The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation has selected Environmental Chemistry as the topic of the 2021 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences. The deadline for nominations is December 3, 2020.

The Dreyfus Prize, awarded biennially, recognizes an individual for exceptional and original research in a selected area of chemistry that has advanced the field in a major way. The prize consists of a monetary award of $250,000, a medal, and a certificate.

“The chemistry of the Earth’s environment affects every person on the planet in a profound manner,” said Matthew Tirrell, chair of the Dreyfus Foundation Scientific Affairs Committee. “Understanding the genesis and the resultant effects of environmental chemical phenomena, and devising mitigations to undesired changes, are among the greatest contributions that chemistry is making to society. The Dreyfus Foundation therefore wishes to recognize Environmental Chemistry with its 2021 Prize in the Chemical Sciences.”

For further details on the Prize and the nomination procedure, please visit the Dreyfus Foundation website.  

All COVID-19 FAQs were reviewed and revised to align with NIH Implementation of OMB Memorandum M-20-26. Impacted FAQs are marked as new/updated.

OMB Memorandum M-20-26 was released June 18, 2020 and addresses the following extended flexibilities:

• Allowability of Salaries and Other Project Activities (2 CFR § 200.403, 2 CFR § 200.404, 2 CFR § 200.405)   
  • This flexibility is time limited and will expire on September 30, 2020. 
• Extension of Single Audit Submission and COVID-19 Emergency Acts Fund Reporting (2 CFR § 200.512) 
  • This flexibility is time limited and will expire on December 31, 2020.

IOS continues to accept no deadline full proposal submission: proposals may be submitted any day, any time

Synopsis of Program:

The Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) Core Programs Track supports research aimed at understanding why organisms are structured the way they are and function as they do. Proposals are welcomed in all of the core scientific program areas supported by the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS). Areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, developmental biology and the evolution of developmental processes, nervous system development, structure, modification, function, and evolution; biomechanics and functional morphology, physiological processes, symbioses and microbial interactions, interactions of organisms with biotic and abiotic environments, plant and animal genomics, and animal behavior. Proposals should focus on organisms as a fundamental unit of biological organization. Principal Investigators (PIs) are encouraged to apply systems approaches that will lead to conceptual and theoretical insights and predictions about emergent organismal properties. The four clusters in IOS which are participating in submissions to this solicitation are:

• Behavioral Systems Cluster
• Developmental Systems Cluster
• Neural Systems Cluster
• Physiological and Structural Systems Cluster

The Rules of Life Track supports integrative proposals that span the subcellular and cellular scales normally funded by MCB to the organ, tissue, organismal, and group scale typically funded by IOS, to population, species, community and ecosystem scales typically funded by DEB. Rules of Life proposals may also include enabling infrastructure through joint submission with DBI. Discovery of fundamental principles and enabling infrastructure will advance understanding and further predict how key properties of living systems emerge from the interaction of genomes, phenotypes, and developmental, social and environmental context across space and time. This track provides opportunities to advance understanding of the Rules of Life by new mechanisms for review and funding of proposals that span two or more divisions in the Biological Sciences Directorate. Proposals submitted to the Rules of Life (RoL) track must integrate research activities across multiple levels of biological organization and span programs beyond a single division in the Directorate for Biological Sciences.

To be responsive to the RoL Track proposed activities must:

• Engage or enable innovative approaches to fundamental questions in biology;
• Promise results or approaches that are generalizable beyond particular study systems;
• Seek to discover, enable and/or test foundational principles (rules, theory) that explain or predict the emergence of complex phenomena in biology;
• and Apply integrative approaches that span levels of biological organization beyond the funding programs within a single BIO division.

The NSF IOS program page has additional information including the program solicitation.

Proposal Deadline: July 14, 2020

SUMMARY: This notice announces the availability of funds and solicits applications that will accelerate the development of new or enhance/increase existing anaerobic digestion capacity and infrastructure in the United States. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the natural process in which microorganisms break down organic (plant and animal) materials. Food waste diverted from landfills and incinerators can be managed at AD facilities. The AD process generates renewable energy (biogas) and a product that can improve soil health (digestate).

EPA is soliciting applications for a wide variety of projects that are designed to increase the use of AD for management of organic materials in the United States. It is anticipated that applications will include projects that create new AD capacity, optimize use of existing capacity, or identify strategies that otherwise result in an increase in management of organic materials through AD. EPA also recognizes and encourages applications that demonstrate effective marketing and/or sale of AD products (e.g., biogas and digestate). Such projects are beneficial to the AD industry and can therefore build the foundation for development of additional AD infrastructure.

