Sponsor:National Science Foundation
Deadline(s): Archived

Objectives:
The sponsor provides support to advance progress toward the EHR goals through the development and application of new scientific knowledge. Goals for the ROLE Program are:

• to discover and to describe neural, cognitive, affective, and conceptual learning processes required for life-long SMET learning
• to understand how prekindergarten through secondary teacher and post-secondary faculty content knowledge and pedagogy relate to the implementation that innovative and effective curricula, materials, and assessments require
• to develop research-based learning tools, pedagogical approaches, and materials that enhance SMET education at all levels
• to reevaluate the overall curriculum structure (including selection, ordering, and priorities of topics) to enhance SMET education at all levels
• to develop and to refine new education research and evaluation methods
• to increase the research capacity of the field, especially the development of new researchers and research-oriented education practitioners
• to collect and to analyze data and to use data to inform researchers, decision-makers and the general public
• to understand the factors that enhance the full participation of all Americans in the SMET enterprise and the approaches that can increase this participation
• to increase the knowledge of learning, teaching and organizational models that lead to substantial and large-scale improvement in the efficiency, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of the United States educational system.

The goals of EHR are:

• making high quality science and mathematics education available to every child in the United States
• ensuring that the educational pipelines to careers in science, mathematics, engineering and technology yield a diverse, well-educated technical workforce adequate for the needs of the United States
• ensuring that the instructional workforce has the disciplinary and pedagogical skills necessary to provide an excellent education to every student in science and mathematics
• ensuring that those who select careers in science, mathematics or engineering have the best professional education at the undergraduate and graduate levels
• promoting scientific literacy and public interest in and awareness of scientific and technological developments through high quality informal science education and college courses for nonspecialists.

The ROLE Program will support research across a four-quadrant science of learning continuum that includes:

• brain research as a foundation for research on human learning
• fundamental research on behavioral, cognitive, affective and social aspects of human learning
• research on SMET learning in formal and informal educational settings
• research on SMET learning in complex educational systems. Each of these quadrants constitutes a broad research area, with its own distinct characteristics and historical foundations.

Brain Research as a Foundation for Research on Learning--will support a limited number of theoretical studies focused on human learning that help frame advances in areas that may include but are not limited to biological neural networks, computational neuroscience, functional imaging, neuroplasticity, and adaptive systems. The ROLE Program seeks proposals for workshops and similar activities that will inform and gather advice from relevant scientific communities in these areas.

Fundamental Research on Behavioral, Cognitive, Affective, and Social Aspects of Learning--to enhance the multidisciplinary understanding of the foundations of human learning. NSF seeks proposals that formulate compelling and innovative bridges from cognitive science either to brain research (Quadrant I) or to research on learning in educational settings (Quadrant III). A sample of areas of interest includes: modeling of cognitive processes and mapping of models to brain function in the context of human learning; sociological, ethnographic, anthropological, economic, and organizational studies that address the special characteristics of educational environments; and understanding the cognitive and pedagogical implications of new scientific and technological advances.

Research on SMET Learning in Educational Settings--to provide a stronger base to support sustained improvement in science and mathematics educational practice in settings such as classrooms, informal learning sites (including the home), and technological learning environments (e.g. non-academic technological education). Another expectation is to bridge research and educational practice. In particular, ROLE seeks proposals that bridge research on science and mathematics learning with areas of educational practice associated with programs in the EHR Divisions and that include collaborations with investigators funded under such programs.

Research on SMET Learning In Complex Educational Systems--welcomes proposals that study existing large-scale reform experiments, in which foundational research on human learning or research in components of SMET educational practice are embedded in a sustainable and scalable way in actual complex systems of practice. Eligible research includes studies that involve testable hypotheses, studies that challenge current systemic reform strategies, design experiments, and other research methods such as quasi-experiments, testbeds, longitudinal data, and national and international comparisons.

A sample of research areas of potential interest includes: studies of systemic reform strategies, including predictive modeling, frameworks for systemic change, and evaluations of costs and effectiveness; "Innovation flow" and organizational mechanisms conducive to policy changes and sustained, coherent improvements in systemwide practice; interactions among accountability reforms, curricular reforms, textbook adoptions, technologies, teacher professional development opportunities, revised graduation requirements, schedules, and other reforms; modeling of large educational systems and their evolution in terms of multilevel adaptive systems, with possible theoretical parallels to issues and research in the first three Quadrants.

Restrictions:
The March 1 and September 1 deadline dates are for preliminary proposals. The June 1 and December 1 deadline dates are for formal proposals. Proposals may be submitted by any organization eligible for NSF support, including universities and colleges, nonprofit, non-academic organizations, for-profit organizations, state and local governments, unaffiliated individuals, foreign organizations, and other federal agencies. Synergistic collaboration among researchers and collaboration or partnerships with other educational institutions (including schools or school systems), scientific organizations, industry or government laboratories is encouraged when appropriate.

