Funding Opportunity: NSF Announces New Ideas Labs on Undergraduate STEM Education – Applications Due February 4

 

Lewis-Burke Associates LLC – January 29

 

On January 26, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a Dear Colleague Letter entitled “Preparing Applications to Participate in Phase I Ideas Labs on Undergraduate STEM Education.”  NSF will be hosting three ideas labs in March and April on improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the areas of engineering, biology, and geosciences.

 

NSF Ideas Labs bring together a group of participants with expertise in a relevant area to work in teams over a five day, intensive workshop to develop proposals.  Following the workshop, select teams will be invited to submit proposals to a competition for funding.  Ideas Labs generally involve 20-30 participants who are assisted by scientists with relevant expertise and a team of facilitators.  Ideas Labs provide an opportunity to form new multidisciplinary collaborations and gain real-time iterative feedback to improve proposal ideas.

 

Each of the disciplines involved in the Ideas Labs have outlined their priority workforce development needs in the Dear Colleague Letter.  The biology Ideas Lab will focus on giving students mathematical and computational skills, the engineering Ideas Lab will focus on social equality in engineering education, and the geosciences Ideas Lab will focus on broader access to undergraduate courses for diverse populations. 

 

The Ideas Labs are part of the new NSF program Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE), which aims to create a broader program description for unsolicited proposals related to STEM education to replace NSF’s individual undergraduate education programs, including Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education (TUES), STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP), and Widening Implementation and Demonstration of Evidence-Based Reforms (WIDER).

 

To participate in the Ideas Labs, interested faculty should submit a two-page application by February 4.  Regular proposals to IUSE are also suggested to be submitted by February 4. 

 

Sources and Additional Background: 

·         More information on the Ideas Labs and guidelines for the application are in the Dear Colleague Letter at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14033/nsf14033.jsp. 

·         More general information on IUSE, including program contacts, program description, and frequently asked questions can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504976.  

 

 

 

Miriam Quintal

Lewis-Burke Associates LLC

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