Slots: 2

Deadlines

Internal Deadline: Friday, October 18th, 2024, 5pm PT Closed.

Preliminary Proposal Deadline: January 14, 2025; Second Tuesday in January, Annually Thereafter

External Deadline: April 22, 2025

Recurring Deadlines: Fourth Tuesday in April, Annually Thereafter

Award Information

Award Type: Cooperative Agreement

Estimated Number of Awards: 10

Anticipated Award Amount: $15,000,000

Who May Serve as PI: By the submission deadline, any PI, co-PI, or other Senior/Key Personnel must hold either:

• a tenured or tenure-track position, or
• a primary, full-time, paid appointment in a research or teaching position, or
• a staff leadership role in an Open-Source Program Office or equivalent position

at a U.S.-based campus of an Institution of Higher Education (see above), with exceptions granted for family or medical leave, as determined by the submitting institution.

Individuals with primary appointments at overseas branch campuses of U.S. institutions of higher education are not eligible. Researchers from foreign academic institutions who contribute essential expertise to the project may participate as Senior/Key Personnel or collaborators but may not receive NSF support.

Link to Award: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/safe-ose-safety-security-privacy-open-source-ecosystems/nsf24-608/solicitation

Process for Limited Submissions

PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template

Materials to submit include:

• (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
• (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)

Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.

Purpose

Vulnerabilities in an open-source product (software and non-software) and/or its continuous development, maintenance, integration, and deployment infrastructure can potentially be exploited to attack any user (human, organization, and/or another product/entity) of the product and/or its derivations. To respond quickly to the growing threats to the safety, security, and privacy of OSEs, NSF is launching the Safety, Security, and Privacy of Open-source Ecosystems (Safe-OSE) program.

This program seeks to fund impactful, mature open-source ecosystems to address important classes of safety, security, and privacy vulnerabilities. In this context, mature signifies that the ecosystem in question has already established a robust community of contributors, an extensive group of users, a managing organization that steers the development of the product, and the essential infrastructure needed to keep the ecosystem running.

This program grows out of the Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program which supports new managing organizations to catalyze distributed, community-driven development and growth of new OSEs to address the discerned need to address safety, security, and privacy vulnerabilities in impactful OSEs.

Unlike NSF’s Dear Colleague Letter inviting proposals related to open-source software security (NSF 23-149), which focuses on fundamental cybersecurity research, the Safe-OSE program solicits proposals from OSEs, including those not originally funded by POSE, to address safety, security, and/or privacy vulnerabilities proactively in existing, mature OSEs. These vulnerabilities can be technical (e.g., vulnerabilities in code, side-channels potentially disclosing sensitive information) and/or socio-technical (e.g., supply chain issues, insider threats, biases, and social engineering), as long as they are deemed significant in the context of the OSE. The goal of the Safe-OSE program is to catalyze meaningful improvements in the safety, security, and privacy of the targeted OSE that the managing organization does not currently have the resources to undertake. The program especially focuses on efforts in which enhancing the safety, security, and privacy of the OSE will lead to demonstrable improvement in its positive societal and economic impacts.

Proposals to this program should provide clear evidence that OSE team leaders have established a thorough understanding of the threat landscape, vulnerabilities, and/or failure modes for the open-source product(s) managed by the OSE. Proposals should describe, where appropriate, what other products depend upon the safe, secure, and privacy-preserving functions of the OSE. Proposals should situate the OSE’s threat landscape in the larger context of known threats and/or vulnerabilities and discuss any significant prior incidents affecting the product(s). A realistic plan for addressing risks related to safety, security, and privacy should address the threat landscape and describe how Safe-OSE funding will meaningfully improve the OSE’s capabilities for addressing vulnerabilities as well as for detecting and recovering from incidents.

Funds from this program should not be directed toward fundamental research or at readily resolvable, known bugs/issues, but rather toward strategies, methods, and actions that will fundamentally improve the open-source product’s safety, security, and privacy stance. Funds from this program can also be directed at efforts to bolster the OSE’s resiliency for recovering from future incidents. Thus, the proposal should articulate how Safe-OSE funding will improve the broader national, societal, and/or economic impacts of the OSE by hardening it against adverse events over the long term.

Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.

Slots: Both slots taken. An eligible organization may participate in two Innovations in Graduate Education proposals per annual competition. Participation includes serving as a lead organization on a non-collaborative proposal or as a lead organization, non-lead organization, or subawardee on a collaborative proposal. Organizations participating solely as evaluators on projects are excluded from this limitation. Proposals that exceed the organizational eligibility limit (beyond the first two submissions based on timestamp) will be returned without review regardless of the organization’s role (lead, non-lead, subawardee) in the returned proposal.

Deadlines

Internal Deadline: Friday, December 6th, 2024, 5pm PT Closed.

LOI: N/A

External Deadline: March 25, 2025

Recurring Deadlines: March 25, Annually Thereafter

Award Information

Award Type: Grant

Estimated Number of Awards: 16 to 20

Anticipated Award Amount: IGE Track 1 Awards (6 to 10 anticipated in FY 2024) are expected to be up to three (3) years in duration with a total budget between $300,000 and $500,000.

IGE Track 2 Awards (6 to 12 anticipated in FY 2024) are expected to be up to five (5) years in duration with a total budget up to $1,000,000.

The estimated number of awards and the anticipated funding amounts listed above for both Track 1 and Track 2 are for FY 2024. The number of awards and funding amounts in FY 2025 and FY 2026 are subject to the availability of funds.

Anticipated Funding Amount: The anticipated funding amount of $14,000,000 is for FY 2024.

Who May Serve as PI: There are no restrictions or limits.

Link to Award: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2024/nsf24529/nsf24529.htm

Process for Limited Submissions

PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template

Materials to submit include:

• (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
• (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)

Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.

Purpose

The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Program is designed to encourage development and implementation of bold, new, and potentially transformative approaches to STEM graduate education training. The program seeks proposals that a) explore ways for graduate students in STEM master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers, or b) support research on the graduate education system and outcomes of systemic interventions and policies.

IGE projects are intended to generate the knowledge required for the customization, implementation, and broader adoption of potentially transformative approaches to graduate education. The program supports piloting, testing, and validating novel models or activities and examining systemic innovations with high potential to enrich and extend the knowledge base on effective graduate education approaches.

The program addresses both workforce development, emphasizing broad participation, and institutional capacity-building needs in graduate education. Strategic collaborations with the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, informal science organizations, and academic partners are encouraged.

IGE RESEARCH PROJECTS

With this solicitation, NSF invites proposals for two types of projects (described below):

Track 1: Career Preparation and Student Success Pilots: IGE supports projects that generate knowledge about new, potentially transformative improvements in graduate education and workforce development that prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers for the full range of possible STEM career paths to advance the nation’s STEM enterprise.

Track 1 proposals focus on novel, pilot interventions in a single STEM program or at a single institution benefiting STEM students across multiple graduate programs. Track 1 will also support proposals examining the potential to extend a successful approach developed in one discipline or context to other disciplines or contexts. Examples of topics that Track 1 projects may address include, but are not limited to: student professional skill development; career preparation and vocational counseling; faculty training and faculty professional development; entrepreneurship; experiential and project-based learning; outreach and community engagement; international experiences; virtual networks; pedagogical innovations related to generative AI and large language models; personalized learning; STEM identity and belonging; and mentoring. Projects should address how the proposed approach would serve a broad population of students from diverse backgrounds.

Track 1 proposals may request a total budget (up to three years in duration) between $300,000 and $500,000.

Track 2: Systemic Interventions and Policies: IGE Track 2 awards support research projects that are expected to generate knowledge about the graduate education system and outcomes of systemic intervention and policies. IGE Track 2 projects may be implemented at different scales: within a field of study across multiple institutions and programs; across multiple fields of study within a single institution; or across multiple institutions and fields of study. Specifically encouraged are proposals that address one of the following six areas:

1. Funding models and funding mechanisms with a priority emphasis on studies on the effects of traineeships, fellowships, internships, and teaching and research assistantships on graduate student outcomes addressing differences by sex, race, ethnicity, and citizenship and student debt load.