ROLE awards may be funded up to three years and will generally range from $100,000 to $1,800,000. Depending on the availability of funding, between twenty and thirty proposals may be selected for support per funding cycle. ROLE will consider planning, workshop and exploratory research grants for up to one year and up to $100,000 each. Twenty to thirty awards are anticipated. Proposals submitted in response to this program announcement should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the general guidelines contained in the Grant Proposal Guide (GPG), NSF 00-02. The complete text of the GPG (including electronic forms) is available on the NSF Web site at: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/cpo/policy/grants.htm. FastLane use is required for both preliminary proposals and full proposals.

Sponsor: American Association of University Women (AAUW); Educational Foundation
Deadline:No Longer Available

Objectives:
The Founders Distinguished Senior Scholar Award honors a tenured woman scholar at the pinnacle of her academic career for a lifetime of outstanding research, teaching, publication, and impact on women in her profession and community. The award is open to women in all disciplines.

Sponsor:National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Deadline:Varies

Objectives:
The Division of Behavioral and Social Research supports basic social and behavioral research and research training on the processes of aging at both the individual and societal level. It focuses on the following: 

• How people change during the adult lifespan
• Interrelationships between older people and social institutions
• The societal impact of the changing age composition of the population

Emphasis is placed on: (1) the dynamic interplay between individuals' aging; (2) their changing biomedical, social, and physical environments; and (3) multilevel interactions among psychological, physiological, social, and cultural levels.

BSR supports research, training, and the development of research resources and methodologies to produce a scientific knowledge base for maximizing active life and health expectancy. This knowledge base is required for informed and effective public policy, professional practice, and everyday life. BSR also encourages the translation of behavioral and social research into practical applications.

Eligibility:
Applications may be submitted by foreign and domestic, for-profit and nonprofit, public and private organizations, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government.

Sponsor:Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation
Deadline(s):January 15, 2009

Objectives:
The sponsor provides support to improve the lives of families afflicted by clinical depression. The board expects that in addition to certain other areas, the sponsor may give special consideration to proposals which address childhood and adolescent depression.

Eligibility:
Eligible applicants are organizations. Federal law places strict limitation on a foundation's ability to make grants to individuals. The sponsor's grants tend to fall in the $5,000 to $35,000 range. The sponsor has not foreclosed any particular type of grant. For example, the sponsor will consider making capital grants, challenge grants, start-up grants, and grants given over more than a one year period. The sponsor is prohibited from making grants to political action groups and from lobbying the government. Application guidelines are available. There is no formal application or form. Potential applicants may send their letters of inquiry by email, but the sponsor will not accept full proposals through the Internet.

Sponsor:Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Eye Institute (NEI)
Deadline: February 12, June 12 and October 12, annually

Objectives:
The mission of the National Eye Institute (NEI) is to conduct and support research, research training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight, and the special health problems and needs of individuals who are partially-sighted or blind. Specific areas of interest include retinal diseases, corneal diseases, lens and cataract, glaucoma, strabismus, amblyopia, and visual processing, as well as low vision and its rehabilitation. The purpose of the Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award (K08) is to support the development of outstanding clinician research scientists. This mechanism provides specialized study for individuals with a health professional doctoral degree committed to a career in laboratory or field-based research.

Candidates must have the potential to develop into independent investigators. The K08 supports a three-, four-, or five-year period of supervised research experience that may integrate didactic studies with laboratory or clinically-based research. The proposed research must have intrinsic research importance as well as serve as a suitable vehicle for learning the methodology, theories, and conceptualizations necessary for a well-trained independent researcher. Awards in response to this program announcement will use the K08 mechanism.

Eligibility:
The candidate must have a clinical doctoral degree or its equivalent. Illustrative examples include, but are not limited to: M.D., D.D.S., D.M.D., D.O., D.C., O.D., N.D. (Doctor of Naturopathy), D.V.M., or Pharm.D. Individuals with the Ph.D. or other doctoral degrees in clinical disciplines such as clinical psychology, nursing, clinical genetics, speech-language pathology, audiology, and rehabilitation are also eligible. Individuals holding the Ph.D. in a non-clinical discipline but are certified to perform clinical duties should contact the appropriate institute concerning their eligibility for a K08 award. The candidate must be able to identify a mentor with extensive research experience. The candidate must be willing to spend a minimum of 75 percent of full-time professional effort conducting research and research career development.

Some of the participating NIH institutes and centers require completion of postgraduate clinical training by the time of award. Potential candidates should identify and contact that appropriate NIH awarding component to discuss this issue prior to preparing an application. Applications may be submitted, on behalf of candidates, by domestic, non-federal organizations, public or private, such as medical, dental, or nursing schools or other institutions of higher education. Candidates must be U.S. citizens or noncitizen nationals, or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence by the time of award.

