The President has released his FY 2021 budget request to Congress. The following is a summary of the budget requests for the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Science Foundation.
Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Director Mark Schneider recently had the opportunity to welcome several hundred of the field’s experts to the annual peer review meetings for the Research Center’s grant applications. At that meeting, he talked about the importance of SEER Principles. He shared current IES thinking about one of them: scaling.
With the February 21 UFIRST update, the requirement at time of proposal to comply with Public Health Service (PHS) and National Science Foundation (NSF) regulations concerning research and Significant Financial Interest (SFI) compliance has moved from the DSP-05 PDF attachment to an activity within the UFIRST Smartform.
This activity appears for Principal Investigators and Key Personnel automatically when the proposal is created with one of the above referenced sponsors. Similar to the PI Certify activity, the proposal will not move through the necessary workflow to the Core Office without the completion of this activity by all necessary personnel named on the proposal.
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) has changed its place-based Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA, April 17–21, 2020 to a virtual meeting due to the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). AERA is planning to host immediately a series of “Briefing and Listening Sessions” on the changes via Zoom:
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 4:00 pm–5:00 pm EST
Wednesday, March 11, 2020 4:00 pm–5:00 pm EST
Friday, March 13, 2020 12:00 pm–1:00 pm EST
Detailed instructions on how to join the discussion will be publicized.
The U.S. Department of Education (U.S. ED) has announced opportunities for individuals to participate in its peer review process by reviewing applications for competitive grant funding for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE), and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services OSERS.
An individual interested in serving as a peer reviewer must register and upload his or her resume in the U.S. ED grants management system known as “G5” at www.g5.gov. Additionally, individuals interested in serving as peer reviewers for an OESE competition should also submit their resumes by electronic mail to the following email address: OESEPeerReviewRecruitment@ed.gov with the subject line “Prospective 2020 Peer Reviewer.”
Grant and contract productivity is healthy for the COE, and we (the OER team) want to do whatever we can to support all principal investigators to accomplish their grant/contract goals. See OER Top Ten Reminders for COE Principal Investigators for some friendly reminders that will make things run as smoothly as possible as we support you.
The UF International Center is pleased to announce that Fulbright Awareness Month will be celebrated from March 10–April 10, 2020. In collaboration with the UF Fulbright Lectures Committee, UF Honors, the Graduate School, College of Arts, UF IFAS, Dial Center for Written and Oral Communications, College of Journalism and Communications, College of Education, Levin College of Law, and the North Florida Fulbright Alumni Association, multiple informational sessions for students, scholars, faculty and staff will provide opportunities to learn about the Fulbright application process, and to hear about the experiences of past Fulbright scholars and students.
Additionally, this year’s information sessions for faculty and students interested in applying for the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program will be led by Dr. Julie Taylor, Director of Academic Relations for the Fulbright Scholar Program at the Institute of International Education (IIE) in Washington, D.C. Dr. Taylor will also be available for individual consultations with interested applicants. To schedule an individual consultation, please email: canumba@ufic.ufl.edu
Fulbright grants and fellowships are available in all fields of study and in many world regions. For more information visit https://internationalcenter.ufl.edu/faculty-engagement/fulbright-scholar-program.
The PERSIST project workshop about NSF Noyce Track 4 grants scheduled for Saturday, March 14, prior to the now cancelled NARST conference, will be hosted as an online workshop instead. Now that the workshop will be online, and not constrained by physical space or food budget limitations, additional participants may apply by Wednesday, March 11, 2020 by submitting the online application form. One application per individual is required so participant numbers can be properly reported to NSF (which is sponsoring the workshop).
The workshop will be held at the following time on Saturday, March 14, 2020 in order to best accommodate schedules across four time zones of people to participate simultaneously (note that this is after daylight savings time). The workshop will be conducted by Zoom and will be interactive, involving breakout rooms and use of white boards online. Participants will need access to computers or tablets to be able to participate.
11:00 am – 3:00 pm Pacific time
12:00 pm – 4:00 pm Mountain time
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Central time
2:00 pm – 6:00 pm Eastern time
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) new Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 20-1) has been released and will be effective for proposals submitted or due, and awards made, on or after June 1, 2020. NSF conducted a webinar on February 6, 2020, covering the significant changes to the PAPPG (NSF 20-1). The webinar is now available for on-demand viewing.
To assist the UF community, UF DSP has highlighted some of the key changes to the PAPPG (NSF 20-1); however, you are encouraged to review the by-chapter summary of changes provided in the Introduction section of the PAPPG. NSF also has announced issuance of a set of Current and Pending Support Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that accompany the revised version of PAPPG. The FAQs address policy questions related to the PAPPG and clarifications to the current and pending support coverage, as well as questions regarding use of an NSF-approved format for current and pending support.
UF Research, Division of Research Program Development is sponsoring an NSF grants and CAREER award workshop for early-career tenure-track faculty hired between 2017 and 2020 (will be expanded if space constraints allow).
When: April 1, 2020 8:30 am–5:00 pm
Location: Reitz Union Chamber Room
Presenter: Dr. John Robertson from Grant Writers’ Seminars and Workshops
Please note that attendance at the morning session is a prerequisite to participate in the afternoon CAREER award session. The registration fee is $75 and will include an NSF-focused grant writing workbook. Register here: http://reg.conferences.dce.ufl.edu/SSP/1400076043
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants Conference will be held May 18–19, 2020 in Minneapolis, MN. Registration opens on March 17, 2020 at 12 pm EST. NSF anticipates the conference will reach capacity very quickly and encourages you to register as soon as it opens. In the meantime, please check www.nsfpolicyoutreach.com for the most up-to-date event information, and view recordings of sessions from last year’s event.
General registration rates end March 30, 2020 for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Spring 2020 Regional Seminar on Program Funding and Grants Administration to be held April 20–22 in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, see the NIH Regional Seminar website.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking public comment on the framework for the next NIH-Wide Strategic Plan. This plan, for fiscal years (FYs) 2021–2025, will serve as an update to the current FYs 2016-2020 plan. The Request for Information (RFI; NOT-OD-20-064) invites the public to provide feedback via the RFI webform through March 25, 2020.
NIH is hosting public webinars to answer questions about the next NIH-wide strategic plan. Registration for the webinars is required.
Preparation is underway for the new FORMS-F version of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant application forms and instructions required for due dates on or after May 25, 2020. NIH has posted the FORMS-F application guides on the How to Apply – Application Guide page. The significant changes section summarizes the new updates.
The System for Award Management (SAM) will introduce the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), which is currently scheduled to replace the DUNS Number near the end of 2020. Users can expect to see UEI labels in March 2020 when Grants.gov implements the label change across the system in preparation for the SAM transition to the UEI. When using Workspace, Grants.gov applicants will see fields formerly labeled “DUNS” now labeled “UEI” starting in March 2020. For now, keep entering the DUNS Number when a field labeled “UEI” needs to be filled in.
