October 10 Newsletter
     
 

Reminder -- Internal Grant Opportunity

Research Monetary Award and Teaching Innovation Grant Programs

Agency: Towson University Faculty Development and Research Committee
Proposal Deadline: October 14, 2005

The Faculty Development and Research Committee is now accepting applications for Research Monetary Awards and Teaching Innovation Grants for use during the spring semester 2006. Applications will be accepted through 5:00 pm October 14, 2005. Kindly note there will be two additional competitions this fiscal year, with anticipated deadlines at the beginning of March and May 2006.

To meet a recognized need for internal funding, the Provost has increased the total amount available to faculty members as Faculty Development and Research Committee funding to $115,000, including $15,000 specifically targeted for Teaching Innovation Grants.

Research Monetary Awards of up to $5,000 will be made for projects leading to a scholarly product, such as a proposal to an external funding source, or a publication, presentation, invention, composition, performance, or exhibition. Funds may be used for project-related expenses such as research assistants, supplies, and travel, and will be made available upon approval of awards. All funds awarded under this application round must be expended within 12 months of the award date, though requests for extensions may be considered by the Committee.

Full program guidelines for both grant programs are available on the Office of University Research Services’ Web page, http://www.towson.edu/ours.

Application forms for both Research Monetary Awards and Teaching Innovation Grants are available in hard copy or as Word documents from the Office of University Research Services (extension 4-2236 or by email, mhealy@towson.edu) or on the Web at the above address. An original and eight copies of completed application forms and accompanying documentation as described in the application form should be submitted to the Office of University Research Services, 7800 York Road, Room 225.

URL: http://www.towson.edu/ours

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Institutional, University Wide, or Cross Disciplinary Opportunities

Environmental Education Grants

Agency: United States Environmental Protection Agency
Proposal Deadline: November 23, 2005

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invites proposals for grants to support environmental education projects that promote environmental stewardship and help develop aware and responsible students, teachers, and citizens. Supported projects will design, demonstrate, or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques. All proposals must address at least one of the following educational priorities (presented in random order rather than order of importance):

  • Capacity Building – increasing capacity to develop and deliver coordinated environmental education programs across a state or across multiple states. Please note that proposals submitted under this priority must include networking with various types of educational organizations and statewide implementation of educational programs. The goal of capacity building projects must be to develop effective leaders and organizations that design, implement, and link environmental education programs across a state or states to promote long term sustainability of the programs. Coordination should involve all major education and environmental education providers including state education and natural resource agencies, schools and school districts, professional education associations, and nonprofit educational organizations. Examples of activities that may be funded include identifying and assessing needs and setting priorities, identifying funding sources and resources, facilitating communication and networking, promoting sustained professional development, and sponsoring leadership seminars.
  • Education Reform – utilizing environmental education as a catalyst to advance state or local education reform goals. Education reform efforts often focus on changes in curriculum, instruction, assessment, or how schools are organized. Curriculum and instructional changes may include inquiry and problem-solving, real-world learning experiences, project-based learning, team building and group decision-making, and interdisciplinary study. Assessment changes may include developing content and performance standards and realigning curriculum and instruction to the new standards and new assessments. School site changes may include creating magnet schools or encouraging parental and community involvement. Please note that all proposals submitted under this priority must identify existing educational improvement needs and goals and discuss how the proposed project will address these needs and goals.
  • Community Issues – designing and implementing model projects to educate the public about environmental issues and/or health issues in their communities through community-based organizations or through print, film, broadcast, or other media.
  • Health – educating teachers, students, parents, community leaders, or the public about human health threats from environmental pollution, especially as it affects children, and how to minimize human exposure to preserve good health.
  • Teaching Skills – educating teachers, faculty, or non-formal educators about environmental issues to improve their environmental education teaching skills, e.g., through workshops.
  • Career Development – educating students in formal or non-formal settings about environmental issues to encourage environmental careers.

Nonfederal matching funds of at least 25% of the total cost of the grant project are required.

