Joint IES and NSF Funding Opportunity for National AI Research Institutes

IES has partnered with NSF to fund a new initiative encouraging scientists to focus on AI-driven research and development of innovations to improve education. IES strongly encourages education and special education researchers to consider applying. Review the full solicitation for more information.

IES is providing partial funding for a specific theme within the NSF’s National AI Research Institutes solicitation: Theme 6: AI-Augmented Learning to Expand Education Opportunities and Improve Outcomes. This theme has two tracks associated with the two IES Research Centers:

Track A: AI-Driven Digital Platforms to Expand and Accelerate STEM Learning in PreK-12 Settings
Track B: AI-Augmented Learning for Individuals with Disabilities

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UF Research Promotion Initiative

UF has a Research Promotion Initiative which aims to connect your research to UF’s Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing (SCM) for potential promotion to media organizations as well as across university-based communications. To enter your research for consideration, please submit your peer-reviewed journal articles, books, literary essays or scholarly monographs to SCM by completing this form. SCM will contact the authors for the winning entries to work collaboratively, often with the communications professionals in your units, to increase recognition of your work. Additionally, the SCM team awards $1,000 to authors of papers selected for promotion, which can be used on research-related activities, such as travel, books and supplies.

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UFIT Proposal Support Available for Researchers

UFIT is committed to doing everything possible to enable the research community. Their staff can help make your sponsored funding proposals more competitive with letters and templates related to the computing and infrastructure needs of your project. There are four components that UFIT’s Research Computing staff can assist with: (1) the budget form showing the cost of computing services or hardware acquisition, (2) a commitment letter from Research Computing, (3) a description of the facilities in support of your project is available to include in the proposal’s facilities section, and (4) an explicit data management plan (DMP). The Research Computing website also has examples of justification text for Hardware Acquisition and Consulting Services. All of the templates and sample text mentioned above are available on https://www.rc.ufl.edu/research/proposal-support/. Please contact Research Computing Director Erik Deumens (deumens@ufl.edu) if you need assistance with your proposal’s computing infrastructure documentation.

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Annual Power of Math and Power of Reading Summits 2021

Duke Energy and CenterPoint Energy are sponsoring a free summit open to teachers and other educators. The material is for grades K-3. The program will be livestreamed over YouTube, but registration is required. Find out more information and register for the event here.

  • Monday, November 22, 2021
    Power of Reading
  • Tuesday, November 23, 2021
    Power of Math
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Proposed Bill to Increase IES Funding

The Senate Democrats released their FY 2022 appropriations bills, including the Labor/Health/Education appropriations bill that includes funding for IES. The bill matches the President’s request on RD&D by calling for a $70 million increase in funding to a new total of $267.9 million. The bill also increases funding for NCSER by $6.5 million, bringing it to $65 million! As you may remember, the President’s budget flat funded NCSER.  The overall IES level of funding is increased by $172 million with nearly $70 million of this providing administrative funding for IES separately (rather than through the overall Education budget).  Research-focused organizations have been concerned about declining IES staff levels. In theory, this should give them sufficient funding to begin to rebuild their staffing. This is the Senate Democrats’ proposal and does not reflect the input of the Senate GOP. Congress will attempt to likely reach agreement over all of its appropriations bill in December with the possibility for negotiations extending into the new year.

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National Laboratory Research Opportunities

The Office of Educational Programs (OEP) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) would like to invite you to be part of the OEP community. BNL is a multi-disciplinary, national laboratory and part of the Department of Energy. OEP is a department within BNL that specializes on internships and educational opportunities for students from kindergarten to post docs with the goal of forming a STEM pipeline to research opportunities at National Laboratories. As part of the OEP community you will get notifications to our undergraduate, graduate, post doc, and even faculty research opportunities, including a visiting faculty program that allows for collaboration on projects of mutual interest. You will also have direct access to OEP staff that will help you with any questions related to educational opportunities at the National Laboratory System. OEP also manages all of the DOE’s internship programs along with other BNL internship programs and is committed to working with you and your staff in providing research opportunities for students and faculty at the Laboratory.

