NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM)

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Full Proposal Deadline: March 25, 2020

Program Solicitation: 20-526

Synopsis:

A well-educated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce is a significant contributor to maintaining the competitiveness of the U.S. in the global economy. The National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program addresses the need for a high quality STEM workforce in STEM disciplines supported by the program and for the increased success of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who are pursuing associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Recognizing that financial aid alone cannot increase retention and graduation in STEM, the program provides awards to Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to fund scholarships and to advance the adaptation, implementation, and study of effective evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities that support recruitment, retention, transfer (if appropriate), student success, academic/career pathways, and graduation in STEM. The S-STEM program encourages collaborations among different types of participating groups, including but not limited to partnerships among different types of institutions; collaborations of STEM faculty and institutional, educational, and social science researchers; and partnerships among institutions of higher education and business, industry, local community organizations, national labs, or other federal or state government organizations, if appropriate.

The program seeks to 1) increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need obtaining degrees in S-STEM eligible disciplines and entering the workforce or graduate programs in STEM; 2) improve the education of future scientists, engineers, and technicians, with a focus on low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need; and 3) generate knowledge to advance understanding of how interventions or evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities affect the success, retention, transfer, academic/career pathways, and graduation of low-income students in STEM.

S-STEM Eligible Degree Programs:

  • Associates of Arts and Associates of Science
  • Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science
  • Master of Arts and Master of Science
  • Doctoral

S-STEM Eligible Disciplines

  • Biological sciences (except medicine and other clinical fields)
  • Physical sciences (including physics, chemistry, astronomy and materials sciences)
  • Mathematical sciences
  • Computer and information sciences
  • Geosciences
  • Engineering
  • Technology fields associated with the disciplines above (e.g. biotechnology, chemical technology, engineering technology, information technology)

NSF Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics

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Program Solicitation: NSF 20-512

Letter of Intent Due Dates (required): December 20, 2019

Full Proposal Deadline: February 6, 2020

Understanding the Rules of Life (URoL): Predicting Phenotype is one of NSF’s 10 Big Ideas and is focused on predicting the set of observable characteristics (phenotype) from the genetic makeup of the individual and the nature of its environment. The development of new research tools has revolutionized our ability to manipulate and investigate the genome and to measure multiple aspects of biological, physical, and social environments. The opportunity now is to assimilate this new information into causal, mechanistic, and/or predictive relationships among the genomic and epigenetic makeup, the environmental experience, and the phenotypic characteristics of biological systems. These relationships are the basis for the Rules of Life – the theoretical constructs that explain and predict the characteristics of living systems, from molecular and sub-cellular components, to cells, whole organisms, communities and biomes.

Successful projects of the URoL:Epigenetics Program are expected to use complementary, interdisciplinary approaches to investigate how epigenetic phenomena lead to emergent properties that explain the fundamental behavior of living systems. Ultimately, successful projects should identify general principles (“rules”) that underlie biological phenomena within or across scales of size, complexity (e.g., molecular, cellular, organismal, population) and time (from sub-second to geologic) in taxa from anywhere within the tree of life, including humans. URoL:Epigenetics projects must integrate perspectives and research approaches from more than one research discipline (e.g., biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, geology, mathematics, physics, social and behavioral sciences). The interdisciplinary scope of URoL:Epigenetics projects also provides unique training and outreach possibilities to train the next generation of scientists in a diversity of approaches and to engage society more generally.

The URoL:Epigenetics Program offers two submission tracks: Track 1 – for projects with a total budget of up to $500,000 and an award duration of up to 3 years, and Track 2 – for projects with a total budget of up to $3,000,000 and award duration of up to 5 years.

The URoL:Epigenetics Program includes participation from the Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO), Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), Geosciences (GEO), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE), and the Office of Integrative Activities (OIA) at the National Science Foundation. The goals of the program are to foster crosscutting, interdisciplinary research on the epigenetic regulation of organismal phenotypes that integrates perspectives and research approaches from more than one of these directorates. This program aims to support projects that would not traditionally be supported through regular core programs of the participating directorates and offices. To that end, all proposals submitted to this program should identify two or more diverse and complementary disciplines involved, and how the project integrates them via interdisciplinary approaches.

