STEM, Education, Training

Apply to Internal Competition // Limit: 2 // Tickets Available: 2

The submission of this funding program is coordinated by RSD with the assistance of the University of Arizona Foundation. For more information, please contact Selena Valencia-Salazar. 

The APS Foundation supports programs that enhance academic achievement in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Since 1981, the Foundation has invested more than $44 million in projects throughout Arizona that help prepare students to compete in a 21st century economy.

A workforce proficient in STEM skills is critical to attracting and retaining high-quality businesses and industries to the state. The APS Foundation targets projects that help educators increase content knowledge in STEM subjects as well as the ability to transfer this knowledge effectively to students.

This program is funded by APS shareholders and not included in customer rates.

Program Information: 

• Organizations must be registered as a 501(c)(3) public charity in good financial and public standing.
• Programs should demonstrate their ability to improve educational outcomes, increase access and/or offer an innovative approach to learning.
• Programs that support teacher professional development is APS Foundation’s primary focus.
• Programs that impact students, supporting them in achievements in STEM, are the next priority.
• Pilot projects may be funded, and those awards are generally in the $10,000 = $30,000.
• Programs requesting substantial funding (≥$75,000) should demonstrate proof of concept, detailed budget, and have a detailed execution plan.
• Strong measurements for proof of success are essential, especially for higher dollar asks. (At minimum, a pre, during, and post survey or variation of measurement will be required) 
• Criteria used for evaluation include sustainability, ability to leverage other funding (not required).
• Programs that serve underserved/under resourced students are well-received.
• All grantees will have specific reporting requirements and must submit a final evaluation before they can be considered for additional funding.

Proposal Tips: 

• Proposals should be written in lay language.
• Multi-year funding is not available.
• New interest in board for AI components in proposals (not required)
• Higher asks will be scrutinized at a higher level. Please ensure you have a solid description, strong success measurements, and have an established program/project for best chance of being successful.
• Proposals that involve medical themes are discouraged from applying as the funder has a separate initiative dedicated to medical themes/programming.
• Seed funding applicants should consider the following questions: What will be measured for the ethicality of the program? What is guiding the assumption for need/success of your proposed project/proposal?  

Limit: 1 // Available: 0

N. Alvarez Mexia

The IDEAS grant competition assists U.S. colleges and universities in creating and/or expanding their study abroad programming in support of U.S. foreign policy goals. Building on the work achieved thus far, and the myriad opportunities that have been provided to students, microgrant proposals should seek to build additional capacity in U.S. grantee institutions. Examples may include, but are not limited to, building upon existing partnerships, reaching out to additional student groups, applying successful models to new locations, or creating toolkits for reaching underrepresented students.

Eligibility

To be eligible for consideration, proposals must meet the following criteria:

• The institution must be a current or past IDEAS grantee that has or will have concluded their award activities before September 1, 2024 and is in good standing with World Learning, with all reports and other deliverables up-to-date.
• Proposals must support projects focused primarily on U.S. undergraduate student mobility abroad, although graduate student participation in programs is allowed.
• As with the IDEAS grant, funding may not be used to support direct outbound or inbound student costs. Funds may be used to support U.S. faculty and/or staff travel overseas as well as travel for foreign faculty and/or staff to travel to the United States to support program development, resource development and dissemination, and/or research. Further details about allowable costs can be found in the Grant Competition FAQs.
• Microgrants may support the development of in-person U.S. study abroad programming in countries with a U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory Level 1, 2, or 3. Development of in-person programming in foreign locations with a U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory Level 4 is not permitted.
• Microgrants may support the development of virtual U.S. study abroad programming in all countries, regardless of their U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory level.

Note that the Primary Investigator for the microgrant application does not need to have participated personally in the previous or ongoing IDEAS grant activities; this opportunity is open to any faculty or staff person at an IDEAS grantee institution. Only ONE application per institution will be considered. Collaboration among grantee institutions is permitted and encouraged

Apply to the UA internal competition  // Limit: 2 // Tickets Available: 0

Eung-Joo Lee (ECE)

Brian Kim (MSE)

Only two nominations are allowed per institution.

These competitive research awards provide seed money for junior faculty members that often result in additional funding from other sources. The award amount provided by ORAU is $5,000. The applicant’s institution is required to match the award with at least an additional $5,000. This is a one-year grant (June 1 to May 31).