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Awarded Projects for October 2021

Congratulations to Mary Bratsch-Hines for her subcontract IES Flow Through award from RTI International; Catherine Cavanaugh and Philip Poekert for their award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Alice Kaye Emery for her award from the Florida Department of Education; Lynda Hayes for her three awards from the Florida Department of Education; Herman Knopf for his award from the Early Learning Coalition of Palm Beach County; Robert Moore for his subcontract NSF Flow Through award from North Carolina State University; Philip Poekert for his two awards, one from Lauren’s Kids and one from the Louisiana Department of Education; Christopher Redding for his award from the American Education Research Association; and Wanli Xing, Swarup Bhunia, and Mary Jo Koroly for their award from the U.S. National Security Agency.

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Submitted Projects for October 2021

Best wishes to Pavlo “Pasha” Antonenko for his subcontract proposal NSF Flow Through to East Carolina University; Mary Bratsch-Hines for her U.S. Department of Education/IES proposal and her subcontract proposal IES Flow Through to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Kent Crippen and Julie Brown for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Zhihui Fang, Zandra de Araujo, Gayle Evans, Angela Kohnen, and Paige Pullen for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Frank Fernandez and Banafsheh Moradi for their proposal to the Spencer Foundation; Maya Israel and Anne Corinne Manley for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Kristy Boyer, Maya Israel, and Mehmet Celepkolu for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Maya Israel for her proposal to the Technical Education Research Center; Hyunyi Jung, Mary Bratsch-Hines, Chonika Coleman King, and Zandra de Aruajo for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Philip Poekert for his two proposals to Bright from the Start Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning and the School District of Hillsborough County; Paige Pullen for her three proposals, two to the School Board of Sarasota County and one to the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County; Kristy Boyer and Seyedahmed Rahimi for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Kristy Boyer, Seyedahmed Rahimi, and Mehmet Celepkolu for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Albert Ritzhaupt and Maya Israel for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Zuchao Shen and Walter Leite for their proposal to the American Educational Research Association; Eunjin “Jinnie” Shin for her proposal to the American Educational Research Association; Travis Smith and Lane Washington for their proposal to the Proctor and Gamble Fund; Megan Ennes, Jacqueline Swank, and Alison Adams for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Wanli Xing for his three proposals, two to the National Science Foundation and one subcontract NSF Flow Through to the South Big Data Regional Innovation Hub; and Wanli Xing, Elizabeth Washington, and Hector Sandoval Gutierrez for their proposal to the National Science Foundation.

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NSF National AI Research Institutes

The National Science Foundation has announced a limited grant opportunity to establish National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes. The University of Florida will only be able to submit two preliminary proposals. There are six themes for this competition:
• Theme 1: Intelligent Agents for Next-Generation Cybersecurity
• Theme 2: Neural and Cognitive Foundations of Artificial Intelligence
• Theme 3: AI for Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry
• Theme 4: AI for Decision making
• Theme 5: Trustworthy AI
• Theme 6: AI-Augmented Learning to Expand Education

Internal registration is due on or before Friday, October 15, 2021. The UF Office of Research is requesting that teams who are interested notify them by email to assist with the review process for the internal selection. Please register your intent to submit a concept for the internal selection. By email: Sobha Jaishankar (sjaishan@ufl.edu), cc Lloyd Horne (limitedprograms@research.ufl.edu).

Please provide the following information in your email:
1. Do you want to lead a UF submission? – yes/no. What is the thematic area?
2. Do you want to participate in a UF submission? – yes/no.
3. If you wish to participate in a UF led proposal, who would the PI be?
4. Do you want to participate in a proposal lead by another institution? – yes/no. Indicate the lead institution.
5. Your contact information – email, department, college, and area of expertise.