Appropriate approaches for URoL:Epigenetics projects include, but are not limited to:

  • The use of cellular engineering and physical-chemical approaches to manipulate molecular and cellular components to understand cellular and organismal responses to environmental change;
  • Investigation of physical, and chemical interactions that underlie epigenetic changes in the structure, packing, function, and dynamics of DNA, RNA and proteins;
  • Development/ application of artificial intelligence to identify patterns that reveal the underlying principles to explain how environmental influences on the epigenome lead to phenotypic outcomes;
  • Leveraging of existing experimental, observational or survey datasets to model or analyze relationships among environment, epigenetic processes, and phenotype, including across populations, species, or ecosystems;
  • The use of interdisciplinary biological, mathematical, computational, social and behavioral science methods to predict relationships among epigenetic mechanisms; physical, physiological and behavioral phenotypes; physical, social and built environments; and emergent properties at organismal and supra-organismal levels.

NSF Addressing Systems Challenges through Engineering Teams (ASCENT)

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Program Solicitation: NSF 20-511

Letter of Intent Due Date (required): January 7, 2020

Full Proposal Deadline: February 19, 2020

Program Synopsis:

The Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems Division (ECCS) supports enabling and transformative engineering research at the nano, micro, and macro scales that fuels progress in engineering system applications with high societal impact. This includes fundamental engineering research underlying advanced devices and components and their seamless penetration in power, controls, networking, communications or cyber systems. The research is envisioned to be empowered by cutting-edge computation, synthesis, evaluation, and analysis technologies and is to result in significant impact for a variety of application domains in healthcare, homeland security, disaster mitigation, telecommunications, energy, environment, transportation, manufacturing, and other systems-related areas. ECCS also supports new and emerging research areas encompassing 5G and Beyond Spectrum and Wireless Technologies, Quantum Information Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Big Data.

ECCS, through its ASCENT program, offers its engineering community the opportunity to address research issues and answer engineering challenges associated with complex systems and networks that are not achievable by a single principal investigator or by short-term projects and can only be achieved by interdisciplinary research teams. ECCS envisions a connected portfolio of transformative and integrative projects that create synergistic links by investigators across its three ECCS clusters: Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems (CCSS), Electronics, Photonics and Magnetic Devices (EPMD), and Energy, Power, Control, and Networks (EPCN), yielding novel ways of addressing challenges of engineering systems and networks. ECCS seeks proposals that are bold and ground-breaking, transcend the perspectives and approaches typical of disciplinary research efforts, and lead to disruptive technologies and methods or enable significant improvement in quality of life.

ASCENT supports fundamental research projects involving at least three collaborating PIs and co-PIs, up to four years in duration, with a total budget between $1 million and $1.5 million.

  • ASCENT supports fundamental research projects involving at least three collaborating PIs and co-PIs, up to four years in duration, with a total budget between $1 million and $1.5 million.
  • ASCENT proposals must highlight the engineering leadership focus of the proposal within the scope of ECCS programs.
  • ASCENT proposals must articulate a fundamental research problem with compelling intellectual challenge and significant societal impact. The topic at the heart of the proposal must lie within the scope of at least one of the three ECCS clusters (CCSS, EPMD, EPCN). Research proposals spanning multiple clusters are highly encouraged.
  • ASCENT proposals must demonstrate the need for a concerted research effort by an integrated and interdisciplinary team, and strongly justify the interdisciplinary nature of the proposed work. They should include a timeline for research activities, with a strong justification of the explicit mechanisms for frequent communication between team members and effective assessment to achieve proposed goals.

NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Supplemental Funding in Computer and Information Science and Engineering

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The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) invites grantees with active CISE awards to submit requests for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplements, following the guidelines in the REU Sites and Supplements solicitation (NSF 19-582). CISE also invites grantees with active CISE awards to submit requests for Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Supplements, following the guidelines in the RET in Engineering and Computer Science: Supplements and Sites solicitation (NSF 19-575). Requests will be considered as they are received. CISE strongly encourages the submission of requests before March 30, 2020; the potential for funding requests after this date may be limited.

REU Supplements

REU supplements help undergraduate students engage in meaningful research experiences in pursuit of their educational and career goals. To be eligible for this opportunity, a student must be a US citizen or permanent resident of the US. CISE encourages submission of REU supplemental funding requests that specifically afford US veterans an opportunity to engage in meaningful research experiences.

RET Supplements

RET supplements help K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers engage in meaningful research experiences and translate the knowledge gained into their teaching practices. The focus of their research should be in CISE disciplines rather than on education or curriculum development. Teachers who receive funding from an RET supplement must be currently teaching a STEM subject at their schools. CISE is particularly interested in RET supplements that target K-12 computer science teachers. Since a major goal of a RET activity is to create a bond between the K-12 schools and the host college or university, recruitment of RET teachers should focus on schools or school districts reasonably close to the host institutions.