Applications must achieve one or more of the following objectives:

• Support state, tribal, and/or local government programs that seek to use AD to increase their organic waste diversion rates.
• Demonstrate solutions and/or approaches for increasing AD utilization that can be replicated by other communities, governments, or other entities; or
• Establish new or expand existing partnerships (public/private partnerships) that result in development of AD capacity.

Additional information, including the program RFP, can be found on grants.gov.

Full Proposal Deadline: October 07, 2020

The goal of the Discovery Research PreK-12 program (DRK-12) is to catalyze research and development of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) education innovations or approaches that can serve as models for use within the nation’s formal preK-12 STEM education system (e.g., states, districts, schools, and teachers). The intent of the DRK-12 program is to: (1) catalyze new approaches to STEM learning, teaching, and assessment; (2) build knowledge about how to develop preK-12 students’ STEM content knowledge, practices, and skills; and (3) provide multiple resources in a variety of STEM learning environments and study the learning process itself. The DRK-12 program is committed to research and development that inform strategies to promote success for all students in all STEM fields of study. The program encourages proposals from a range of institution types and categories including minority-serving institutions (e.g., HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Alaska Native-Serving Institutions, and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions), primarily undergraduate institutions and other organizations focused on preK-12 STEM Education. The DRK-12 Program especially welcomes proposals that are consistent with the goal of developing STEM talent and workforce from all sectors and groups in our society (e.g., NSF INCLUDES). Collaborations are encouraged between DRK-12 proposals and existing NSF INCLUDES projects, provided the collaboration strengthens both projects.

Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. School leaders, teachers, and students who participate in DRK-12 studies are expected to enhance their understanding and use of STEM content, practices, and skills. The DRK-12 program invites proposals that seek to transform the STEM education landscape of the future by reimagining structures and systems of PreK-12 teaching, learning, and assessment, while also addressing current challenges in PreK-12 STEM research and practice. The projects funded by the program should reflect the needs of the increasingly diverse population and national, state, or district priorities. Projects should contribute to the research base in STEM education by studying how students and teachers learn, through well-articulated STEM education innovations with clear theories of action. DRK-12 projects are expected to contribute to both theory and practice. Therefore, projects are expected to result in innovations or approaches that can be shared with and feasibly implemented by other organizations as well as research shared in peer-reviewed research and practice publications.

There are three strands that guide the focus of DRK-12 projects: (1) Assessment; (2) Learning; and (3) Teaching.

The DRK-12 program encourages proposals that address STEM assessment questions facing the field including, but not limited to, the following:

1. How does assessment information move across levels of the educational system and with what degree of validity?
2. How are assessment frameworks related to theories of learning, and in what ways do the resulting assessment innovations or approaches inform and advance the field conceptually?
3. How do users of STEM assessments (e.g., students, teachers, administrators, districts, parents) interact with, perceive, respond to, and make sense of the assessment information?
4. How are disciplinary learning progressions and trajectories informing and being informed by and through assessment?
5. What are effective ways to build capacity in the field for the design, development, implementation, interpretation, and use of assessment in STEM learning settings?
6. What roles and opportunities do emergent technologies have related to assessment?

The DRK-12 program encourages proposals that address important questions facing the learning of STEM including, but not limited to, the following:

1. How does the innovation or approach challenge and improve upon current practices and standards?
2. How does the innovation or approach focus on emerging STEM concepts and practices that reimagine or transform existing school curricula?
3. How does the innovation or approach make use of data and practices from STEM fields to transform existing school curricula?
4. How is the innovation or approach likely to be transformative for STEM teaching and learning?
5. How does the innovation or approach increase broader participation in STEM by targeting underserved or disadvantaged groups of learners, such as English language learners, underrepresented minorities, or students with disabilities?

The DRK-12 program encourages proposals that address important questions facing STEM teaching including, but not limited to, the following:

1. How does the innovation or approach improve instructional practices and increase students’ learning and outcomes?
2. How does the innovation or approach recruit, certify, induct, and/or prepare STEM teachers better than existing practice?
3. How do pre- or in-service teachers develop STEM content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in ways that improve their instructional practice?
4. How does the innovation or approach develop teaching expertise and instructional leadership across schools, districts, and the broader national teacher community?
5. How can we assist teachers in making data-driven instructional decisions to meet the needs of all learners?
6. How can teachers’ capacity and willingness to customize instructional approaches be developed to meet standards and the needs of diverse student populations?
7. What are effective methods for developing, applying, and testing effective models of professional development that improve STEM teaching and learning?

The DRK-12 program invites proposals for six project types: (1) Exploratory, (2) Design and Development, (3) Impact, (4) Implementation and Improvement, (5) Syntheses, and (6) Conferences.

More information is on the NSF DRK-12 program page, including the program guidelines.