The Time is Now: Advancing Equity in Science and Technology Ideation Challenge

It is with great pleasure that the Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) would like to share more information about the recently launched The Time is Now: Advancing Equity in Science & Technology Ideation Challenge. The challenge is open from now through November 19, 2021. You can email equity@ostp.eop.gov with questions, comments or suggestions. We hope that you will help OSTP advance equity in the science & technology ecosystem through this challenge in three specific ways:

  • Participate! This challenge is open to all.
  • Spread the word.
  • Connect with OSTP to collaborate on advancing equity in science and technology.

Call for Nominations/Applications: Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society

The UF Graduate School’s Office of Graduate Diversity Initiatives (OGDI) invites all qualified faculty and postdoctoral members to apply for induction into the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society. The Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes excellence and diversity in doctoral education and the professoriate. The Bouchet Society seeks to develop a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, foster environments of support, and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy for students traditionally underrepresented in academia. Postdoctoral members must apply for membership and be approved by the National Steering Committee; faculty members must be nominated. The application process will open on Monday, November 15, 2021, and close at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 15, 2021. For more details, including application requirements and instructions, click this online link: UF Bouchet.  Please email questions to OGDI at ogdi@aa.ufl.edu.

Webinar and FAQs about the National AI Research Institutes Program

For those who are interested in pursuing the NSF’s National AI Research Institutes Program, nearly 50 frequently asked questions are addressed and answered by the NSF on this page. For general inquiries that are not answered on this page, you can contact NSF regarding this program at AIInstitutesProgram@nsf.gov. NSF is also hosting a webinar to cover the submission requirements and program updates. Register in advance.

  • Tuesday, November 16, 2021
    1:15 – 2:30pm ET

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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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