How to Apply

PIs are encouraged to refer to the REU program solicitation (NSF 19-582) and the RET program solicitation (NSF 19-575) for detailed information concerning submission requirements. As described above and in those solicitations, each REU or RET supplemental funding request should include the following information:

  • A description of the research to be performed by the student or K-12 teacher, and how the student or teacher will benefit from the overall REU or RET experience;
  • The PI’s prior experience, if any, supervising REU students or working with K-12 teachers, including papers published and student placements, along with the status of prior REU or RET supplements received on the corresponding award;
  • A description of the mentoring that the student or teacher will receive as part of the REU or RET experience;
  • The relationship of the REU or RET supplemental funding request to the original award;
  • A description of the process for recruiting the students and/or teachers (including those from underrepresented groups) and the criteria for selecting the students and/or teachers; or if a student or teacher has been pre-selected, a brief bio-sketch of the student or teacher;
  • A statement acknowledging that all students to be funded will be US citizens or permanent residents; and
  • Specifics about the REU or RET request — duration, stipend rates, period of REU or RET experience, and travel justification (if any).

No particular format is required for presenting the above information, but numbered sections that address items 1 through 6 in the Summary of Proposed Work section are preferred, with item 7 addressed in the Budget Justification.

Since a supplemental funding request is handled by the cognizant NSF program officer who oversees the active award for which the request is submitted, grantees should contact the cognizant NSF program officers of their awards if they have questions or need additional information.

NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure(CC*)

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Program Solicitation: NSF 20-507

Full Proposal Deadline: January 21, 2020

The FY 2020 CC* solicitation invests in coordinated campus-level networking and cyberinfrastructure improvements, innovation, integration, and engineering for science applications and distributed research projects. Learning and workforce development (LWD) in CI is explicitly addressed in the program. Science-driven requirements are the primary motivation for any proposed activity.

CC* awards will be supported in six program areas:

  1. Data-Driven Networking Infrastructure for the Campus and Researcher awards will be supported at up to $500,000 total for up to 2 years;
  2. Regional Connectivity for Small Institutions awards will be supported at up to $800,000 total for up to 2 years;
  3. Network Integration and Applied Innovation awards will be supported at up to $1,000,000 total for up to 2 years [in some cases, these awards are limited to $500,000 total—see program area (3) in Section II. Program Description];
  4. Campus Computing and the Computing Continuum awards will be supported at up to $400,000 total for up to 2 years;
  5. Cyber Team—Research and Education CI-based Regional Facilitation awards will be supported at up to $1,400,000 total for up to 3 years; and
  6. Planning Grants and CI-Research Alignment awards will be supported at up to $250,000 total for up to 2 years [in some cases these awards are limited to $100,000 total—see program area (6) in Section II. Program Description].

In FY 2020, the expansion in the program aims to align it with NSF’s vision for a holistic CI ecosystem outlined in “Transforming Science Through Cyberinfrastructure: NSF’s Blueprint for a National Cyberinfrastructure Ecosystem for Science and Engineering in the 21st Century” (see https://www.nsf.gov/cise/oac/vision/blueprint-2019/). These changes focus on the aggregation and integration of CI investments at the campus level, with the goal of helping campuses drive toward a 21st-century realization of an integrated CI for enabling science. Program area (1) continues to address science-driven needs in data networking intra-campus, and externally. Area (2) repeats that core theme of networking improvements, with a specific emphasis on supporting the needs of multiple under-resourced campuses through partnerships with regional entities and small institutions with experience in high-performance Research & Education (R&E) networking. Area (3) goes beyond networking infrastructure investments in areas (1) and (2) by leveraging the campus network as a compelling environment on which to develop and deploy new networking capabilities reflecting applied research and development in networking. Areas (4) and (5) build on the networking capability foundation established in the first three areas. Area (4) recognizes both the research computing needs at a campus level, and the largely untapped potential to share unused compute cycles and resources across the entire academic fabric of highly connected and increasingly resourced campuses. Area (5) applies that same approach to perhaps the most important pillar of the CI, i.e., sharing professional, researcher, and student expertise in CI among groups of institutions. It invests in the human element that is essential for bridging CI to the scientific research and education projects across campuses. Areas (3), (4), and (5) reflect NSF’s goal of democratization and broadening participation in scientific networking and computing. Area (6) supports planning and coordination, in part reflecting the challenges for institutions that presently do not participate in the R&E network fabric and community.

Additional information can be found on the NSF CC* program page.