Eligibility for the Powe Awards is open to full-time assistant professors at ORAU member institutions within two years of their tenure track appointment at the time of application. If there is a question about eligibility, your ORAU Councilor makes the final determination. Only two nominations are allowed per institution.

Junior faculty members interested in applying should consult their ORAU Councilor, and visit the frequently asked questions.

Institutionally Coordinated// Limit: 1 

The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition is proud to announce its 2024-2025 campaign to recognize Outstanding First-Year Student Advocates. The annual award campaign, inaugurated over thirty years ago, recognizes individuals on college and university campuses who serve as outstanding advocates for undergraduate first-year students. To date, we have recognized over 320 award recipients. We are able to undertake the campaign again this year with the generous continuing support of Penguin Random House.

We invite you, or someone you appoint, to nominate one person from your institution as an Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate. We encourage you to identify an individual on your campus who serves as an activist, intercessor, and/or supporter for first-year students – someone who is passionate about new students' success. Nominees may be faculty members, administrators, professional staff, or students. Please refer to the link below to submit an online nomination. The deadline for submission of nominations is June 28, 2024.  

Members and past members of our national advisory board, past award recipients, and other leaders in higher education will select ten nominees as award recipients. Two award recipients will be chosen from each of five categories based on institution type and size. The ten recipients will be honored at the 44th Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience, February 16-19, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana. We will waive all conference registration fees for award recipients.

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. 

UA is not eligible due to an active award // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 0

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 1

yberspace has transformed the daily lives of people. Society's overwhelming reliance on cyberspace, however, has exposed the system's fragility and vulnerabilities: 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 individuals to learn about cybersecurity. The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Acts for 2018 and 2021, and the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, authorizes the National Science Foundation (NSF), in coordination with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to offer a scholarship program to recruit and train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals to meet the needs of the cybersecurity mission of federal, state, local, and tribal governments. The goals of the CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program are aligned with the U.S. strategy to develop a superior cybersecurity workforce. The program goals are to: (1) increase the number of qualified and diverse cybersecurity candidates for government cybersecurity positions; (2) improve the national capacity for the education of cybersecurity professionals and research and development workforce; (3) hire, monitor, and retain high-quality CyberCorps® graduates in the cybersecurity mission of the Federal Government; and (4) strengthen partnerships between institutions of higher education and federal, state, local, and tribal governments. While all three agencies work together on all four goals, NSF’s strength is in the first two goals; OPM’s in goal (3); and DHS in goal (4).

The SFS Program welcomes proposals to establish or to continue scholarship programs in cybersecurity. A proposing institution must provide clearly documented evidence of a strong existing academic program in cybersecurity. In addition to information provided in the proposal narrative, such evidence can include ABET accreditation in cybersecurity; a designation by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE), in Cyber Operations (CAE-CO) or in Research (CAE-R); or equivalent evidence documenting a strong program in cybersecurity.

Service Obligation: All scholarship recipients must work after graduation in the cybersecurity mission of a federal, state, local, or tribal government organization, or certain other qualifying entities, for a period equal to at least the length of the scholarship.

The SFS Program also supports efforts leading to an increase in the ability of the United States higher education enterprise to produce cybersecurity professionals. Funding opportunities in this area are provided via the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace - Education Designation (SaTC-EDU) and other programs (see the section "Increasing National Capacity in Cybersecurity Education" for more details.)

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

Only one application per institution (normally identified by having a unique entity identifier (UEI) or NIH IPF number) is allowed.

The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research education activities in the mission areas of the NIH.  The overarching goal of this 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 accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this NOFO will support educational activities with a primary focus on:

• Courses for Skills Development

This R25 program will support the development and implementation of short courses to prepare nurse scientists, and scientists in aligned fields, to conduct firearm injury prevention research in support of the NINR Strategic Plan (https://www.ninr.nih.gov/aboutninr/ninr-mission-and-strategic-plan). Applications for courses that build on the existing knowledge, approaches, methods, and techniques related to injury prevention to advance research specifically in the area of firearm injury are encouraged. Proposed courses should include content related to inequities in firearm injuries (e.g., race, ethnicity, socioeconomic position, gender, geography, and their intersections) and research at the individual, community, institutional, and structural levels.

This NOFO requires a Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP), which will be assessed as part of the scientific and technical peer review evaluation. Applications that fail to include a PEDP will be considered incomplete and will be withdrawn.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to read the NOFO instructions carefully and view the available PEDP guidance material.

Budgets are limited to $200,000 direct costs per year and need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is three (3) years