National Science Foundation (NSF)

Limit: 4*  // PIs selected: 

Track 1:

• J. Pyun (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
• D. Sand  (Astronomy)

Track 2:

• J. Schaibley ( Physics)
   

Track 3:

• J. Dai (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

*Number of proposals allowed per organization: Four.

• No more than two submissions in Track 1 (Track 1 MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than or equal to $100,000 and less than $1,400,000).
• No more than one submission in Track 2 (Track 2 MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than or equal to $1,400,000 up to and including $4,000,000). 
• Track 3: Track 3 MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than or equal to $100,0001 and less than or equal to $4,000,000 that include the purchase, installation, operation, and maintenance of equipment and instrumentation to conserve or reduce the consumption of helium. Institutions may submit no more than one Track 3 proposal. Submission of a Track 3 proposal does not impact limits that apply for Track 1 and Track 2 proposals.

The Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program (MRI Program Website) serves to increase access to multi-user scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training in our Nation's institutions of higher education and not-for-profit scientific/engineering research organizations. An MRI award supports the acquisition of a multi-user research instrument that is commercially available through direct purchase from a vendor, or for the personnel costs and equipment that are required for the development of an instrument with new capabilities, thereby advancing instrumentation capabilities and enhancing expertise for instrument design and fabrication at academic institutions. MRI instruments are, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs.

MRI provides support to acquire critical research instrumentation without which advances in fundamental science and engineering research may not otherwise occur. MRI also provides support to obtain next-generation research instruments by developing instruments with new capabilities that open new opportunities to advance the frontiers in science and engineering research. Additionally, an MRI award is expected to enhance research training of students who will become the next generation of instrument users, designers and builders.

An MRI proposal may request from NSF up to $4 million for either acquisition or development of a research instrument. Each performing organization may submit in revised "Tracks" as defined below, with no more than two (2) submissions in Track 1 and no more than one (1) submission in Track 2. For the newly defined Track 3, no more than one (1) submission per competition is permitted.  As a result, it is now possible for an institution to submit up to four MRI proposals within the Track limits as described above.

• Track 1: Track 1 MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than $100,000[1] and less than $1,400,000.
• Track 2: Track 2 MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than or equal to $1,400,000 up to and including $4,000,000.
• Track 3: Track 3 MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than or equal to $100,000[1] and less than or equal to $4,000,000 that include the purchase, installation, operation, and maintenance of equipment and instrumentation to conserve or reduce the consumption of helium. Track 3 is an institutionally coordinated submission and won't be part of the internal competition.

  Institutions may submit no more than one Track 3 proposal. Submission of a Track 3 proposal does not impact limits that apply for Track 1 and Track 2 proposals.

Cost sharing requirements for new awards in the MRI Program are waived for a period of 5 years beginning with the FY 2023 MRI competition. Institutional submission limits for Track 1, Track 2 and Track 3 proposals remain.

The MRI Program especially seeks broad representation of groups, institutions, and geographic regions that are underrepresented in STEM disciplines. Proposals from women, underrepresented minorities, persons with disabilities and early-career PIs are encouraged, as are proposals that benefit early-career researchers and proposals with PIs from geographically underserved regions, including EPSCoR jurisdictions. Additionally, proposals are encouraged from under-resourced institutions, including from emerging research institutions, where MRI can significantly build capacity for research

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

The intent of this solicitation is to request proposals from organizations who are willing to serve as resource providers within the NSF Advanced Computing Systems and Services (ACSS) program. Resource providers would (1) provide advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) resources in production operations to support the full range of computational- and data-intensive research across all of science and engineering (S&E), and (2) ensure democratized and equitable access to the proposed resources.

To increase the Nation's capacity for transformative S&E discoveries, NSF is interested in continuing to diversify and evolve its portfolio to take advantage of new technologies and services that include capabilities addressing emerging computational- and data-intensive S&E research topics, workflows, and communities, while expanding opportunities for participation by a broader range of potential RPs.

This competition emphasizes the provisioning of an ecosystem of advanced computational resources and services that is responsive to the dramatic increase in the number and nature of applications using NSF-funded resources. Proposals are requested for advanced CI that will acquire and deploy capabilities and services, including composable services, to address the increase in demand for computation and data analytics resources in the S&E research community, as well as explore novel paradigms for enabling transformative S&E discoveries.

