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An "Ideas Lab" is a new merit review strategy being used at the National Science Foundation to address grand challenges in STEM research and education. The Ideas Lab process is modeled on the "IDEAS Factory" program http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/routes/network/ideas/Pages/experience.aspx developed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the United Kingdom. The Ideas Lab process starts with submission of a brief application to participate in the Ideas Lab, indicating a Principal Investigator's interest in and preliminary ideas regarding the specific Ideas Lab topic. A diverse sub-set of participants from a range of disciplines and backgrounds will be selected from the submitted applications by NSF and will be brought together in an intensive, interactive and free-thinking environment, where participants immerse themselves in a collaborative dialog in order to construct bold and innovative approaches. In the IDEAS Factory model, the five-day Ideas Lab culminates with the development of multidisciplinary collaborative concepts by teams of participants; a sub-set of these teams are then invited to submit full proposals. This Dear Colleague Letter only invites applications to participate in Phase I of the IUSE Ideas Labs (i.e., the 5-day immersive activity). Full proposals will not be invited at the end of the three IUSE Phase I Ideas Labs.

NSF and selected foreign counterpart science and technology agencies sponsor international research institutes for U.S. graduate students in seven East Asia and Pacific locations at times set by the counterpart agencies between June and August each year. The Summer Institutes (EAPSI) operate similarly and the research visits to a particular location take place at the same time. Although applicants apply individually to participate in a Summer Institute, awardees become part of the cohort for each location. Applicants must propose a location, host scientist, and research project that is appropriate for the host site and duration of the international visit. An EAPSI award provides U.S. graduate students in science, engineering, and education: 1) first-hand research experiences in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, or Taiwan; 2) an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and 3) an orientation to the society, culture, and language. It is expected that EAPSI awards will help students initiate professional relationships to enable future collaboration with foreign counterparts. The NSF award includes participation in the Pre-Departure Orientation, summer stipend of $5,000, and roundtrip airplane ticket to the host location. EAPSI partner agencies pay in-country living expenses during the Summer Institutes.

The Science and Technology Centers (STC): Integrative Partnerships program supports innovative, potentially transformative, complex research and education projects that require large-scale, long-term awards. STCs conduct world-class research through partnerships among academic institutions, national laboratories, industrial organizations, and/or other public/private entities, and via international collaborations, as appropriate. They provide a means to undertake significant investigations at the interfaces of disciplines and/or fresh approaches within disciplines. STCs may involve any area of science and engineering that NSF supports

This Research Announcement (RA) solicits ground-breaking single-investigator proposals from junior faculty for research and development in the areas of physical sciences, engineering, materials, mathematics, biology, computing, informatics, and manufacturing of interest to DARPA's Biological Technologies Office (BTO), Defense Sciences Office (DSO) and Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). See attached package.

This Research Announcement (RA) solicits ground-breaking single-investigator proposals from junior faculty for research and development in the areas of physical sciences, engineering, materials, mathematics, biology, computing, informatics, and manufacturing of interest to DARPA's Biological Technologies Office (BTO), Defense Sciences Office (DSO) and Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). See attached package.