Individuals admitted for permanent residence must be able to produce documentation of their immigration status such as an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151 or I-551) or some other verification of legal admission as a permanent resident. Noncitizen nationals, although not U.S. citizens, owe permanent allegiance to the United States. They are usually born in lands that are not states but are under U.S. sovereignty, jurisdiction, or administration. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible for this award.

Ineligible individuals include current and former principal investigators on NIH research project (R01), FIRST Awards (R29), comparable career development awards (K01, K07, K23), sub-projects of program project (P01) or center grants (P50), and the equivalent. Former principal investigators of NIH small grants (R03) or exploratory/developmental grants (R21) remain eligible. Current and former recipients of Clinical Associate Physicians (CAP) award support may apply for the K08 provided they have had no more than three years of CAP support by the time of the K08 award. The combined total of CAP plus K08 support must not exceed six years. A candidate for the K08 may not concurrently apply for or have an award pending for a CAP award or any other NIH career development award. K08 recipients are encouraged to apply for independent research grant support during the period of this award.

Sponsor:Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Deadline: February 12, June 12 and October 12, annually

Objectives:
The research programs of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) are devoted to increasing the understanding of the causes and consequences of drug abuse in order to reduce or eliminate drug use, abuse, and sequelae. Research focuses on

the fundamental biological mechanisms of the actions of abused drugs

• behavioral or pharmacological treatment and health services delivery strategies
• community-based epidemiologic studies
• epidemiology and prevention of HIV among drug abusers
• biochemical strategies for identifying successful drug abuse treatment agents.

Priority areas include the neuroscience and behavioral science of addiction, medications development, behavioral and psychosocial treatment, HIV infection and AIDS prevention, health services research; women, children, and drug abuse; and minority populations. The purpose of the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) is to support the career development of investigators who have made a commitment to focus their research endeavors on patient-oriented research. This mechanism provides support for three to five years of supervised study and research for clinically trained professionals who have the potential to develop into productive, clinical investigators focusing on patient-oriented research.

For the purposes of this award, patient-oriented research is defined as research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens, and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator directly interacts with human subjects. This area of research includes:

• mechanisms of human disease
• therapeutic interventions
• clinical trials
• the development of new technologies.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is especially interested in increasing the number of clinicians trained to conduct high-quality, patient-oriented clinical research. Accordingly, this award forms an important part of the NIH initiative to attract talented individuals to the challenges of clinical research. NIH intends to target a significant increase in funds for these entry-level career development awards. The K23 provides the awardee, through multidisciplinary didactic training, the opportunity to obtain both the knowledge and the research skills necessary to compete for independent support in patient-oriented research.

The objectives of the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) are to encourage research-oriented clinicians to develop independent research skills and gain experience in advanced methods and experimental approaches needed to conduct patient-oriented research and to increase the pool of clinical researchers who can conduct patient-oriented studies, capitalizing on the discoveries of biomedical research and translating them to clinical settings.

Eligibility:
The candidate must have a clinical doctoral degree or its equivalent. Illustrative examples include, but are not limited to, M.D., D.D.S., D.M.D., D.O., D.C., O.D., N.D. (Doctor of Naturopathy), D.V.M., Pharm.D., or a Ph.D. or other doctoral degree in disciplines such as clinical psychology, nursing, clinical genetics, speech-language pathology, audiology, and rehabilitation. Individuals holding a Ph.D. in a nonclinical discipline, but who are certified to perform clinical duties, should contact the appropriate institute concerning their eligibility for a K23 award.

Candidates also must have completed their clinical training, including specialty and, if applicable, subspecialty training prior to receiving an award. However, candidates may submit an application prior to the completion of clinical training. Candidates must identify a mentor with extensive research experience, and must be willing to spend a minimum of 75 percent of full-time professional effort conducting research career development and clinical research.

Applications may be submitted, on behalf of candidates, by domestic, nonfederal organizations, public or private, such as medical, dental, or nursing schools or other institutions of higher education. At time of award, candidates must be citizens or noncitizen nationals of the United States, or have been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (i.e., in possession of a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card I-551, or other legal verification of such status). Noncitizen nationals are generally persons born in outlying possessions of the United States (i.e., American Samoa and Swains Island). Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible.

Ineligible individuals include current and former principal investigators on NIH research project (R01), FIRST awards (R29), comparable career development awards (K01, K07, or K08), sub-projects of program project (P01) or center grants (P50), and the equivalent. Former principal investigators of NIH small grants (R03) or exploratory/developmental grants (R21) remain eligible. Current and former recipients of Clinical Associate Physicians (CAP) Award support may apply for the K23 provided they've had no more than three years of CAP support by the time of the K23 award. The combined total of CAP plus K23 support must not exceed six years. A candidate for the K23 award may not have pending nor concurrently apply for a CAP award or any other career development award. K23 recipients are encouraged to apply for independent research grant support during the period of this award.

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