Research and Training

U of A may submit one proposal.

NSF seeks proposals to create an NSF National Resource Coordination Center on Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) (IUSE Center) that will be an intellectual partner to the IUSE: EDU community and NSF. Working in concert with the IUSE: EDU program, the goal of the IUSE Center is to serve as a focal point and intellectual partner for the IUSE: EDU community. The objectives of the IUSE Center are to:

• Enhance the reach and influence of IUSE investments by facilitating communication, engagement, and networking among IUSE: EDU award recipients, prospective recipients, and other stakeholders; and
• Provide support and resources for development and maintenance of IUSE: EDU projects, especially for prospective recipients and those underrepresented in the IUSE: EDU award recipient community.

The IUSE Center will be expected to work collaboratively with NSF and the IUSE: EDU community to design, implement, and execute its activities and ensure the inclusion of diverse educators and education researchers representing the full range of the nation's talent pool, of eligible institutions and organizations, and of STEM education efforts funded through the IUSE: EDU Program.

Limit: 1 // M. Hingle (Nutritional Sciences)

This grant program supports: (1) training students for master's and doctoral degrees in food, agricultural and natural resource sciences; and (2) Special International Study or Thesis/Dissertation Research Travel Allowances (IRTA) for eligible USDA NNF beneficiaries.

Awards are specifically intended to support traineeship programs that engage outstanding students to pursue and complete their degrees in USDA mission areas. Applicants provide clarity about the philosophy of their graduate training, and relevance to USDA mission sciences, NIFA priorities and national science education policies and statistics. Applications are being solicited from institutions that confer a graduate degree in at least one of the following Targeted Expertise Shortage Areas: 1) animal and plant production; 2) forest resources; 3) agricultural educators and communicators; 4) agricultural management and economics; 5) food science and human nutrition; 6) sciences for agricultural biosecurity; and 7) training in integrative biosciences for sustainable food and agricultural systems.

The technical assistance webinar related to this FY 2024 funding opportunity is now scheduled. Please see details about the webinar, including the registration link, date, and time, via the technical assistance webinar button below. The recording and supporting documents will also be posted to this page after the event.

Contact RDS for more information

Coming Soon: *** This opportunity will be available soon. The next call is expected to open in August 2024. The following information is subject to change. ***

The new VentureWell fellowship is an evolution of our C&P Grants model, focusing on scalable STEM I&E solutions through the lens of environmental sustainability and inclusive innovation. This program offers professional development, immersive learning experiences, and a supportive community of leaders.

VentureWell is replacing a three-year, $30,000 program with two opportunities: the new one-year fellowship and a two-year challenge grant, totaling up to $135,000 over three years.

• Develop courses, policies, and co-curricular programs to promote research and development (R&D) translation focused around environmental sustainability and inclusive innovation.
• Receive $35,000 in funding for teams of two (one must be faculty) from U.S.-based colleges and universities.
• Create a STEM I&E ecosystem growth plan to scale interventions in partnership with university leadership and external partners.

Submit ticket request  // Limit:  1  // Tickets Available: 1 

NIGMS will accept only one application per eligible organization.

The goal of the Bridges to the Doctorate Research Training Program is to develop a diverse pool of scientists earning a Ph.D. who have the skills to successfully transition into careers in the biomedical research workforce. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) provides support to eligible, domestic institutions to develop and implement effective, evidence-informed approaches to biomedical training and mentoring that will keep pace with the rapid evolution of the research enterprise. NIGMS expects that the proposed research training programs will incorporate didactic, research, mentoring, and career development elements to prepare trainees for careers that will have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the Nation.

This FOA does not allow appointed trainees to lead an independent clinical trial but does allow them to obtain research experience in a clinical trial led by a mentor or co-mentor.

Submit ticket request  // Limit:  1  // Tickets Available: 1 

Only one application per institution (normally identified by having a unique NIH Institutional Profile Number, IPF) is allowed.

The NIH Research Education Program (UE5) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH. The overarching goal of this UE5 program is to support educational activities that encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, to pursue further studies or careers in research. 

To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this NOFO will support educational activities with a primary focus on:

• Courses for Skills Development
• Mentoring Activities

The goal of the MOSAIC Research Education Award (UE5) is to support educational activities for MOSAIC K99/R00 scholars that will equip them with the professional skills, and provide them with the appropriate mentoring opportunities and professional networks to allow them to transition into, advance, and succeed in independent, tenure-track or equivalent research-intensive faculty careers. Awardee Organizations must provide career development and mentoring activities aligned with and appropriate for the disciplinary backgrounds of scholars supported through the MOSAIC K99/R00 program. Areas of programmatic need will be indicated through Notices of Special Interest (NOSIs) released annually by NIH. Applications that do not address the program areas of need specified in the NOSI will be considered non-responsive and will not be reviewed.

Components of Participating Organizations:
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
National Eye Institute (NEI)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
All applications to this funding opportunity announcement should fall within the mission of the Institutes/Centers. The following NIH Offices may co-fund applications assigned to those Institutes/Centers.
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO)

Limit: 1 // S. Veres (College of Medicine – Phoenix, Family, Community and Preventive Medicine)

The purpose of the Medical Student Education (MSE) Program is to provide support to public medical schools in the top quintile of states with a projected primary care physician shortage to expand or support education for medical students preparing to become physicians. This expansion can include funding for direct student supports which help students be successful in medical school, as well as for infrastructure development, maintenance, equipment, and minor renovations or alterations. The program is designed to prepare and encourage medical students in these schools to choose residencies and careers in primary care and serve tribal, rural, and/or medically underserved communities in those states after they complete their residency.