The current solicitation is intended to complement previous NSF investments in advanced computational infrastructure by provisioning resources, broadly defined in this solicitation to include systems and/or services, in two categories:

• Category I, Capacity Resources: production computational resources maximizing the capacity provided to support the broad range of computation and data analytics needs in S&E research; and
• Category II, Innovative Prototypes/Testbeds: innovative forward-looking capabilities deploying novel technologies, architectures, usage modes, etc., and exploring new target applications, methods, and paradigms for S&E discoveries.

Resource Providers supported via this solicitation will be incorporated into NSF’s ACSS program portfolio. This program complements investments in leadership-class computing and funds a federation of nationally available HPC resources that are technically diverse and intended to enable discoveries at a computational scale beyond the research of individual or regional academic institutions. NSF anticipates that at least 90% of the provisioned resource will be available to the S&E community through an open peer-reviewed national allocation process and have resource users be supported by community and other support services. Such allocation and support services are expected to be coordinated through the NSF-funded “Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support” (ACCESS) suite of services, or an NSF-approved alternative as may emerge. If this is not feasible for the proposed resource, proposers must clearly explain in detail why this is the case and how they intend to make the proposed resource available to the national S&E community.

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

UArizona can submit one proposal as a lead organization and can serve on no more than two proposals as a collaborator. Both, collaboration and leading projects should participate in the internal competition in other to determine the projects that will be selected to represent UofA.

All IHEs can participate in ART in some form, either as lead or partner/mentor.  It’s up to the institution to make the case of where they seem themselves fitting in.  There are different metrics that can be used to determine research translation and entrepreneurship that reflect the current capacity and status of infrastructure for translational research at an IHE.  We are asking IHEs to self-determine and provide data as justification.  

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) announced a new foundation-wide solicitation for the Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program, which was authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.  The ART program aims to support projects that will increase the role of U.S. institutions of higher education in their region’s innovation ecosystems through building their capacity and strengthening their infrastructure for translational research and supporting translational research training for graduate students and postdocs.  For this competition, NSF recognizes “translational research” as converting research into practical applications that can be deployed at scale, including knowledge/technology transfer, commercialization, or transition to practice, resulting in tangible economic and/or societal benefits.

This solicitation seeks proposals that enable IHE-based teams to propose a blend of: (1) activities that will help build and/or strengthen the institutional infrastructure to sustainably grow the institutional capacity for research translation in the short and long terms; (2) educational/training opportunities, especially for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, to become entrepreneurs and/or seek use-inspired and/or translational research-oriented careers in the public and/or private sectors; and (3) specific, translational research activities that offer immediate opportunities for transition to practice to create economic and/or societal impact. The funded teams will form a nationwide network of 'ART Ambassadors' who will champion the cause of translational research.

Submissions to the ART solicitation must address how an institution would:

1. “Develop institutional capacity and infrastructure for translational research activities in the short term (during the four-year duration of the award) and long term (beyond the duration of the award);
2. Create and continually train new cohorts of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers versed in translational research to successfully create economic and/or societal impact through various career pathways, e.g., as entrepreneurs, in industry or public sectors; and
3. Support a nationwide network of 'ART Ambassadors' who will be the agents of change within their institutions and region to support equal importance for translational research and its ensuing impact.”

Among other activities, ART awardees will be required to identify and fund at least two Seed Translational Research Projects (STRPs) selected from research being done at the lead institution with translational potential.  Each STRP must be supported for at least two years and total funding for all STRP projects supported throughout the duration of the award cannot be more than half of the total funding for the project. 

Colleges and universities that have high levels of fundamental research activity but low translational research activity are encouraged to apply to the ART solicitation.  NSF recommends that institutions who already have high levels of translational research activity consider participating as a collaborator that can provide expertise to funded institutions working on their translational research capacity building.  Applicants must provide data to “justify their current capacity and infrastructure for translational research activities, using multiple evidence-based methods and metrics to determine their capacity.”  NSF recommends utilizing their data on research expenditures, linked below, as a starting point to determine if an institution is operating at a high fundamental research level.  Specific metrics to reflect the level of translational research activity are up to the applicant.  Some examples provided by NSF are number of invention disclosures; number of start-ups; number of patents issued; volume of industry-funded research; broad adoption of research outputs; licenses issued; and revenue from royalties.  Institutions applying to the ART program also need to clearly state why they have significant potential to build translational research capacity. Finally, the solicitation highlights that translational research activities at institutions receiving ART awards must be valued similarly to fundamental research activities, including when institutions are making decisions about faculty recruitment, promotion, and tenure.