NIST is soliciting applications from eligible public-school districts and accredited private educational institutions in the U.S. and its territories. These eligible institutions would nominate middle school science teachers in grades six (6), seven (7), and/or eight (8), to participate in the NIST Summer Institute Program. The NIST Summer Institute Program will provide selected teachers hands-on activities, lectures, tours, and visits with NIST scientists and engineers at the NIST Campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The New York City-based Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation is accepting nominations from academic institutions for its Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program. The annual program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences at undergraduate institutions. Based on institutional nominations, the program provides discretionary funding to faculty at an early stage in their careers. The award is based on accomplishment in scholarly research with undergraduates, as well as a compelling commitment to teaching, and provides an unrestricted research grant of $60,000. The program is open to academic institutions in the states, districts, and territories of the United States that grant a bachelor's or master's degree in the chemical sciences, including biochemistry, materials chemistry, and chemical engineering. Nominees must hold a full-time tenure-track academic appointment; be after the fourth and not after the twelfth years of their independent academic careers; and be engaged in research and teaching primarily with undergraduates.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to provide opportunities for eligible small business concerns (SBCs) to submit STTR grant applications to develop interactive digital media science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) resources that address student career choice and health and medicine topics for: (1) pre-kindergarten to grade 12 (P-12) students and pre- and in-service teachers ("Teachers") or (2) Informal science education (ISE), i.e., outside the classroom, audiences. Interactive digital media (IDM) are defined as products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video, audio, and video games. There is a large body of evidence that IDM technology has the potential to support learning in a variety of contexts from primary and secondary schools, to universities, adult education and workplace training. IDM is widely used to train, educate, and encourage behavioral changes in a virtual world format where progressive learning, feedback on success and user control are combined into an interactive and engaging experience. It is anticipated that this STTR FOA will facilitate the translation of new or existing health and medicine-based, P-12 STEM curricula and museum exhibits into educational Interactive Digital Media STEM (IDM STEM) resources that will provide a hands-on, inquiry-based and learning-by-doing experience for students, teachers and the community.

The International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program supports international research and research-related activities for U.S. science and engineering students. The IRES program contributes to development of a diverse, globally-engaged workforce with world-class skills. IRES focuses onactive research participation by undergraduate or graduate students in high quality international research, education and professional development experiences in NSF-funded research areas. The overarching, long-term goal of the IRES program is to enhanceU.S. leadership in research and education and to strengthen economic competitiveness through training the next generation of research leaders. This solicitation features three mechanisms; proposers are required to select one of the following tracks to submit their proposal. Track I focuses on the development of world-class research skills in international cohort experiences.

A well-prepared, innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce is crucial to the Nation's prosperity and security. Future generations of STEM professionals are a key sector of this workforce, especially in the critical scientific areas described in the Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments. To accelerate progress in these areas, the next generation of STEM professionals will need to master new knowledge and skills, collaborate across disciplines, and shape the future of the human-technology interface in the workplace. As a result, NSF recognizes the need to support development of and research on effective educational approaches that can position the future STEM workforce to make bold advances in these Big Ideas.

In today's increasingly networked, distributed, and asynchronous world, cybersecurity involves hardware, software, networks, data, people, and integration with the physical world. Society's overwhelming reliance on this complex cyberspace, however, has exposed its fragility and vulnerabilities that defy existing cyber-defense measures; corporations, agencies, national infrastructure and individuals continue to suffer cyber-attacks. Achieving a truly secure cyberspace requires addressing both challenging scientific and engineering problems involving many components of a system, and vulnerabilities that stem from human behaviors and choices. Examining the fundamentals of security and privacy as a multidisciplinary subject can lead to fundamentally new ways to design, build and operate cyber systems, protect existing infrastructure, and motivate and educate individuals about cybersecurity.

This announcement represents an opportunity to enter into a cooperative agreement with an organization for outdoor education and training while accomplishing maintenance on public lands consisting of park maintenance, vegetation management, prescribed burns, landscaping and similar services. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is seeking organizations that offer challenging education and job-training experience that helps young adults develop the skills they need to lead full and productive lives and offer opportunity for aid with formal post high school education

The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program seeks to encourage talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and professionals to become K-12 mathematics and science teachers. The Noyce Scholarship Track provides funds to institutions of higher education to support scholarships, stipends, and academic programs for undergraduate STEM majors and post-baccalaureate students holding STEM degrees who earn a teaching credential and commit to teaching in high-need K-12 school districts.   The NSF Teaching Fellowship/Master Teaching Fellowship Track provides funding to support STEM professionals who enroll as NSF Teaching Fellows in master's degree programs leading to teacher certification by providing academic courses, professional development, and salary supplements while they are fulfilling a four-year teaching commitment in a high-need school district.  This track also supports the development of NSF Master Teaching Fellows by providing professional development and salary supplements for exemplary mathematics and science teachers to become Master Teachers in high-need school districts.  Capacity Building Projects support the development of new programs and activities to increase the capacity for institutions to provide innovative teacher preparation programs that enable increasing numbers of STEM majors and STEM professionals to become effective K-12 mathematics and science teachers and to develop the capacity to prepare Master science and mathematics teachers.