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OER Hosts Panel Presentation: Research Opportunity Seed Fund

The UF Office of Research has announced the 2022 Research Opportunity Seed Fund (ROSF) competition. The program focuses on new projects and/or new collaborative partnerships. Visit https://research.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022-ROSF-Call-for-Proposal.pdf  to review the 2022 guidelines and review criteria. To participate in the college’s internal review and selection of proposals to move forward, submit your two-page concept paper (in a single-file PDF) to research@coe.ufl.edu by October 18, 2021, 5pm. In preparation, the Office of Educational Research (OER) hosted an online panel presentation that was led by past recipients and experienced applicants. You can now access a recording of the event with the integrated audio transcript here.

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DSL Seeks Collaborative Partnerships for Multidisciplinary Research

The Division of Student Life (DSL) seeks collaborative partnerships with faculty researchers interested in conducting multidisciplinary studies at UF.  With a variety of departments – for full list click here – the Division qualifies as a department/unit/college for funding opportunities like the 2022 Research Opportunity Seed Fund and houses a wide range of avenues for possible research. Embedded within the Division, The Department of Assessment and Research (A&R) can assist with serving as an honest broker for enriching research with student data, connecting faculty researchers with other DSL departments for partnerships, and facilitating access to students as appropriate. The Department of A&R welcomes interested faculty to reach out at assessment@ufsa.ufl.edu.

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From the IES Director: “Better is Good”

The National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine (NASEM panel) formed to discuss the future of education research at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The panel discussions are nearing completion and recommendations are forthcoming. IES Director Mark Schneider commented in his blog about important issues the panel has reviewed. He is also interested in thoughts from the field and invites input from researchers, educators, policymakers, and other members of the community. Discussion of these topics will help IES think about its response to the NASEM panel, including how to change next year’s RFAs.

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OER Annual Report of Accomplishments for Fiscal Year 2020

The Office of Educational Research (OER) completed its annual report outlining data on externally funded projects and grant activities in the College of Education (COE). Faculty productivity and efforts toward securing external funding remain high and have surpassed fiscal year (FY) 2019 in (a) dollar amount of proposal submissions, (b) number of proposal submissions, (c) number of collaborative proposal submissions, (d) dollar amount of collaborative proposal submissions, (e) number of collaborative currently funded projects, (f) dollar amount of collaborative currently funded projects, (g) number of currently funded projects, (h) dollar amount of currently funded projects, (i) dollar amount of collaborative newly funded awards, (j) number of collaborative newly funded awards, and (k) dollar amount of funding per faculty member. The following represents a summary of external funding activities for FY 2020.

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2021 UF Centers & Cores Networking Event

The University of Florida’s diverse collection of scientific centers and cores will unite for the 2021 UF Centers & Cores Networking Event, offering a unique opportunity to network with colleagues and drive discussions behind important topics. Sponsored by UF Research, registrants can expect a full day of meaningful connection, including breakout sessions and a special Q&A session with UF Research Leadership. This is an internal event for UF staff and faculty. We are currently planning an in-person event, but could change to virtual as the date approaches. The Centers and Cores Networking Event will be held at Emerson Alumni Hall. Parking, refreshments and lunch will be provided for attendees. Due to space, the amount of attendees will be limited. Registration is now open.

• Friday, October 29, 2021
9:00am – 4:00pm EDT

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NSF Supports Infrastructure-Focused Research Projects Grounded in Behavioral and Social Science

The NSF is supporting 20+ exploratory research projects examining the interactions of people and society with physical and digital infrastructure. Through NSF’s Strengthening American Infrastructure initiative launched in 2020, researchers will investigate a variety of areas — from bridges and electrical grids to online education — with the goal of producing knowledge that can be used to make current and future infrastructure safer, smarter, and more cost effective. A total of $6.2 million will be invested into projects exploring multiple aspects of national and local infrastructure. Projects are encouraged to be cross-disciplinary and collaborative.

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