Sources and Additional Information:

• The ART program page is available at https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/accelerating-research-translation-art.
• The full ART solicitation is available at https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2023/nsf23558/nsf23558.htm.
• Registration information for the webinar can be found at https://nsf.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_N-mFOgtjSkijCuOI7orPvw?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery.

H. Chen (Artificial Intelligence Laboratory - AZSecure Cybersecurity Fellowship Program) Institutionally Coordinated Resubmission. 

The goals of the CyberCorps(R): Scholarship for Service (SFS) program are aligned with the U.S. strategy to develop a superior cybersecurity workforce. These goals are to increase the quantity of new entrants to the government cyber workforce, to increase the national capacity for the education of cybersecurity professionals, to increase national research and development capabilities in critical information infrastructure protection, and to strengthen partnerships between institutions of higher education and relevant employment sectors. The SFS program welcomes proposals to establish or to continue scholarship programs in cybersecurity. All scholarship recipients must work after graduation for a federal, state, local, or tribal Government organization in a position related to cybersecurity for a period equal to the length of the scholarship. A proposing institution must provide clearly documented evidence of a strong existing academic program in cybersecurity. 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.

No applicants // Limit: 2 // Tickets Available: 2 

UArizona may submit two proposals.
No more than two proposals across both tracks may be submitted by any Lead institution.

The Centers for Innovation and Community Engagement in Solid Earth Geohazards program supports university-based centers to advance research on the fundamental solid Earth processes that underpin natural hazards. Centers will catalyze, coordinate, and produce transformative research, lead innovation, and enable convergent approaches for systems-level insights that require the collective efforts of a large group of individuals.

Centers focus on addressing major, fundamental science challenges for understanding solid Earth geohazards, primarily those related to faulting, volcanoes, mass movements, and other dynamic processes. In particular, the Centers will advance understanding in one or more of the priorities outlined in the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine decadal survey report The Earth in Time, including; What is an earthquake? What drives volcanism? What are the causes and consequences of topographic change? and How can Earth science research reduce the risk and toll of geohazards?

Centers will also foster different dimensions of community engagement to meaningfully improve the national welfare. Flagship community engagement activities will take bold and creative action to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in the geoscience workforce and expand the impact of fundamental research in solid Earth geohazards to inform and prepare a broader community. Centers will establish partnerships to enable public outreach, hazard mitigation and other community engagement activities.

The Program has two tracks, both of which are described in this solicitation. Track I – Center Catalyst awards are intended to provide resources to catalyze initiatives to develop future centers. These awards would support groups to develop the science, management, and broader impact concepts for of a major research center. Track II – Center Operation awards are intended to support the operation of a fully developed center.
 

Track I – Center Catalyst 

For the FY 2022 competition, Track I – Center Catalyst proposals will address topics that focus on the fundamental processes that create solid Earth geohazards, including earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and other solid earth or tectonic processes. The proposal’s scope will align with one or more of the priorities outlined in the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine decadal survey report The Earth in Time, including; What is an earthquake? What drives volcanism? What are the causes and consequences of topographic change? and How can Earth science research reduce the risk and toll of geohazards?

Catalyst proposals will outline center development activities, including goal setting, strategic planning and community building, as well as developing and piloting center-scale activities that generate new knowledge with a broad range of impacts. Awardees must engage in research, broader impact activities, and center development activities over the two-year duration of the award. The activities may build on pre-existing efforts, but new, collaborative results attributed to the award are expected.

Track I - Center Catalyst Principal Investigators are required to develop a complete strategic plan for operating a future Center. Proposals will describe community engagement activities that will be carried out to develop the plan by the end of the award period. NSF staff will evaluate the plan and monitor progress throughout the award period. Developing a strong strategic plan may require consultation with strategic planning experts. 

Proposals should speak to a broad audience of Earth scientists and clearly articulate the value of the proposed Center to fundamental research and community engagement in solid Earth geohazards.

