training

New Global Centers Program Aims to Address Challenges in Climate Change and Clean Energy

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NSF has announced a new Global Centers (GC) program, an ambitious effort to fund international, interdisciplinary collaborative research centers that will apply best practices of broadening participation and community engagement to develop use-inspired research on climate change and clean energy. Centers are also expected to create and promote opportunities for students and early career researchers to gain education and training in world class research while enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

International Partnerships

Given the global scale of the challenge of responding to climate change, NSF has partnered with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in Canada, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in the United Kingdom. These international partners will fund non-U.S.-based parts of teams under one of two tracks in the program.

Program Tracks

  • Track 1: Global Center Implementation will support the first Global Centers involving research partnerships with Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Awards will be up to $5 million total per award of 4-to-5-year duration. Foreign teams will be funded by their respective country agencies.Full proposals for Track 1 are due by May 10, 2023.
  • Awards will be up to $250,000 total per award of 2-year duration.The proposal window for Track 2 is between April 2, 2023 and May 10, 2023.

Opportunities to Learn More

Program Webinar

The GC program team is hosting a webinar on Tuesday February 28, 2023, 11am – 12pm EST, to introduce the new solicitation to the community and give potential PIs an opportunity to ask questions via the chat. The webinar will be recorded and eventually available on the program website for future viewing.

Webinar Zoom Link: http://bit.ly/3XXJaTi (Passcode: 114303)

“Save the Date” information can be found on the program page. 

Virtual Office Hours

The GC program team is also hosting a series of Virtual Office Hours aimed at giving potential PIs an opportunity to ask questions. The series starts on March 7 and ends on May 2. Any questions about the program can be asked at any session, although two of the sessions will have a special focus: Monday March 13 (Non-R1 Institutions) and Monday March 20 (Minority Serving Institutions).

Session dates and times can be found on the event page.

There are no restrictions on attending multiple sessions, so please feel free to attend the session which best fits your schedule. The Zoom link will be the same for all sessions.

Shape the Future of Synthetic Biology! Apply for Funding to Mentor High School iGEM Teams

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NSF is calling for requests for supplements and proposals to support high school teams participating in the International Genetically Engineered Machine – or “iGEM” – competition.

Attracting diverse students to STEM careers at a young age is essential to ensure the realization of a vibrant U.S. bioeconomy that will fuel innovation, economic growth and job creation. Synthetic biology has emerged as a major driver of innovation and technological advancement; as such, active researcher engagement of young people in synthetic biology is an important early step in workforce development to support a growing bioeconomy.

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Participants in the 2018 iGEM Giant Jamboree.
Image credit: iGEM Foundation, Justin Knight.

iGEM has emerged as the premier opportunity to engage students in creative research and technology development projects in synthetic biology. Annually, over 6,000 students from around the world at the high school, undergraduate, and master’s level participate in iGEM, working to design, build and test creative solutions to societal challenges using the tools of synthetic biology.

To support early career workforce development in this growing field, NSF is encouraging principal investigators of existing NSF awards to apply for supplements through the Research Assistantships for High School Students (RAHSS) mechanism to support iGEM teams. Supplements can vary in size but are expected to average approximately $10,000 per team. Additionally, NSF encourages the submission of Research Coordination Networks (RCN) proposals that would support dissemination of best practices for working with high school iGEM teams, and/or ways of remote mentoring of teams that are not located near a research university with synthetic biology capabilities. RCN proposals can be submitted at any time to the Biological Sciences or Engineering Directorates.

For more information on iGEM and how researchers can participate, visit iGEM.org.

Updated IRES solicitation now available

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The NSF’s Office of International Science and Engineering has released an updated solicitation for the International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program. IRES focuses on active research participation by U.S. students in high quality international research, education and professional development experiences in NSF-funded research areas. The updated solicitation can be found on the NSF website.

The overarching, long-term goal of the IRES program is to enhance U.S. leadership in research and education, and to strengthen economic competitiveness through training the next generation of research leaders.

The solicitation has three tracks, two of which are new to the program.

  • Track I: IRES Sites projects engage a group of undergraduate and/or graduate students in active, high-quality collaborative research at an international site with mentorship from researchers at a host facility. IRES Sites must be organized around a coherent intellectual theme that may involve a single discipline or multiple disciplines funded by NSF.
  • Track II (New): Advanced Studies Institutes (ASI) are intensive short courses with related activities that engage advanced graduate students in active learning and research. ASIs typically range in length from ten to 21 days and must be held outside the United States. ASIs must have a compelling rationale for their international location and should involve U.S. and foreign researchers. ASIs enable students to develop skills and broaden professional networks, leveraging international participation and complementary resources.
  • Track III (New): New Concepts in International Graduate Experience projects propose, implement and evaluate creative ideas for catalyzing the development of globally engaged U.S. scientists and engineers at the graduate student level. Professional societies and organizations in the U.S. are invited to propose innovative large-scale programs to provide high-quality international research and professional development experiences for U.S. graduate students.

Submission Deadlines: January-February 2018

Webinar: November 30, 2017, 2:00 – 3:30pm

OISE contacts:
Dr. Maija Kukla
Track I

 

Dr. Fahmida Chowdhury
Tracks II & III