Funding Opportunity Number: 15-526
Opportunity Category: Discretionary
Funding Instrument Type: Grant
Category of Funding Activity: Science and Technology and other Research and Development
Eligible Applicants: Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
Agency Name: NSF
Closing Date: 2015-03-16
Award Ceiling: $500,000
Expected Number of Awards: 30

Description: A well-prepared, innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce is crucial to the Nation's health and economy.  Indeed, recent policy actions and reports have drawn attention to the opportunities and challenges inherent in increasing the number of highly qualified STEM graduates, including STEM teachers.  Priorities include educating students to be leaders and innovators in emerging and rapidly changing STEM fields as well as educating a scientifically literate populace.  Both of these priorities depend on the nature and quality of the undergraduate education experience.  In addressing these STEM challenges and priorities, the National Science Foundation invests in evidence-based and evidence-generating approaches to understanding STEM learning; to designing, testing, and studying instruction and curricular change; to wide dissemination and implementation of best practices; and to broadening participation of individuals and institutions in STEM fields.  The goals of these investments include: increasing the number and diversity of STEM students, preparing students well to participate in science for tomorrow, and improving students' STEM learning outcomes.
NSF's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) initiative, launched in Fiscal Year 2014, supports a coherent set of investments to address immediate challenges and opportunities that are facing undergraduate STEM education, as well as those that anticipate new structures (e.  g.  organizational changes, new methods for certification or credentialing, course re-conception, cyberlearning, etc.  ) and new functions of the undergraduate learning and teaching enterprise.  The NSF-wide IUSE initiative acknowledges the variety of discipline-specific challenges and opportunities facing STEM faculty as they strive to incorporate results from educational research into classroom practice and work with education research colleagues and social science learning scholars to advance our understanding of effective teaching and learning.
The Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) contributes to the IUSE initiative through the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Pathways into Geoscience (IUSE: GEOPATHS) funding opportunity.  IUSE: GEOPATHS invites proposals that specifically address the current needs and opportunities related to undergraduate education within the geosciences community.  The primary goal of the IUSE: GEOPATHS funding opportunity is to increase the number of undergraduate students interested in pursuing undergraduate degrees and/or post-graduate degrees in geoscience through the design and testing of novel approaches for engaging students in authentic, career-relevant experiences in geoscience.  In order to broaden participation in the geosciences, engaging undergraduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups or from non-geoscience degree programs is a priority.  The IUSE: GEOPATHS solicitation features two funding Tracks: (1) Engaging students in the geosciences through extra-curricular experiences and training activities (GEOPATHS-EXTRA), and (2) Improving pathways into the geosciences through institutional collaborations and transfer (GEOPATHS-IMPACT).
Link: www.grants.gov/view-opportunity.html?opp…

Funding Opportunity Number: 2015NEA03LFCW
Opportunity Category: Discretionary
Funding Instrument Type: Grant
Category of Funding Activity: Arts (see "Cultural Affairs" in CFDA)
Eligible Applicants: Individuals
Agency Name: NEA
Closing Date: 2015-03-11
Award Ceiling: $25,000

Description: The Arts Endowment?s support of a project may begin any time between January 1, 2016, and January 1, 2017, and extend for up to two years.
Grant Program Description
The NEA Literature Fellowships program offers $25,000 grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement.  Applications are reviewed through an anonymous process in which the only criteria for review are artistic excellence and artistic merit.  To review the applications, the NEA assembles a different advisory panel every year, each diverse with regard to geography, race and ethnicity, and artistic points of view.
The NEA Literature Fellowships program operates on a two-year cycle with fellowships in prose and poetry available in alternating years.  For FY 2016, which is covered by these guidelines, fellowships in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) are available.  Fellowships in poetry will be offered in FY 2017 and guidelines will be available in the fall of 2015.  You may apply only once each year.
Competition for fellowships is extremely rigorous.  We typically receive more than 1,000 applications each year in this category and award fellowships to fewer than 5% of applicants.  You should consider carefully whether your work will be competitive at the national level.
Link: www.grants.gov/view-opportunity.html?opp…