OARS funding STEM Education

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.

The PMGP is seeking applications from eligible applicants to support significant research in the field of fundamental measurement or the determination of fundamental constants.

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program is an alliance-based program. The program's theory is based on the Tinto model for student retention1. The overall goal of the program is to assist universities and colleges in diversifying the nation's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce by increasing the number of STEM baccalaureate and graduate degrees awarded to populations historically underrepresented in these disciplines: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders.

The IUSE initiative provides a Foundation-wide framework of investments to support the agency's commitment to the highest caliber undergraduate STEM education. By improving the quality and effectiveness of undergraduate education in all STEM fields, IUSE investments enable NSF to lead national progress toward a diverse and innovative workforce and a STEM-literate public. Through the IUSE framework, NSF coordinates its investments in undergraduate programs and undergraduate STEM education to maximize impact, and to use shared metrics and appropriate program evaluation approaches. These investments are made across all directorates and address both STEM education in general and specific disciplinary needs. IUSE investments support a variety of activities including the inclusion of inquiry-based and active learning approaches in undergraduate STEM instruction, efforts to increase undergraduate STEM research experiences and courses, and research on the persistence and graduation of students in STEM programs. In addition, specific emerging cross-disciplinary needs include data science preparation for students in all majors, recruitment and retention of women and of students from underrepresented groups in STEM degree programs, incorporation of undergraduate research in STEM fields for STEM majors and non-majors, and re-envisioning of introductory courses in light of new research findings and theories.

The specific objectives of the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier program are to (1) facilitate convergent research that employs the joint perspectives, methods, and knowledge of computer science, design, engineering, learning sciences, research on education and workforce training, and social, behavioral, and economic sciences; (2) encourage the development of a research community dedicated to designing intelligent technologies and work organization and modes inspired by their positive impact on individual workers, the work at hand, the way people learn and adapt to technological change, creative and supportive workplaces (including remote locations, homes, classrooms, or virtual spaces), and benefits for social, economic, educational, and environmental systems at different scales; (3) promote deeper basic understanding of the interdependent human-technology partnership to advance societal needs by advancing design of intelligent work technologies that operate in harmony with human workers, including consideration of how adults learn the new skills needed to interact with these technologies in the workplace, and by enabling broad workforce participation, including improving accessibility for those challenged by physical or cognitive impairment; and (4) understand, anticipate, and explore ways of mitigating potential risks arising from future work at the human-technology frontier. Ultimately, this research will advance understanding of how technology and people interact, distribute tasks, cooperate, and complement each other in different specific work contexts of significant societal importance.

The United States Government, represented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Mission in Malawi, is publishing this Request for Information (RFI) in order to provide US and Malawi-based academia, industry, and other stakeholders the opportunity to review, comment, suggest, and input into the development of two potential USAID/Malawi activities that will involve partnerships between US and Malawian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The two potential activities will focus on: 1) expanding degree opportunities in Malawi; and 2) strengthening Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in Higher Education.

The IUSE: EHR program supports projects designed to contribute to a future in which all undergraduate students are fully engaged in their STEM learning. The IUSE: EHR program promotes (1) Engaged Student Learning: the development, testing, and use of teaching practices and curricular innovations that will engage students and improve learning, persistence, and retention in STEM, and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation: the transformation of colleges and universities to implement and sustain highly effective STEM teaching and learning.

The NSF CISE Directorate supports research and education projects that develop new knowledge in all aspects of computing, communications, and information science and engineering, as well as advanced cyberinfrastructure, through the following core programs.

The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Community Research Infrastructure (CCRI) program drives discovery and learning in the core CISE disciplines of the three participating divisions [(Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Computer and Network Systems (CNS), and Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)] by funding the creation and enhancement of world-class research infrastructure. This research infrastructure will specifically support diverse communities of CISE researchers pursuing focused research agendas in computer and information science and engineering. This support involves developing the accompanying user services and engagement needed to attract, nurture, and grow a robust research community that is actively involved in determining directions for the infrastructure as well as management of the infrastructure. This should lead to infrastructure that can be sustained through community involvement and community leadership, and that will enable advances not possible with existing research infrastructure.

The Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) Core Tracksupports research and training on evolutionary and ecological processes acting at the level of populations, species, communities, and ecosystems. DEB encourages research that elucidates fundamental principles that identify and explain the unity and diversity of life and its interactions with the environment over space and time. Research may incorporate field, laboratory, or collection-based approaches; observational or manipulative studies; synthesis activities; phylogenetic discovery projects; or theoretical approaches involving analytical, statistical, or computational modeling. Proposals should be submitted to the core clusters (Ecosystem Sciences, Evolutionary Processes, Population and Community Ecology, and Systematics and Biodiversity Sciences). DEB also encourages interdisciplinary proposals that cross conceptual boundaries and integrate over levels of biological organization or across multiple spatial and temporal scales.Research addressing ecology and ecosystem science in the marine biome should be directed to the Biological Oceanography Program in the Division of Ocean Sciences; research addressing evolution and systematics in the marine biome should be directed to the Evolutionary Processes or Systematics and Biodiversity Science programs in DEB. All DEB programs also encourage proposals that leverage NSF-supported data networks, databases, centers, and other forms of scientific infrastructure, including but not limited to the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), Environmental Data Initiative (EDI), and Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio). The Rules of Life Track supports integrative proposals that span population, species, community and ecosystem scales normally funded by DEB, to organismal, cellular and molecular scales typically funded by other divisions in the Biological Sciences.

