Category Archives: Agency Specific

Limited Submission Opportunity – Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM)

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Internal Limited Submission Deadline to the Office of Research Administration: Monday, January 1, 2019 at 5pm.

NSF Deadline: February 22, 2019

Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM) funds research projects that identify (1) factors that are effective in the formation of ethical STEM researchers and (2) approaches to developing those factors in all the fields of science and engineering that NSF supports. CCE STEM solicits proposals for research that explores the following: ‘What constitutes responsible conduct for research (RCR), and which cultural and institutional contexts promote ethical STEM research and practice and why?’  Factors one might consider include:  honor codes,  professional ethics codes and licensing requirements, an ethic of service and/or service learning, life-long learning requirements,  curricula or memberships in organizations (e.g. Engineers without Borders) that stress responsible conduct for research,  institutions that  serve  under-represented groups,  institutions where academic and research integrity are cultivated at multiple levels,  institutions that cultivate ethics across the curriculum, or programs that promote group work, or do not grade.  Do certain labs have a ‘culture of academic integrity’? What practices contribute to the establishment and maintenance of ethical cultures and how can these practices be transferred, extended to, and integrated into other research and learning settings?

Successful proposals typically have a comparative dimension, either between or within institutional settings that differ along these or among other factors, and they specify plans for developing interventions that promote the effectiveness of identified factors.

CCE STEM research projects will use basic research to produce knowledge about what constitutes or promotes responsible or irresponsible conduct of research, and how to best instill students with this knowledge. In some cases, projects will include the development of interventions to ensure responsible research conduct.

Proposals for awards from minority-serving institutions (e.g. Tribal Colleges and Universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions), women’s colleges, and institutions primarily serving persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged. Proposals including international collaborations are encouraged when those efforts enhance the merit of the proposed work by incorporating unique resources, expertise, facilities or sites of international partners. The U.S. team’s international counterparts generally should have support or obtain funding through other sources.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:

Only one proposal may be submitted by an eligible organization.

For full program details visit NSF’s CCE STEM webpage or the solicitation 18-532.

For details regarding The University of Akron’s limited submission process, visit the ORA Limited Submission webpage.

NSF to Launch New Proposal Preparation and Submission Site on Research.gov April 30, 2018

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Beginning on April 30, 2018, proposers will be able to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research.gov system. The initial release of this new Research.gov capability will run in parallel with existing FastLane proposal preparation and submission capabilities. As a result, proposers can choose to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals in Research.gov or in FastLane starting on April 30, 2018.  Other proposal types will be added to Research.gov in the future. Please note, proposals initiated in the new system will not be available in FastLane and proposals prepared in FastLane will not be available in the new system. This new system is being developed incrementally and as capabilities are migrated from FastLane to Research.gov, the system features will expand until it eventually replaces FastLane for proposal preparation and submission. There will be no impact to Grants.gov and Application Submission Web Services (ASWS), and NSF will continue to fully support these proposal submission methods.

The Research.gov proposal site modernizes proposal preparation and submission capabilities and focuses on enhancing the user experience and reducing administrative burden with an intuitive interface and real-time compliance checking. The new functionality provides the ability to create, submit, track, and update proposals associated with active NSF funding opportunities and furthers NSF’s goal to provide quick access to proposal information and grants management services in one location.

Research.gov Proposal Preparation Site Preview

On February 26, 2018, NSF began previewing the new Research.gov proposal preparation site to the research community to collect preliminary feedback and to provide the community an opportunity to become familiar with the new interface before the official site launch on April 30, 2018. The preview will continue until 8:00PM EDT on April 27, 2018, and allows any research community user with a FastLane or Research.gov account to test the new Research.gov proposal preparation features.

We encourage you to check out the preview site before April 27, 2018. Please keep in mind that all test data entered on the Research.gov proposal preparation site during the preview period (February 26, 2018 through April 27, 2018) will be deleted before the full site is launched on April 30, 2018.

Feedback on Proposal Preparation Site Preview

Feedback from the research community and NSF staff about proposal preparation in Research.gov during the preview period is critical to NSF and will be used to enhance and expand Research.gov incrementally. Feedback on the Research.gov preview site may be submitted via this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ProposalPreparation.

Additional Information

Resources including Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and a system capabilities release timeline are available on the Research.gov About Proposal Preparation and Submission page. A series of short instructional videos is currently in development and will be posted on the About Proposal Preparation and Submission page. 

We hope that you are as excited as we are about the official launch of the Research.gov proposal preparation and submission site for full, research non-collaborative proposals on April 30, 2018!

For IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or rgov@nsf.gov. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

Regards,

The Research.gov Team at the National Science Foundation

NASA University Leadership Initiative (ULI) – Proposal Opportunity

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Amendment 1 to the NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics – 2018 (ROA-2018) NRA has been posted on the NSPIRES web site.

Solicitation: NNH18ZEA001N

Research proposals are sought in seven topic areas for Appendix D.4 in support of University Leadership Initiative (ULI).

ULI provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges, defining interdisciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact. By addressing the most complex challenges associated with ARMD strategic thrusts, universities will accelerate progress toward achievement of high impact outcomes while leveraging their capability to bring together the best and brightest minds across many disciplines. In order to transition their research, Principal Investigators are expected to actively explore transition opportunities and pursue follow-on funding from stakeholders and industrial partners during the course of the award.

Proposals are sought in seven topic areas corresponding to the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD):

  • Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations
  • Topic 2: Innovation in Commercial Supersonic Aircraft
  • Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles
  • Topic 4: Transition to Alternative Propulsion and Energy
  • Topic 5: Real-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance
  • Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation
  • Topic 7: Aviation Manufacturing

An Applicant’s Workshop will be held on Wednesday April 4, 2018 from 12:30-3:00 ET (https://ac.arc.nasa.gov/ppbriefing/ and sign in as a “Guest” using your full name).  Additional information on page D-33 of the solicitation.

This NRA will use a 2-step proposal process. Step-A proposals are required, in place of the NOI, and are due May 16, 2018.

NSF Public Access Policy Expansion

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The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Public Access policy is intended to expand public access to the results of its federally-funded research. This aligns with the Foundation’s long-standing commitment to clear and open communication of research results, which is central to fulfilling NSF’s primary mission of promoting the progress of science, advancing the frontiers of knowledge, and helping to ensure the nation’s future prosperity.

NSF’s Public Access policy requires NSF-funded investigators to deposit peer-reviewed, published journal articles and juried conference papers in the NSF Public Access Repository (NSF-PAR). NSF-PAR was launched in late 2015 in partnership with the Department of Energy (DoE) to enable NSF-funded investigators to meet this deposit requirement and to include the relevant information in their annual and final project reports.

Public Access Expansion

Beginning on March 26, 2018, NSF authors who are jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE) can retrieve previously submitted final manuscripts from the DOE system and pull them into NSF-PAR to meet NSF’s Public Access requirement. When an author indicates they have deposited a record into the DOE E-Link system and a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) match is found, the system will upload it to NSF-PAR for submission. The uploaded record will also be linked automatically to the project report associated with the award. This integration will only be available for jointly-funded publications by NSF and DOE, but future efforts will engage additional agencies.

Additional information is available on the Research.gov “About Public Access” page and in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (NSF 18-041) on the NSF.gov website.

For IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or rgov@nsf.gov. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Broad Agency Announcement for Basic Scientific Research (2018)

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Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) W911NF-18-S-0001 for the Foundational Science  Research Unit of the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social  Sciences (ARI) solicits new proposals for its fiscal year 2018 program of basic  research in behavioral science. The U.S. Army Research Institute for the  Behavioral and Social Sciences is the Army lead agency for the conduct of  research, development, and analyses for the improvement of Army readiness and  performance via research advances and applications of the behavioral and social  sciences that address personnel, organization, training, and leader development  issues.  The basic research program supports research projects that are designed  to expand fundamental knowledge and discover general principles in behavioral and  social sciences.

 A key consideration in the decision to support a research proposal is that its  findings are likely to stimulate new, basic behavioral research which, in turn,  will lead to improved performance of Army personnel and their units.  Proposals  may address both traditional behavioral issues as well as psychophysiological (to  include neuroscience) and network science approaches to social phenomena, memory,  cognition, and personality. ARI will not support proposals through this BAA that  are primarily applied research projects (e.g., human factors studies or training  program evaluations) or purely focused on physiology, psychopathology, or  behavioral health. 

Interested offerors are encouraged to submit white papers prior to submitting  proposals. 

The full research announcement and application instructions for both white papers and proposals may be viewed at grants.gov under opportunity number W911NF-18-S-0001.

White paper submissions due by April 4, 2018.

Full proposal submissions due by June 15, 2018.

Research topic areas of interest include the domains listed below (see the BAA p. 8, available here, for more information):

  1. Personnel Testing and performance
  2. Leader Development
  3. Organizational Effectiveness
  4. Learning in Formal and Informal Environments
  5. Culture