetings during office hours are 1-on-1. Guests are seen in the order they join. You may have to wait if others join before you.
• If you need captions or other accommodations, please contact Naomi Hall-Byers in advance.
• To join office hours on June 11, CLICK HERE.

For more information about the CRISES program, visit the Centers for Research and Innovation in Science, the Environment and Society (CRISES) program page.

June 11, 2024, 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.

July 9, 2024, 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.

See additional dates and times on nsf.gov

Please join this Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Q&A webinar to learn about the PFI program. During the webinar, you will have the opportunity to ask questions about the PFI program and what to expect for the submission deadline.

June 12, 2024, 3 - 4 p.m.

Join the MFAI Team for a webinar to share information and answer questions about the Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence (MFAI) program. Anyone interested in learning about the MFAI program is encouraged to attend. 

Register here.

June 13, 2024, 12 - 1 p.m.

The U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) extends a warm invitation to our upcoming webinar focusing on the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

At this webinar, we will delve into the wealth of opportunities available through our Dear Colleague Letter: Expanding Geographic and Institutional Diversity in Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, designed to foster geographic and demographic diversity in research. We are committed to promoting SBE-funded activities that drive sustainable growth and competitiveness across all 28 EPSCoR jurisdictions.

Register here.

June 13, 2024, 9 a.m. – June 14, 2024, 3 p.m.

By bringing together experts in cognitive sciences, linguistics, and AI-based NLP, this 2-day, online workshop aims to address fundamental questions regarding the representation of written language knowledge in humans, the cognitive processes involved in human-AI collaboration during text comprehension and composition, and the potential of large language models for enhancing reading and writing skills.

Register here.

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the U.S. National Science Foundation has issued a Request for Information on Use Cases to Inform a Future National Secure Data Service (NSDS) via its America's DataHub Consortium (ADC). This RFI encourages response from a broad and diverse group of communities, including but not limited to individuals and organizations that conduct work in research, policy, program, and education. The goal is to gather current and anticipated research, policy, program, and education use cases for a National Secure Data Service, and to also identify current and anticipated challenges and barriers that could be addressed through the use of an NSDS.

Responses are due by June 14, 2024.

ExpandAI Virtual Office Hours

June 18, 2024, 2 – 3 p.m.

July 16, 2024, 2 – 3 p.m.

See additional dates and times on nsf.gov.

Representatives from across the division will be available to discuss specific programs and funding opportunities. There will then be an open question and answer period – questions can be on any NSF or DBI topic. Join us remotely and bring your questions!

Register here.

June 18, 2024, 2 – 3 p.m.



The NSF Engineering for Civil Infrastructure (ECI) program is hosting virtual office hours for early career faculty planning to submit proposals to the Faculty Early Career Development Program by the July 24, 2024, deadline. The ECI program is a core, unsolicited research program.

More information and a Zoom link can be found here.

June 19, 2024, 1-2 p.m.

July 17, 2024, 1-2 p.m.

August 14, 2024, 1-2 p.m.

Please join the Decision Risk Management Sciences Program to discuss questions about the program with the program directors.

Office hours take place over Zoom monthly, generally on Wednesdays. Please see date(s) listed below and note that times listed are in the Eastern time zone.

To join, use the Decision Risk Management Sciences office hour Zoom link

• All meetings during office hours are 1-on-1. Guests are seen in the order they join. You may have to wait if others join before you.
• If you need captions or other accommodations, please contact Claudia Gonzalez-Vallejo or Bob O'Connor in advance. 

For more information about the program, visit the Decision Risk Management Sciences program page.

Decision, Risk and Management Sciences Office Hour

June 19, 2024, 1 – 2 p.m.



Please join the Decision Risk Management Sciences office hour to discuss questions about the program with the program directors. 



To join, use the Decision Risk Management Sciences office hour Zoom link

• All meetings during office hours are 1-on-1. Guests are seen in the order they join. You may have to wait if others join before you.
• If you need captions or other accommodations, please contact Claudia Gonzalez-Vallejo or Bob O'Connor in advance. 

For more information about the program, visit the Decision Risk Management Sciences program page.

June 20, 2024, 2 - 4 p.m.

Join us for the culminating event of the "Exploring EPSCoR Research Ecosystems" workshop series, where we'll unveil the innovative solutions and best practices developed by the EPSCoR community to propel EPSCoR jurisdictions into the future of their research ecosystems. 

This series of workshops is designed to allow jurisdictions to connect both individually, and cross sectors and geographies, to work together to identify challenges and opportunities unique to each jurisdiction and then elucidate intersectional best practices to build their respective ecosystems. 

This virtual session will include a discussion on the results from our recent in-person workshop and dissemination of the developed resources available for each jurisdiction.

How to Attend: Advance registration is required. Click here to register. Please use an institutional email address for registration. EPSCoR Live! participants are encouraged to submit questions in advance through the registration form or by sending an email to epscor-live@nsf.gov. 