Key milestones during a Track I project will include a mandatory virtual site visit at the end of year 1 and submission of the strategic plan at 24 months. Additional information is provided in the proposal preparation guidance for a Track I full proposal.

Track II – Center Operations

In FY 2022, the program will consider only those proposals built around a compelling research challenge or theme related to fundamental earthquake processes. NSF intends to open future competitions to proposals focused more broadly on solid Earth geohazards.

Center Operations proposals are expected to outline broad, strategic, center-scale activities in accordance with the Center Attributes, as described earlier in this section. Centers will be agile structures that respond rapidly to emerging opportunities, promote synergy, enhance collaborations, and engage in potentially transformative research. Centers will integrate research, innovation, education, science communication, and efforts to broaden participation.

Center proposals will organize their scope into Major Activities, which will provide the framework for aligning the proposed scope with realistic budgets and timelines for achieving Center goals. A Major Activity will most frequently be a major research thrust of the Center but may also be a large-scale effort for workforce development, community-building, broadening participation, or other comparable effort to support broader impacts.

Centers may need flexibility to advance Major Activities or to respond quickly and effectively to emerging research and/or broader impact opportunities through subaward seed funding. These emerging areas may include (but are not limited to): high-risk research projects; emerging areas of interdisciplinary research; development of new cyberinfrastructure to support the Center; support for early-career faculty or for investigators changing fields; and innovative educational, diversity-promoting, or outreach ventures. Seed funding is not intended to provide a substitute for NSF individual investigator funding, nor should it be used to fund foundational operational support for the Center. Proposals should describe the criteria and mechanisms for selecting and evaluating projects that may require seed funding.

Key milestones will include periodic site visits and other oversight by NSF staff. The initial Track II awards will be made for five years (contingent on acceptable progress). Additional information is provided in the proposal preparation guidance for a Track II full proposal.

C. Hall currently  (Department of Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering) - Track 1:  Planning Grants

UArizona may serve as sole submitting organization or as lead organization on only one submission per competition, regardless of track, but may serve as the non-lead organization of a collaborative project more than once per competition.

Because the Implementation Projects requires an LOI due February 01, 2022, there is insufficient time to hold an internal competition. Therefore, this opportunity will be listed as "Open" based on the earliest sponsor's deadline for submission toward either the March Implementation deadline or the May planning grant deadline.

RII is Institutionally Coordinating the submission of proposals to NSF.
Contact RDS for more information.

The S-STEM program provides institutions of higher education (IHEs) with funds for scholarships to encourage and enable domestic low-income students with academic ability, talent or potential and demonstrated financial need to enter the US workforce following completion of associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degrees in S-STEM eligible disciplines. To enable social mobility of these students with academic talent, funds should be allocated to support scholars in areas of regional or national need. 

Description of Program Tracks

• Track 1 (Institutional Capacity Building)
  UA is not eligible to apply to Track 1, due to a previous award under this track.
   
• Track 2 (Implementation: Single Institution)
  Track 2 proposals have the same S-STEM goals as Track 1 proposals. They generally involve and benefit only one institution, but they will serve more scholars than Track 1 proposals. Any IHE (as described under the eligibility section) can submit a Track 2 proposal, whether or not the institution has received prior S-STEM or STEP awards.
  Track 2 proposals may, in some cases, also include a focus on student transfer or progression to graduate school. In this case, if needed, two or more institutions could partner.
  Track 2 projects must be led by a PI who is (a) a faculty member currently teaching in one of the S-STEM eligible disciplines being pursued by the targeted scholars, or (b) an academic administrator who has taught in one of the eligible disciplines in the last two years from submission and can dedicate the time necessary to assure project success. The PI must be a member of the proposed project's leadership and management team. The leadership and management team should also include a STEM administrator (department head or above). Faculty members from all departments or academic units involved should have a role in the project either as Co-PIs, senior personnel, or scholar mentors. The project team could include, if appropriate, a non-teaching institutional, educational, or social science researcher to support evidence-based responses to items raised by the external evaluator through formative evaluation. This additional researcher cannot take the place of the external evaluator. Proposals for Track 2 may request up to $2,500,000 total for up to 6 years.