ECR's Building Capacity for STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) solicitation supports projects that build individuals' capacity to carry out high quality STEM education research that will enhance the nation's STEM education enterprise and broaden the pool of researchers that can conduct fundamental research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development. Specifically, ECR: BCSER supports activities that enable early and mid-career researchers to acquire the requisite expertise and skills to conduct rigorous fundamental research in STEM education. ECR: BCSER seeks to fund research career development activities on topics that are relevant to qualitative and quantitative research methods and design, including the collection and analysisof new qualitative or quantitative data, secondary analyses using extant datasets, or meta-analyses. This career development may be accomplished through investigator-initiated projects or through professional development institutes that enable researchers to integrate methodological strategies with theoretical and practical substantive issues in STEM education. Early and mid-career faculty new to STEM education research, particularly underrepresented minority faculty and faculty at minority-serving and two-year institutions, are encouraged to submit proposals. As a special emphasis under this solicitation, ECR: BCSER seeks proposals that will result in a single award for the development and implementation of an ECR Data Resource Hub. The hub will facilitate data sharing and analysis and provide technical assistance to advance data skills, tools, and resources across the STEM education research community.

National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) assists in the acquisition or development of major research instrumentation. This program seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of research and research training in science and engineering, and to foster the integration of research and education by providing instrumentation for research-intensive learning environments. The MRI program also encourages the shared inter- and/or intra-organizational use of the acquired research instrumentation. For more information, please consult the program's guidelines. Miami University may submit up to three MRI proposals (up to two that request between $100,000 and $1 million and no more than one that requests between $1 million and $4 million) on which Miami is either the lead or a partner institution. To facilitate the selection of our submissions to NSF, we have set a deadline of October 28, 2019 to receive preliminary MRI proposals for internal review. You are required to provide a preliminary proposal regardless of whether you were selected as an institutional submission in previous years.

The Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI) umbrella program seeks to enable funding opportunities that are flexible and responsive to the evolving and emerging needs in cyberinfrastructure. This program continues the CSSI program by removing the distinction between software and data elements/framework implementations, and instead emphasizing integrated cyberinfrastructure services, quantitative metrics with targets for delivery and usage of these services, and community creation.

Research supported by the Division of Materials Research (DMR) focuses on advancing fundamental understanding of materials, materials discovery, design, synthesis, characterization, properties, and materials-related phenomena. DMR awards enable understanding of the electronic, atomic, and molecular structures, mechanisms, and processes that govern nanoscale to macroscale morphology and properties; manipulation and control of these properties; discovery of emerging phenomena of matter and materials; and creation of novel design, synthesis, and processing strategies that lead to new materials with unique characteristics. These discoveries and advancements transcend traditional scientific and engineering disciplines. The Division supports research and education activities in the United States through funding of individual investigators, teams, centers, facilities, and instrumentation. Projects supported by DMR are essential for the development of future technologies and industries that meet societal needs, as well preparation of the next generation of materials researchers.

The goals of the Accelerating Research through International Network-to-Network Collaborations (AccelNet) program are to accelerate the process of scientific discovery and prepare the next generation of U.S. researchers for multiteam international collaborations. The AccelNet program supports strategic linkages among U.S. research networks and complementary networks abroad that will leverage research and educational resources to tackle grand scientific challenges that require significant coordinated international efforts. The program seeks to foster high-impact science and engineering by providing opportunities to create new collaborations and new combinations of resources and ideas among linked global networks.

Projects supported by the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program will: (1) address a state, regional, national, or international educational need; (2) involve a creative or non-traditional approach toward addressing that need that can serve as a model to others; (3) encourage and facilitate better working relationships in the university science and education community, as well as between universities and the private sector, to enhance program quality and supplement available resources; and (4) result in benefits that will likely transcend the project duration and USDA support.

The Science of Science:Discovery, Communication, and Impact (SoS:DCI) program is designed to increase the public value of scientific activity. The program pursues this goal by supporting basic research in three fundamental areas: How to increase the rate of socially beneficial discovery; How to improve science communication outcomes; and How to expand the societal benefits of scientific activity.

STS is an interdisciplinary field of research that uses historical, philosophical, and social scientific methods to investigate STEM theory and practice. It may focus on history and socio-cultural formation, philosophical underpinnings, or the impacts of science and technology on broader societal concerns including quality of life, ethics, and culture. STS researchers strive to understand the research assumptions of STEM fields, and the co-production of STEM and society, meaning the many ways in which cultural, economic, historical, social and political contexts influence developments in STEM, and how those developments reciprocally influence these contexts.

The Ethical and Responsible Research (ER2) program accepts proposals for innovative research projects that contribute to understanding what it takes to foster ethical STEM research in all STEM fields, including within interdisciplinary, inter-institutional, and international contexts. ER2 research projects will use basic research to produce knowledge about which factors lead to responsible or irresponsible, just or unjust scientific cultures, practices, and sociotechnical systems, and how to best instill this knowledge in faculty and students.

The Law & Science Program at the National Science Foundation supports social scientific studies of law and law-like systems of rules. Successful proposals describe research that advances scientific theory and understanding of the connections between human behavior and law, legal institutions, or legal processes, as well as studies of how science and technology are applied in legal contexts. The Law & Science Program funds the best proposals submitted within the field broadly defined, regardless of specific subfield, and strives to support a multi- and interdisciplinary community of scholars studying relevant topics. The Law & Science Program supports Standard Research Grants and Grants for Collaborative Research, Conference proposals, and Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement proposals.