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is hosting a virtual grant writing webinar series: Debuting Your Research Career: How to Plan for and Write Your First (or Next) NIH Grant Application. This monthly webinar series is free and open to all to pre- and post-doctoral fellows, clinician-scientists, as well as early-stage and mid-career research investigators.

The series will provide information on the funding opportunities for early career researchers at NIAID, navigating the F, K, DP2 and R38/K38 awards, and understanding the peer review process.

Dates and Topics:

• June 20, 2024: Navigating NIH to prepare your grant application – DP2/R38/K38 awards
• July 18, 2024: Understanding the Peer Review process

Register here.

Office Hours: Preparing your Phase I Proposal for America’s Seed Fund at NSF 

June 20, 2024, 1 - 2 p.m.

See additional dates and times on nsf.gov

Join this open-ended session to ask questions about what’s needed when creating a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) proposal. A SBIR/STTR program director will answer questions and point you to resources.

Register here.

NASA invites applications for the 5th annual course of the Spaceflight Technology, Applications, and Research (STAR) virtual training focused on the science and technology behind biological experiments in space. STAR is designed to encourage networking and collaborations in spaceflight technologies, applications, and research across all areas interested in space and biological sciences.

This course aims to facilitate the entry of researchers into space biology and preparation for spaceflight experiments using NASA and commercial platforms. The STAR course will cover both fundamental and applied aspects of the field of space biology, as well as practical aspects of preparing for, conducting, and analyzing the results of spaceflight experiments. See the STAR Program website for more information.

Responses must be submitted electronically using the NSPIRES web site before June 28, 2024. STAR-5 is open to all eligible individuals based on eligibility as outlined in Section III in the RFI.

Submitting a STAR application does not guarantee course acceptance. The course will take place virtually from September 2024 – February 2025 with sessions held weekly for two hours each.

STAR-5 questions will be accepted by email only and must be addressed to the STAR Management Team (Egle Cekanaviciute at NASA Ames and Ursula Koniges at NASA Headquarters) HQ-STAR-Management@mail.nasa.gov using a subject line that states “STAR-5 Application”.

July 9, 2024, 2 – 3 p.m.

August 9, 2024, 2 – 3 p.m.

See additional dates and times on nsf.gov

The U.S. National Science Foundation will share information and answer questions about the Engineering of Biomedical Systems program (EBMS). The goal of the EBMS program is to provide opportunities for fundamental and transformative research projects that integrate engineering and life sciences to solve biomedical problems and serve humanity in the long term.

More information can be found here.

The National Endowment for the Humanities will hold a Summer Stipends webinar on July 10 at 1 - 2 p.m. CT. This webinar will be important to attend if you are interested in applying to this program because NEH has made several substantial changes to the program including to eligibility, increasing the stipends from $6,000 to $8,000 and reducing the number of nominations an institution can make from two to only one. If you are unable to attend this webinar, NEH typically includes a YouTube video of its annual webinar on its Summer Stipends website.

July 25, 2024, 6 – 7 p.m.

See additional dates and times on nsf.gov



Join this question-and-answer session to learn more about America’s Seed Fund powered by the National Science Foundation. A Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer program director will answer questions about how to get started, the basics of eligibility and what they look for when they review project pitches.

Register here.

Criminal justice researchers, practitioners, policymakers, advocates, and those interested in promoting safety, equity, and justice for all are encouraged to join us in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 16-18, 2024. 

During the three-day research conference, we will cover current and emerging challenges and present strategies for applying research findings into practice, including guidance on equitable and community-engaged research designs.

Plenaries include: 

• Ten Years of Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science 
• Violence Against Women Act 30-Year Anniversary 
• Advancing Justice for the Missing and Unidentified Through Research 

Let’s come together to advance justice through science. 

NIH scientists develop AI tool to predict how cancer patients will respond to immunotherapy

In a proof-of-concept study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that uses routine clinical data, such as that from a simple blood test, to predict whether someone’s cancer will respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of immunotherapy drug that helps immune cells kill cancer cells. The machine-learning model may help doctors determine if immunotherapy drugs are effective for treating a patient’s cancer. NIH

Mountain building linked to major extinction event half a billion years ago

As life on Earth rapidly expanded a little over 500 million years ago during the "Cambrian explosion," Earth had tectonic plates slowly crashing into each other, building mountains and starting a series of unfortunate events that led to a mass extinction. NSF

Introducing peanut in infancy prevents peanut allergy into adolescence

Feeding children peanut products regularly from infancy to age 5 years reduced the rate of peanut allergy in adolescence by 71%, even when the children ate or avoided peanut products as desired for many years. These new findings, from a study sponsored and co-funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), provide conclusive evidence that achieving long-term prevention of peanut allergy is possible through early allergen consumption. NIH

AI detects more breast cancers with fewer false positives

Using artificial intelligence (AI), breast radiologists in Denmark have improved breast cancer screening performance and reduced the rate of false-positive findings. EurekAlert!

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