   

• Track 3 (Inter-institutional Consortia)
  Track 3 projects support multi-institutional collaborations that focus on a common interest or challenge. Inter-institutional Consortia projects represent diverse collaborations, including partnerships between 2-year colleges and 4-year colleges and universities, between 4-year colleges and graduate programs, or between comparable institutions looking to implement and study parallel interventions. For example, a collaboration among community colleges and four-year institutions may focus on issues associated with successful transfer of low-income students from 2-year institutions to 4-year programs. In another example, a multi-institutional collaboration may focus on factors that contribute to the success or degree attainment of domestic, low-income students in different types of institutions.
  Proposals with a strong focus on the transfer or advancement of students from one educational level to another should collaborate with appropriate institutional partners. For example, proposals focused on the transfer of students from 2-year institutions to 4-year institutions should include faculty and administrators from 2-year institutions and 4-year institutions in the leadership team; likewise, proposals focusing on the advancement of undergraduate students at predominately undergraduate institutions to graduate programs should include institutions, administrators and Co-PIs representing both the undergraduate programs and the receiving graduate programs.
  Track 3 projects have the same overall goals as Track 1 and 2 projects but seek to accomplish these goals at a very large scale by leveraging multi-institutional efforts and infrastructure. In addition to the expectations stated below in section II.B.2 for all tracks, Track 3 projects are also expected to:

1. Establish an authentic, strong and mutually beneficial collaboration across all institutions involved in the consortia, providing comparable benefits to all institutions in terms of number of scholarships as well as in the infrastructure established to serve low-income students;
2. Establish strong technical assistance and processes that support and manage project activities across institutions involved in the collaborative effort.
3. Engage in high quality educational or social sciences research to advance understanding of how to adapt, implement and scale up effective evidence-based programs and practices designed to foster positive outcomes for low-income students in STEM.

   NSF does not favor a particular research design over others. How the chosen research methods and approaches are aligned with and appropriate for the research goals should be fully explained in the proposal. The ultimate goal of S-STEM is to support low-income students with awards covering their unmet need, up to the maximum allowable scholarship amount (whatever is less). Projects are strongly discouraged from allowing a desired sample size to play a role in the determination of the size of awarded scholarships.
   Track 3 projects are managed by leadership and management teams composed of faculty members who are currently teaching in an S-STEM eligible discipline(s), STEM administrators, and non-teaching institutional, educational, or social science researchers. The PI of Track 3 proposals must be either (a) a faculty member currently teaching in one of the S-STEM eligible disciplines, (b) a STEM administrator (department head or above), or (c) a non-teaching researcher whose expertise is in institutional, educational, or social science research in higher education. Faculty from all the institutions and disciplines involved need to be included in the leadership team and/or senior personnel. The lead PI needs to demonstrate the capacity, experience and resources needed to manage a complex, large-scale project and the necessary time to dedicate to assure project success.
   Track 3 proposals may request up to $5 million total for up to 6 years.
   Proposers should be aware that Track 3 projects will be formally reviewed by NSF during their third year to determine whether satisfactory progress has been made, with continued funding contingent on the result of the third-year review. See section VII.C on reporting requirements.

• Collaborative Planning Grants to Develop an Inter-institutional Consortium
  Collaborative Planning projects provide support for groups of two or more IHEs and other potential partner organizations to establish fruitful collaborations, increase understanding of complex issues faced by low-income students at each institution, establish inter-institutional agreements when necessary and develop mechanisms for cooperation in anticipation of a future Track 3 proposal that will benefit all institutions and their scholars as equal partners.
  This category of projects aims to provide proposers from two or more institutions the funds and time to establish the relationships and agreements necessary for submitting an Inter-institutional Consortia S-STEM proposal. It is expected that proposers will be ready to write and submit this Inter-institutional Consortia proposal within 1-2 years of receiving a Collaborative Planning grant award. Any subsequent proposals to S-STEM based on this work must describe the results of the planning effort.

New institutional restrictions for this program for 2022:

1. An institution may submit up to two proposals (either as a single institution or as subawardee or a member of an inter-institutional consortia project) for a given S-STEM deadline. Multiple proposals from an institution must not overlap with regard to S-STEM eligible disciplines. See Additional Eligibility Information below for more details (see IV. Eligibility Information).
2. Institutions with a current S-STEM award should wait at least until the end of the third year of execution of their current award before submitting a new S-STEM proposal focused on students pursuing degrees in the same discipline(s).

