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SPIE is an international society that works to advance an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. As part of its educational outreach mission, SPIE awards grants in support of optics- and photonics-related educational outreach activities. The society offers two kinds of grants: SPIE Education Outreach grants and Sustaining grants. 1) SPIE Education Outreach grants: Recipients of these grants are required to submit an annual outreach grant report to the society on how the grant was used within ninety days of completing the funded activity. Grant applications should include activities that have not been funded by a previous award. 2) Sustaining Grants: If a program has received an Education Outreach Grant twice in a period of five years, it can only apply for further support, up to a maximum of $2,000, through a Sustaining grant. There is no limit to the number of times a program can apply for a Sustaining grant, but it will be competing with all other proposals every time it applies. To eligible, applicants must be a nonprofit organization or education institution (e.g., university, optics center, science center, primary or secondary school, youth club, industry association, or international optical societies).

The purpose of the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) cooperative agreement (COA) announcement is to solicit proposals for a single-award to a recipient, who will carry out the K-College STEM education and outreach programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of the Army to help address the nation's need of a diverse, agile and highly competent science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) literate talent pool. Through the AEOP COA award, the Army envisions the government to work with a recipient with an established consortium of organizations to collaboratively advance Army-sponsored STEM education and outreach programs, conducted across the United States, Puerto Rico as well as DoD locations in Europe and the Pacific.

As part of its education outreach mission, SPIE will award grants to support optics- and photonics-related education outreach activities. The society offers two kinds of grants: SPIE Education Outreach grants and Sustaining grants.

The ASPB Education Foundation seeks proposals from ASPB members to support education and outreach activities that advance knowledge and appreciation of plant biology. The Foundation was established in 1995 with the main goal of enhancing public awareness and understanding of the role of plants in all areas of life. To this end, the Foundation supports education and outreach projects (i.e., NOT science research projects) that enrich and promote youth, student, and general public understanding of the: Importance of plants for the sustainable production of medicine, food, fibers, and fuels; Critical role plants play in sustaining functional ecosystems in changing environments; Latest developments in plant biotechnologies, including genetic modifications that improve the quality and disease- and stress-resistance of crops; Discoveries made in plants that have led to improved human health and wellbeing; and Range of careers related to plant biology or available to plant biologists.

n accordance with 10 USC §2192, Improvement of education in technical fields: general authority regarding education in science, mathematics, and engineering, the National Defense Education Program (NDEP) K-16 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and outreach is seeking to strategically implant a vehicle to identify and support stronger guidelines for conducting K-16 education and outreach programs. The Department of Defense seeks to diversify its portfolio of support and increase focus on efforts that support the Force of the Future, and align with the Federal and DoD STEM strategies. Enhancing the permeability of ideas into DoD's workforce, especially the STEM workforce, through alliances with academia, industry and various non-traditional partners in STEM should deliver far-reaching sustainable and scalable programs and partnerships. While aligning with the DoD STEM mission, "to attract, inspire, and develop exceptional STEM talent across the education continuum to enrich our current and future DoD workforce to meet defense technological challenges," the Defense STEM Education Consortium (DSEC) should collaboratively work with the Government to provide a cohesive strategy to meet the vision, roles, and goals outlined in the DoD STEM Strategic Plan

Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Outreach goal is to increase awareness of K-12 and college students to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), in order to enhance the number of U.S. scientists and engineers capable of solving future Missile Defense challenges in the Government, industry, and academia.

Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Outreach goal is to increase awareness of K-12 and college students to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), in order to enhance the number of U.S. scientists and engineers capable of solving future Missile Defense challenges in the Government, industry, and academia.

The ONR seeks proposals for developing innovative solutions that directly support the development and maintenance of a robust STEM workforce. The goal of any proposed effort should be to provide "game changing" solutions that will establish and maintain a diverse pipeline of U.S. citizens who are interested in uniformed or civilian DoN (or Navy and Marine Corps) STEM related workforce opportunities. While this announcement is relevant for any stage of the STEM pipeline, for FY15, funding efforts will be targeted primarily towards High School, Post-Secondary education, and outreach designed to enhance the DoN (or Naval) STEM workforce and its mission readiness. Emphasis will be given both to key engineering and scientific areas outlined in the Naval S&T Strategic Plan such as our National Naval Responsibilities (see ONR website), and to identified STEM related workforce gaps and new strategic goals on the uniformed and civilian side. The FULL ANNOUNCEMENT is available on the Grants.gov website.

