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University Small Grants (Air Force)

The U.S. Air Force is soliciting research proposals for the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy (RD) Directorate. This BAA is a university grant vehicle that can provide small grants of $100k or less to students/professors in a timely manner for the purpose of engaging U.S./U.S. territories’ colleges and universities in directed energy-related basic, applied, and advanced research projects that are of interest to the Department of Defense. Multiple awards of grants up to $100k are anticipated with a period of performance ranging from one to two years.

Amount: $100,000

Date due: Varies

For more information, click here.

Building Community and Capacity for Data-Intensive Research in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences and in Education and Human Resources

As part of NSF's Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21) activity, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE), the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure seek to enable research communities to develop visions, teams, and capabilities dedicated to creating new, large-scale, next-generation data resources and relevant analytic techniques to advance fundamental research for the SBE and EHR sciences. Successful proposals will outline activities that will have significant impacts across multiple fields by enabling new types of data-intensive research. Investigators should think broadly and create a vision that extends intellectually across multiple disciplines and that includes--but is not limited to--the SBE or EHR sciences.

Amount: Varies

Date due: May 22, 2012

For more information, click here.

Motorola Mobility Empowerment Grants

The Motorola Mobility Foundation's Empowerment Grants program supports the development of digital, social, and mobile technology applications that will make a positive change in nonprofit organizations, communities, and schools by broadening a stakeholder group, enhancing the skills of constituents, and encouraging the development of new innovations. Funded programs must serve communities in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, or Texas or be an online or national program. Applicants must demonstrate the ways that digital technology can be used to further the following funding priorities: education, health and wellness, arts and culture, or community.

Amount: $25,000

Date due: March 23, 2012

For more information, click here.

NSF Computing Education for the 21st Century

The Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21) program aims to build a robust computing research community, a computationally competent 21st century workforce, and a computationally empowered citizenry. In this undertaking, there are three interrelated challenges: the significant underproduction of degrees needed for the computing and computing-related workforce, the longstanding underrepresentation of many segments of our population, and the lack of a presence of computing in K-12. Innovation in information technology (IT) has driven economic growth, underlies many of our recent scientific advances, and ensures our national security; it is not surprising then that predicted IT job growth is very strong. Yet students are not majoring in computing in sufficient numbers. This shortfall is exacerbated by the longstanding underrepresentation of women, persons with disabilities, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and indigenous peoples in computing.

Unlike many of the other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines, computing has not developed a robust research base on the teaching and learning of its fundamental concepts and skills. That research base must be built and it must be used in providing all students with rigorous academic curricula that cover computational concepts and skills, and the breadth of application and potential of computing. Providing access to rigorous, academic computing in K-12 will require an unprecedented effort to develop curriculum and materials and to prepare teachers.CE21 thus supports efforts in three tracks:

Computing Education Research (CER) proposals will aim to develop a research base for computing education. Projects may conduct basic research on the teaching and learning of computational competencies; they may design, develop, test, validate, and refine materials, measurement tools, and methods for teaching in specific contexts; and/or they may implement promising small-scale interventions in order to study their efficacy with particular groups. Efforts can focus on computational thinking as taught in computing courses or infused across the curriculum, they can target students or their teachers in informal or formal educational settings, or they can address any level within the K-16 pipeline, from elementary school through high school and college.

CS 10K proposals will aim to develop the knowledge base and partnerships needed to catalyze the CS 10K Project. The CS 10K Project aims to have rigorous, academic curricula incorporated into computing courses in 10,000 high schools, taught by 10,000 well-trained teachers. CS 10K proposals can address a wide range of needed activities, including the development of course materials, pedagogy, and methods courses, as well as professional development and ongoing support for teachers, approaches to scaling, best practices for increasing the participation of students from underrepresented groups, and strategies for building K-12, university, and community partnerships.

Broadening Participation (BP) proposals will aim to develop and assess novel interventions that contribute to our knowledge base on the effective teaching and learning of computing for students from the underrepresented groups: women, persons with disabilities, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and indigenous peoples. Proposed interventions should be designed to engage and retain students from these groups and, at the same time, to increase their knowledge of computational thinking concepts and skills.

Proposers are encouraged to leverage the resources provided by the existing BPC-A Alliances and to develop interventions that, if proven successful, could be implemented within a BPC-A Alliance. For additional information on the Alliances, see http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503593&org=NSF. In aggregate, CE21 projects will contribute to our understanding of how diverse student populations are engaged and retained in computing, learn its fundamental concepts, and develop computational competencies that position them to contribute to an increasingly computationally empowered workforce.

Amount: $200,000 - $10m

Date due: April 9, 2012

For more information, click here.

Smart Health & Well-being (NSF)

Through the Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB) Program, NSF seeks to address fundamental technical and scientific issues that would support much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on wellbeing rather than disease. The issues to be addressed include, but are not limited to, sensor technology, networking, information and machine learning technology, modeling cognitive processes, system and process modeling, and social and economic issues. Effective technology-based solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical needs, social interactions, cognitive limitations, barriers to behavioral changes, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems. The high degree of complexity and broad range of the problems require multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers to identify and address barriers limiting quality of life, independence for chronically ill and elder individuals, and other aspects of wellbeing. Fundamental technological advances are also needed to understand the impediments that prevent people from engaging in health-promoting life styles including diet and exercise and from participating in their healthcare decisions.Proposers are invited to submit proposals in two project classes, which are defined as follows:Type I: Exploratory Projects (EXP) - $200,000 to $600,000 total budget with durations from two to three years; andType II: Integrative Projects (INT) - $600,001 to $2,000,000 total budget with durations from four to five yearsA more complete description of the project classes can be found in section II. Program Description, of this document.

Date due: February 21, 2012

For more information, click here.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)

The Department of Energy announces the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Phase I (Release 2). The objectives of these programs include increasing private sector commercialization of technology developed through Department of Energy supported research and development (R&D), stimulating technological innovation in the private sector, and improving the return on investment from Federally-funded research for economic and social benefits to the nation. DOE will support high-quality research or R&D on advanced concepts concerning important mission-related scientific or engineering problems and opportunities that are likely to lead to significant public benefit from promising research.

Amount: $150,000 (must partner with a small business)

Date due: January 31, 2012

For more information, click here.