As part of NSF's Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21) activity, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE), the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure seek to enable research communities to develop visions, teams, and capabilities dedicated to creating new, large-scale, next-generation data resources and relevant analytic techniques to advance fundamental research for the SBE and EHR areas of research.  Successful proposals will outline activities that will have significant impacts across multiple fields by enabling new types of data-intensive research.  Investigators should think broadly and create a vision that extends intellectually across multiple disciplines and that includes--but is not limited to--the SBE or EHR areas of research.

This Dear Colleague Letter is to alert all basic science and engineering communities, including education researchers, to the Foundation's interest in receiving proposals that, while investigating fundamental questions, seek to pose and test hypotheses that could inform research in forensic sciences. The interest spans both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Additionally, the wide public interest in forensics can provide an effective vehicle for basic research in science education. International partnerships, where appropriate, are encouraged, as are synergistic interactions with forensics and/or law enforcement agencies and organizations. Proposals for workshops to explore fundamental science drivers and their relevance to forensics are also welcome. 

Fellowships will be awarded to individuals who have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers, and are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

With an emphasis on two-year Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy. The program involves partnerships between academic institutions (grades 7-12, IHEs)and industry to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians at the undergraduate and secondary institutionschool levels. The ATE program supports curriculum development; professional development of college faculty and secondary school teachers; career pathways; and other activities. The program invites research proposals that advance the knowledge base related to technician education. It is expected that projects will be faculty driven and that courses and programs credit bearing, although materials developed may also be used for incumbent worker education. The ATE program encourages partnerships with other entities that may impact technician education. For example, with

Founded in 1956, the Chicago-based Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts provides project-based grants to individuals and organizations and produces public programs to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. Projects may be drawn from the various fields of inquiry supported by the foundation, including architectural history, theory, and criticism; design; engineering; landscape architecture; urban planning; urban studies; the visual arts; and other related fields. The foundation offers Carter Manny awards in two categories, including a research award for a student at the research stage of the doctoral dissertation and a writing award for a student at the writing stage of the doctoral dissertation. The research award is acknowledged with up to $15,000 and the writing award is acknowledged with up to $20,000. Ph.D. students who are presently candidates for a doctoral degree are eligible to apply. Students must be nominated by their department to apply for the Carter Manny Award. The award is open to students officially enrolled in schools in the U.S. and Canada, regardless of citizenship. The foundation will begin accepting applications on September 15, 2017. Applications must be received no later than November 15, 2017.

The ASM Materials Education Foundation is the charitable arm of ASM International, the world's largest association of materials-centric engineers and scientists. Through its Living in a Material World program, the foundation will award twenty grants of $500 each to hands-on, curriculum-based K-12 projects that enhance student awareness of the materials around them. The purpose of the grants is to enhance awareness of materials science and the role that materials scientists play in society. Any K-12 teacher in the United States is eligible to apply. For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the ASM Materials Education Foundation website.

A well-prepared, innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce is crucial to the Nation's health and economy. Indeed, recent policy actions and reports have drawn attention to the opportunities and challenges inherent in increasing the number of highly qualified STEM graduates, including STEM teachers. Priorities include educating students to be leaders and innovators in emerging and rapidly changing STEM fields as well as educating a scientifically literate populace. Both of these priorities depend on the nature and quality of the undergraduate education experience. In addressing these STEM challenges and priorities, the National Science Foundation invests in evidence-based and evidence-generating approaches to understanding STEM learning; to designing, testing, and studying instruction and curricular change; to wide dissemination and implementation of best practices; and to broadening participation of individuals and institutions in STEM fields. The goals of these investments include: increasing the number and diversity of STEM students; preparing students well to participate in science for tomorrow; and improving students' STEM learning outcomes.

The Discovery Research PreK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches. 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. Projects should result in research-informed and field-tested outcomes and products that inform teaching and learning. 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 address immediate challenges that are facing preK-12 STEM education as well as those that anticipate radically different structures and functions of preK-12 teaching and learning.