2. Graduate student mental health and wellbeing with a priority emphasis on projects that include research, data collection, and assessment of the state of graduate student mental health and wellbeing, factors contributing to and consequences of poor graduate student mental health, and the development, adaptation, and assessment of evidence-based strategies and policies to support emotional wellbeing and mental health.

3. Mentoring policies, procedures, and models with a priority emphasis on studies of effects of graduate education and mentoring policies and procedures on degree completion, including differences by (i) sex, race and ethnicity, and citizenship; and (ii) student debt load.

4. Graduate research environments and teams with a priority emphasis on proposals to study differences in graduate research environments (e.g., academic, industry, government, hybrid; place-based; team vs. independent; formal and informal social supports) and associated outcomes or develop and assess new or adapted interventions, including approaches that improve mentoring relationships, develop conflict management skills, and promote healthy research teams;

5. Inclusive recruitment, admissions, retention, and completion strategies including, but not limited to, studies of the impact of previously implemented and/or new innovations in policies or other interventions designed to broaden participation in STEM graduate education of students who are members of groups underrepresented in the STEM workforce; and

6. Credentialing and degree milestones including, but not limited to, studies assessing the impact of systemic innovations in graduate degree milestones, micro-credentials, stackable credentials, and competency-based approaches on graduate education outcomes such as student recruitment, retention, completion, skills development, and employment readiness.

Track 2 proposals may request a total budget (up to five years in duration) up to $1,000,000.

Leadership teams (PI/Co-PIs) for both tracks are encouraged to include experts in education research, the learning sciences and/or evaluation, as appropriate, as well as in the principal science domain(s) as needed to design and implement a robust and appropriate research plan.

Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.

Slots: The NSF MRI program is an institutionally limited funding opportunity. Eligible institutions may submit up to 4 proposals total (no more than two in Track 1, no more than one in Track 2, and no more than one in Track 3).

• Track 1: Proposals that request total funds from NSF between $100,000 and $1,400,000.
• Track 2: Proposals that request total funds from NSF between $1,400,000 and $4,000,000.
• Track 3: MRI proposals are those that request funds from NSF greater than or equal to $100,000¹ and less than or equal to $4,000,000 that include the purchase, installation, operation, and maintenance of equipment and instrumentation to conserve or reduce the consumption of helium. Institutions may submit no more than one Track 3 proposal. Submission of a Track 3 proposal does not impact limits that apply for Track 1 and Track 2 proposals.

Deadlines

Internal Deadline: Monday, September 16th, 2024, 5pm PT Closed.

LOI: N/A

External Deadline: November 15, 2024

Recurring Deadlines: November 14, 2025; November 16, 2026.

Award Information

Award Type: Standard Grant

Estimated Number of Awards: 150

Anticipated Award Amount: $75,000,000

Who May Serve as PI: Applicants to the NSF MRI program must be full-time faculty at USC; visiting and adjunct faculty are not eligible. The program especially seeks broad representation of PIs, including women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities. Since demographic diversity may be greater among early career researchers, the program also encourages proposals by early career PIs and those that benefit early career researchers.

As this is a limited submission competition, all proposals must be submitted for review by Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) for selection of final candidates.

Link to Award: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2023/nsf23519/nsf23519.htm

Cost Sharing: Cost sharing requirements for new awards in the MRI Program are waived for a period of 5 years beginning with the FY 2023 MRI competition. Institutional submission limits for Track 1, Track 2 and Track 3 proposals remain.

Purpose

The goal of the NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program is to increase access to shared-use/multi-user instrumentation for scientific and engineering research and training. NSF MRI awards are intended to be a capacity-building program and to enhance research training of students who will become the next generation of instrument users, designers, and builders.  The program supports three different types of proposals, as described here: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2023/nsf23519/nsf23519.htm.