Approximately $3 million is available for awards under this announcement. EPA Headquarters awards grants larger than $50,000, and the 10 EPA Regional Offices fund the smaller grants. This is a highly competitive program, especially at EPA Headquarters. The average size of Headquarters grants is $79,000. EPA grants in excess of $100,000 are seldom awarded through this program, and proposals for Headquarters grants over $150,000 will not be considered. Regional Offices usually receive fewer proposals than Headquarters and typically fund between 12 and 15 grants per region, or about 30% of the applications received, whereas Headquarters typically funds about 10% of applicants. Most Regional Office grants are in the $10,000 to $15,000 range and none will exceed $50,000. Proposals for Regional Office grants over $50,000 will not be considered.

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Innovation and Organizational Change

Agency: National Science Foundation
 Proposal Deadline: February 2, 2006

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation and Organizational Change (IOC) program supports scientific research directed at advancing understanding of how individuals, groups, and/or institutional arrangements contribute to functioning, effectiveness, and innovation in organizations. Research may involve industrial, educational, service, government, nonprofit, and/or voluntary organizations or interorganizational arrangements. Research must be relevant to an operation or applied context, grounded in theory, and generalizable. IOC-supported research should ordinarily combine theory with empirical validation. Projects that use functioning organizations as data sources or testbeds are encouraged. Projects that develop or build on research perspectives that cross disciplinary lines are also encouraged. For this competition, proposals pertinent to effective organization and management of scientific efforts that involve shared technological resources, particularly Cyberinfrastructure resources, will be of special interest.

IOC research might draw on theories and findings from fields including, but not limited to, organization theory, organizational behavior, industrial engineering, industrial/organizational psychology, organizational sociology, risk management, public administration, computer science, information science, and management science. Research methods may span a broad variety of qualitative and quantitative methods, including archival analyses, surveys, field studies, simulations, case studies, organization simulation modeling, laboratory studies, and social network analysis.

NSF will make an estimated 5 to 15 new awards under this announcement, with each award typically of one to three years in duration. The anticipated funding amount for fiscal year 2006 for this program is $1.5 million, half of which is expected to be dedicated to proposals pertaining to organization and management of scientific endeavors involving shared technological resources.

URL: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf05628

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IAIR/NCES/NSF Grant Program: Improving Institutional Research in Postsecondary Educational Institutions

Agency: Association for Institutional Research
Proposal Deadline: January 15, 2006

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR), with support from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) sponsors the “Improving Institutional Research in Postsecondary Educational Institutions” grant program in order to provide professional development opportunities to institutional researchers, educators, administrators, and doctoral students and to foster the use of federal databases for institutional research in postsecondary education. The program makes dissertation fellowships for doctoral students and research grants to practitioners and faculty members.

The research grant program provides grants to Principal Investigators (PIs) to conduct research on postsecondary education using the NCES and NSF national databases or to conduct studies that increase the understanding and knowledge of a specific issue area identified by the NPEC Executive Committee as critically important to the postsecondary education community. This year the NPEC focus is “Improving Information for Student Decisions about Postsecondary Education.” Funded projects promise a significant contribution to the national knowledge of the nature and operation of postsecondary education to the professional development of personnel working in postsecondary education. Research grant projects must use one or more of the national postsecondary education databases of NCES or NSF and/or must focus on the area of student decisions, broadly defined, at all levels of postsecondary education. Proposals addressing NPEC’s focus on issues of student decisions are not required to use one of the NCES or NSF databases. These proposals may cover a variety of research activities that focus on student decisions, including:

  • Data synthesis or meta analysis of research studies that address a specific question regarding student decisions;
  • New analyses of data using national, regional, state, or institutional databases;
  • Assessments of research and practices that have been initiated in the area of student decisions;
  • Models of student decisions that can be supported by research and/or that detail new data collection needs;
  • Case studies of activities that focus on student decisions;
  • Collections of best practices promoting student decisions; and
  • Other creative strategies.

Funds of up to $30,000 annually are available. Grants are usually made for one year. It is expected that work will be conducted at the PI’s come institution and that grant funds will cover budget items such as the cost of supplying data, dissemination of project results, travel, and perhaps some salary replacement.

URL: http://www.airweb.org/page.asp?page=40