The above restrictions do not apply to collaborative planning grant proposals.

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

Through this solicitation, NSF seeks to foster a network of S-STEM stakeholders and further develop the infrastructure needed to generate and disseminate new knowledge, successful practices and effective design principles arising from NSF S-STEM projects nationwide. The ultimate vision of the legislation governing the S-STEM parent program[1] (and of the current S-STEM-Net solicitation) is that all Americans, regardless of economic status, should be able to contribute to the American innovation economy if they so desire.

To support collaboration within the S-STEM network, NSF will fund several S-STEM Research Hubs (S-STEM-Hub). The S-STEM Network (S-STEM-Net) will collaborate to create synergies and sustain a robust national ecosystem consisting of multi-sector partners supporting domestic low-income STEM students in achieving their career goals, while also ensuring access, inclusion, and adaptability to changing learning needs. The Hubs will investigate evolving barriers to the success of this student population. It will also disseminate the context and circumstances by which interventions and practices that support graduation of domestic low-income students (both undergraduate and graduate) pursuing careers in STEM are successful.

The target audience for this dissemination effort is the community of higher education institutions, faculty, scholars, researchers and evaluators, local and regional organizations, industry, and other nonprofit, federal, state, and local agencies concerned with the success of domestic low-income STEM students in the United States.

S. Baker (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)

UA may participate in only two (2) proposals per NRT competition as lead or collaborative non-lead. Collaborative non-lead projects must participate in the internal competition. One slot is still available.
UA is not eligible for track 2. Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity (R1) are not eligible for Track 2 consideration.

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas, through a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. Proposals are requested that address any interdisciplinary or convergent research theme of national priority.

The NRT program addresses workforce development, emphasizing broad participation, and institutional capacity building needs in graduate education. The program encourages proposals that involve strategic collaborations with the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, informal science centers, and academic partners. NRT especially welcomes proposals that include partnership with NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) and leverage INCLUDES project efforts to develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society. Collaborations between NRT proposals and existing NSF INCLUDES projects should strengthen both NRT and INCLUDES projects.
 

Priority Research Areas

For FY2021 and FY2022, proposals are encouraged in the research areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE) and the six research areas in NSF's 10 Big Ideas. The NSF research Big Ideas are Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR), The Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF), Navigating the New Arctic (NNA), Windows on the Universe: The Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (WoU), The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution (QL), and Understanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype (URoL). The FY2021 Budget Request to Congress includes an additional $15 million to include a special focus on artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence engineering.

Track 1
Track 1 proposals may request a total budget (up to five years in duration) up to $3 million for projects with a focus on STEM graduate students in research-based PhD and/or master’s degree programs. All Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US, acting on behalf of their faculty members and that award a research-based master’s degree and/or a doctoral degree in STEM disciplines supported by the National Science Foundation are eligible to apply to Track 1

UArizona eligibilty: 

• Track 1: Planning or Pilot Projects (PPP)-  track provides a funding opportunity for institutions that are new to NSF5 or are Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs6). UA is not eligible to submit a lead proposal for this track but may partner with other institutions.
• Track 2: Implementation and Evaluation Projects (IEP) - UArizona is eligible. There are no restrictions or limits on the number of submissions or awards. 
• Track 3: Institutional Transformation Projects (ITP)  - UArizona is eligible. Limited to one submission per institution.
   

Track 3: The Institutional Transformation Projects (ITP) track supports institution-wide structural or systemic changes to enhance undergraduate STEM education at the proposing HSI. The ITP must be grounded in STEM education research and broadening participation research and be designed to make institutional infrastructure and policy changes to support long-term institutional changes that encourage and support faculty in implementing evidence-based practices that enhance student outcomes in STEM at the proposing HSI.

Due to the institutional infrastructure and policy requirements for track 3, the submission for this track is Institutionally Coordinated.
Please contact UArizona HSI Initiatives for more information please contact:
 

Marla Franco, PhD
Vice President, Hispanic Serving Institution Initiatives
marlafranco@arizona.edu

Riley McIsaac
Associate Director of Grants Development
rmcisaac@arizona.edu