Internal Proposal Review Process: The internal NSF MRI proposals will be reviewed by faculty and relevant Research and Innovation staff, who will provide reviews to the proposers and a prioritized list of recommendations to the Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation.

Process for Limited Submissions

PIs must submit their application through the “NSF MRI” link listed under “Institutionally Limited External Competitions” through https://provost.sma.usc.edu/prog/nsf-mri. Regarding the Proposal template, please use the template provided here.

PROPOSAL COMPONENTS

Cover page information (to be filled out on-line)

1. Principal Investigator contact information and 10-digit USC ID number;
2. Proposal title and type;
3. Brief description (not to exceed 60 words): A succinct description of the proposed work.
4. Instrument/dataset/repository name and manufacturer/provider;
5. Link to instrument website and cost of instrument;
6. Link to external sponsor Request for Proposals (as applicable);
7. Core information name, URL, Core Director, and Core Manager contact information and 10-digit USC ID number (as applicable);
8. Co-PI information and 10-digit USC ID number (as applicable).

Sections to be uploaded: It is requested that applicants follow instructions carefully and do not submit additional materials not requested by this RFP. Information that is uploaded beyond what is requested will not be included in the proposal package provided to reviewers. Please upload each of the sections below as PDF documents.

• Abstract: (not to exceed 20 lines of text) A stand-alone succinct description of the proposed work.
• Proposal Narrative: (not to exceed 2 pages) (1” margins; single-spaced; font type: Arial, Helvetica, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Please use the template provided here.

• Manufacturer Quote

• List of Core Users: provide the name and email address of at least 5 expected users of the proposed equipment/dataset/repository.
• Letter(s) of Support: Provide a letter of support from the unit(s) that has(have) committed to ongoing maintenance and operation of the requested equipment.

• Curriculum Vitae: (not to exceed 5 pages): Provide a brief CV or biosketch of the PI (and Co-PI, as applicable).

Note: The portal requires information about the PI in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.

For questions about the application submission process, please contact Mike Yarsky at rii@usc.edu.

Good luck on your proposal application!

Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.

Slots: We have one slot available out of two total.

An eligible IHE may participate in only two (2) proposals per NRT competition as lead or collaborative non-lead. All Track 1 and/or Track 2 NRT proposals will be counted toward this total limit of two proposals per institution.

Participation includes serving as a lead institution or a non-lead institution (i.e., as part of a separately submitted collaborative proposal or as a sub-recipient) on any proposal. Organizations participating only as evaluators on projects are excluded from this limitation. Planning proposals, described in Section II, Program Description, are also excluded from this limitation. Proposals that exceed the organizational eligibility limit will be returned without review regardless of whether the institution on such a proposal serves as lead or non-lead collaborative institution. Potential PIs are advised to contact their institutional office of research regarding processes used to select proposals for submission.

Deadlines

Internal Deadline: TBA

LOI: Not required.

External Deadline: September 8, 2025

Recurring Deadlines: September 8, Annually Thereafter

Award Information

Award Type: Grant

Estimated Number of Awards: 8 to 20

Anticipated Award Amount: $53,000,000

Who May Serve as PI: Track 1 and Track 2: The PI must be on the faculty of the submitting institution.

Link to Award: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-research/nsf24-597/solicitation

Process for Limited Submissions

PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template

Materials to submit include:

• (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
• (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)

Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.

Purpose

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas, through a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. Proposals are requested that address any interdisciplinary or convergent research theme of national priority, as described in section II.D below.

The NRT program addresses workforce development, emphasizing broad participation, and institutional capacity building needs in graduate education. The program encourages proposals that involve strategic collaborations with the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, informal science centers, and academic partners. NRT especially welcomes proposals that reflect collaborations between NRT proposals and existing NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) Initiative, Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP), NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM), and NSF STEM Ed Organizational Postdoctoral Fellowship program (STEM Ed OPRF) projects, provided the collaboration will strengthen both projects. Researchers at minority serving institutions and emerging research institutions are strongly encouraged to submit proposals. Collaborations between NRT proposals and existing NSF INCLUDES projects should strengthen both NRT and INCLUDES projects.

Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.