The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released President Biden’s fiscal year 2022 discretionary budget request. The discretionary funding proposes $10.2 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF), $102.8 billion for the U.S. Department of Education (U.S. ED), $131.7 billion for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and $35.2 billion for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Some key investment areas are as follows:

NSF

• Enhance fundamental research and development.
• Address racial equity in science and engineering.
• Advance climate science and sustainability research.
• Strengthen U.S. leadership in emerging technologies.
• Construct additional major research facilities.

U.S. ED

• Make a historic investment to support students in high-poverty schools.
• Prioritize the physical and mental well-being of students.
• Increase support for children with disabilities.
• Support full service community schools.
• Foster diverse schools.
• Increase funding for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCUs), minority-serving institutions (MSIs), and community colleges to enroll, retain, and graduate students.

 U.S. HHS

• Strengthen national and global readiness for the next public health crisis.
• Prioritize mental health.
• Promote health equity by addressing racial disparities.
• Expand access to affordable, high-quality early child care and learning.
• Address racial inequity in the child welfare system.
• Support survivors of domestic and gender based-violence.
• Support research to understand disparate health impacts of climate change.
• Protect rural healthcare access and expand the pipeline of rural healthcare providers.

U.S. DOJ

• Reinvigorate federal civil rights enforcement.
• Combat the gun violence public health epidemic.
• Invest in efforts to end gender-based violence.
• Invest in community policing, police reform, and other efforts to address systemic inequities, including funding to support juvenile justice programs.

Read more →

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate has released a report STEM Education for the Future: A Visioning Report identifying three priorities for the future of STEM education. The report also includes challenges and action recommendations for addressing each priority. To be successful, the nation will need to invest in new research and innovation infrastructures. Additionally, investments must be made that include all people, regardless of their backgrounds, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and income levels.

Read more →

The National Science Foundation (NSF) provides an informational blog series NSF 101 to answer frequently asked questions for applicants who may be new to applying for NSF funding opportunities or who want to learn more about communicating with NSF.

Read more →

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have signed a collaborative agreement to expand activities for broadening participation in engineering. The collaboration will involve NASA’s Minority University Research and Education program, which engages underrepresented populations through numerous types of initiatives, and NSF’s Broadening Participation in Engineering and NSF INCLUDES programs.

Read more →

This blog is part 1 of Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Director Mark Schneider’s three-year anniversary update looking back at some of the highpoints of the time he has served as director of IES. In part 2, Turning to the Future, Dr. Schneider outlines some of the challenges IES will be overseeing.

Read more →

Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Director Mark Schneider revisited a theme that appeared in an earlier blog as IES becomes more focused on how best to help students catch up on unfinished learning resulting from the pandemic. IES recognizes that many students were falling behind even before the pandemic, especially the nation’s lowest-performing students. Every lesson learned about recovering must be utilized to remedy the downward trend.

Read more →

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a change to the format of the Biosketch and the content of Other Support. These changes are effective for all applications, Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs), and Just-in-Time (JIT) reports with deadlines on or submitted after May 25, 2021.

What does that mean for you?

Read more →