Institutionally Coordinated // Please contact the Office of HSI Initiatives for more information.

 HSI Initiatives would coordinate the submission for the Institutional Transformation Track (ITT) and HSI Program Resource Hubs (Hubs).
UArizona does not have any active Institutional Transformation Track (ITT), so there should not be any limit on the Departmental/Division Transformation Track (DDTT) track proposals.
UArizona is not eligible for the Emerging Faculty Research Track (EFRT).

Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) are an important component of the nation’s higher education ecosystem and play a critical role in realizing the National Science Board Vision Report for a more diverse and capable science and engineering workforce. Aligned with this vision and the NSF Strategic Plan 2022 -2026 the goals of the NSF HSI Program are to:

1. Enhance the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at HSIs.

2. Increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associate’s or baccalaureate degrees in STEM at HSIs.

Meeting these goals requires institutions to understand and embrace their students’ strengths, challenges, identities and lived experiences. This can happen in many ways and across many areas of an institution. As such, the IUSE: HSI program provides multiple opportunities to support an institution’s goal to become more student centered, including the Equitable Transformation in STEM Education (ETSE) competition. This competition includes the following tracks:

• Departmental/Division Transformation Track (DDTT) - New

• Institutional Transformation Track (ITT)

• Emerging Faculty Research Track (EFRT) - New

• HSI Program Resource Hubs (Hubs)

This solicitation will also accept conference proposals and planning proposals, as defined by the PAPPG.

The ETSE competition focuses on (1) institutional transformation projects that support HSIs in their effort to achieve equity in STEM education, and (2) the infrastructure—the HSI-Net network of resource hubs—which supports the overall program goals.

Institutions are encouraged to consider how their HSI designation, and their organizational mission align to better support STEM success of all students. The ETSE competition welcomes proposals that look to implement and evaluate promising practices and/or conduct research related to broadening participation or improving recruitment, retention, graduation, and other successful outcomes in STEM undergraduate education.

The ETSE solicitation supports projects designed to catalyze change and help HSIs meet students where they are, accounting for their assets and the challenges they may face. Identities and experiences are not determined solely by membership in a single monolithic population of students (e.g., Hispanic, first-generation, commuter, etc.). Consequently, institutions are expected to use institutional data to identify equity gaps, identify areas of need, and unpack the factors that shape students’ individual identities and shared experiences. The perspectives gained from this data should be central to the design of the proposed project.

Please see below for specific information about each track. While proposals are focused on mechanisms for transforming undergraduate STEM education, projects should also consider student voices and include mechanisms to aggregate and analyze existing student feedback and collect quantitative and qualitative student data throughout the life of the proposed project.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:

DDTT proposals: Eligible institutions with an active Track 3: Institutional Transformation project (ITP) award from NSF 22-611, NSF 22-545, or NSF 20-599 or an active ITT award from this solicitation must describe how the proposed DDTT project is compatible with the efforts being undertaken by the active award.

ITT proposals: Eligible institutions may submit one proposal and may not have an active Track 3 Institutional Transformation Project (ITP) award from, NSF 22-611, NSF 22-545, or NSF 20-599. Institutions with an active DDTT award from this solicitation must describe how the proposed ITT project is compatible with the departmental/divisional transformation effort being undertaken by the active award.

EFRT and Hub proposals: No Restrictions

Limit: 1// I. Reyes ( Collge of Education -  Borderlands Education Center (BEC))

Planning Grant (these require approval from the NSF Program Officer): J. Watkins (Math)

In response to the CHIPS Act of 2022 (Pub.L. 117-167), NSF is establishing the National STEM Teacher Corps Pilot Program. The purpose of this program is to elevate the profession of STEM teaching by establishing a National STEM Teacher Corps Pilot Program to recognize outstanding STEM teachers in our Nation’s classrooms, reward them for their accomplishments, elevate their public profile, and create rewarding career paths to which all STEM teachers can aspire, both to prepare future STEM researchers and to create a scientifically literate public.

With this solicitation, NSF is inviting proposals to establish an initial set of Regional Alliances responsible for (a) recruiting eligible applicants to become members of the National STEM Teacher Corps (see definitions in section II.A.); (b) screening, interviewing, and selecting members; and (c) supporting other activities detailed in the Program Description and the law (136 STAT. 1515).

Each Alliance will be awarded as a cooperative agreement that represents the breadth of activities important to National STEM Teacher Corps Pilot Program and serves to elevate the public profile of STEM teachers within the region. Collectively these Alliances are expected to have a national impact. 

The National STEM Teacher Corps also welcomes planning proposals submitted at any time during the year. See Section II.E for additional information about the preparation and submission of planning proposals.

Limit: 1 // C. Lacasse ( College of Nursing - Teaching/ Learning Practice and Evaluation)

*This is a Forecasted Opportunity.

The purpose of the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention (NEPQR)-Workforce Expansion Program (WEP) is to increase the nursing workforce in rural (non-metro) and underserved areas to address the critical shortage of nurses, specifically in acute and long-term care settings. 

No applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

Only one application per institution is allowed. 

The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity is to invite Institutional Network Awards (U2C-TL1) to cultivate a highly integrated cohort of trainees and early career investigators and to develop career development resources to accelerate kidney, urologic, and hematologic research. To maximize integration and promote a true trainee community, Institutions are invited to submit a single, unified U2C-TL1 application to engage, recruit, prepare, and sustain the next generation of scientists able to contribute to advancing research in kidney, urology, and hematology. Applications representing multiple institutions within a single metropolitan area are strongly encouraged (see Section III.3). Successful awardees are expected to relinquish all active T32s supported by the NIDDK, Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases (KUH) at the time of the U2C-TL1 award.