The Latham Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education has issued a Request for Proposals for a first round of grants supporting humane education outreach programs and/or research into the efficacy of humane education. Grants of up to $15,000 over two years will be awarded to projects with  the potential to advance the foundation's goals of promoting kindness to animals as the first step in encouraging kindness to one another, the country, other nations, and the world. Priority will be given to research-oriented projects. Grants may not be used for capital campaigns and salaries.

The U.S. Army Contracting Command - New Jersey (CCNJ), on behalf of the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (CCDC AC) seeks to enter into a Grant for a Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics (STEM) Outreach Program. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is considered a competitive combined synopsis/solicitation, therefore, this announcement constitutes the only synopsis or solicitation that will be released. The Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest employer of scientists and engineers in the United States and employs nearly half (46%) of the scientists and engineers in the Federal government. Under the Federal STEM strategic plan, the Department is charged with developing STEM initiatives that are unique to the DoD mission and also help meet national goals of: improving instruction; increasing engagement; growing the pool of STEM degree holders; broadening the participation of historically underserved groups; and improving the graduate school experience. DoD STEM represents the Department's mission to attract, inspire, and develop exceptional STEM talent across the educational continuum to sustain the Department's technological edge. It is estimated that 80% of the jobs in the United States will require STEM skills in the next decade.

The Department of Defense (DoD) seeks innovative applications on mechanisms to implement Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, outreach, and/or workforce initiative programs, here onto will be referred as STEM activities. The Department intends to award multiple grants, subject to the availability of funds. Each individual award will be up to a maximum of $3,000,000, for a period of up to three (3) years. Applications for larger amounts may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

PECASE: Each year NSF selects nominees for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from among the most meritorious recent CAREER awardees. Selection for this award is based on two important criteria: 1) innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology that is relevant to the mission of NSF, and 2) community service demonstrated through scientific leadership, education, or community outreach. These awards foster innovative developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of the participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the Nation's future. Individuals cannot apply for PECASE.

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) R25 funding opportunity announcement from NIGMS seeks applications that propose creative and innovative educational activities to complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation's biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs.  The goal of this NIGMS R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation's biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. To this end, this funding opportunity announcement encourages activities with a primary focus on courses for skills development, structured mentoring activities, and outreach programs. 

RET Sites support a cohort of at least 10 STEM teachers and/or community college faculty per year for a minimum of six weeks during the summer. The STEM teachers and/or community college faculty will participate in summer research activities with a common intellectual focus on a host university campus and will then participate in academic-year follow-up activities including integration of content and methods related to the summer research into their classroom practice and other related outreach activities involving teachers in their local school districts.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) seeks proposals for developing innovative solutions that directly support the development and maintenance of a robust Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. The goal of any proposed effort should be to provide "game changing" solutions that will establish and maintain a diverse pipeline of U.S. citizens who are interested in uniformed or civilian Naval STEM related workforce opportunities. While this announcement is relevant for any stage of the STEM pipeline, for FY14, funding efforts will be targeted primarily towards High School, Undergraduate, and Graduate STEM education and outreach designed to enhance the Navy and Marine Corps STEM workforce and its mission readiness. Emphasis will be given both to key engineering and scientific areas outlined in the Naval S&T Strategic Plan such as our National Naval Responsibilities (see ONR website), and to identified STEM -related workforce gaps and new strategic goals on the uniformed and civilian side. Currently, we are especially interested in efforts related to developing information technology/ computer science/ cyber security expertise, strengthening the engineering disciplines across all Naval activities, as well as improving our technician pipeline. While not a formal requirement or program focus of this FOA, applicants are strongly encouraged to consider under-represented populations including women and minorities in program plans.

The Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) provides awards to Tribal Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native-serving institutions, and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions to promote high quality science (including sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, statistics, and other social and behavioral sciences as well as natural sciences), technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, research, and outreach. Support is available to TCUP-eligible institutions (see the Additional Eligibility subsection of Section IV of this solicitation) for transformative capacity-building projects through Instructional Capacity Excellence in TCUP Institutions (ICE-TI), Targeted STEM Infusion Projects (TSIP), TCU Enterprise Advancement Centers (TEA Centers), and Preparing for TCUP Implementation (Pre-TI). Collaborations that involve multiple institutions of higher education led by TCUP institutions are supported through Partnerships for Geoscience Education (PAGE) and Partnerships for Documentary Linguistics Education (PADLE). Finally, research studies that further the scholarly activity of individual faculty members are supported through Small Grants for Research (SGR) and Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science in Tribal Colleges and Universities (SEA-PHAGES in TCUs). Through the opportunities highlighted above, as well as collaborations with other National Science Foundation (NSF) units and other organizations, TCUP aims to increase Native individuals' participation in STEM careers and improve the quality of STEM programs at TCUP-eligible institutions. TCUP strongly encourages the inclusion of activities that will benefit veterans.

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The over-arching goal of this NIGMS R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a diverse workforce to meet the nations biomedical research needs. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this FOA will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on skills development, mentoring, and outreach to equip a diverse cohort of participants with the technical, operational, and professional skills required for careers in the biomedical research workforce. Funded programs are expected to have robust evaluation, dissemination, and sustainability plans.

The NCNR is soliciting applications from eligible organizations to establish collaborations with NIST that will advance the research of NCNR users and NIST scientists by: (i) operating neutron instrumentation at the NCNR; (ii) developing new neutron instrumentation and measurement capabilities at the NCNR; (iii) conducting collaborative research with NIST scientists and visiting researchers at the NCNR; (iv) broadly disseminating the results from neutron research and the development of new neutron measurement technologies to the scientific community; and (v) undertaking education and outreach activities that promote the use of neutrons by academic and industrial scientists and that contribute to the development of the next generation of neutron scientists.

1) Costs associated with a field trip to the Naval Air Systems Command Lakehurst Facility to reinforce STEM curriculum Includes transportation, substitute teacher (if needed) and other associated costs. 2) Costs associated with teacher participation in a STEM education program or conference. Includes travel expenses (transportation, lodging and per diem) and conference registration. 3) Robotics competition participation in the 2017/2018 school years. Includes registration and associated costs. Robotics competitions include, but are not limited to, FIRST (www.usfirst.org), SEA PERCH (www.seaperch.org) and ZEX (www.vexrobotics.com). 4) Costs associated with other STEM Education Outreach Initiatives that harness and collaborate with National or Regional organizations. This might include, but not be limited to: Math Counts (http://www.mathcounts.org/), the Journal of Visualized Experiments (http://www.jove.com/), Camp Invention (http://www.invent.org).

The program supports four main research themes that are envisioned to advance the goal of ubiquitous co-robots:scalability,customizability,lowering barriers to entry, andsocietal impact,includinghuman safety. Topics addressingscalabilityinclude how robots can collaborate effectively with orders of magnitude more humans or other robots than is handled by the current state of the art; how robots can perceive, plan, act, and learn in uncertain, real-world environments, especially in a distributed fashion; and how to facilitate large-scale, safe, robust and reliable operation of robots in complex environments.Customizabilityincludes how to enable co-robots to adapt to specific different tasks, environments, or people, with minimal modification to hardware and software; how robots can personalize their interactions with people; and how robots can communicate naturally with humans, both verbally and non-verbally. Topics inlowering barriers to entryshould focus on lowering the barriers for conducting fundamental roboticsresearchand research on integrated robotics application. This may include development of open-source co-robot hardware and software, as well as widely-accessible testbeds. Outreach or using robots in educational programs do not, by themselves, lower the barriers to entry for robotics research. Topics insocietal impactinclude fundamental research to establish and infuse robotics into educational curricula, advance the robotics workforce through education pathways, and explore the social, economic, ethical, security, and legal implications of our future with ubiquitous collaborative robots.