NSF Program Solicitation – Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR)
PROGRAM SOLICITATION
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National Science Foundation
Directorate for Education and Human Resources |
Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter’s local time):
December 04, 2019
Engaged Student Learning and Institutional and Community Transformation Level 2 and 3
February 04, 2020
First Tuesday in February, Annually Thereafter
Institutional and Community Transformation Capacity-Building
February 04, 2020
First Tuesday in February, Annually Thereafter
Engaged Student Learning and Institutional and Community Transformation Level 1
August 04, 2020
First Tuesday in August, Annually Thereafter
Institutional and Community Transformation Capacity-Building
August 04, 2020
First Tuesday in August, Annually Thereafter
Engaged Student Learning and Institutional and Community Transformation Level 1
December 01, 2020
First Tuesday in December, Annually Thereafter
Engaged Student Learning and Institutional and Community Transformation Level 2 and 3
IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND REVISION NOTES
IUSE: EHR has been revised to include two tracks, Engaged Student Learning (ESL) and Institutional and Community Transformation (ICT), each of which has three levels. ICT Capacity-Building is a new level within the Institutional and Community Transformation track. There are new deadlines for proposals at all levels.
During FY 2020 and beyond, all projects are expected to increase knowledge about effective STEM education.
The IUSE: EHR program requires the use of Creative Commons licensing for new materials and release of computer code under an intellectual property license allowing others to use and build on the work.
Any proposal submitted in response to this solicitation should be submitted in accordance with the revised NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 19-1), which is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after February 25, 2019.
SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
General Information
Program Title:
Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR)
Synopsis of Program:
The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) hold much promise as sectors of the economy where we can expect to see continuous vigorous growth in the coming decades. STEM job creation is expected to outpace non-STEM job creation significantly, according to the Commerce Department, reflecting the importance of STEM knowledge to the US economy.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) plays a leadership role in developing and implementing efforts to enhance and improve STEM education in the United States. Through the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) initiative, the agency continues to make a substantial commitment to the highest caliber undergraduate STEM education through a Foundation-wide framework of investments. The IUSE: EHR is a core NSF STEM education program that seeks to promote novel, creative, and transformative approaches to generating and using new knowledge about STEM teaching and learning to improve STEM education for undergraduate students. The program is open to application from all institutions of higher education and associated organizations. NSF places high value on educating students to be leaders and innovators in emerging and rapidly changing STEM fields as well as educating a scientifically literate public. In pursuit of this goal, IUSE: EHR supports projects that seek to bring recent advances in STEM knowledge into undergraduate education, that adapt, improve, and incorporate evidence-based practices into STEM teaching and learning, and that lay the groundwork for institutional improvement in STEM education. In addition to innovative work at the frontier of STEM education, this program also encourages replication of research studies at different types of institutions and with different student bodies to produce deeper knowledge about the effectiveness and transferability of findings.
IUSE: EHR also seeks to support projects that have high potential for broader societal impacts, including improved diversity of students and instructors participating in STEM education, professional development for instructors to ensure adoption of new and effective pedagogical techniques that meet the changing needs of students, and projects that promote institutional partnerships for collaborative research and development. IUSE: EHR especially welcomes proposals that will pair well with the efforts of NSF INCLUDES (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsfincludes/index.jsp) to develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society.
For all the above objectives, the National Science Foundation invests primarily in evidence-based and knowledge-generating approaches to understand and improve STEM learning and learning environments, improve the diversity of STEM students and majors, and prepare STEM majors for the workforce. In addition to contributing to STEM education in the host institution(s), proposals should have the promise of adding more broadly to our understanding of effective teaching and learning practices.
The IUSE: EHR program features two tracks: (1) Engaged Student Learning and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation. Several levels of scope, scale, and funding are available within each track, as summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Overview of Engaged Student Learning and Institutional and Community Transformation tracks, levels, and deadlines
Track Level Deadlines Engaged Student Learning Level 1 : up to $300,000 for up to three years February 4, 2020 August 4, 2020
1st Tuesday in February and August thereafter
Level 2 : $300,001 – $600,000 for up to three years December 4, 2019 1st Tuesday in December thereafter
Level 3 : $600,001 – $2 million for up to five years December 4, 2019 1st Tuesday in December thereafter
Institutional and Community Transformation Capacity-Building : $150K (single institution) or $300K (multiple institutions) for up to two years February 4, 2020 August 4, 2020
1st Tuesday in February and August thereafter
Level 1 : up to $300,000 for up to three years February 4, 2020 August 4, 2020
1st Tuesday in February and August thereafter
Level 2 : $300,001 – $2 million (single institution) or $3 million (multiple institutions and research centers) for up to five years December 4, 2019 1st Tuesday in December thereafter
Cognizant Program Officer(s):
Please note that the following information is current at the time of publishing. See program website for any updates to the points of contact.
- Ellen Carpenter, telephone: (703) 292-5104, email: elcarpen@nsf.gov
- Andrea L. Nixon, telephone: (703) 292-5323, email: anixon@nsf.gov
Applicable Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s):
- 47.076 — Education and Human Resources