Partnerships for International Research (PIRE)

Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) is an NSF-wide program that supports international activities across all NSF supported disciplines. The primary goal of PIRE is to support high quality projects in which advances in research and education could not occur without international collaboration. PIRE seeks to catalyze a higher level of international engagement in the U.S. science and engineering community. International partnerships are essential to addressing critical science and engineering problems. In the global context, U.S. researchers and educators must be able to operate effectively in teams with partners from different nations and cultural backgrounds. PIRE promotes excellence in science and engineering through international collaboration and facilitates development of a diverse, globally-engaged, U.S. science and engineering workforce. This PIRE competition will focus exclusively on the NSF-wide investment area of Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES). The SEES effort focuses on interdisciplinary topics that will advance sustainability science, engineering and education as an integrative approach to the challenges of adapting to environmental, social and cultural changes associated with growth and development of human populations, and attaining a sustainable energy future.

Amount: $4 million across 5 years
Date due: Preliminary proposals due October 19, 2011

For more information, click here.

Cottrell College Science Awards Single Investigator Awards

Support of significant research that contributes to the advancement of science and to the professional and scholarly development of faculty at undergraduate institutions along with their students

Eligibility

The principal investigator must have a faculty appointment at a US college or university in a department of astronomy, chemistry or physics, or, if from another department, propose research that significantly overlaps with research in astronomy, chemistry or physics. Faculty who have had a previous CCSA award or whose appointment is in a department or school of engineering or medicine are not eligible. The applicant’s home department must offer at least baccalaureate, but not doctoral, degrees. At the time of application the applicant must be within the first three years of her/his first tenure track appointment.

Criteria

The potential of a proposed research project to add to fundamental scientific knowledge is a prime criterion in its evaluation, as is its potential for developing into a long term viable program capable of attracting future support from other agencies. Other factors considered are the environment for research at the institution, student participation, and the contribution the research will make to the college's science programs.

Funding

Cottrell College Science Awards provide direct expenses for support of the proposed research. The total funding from Research Corporation for Science Advancement must be $35,000. An institutional match of $10,000 is required for all applicants. Expenses are limited to five budget categories: equipment, supplies, student stipends, faculty stipends, and travel away from the home institution to conduct research. Requests for Research Corporation for Science Advancement funds have the following limits: supplies up to $6,000 per year, student summer stipends up to $3,500 for 10 weeks, faculty summer stipends up to $7,500 for 8 weeks, travel costs to conduct research and reasonable fees for instrument use off campus up to $2,500 per year. No indirect costs or fringe benefits (other than FICA at 7.65%) are allowed from RC funds.

Applications

The target date for completed applications is November 15. All potential applicants begin the submission process by completing the Eligibility Quiz. If you meet the basic eligibility guidelines you will be directed to submit a brief pre-proposal that is due on September 15. All eligible applicants must complete the pre-proposal. See the complete program guidelines for further details. For questions regarding eligibility and application processes, contact us at ccsa@rescorp.org

Environmental Education Regional Grant Program

The purpose of the Environmental Education Regional Grant Program is to increase public awareness and knowledge about environmental issues and provide the skills that participants in its funded projects need to make informed environmental decisions and take responsible actions toward the environment.

Amount: $100,000

Date due: May 2, 2011

For more information, click here.

FY2011 Oregon Conservation Innovation Grant

The purpose of CIG is to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies while leveraging the Federal investment in environmental enhancement and protection, in conjunction with agricultural and forestry production. CIG projects are expected to lead to the transfer of conservation technologies, management systems, and innovative approaches (such as market-based systems) into NRCS technical manuals, guides, and references or to the private sector. CIG does not fund research projects. It is a vehicle to stimulate the development and adoption of conservation approaches or technologies that have been studied sufficiently to indicate a likelihood of success, and to be candidates for eventual technology transfer or institutionalization. CIG funds projects targeting innovative on-the ground conservation, including pilot projects and field demonstrations.

Subcategories include energy, climate change, water quality, water quantity, plant health/vigor, grazing, crops, and wildlife habitat.

Amount: $75,000

Date due: March 31, 2011

For more information, click here.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Invites Applications for Sea Turtle Conservation Projects

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced the availability of matching grant funding for sea turtle conservation projects in the Western Hemisphere. Projects of interest will focus on research, assessment, and bycatch reduction.

Conservation grant proposals are invited in the following sea turtle research and conservation priority areas: increase effective usage of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) both domestic and abroad, and implementation of other bycatch reduction methods in areas of high bycatch in the Western Hemisphere that will benefit priority sea turtle populations (targeted grant range is up to $100,000 per year); determine and assess potential bycatch and/or unsustainably managed legal harvest hotspots for the North American loggerhead population and the Caribbean hawksbill population (targeted grant range is up to $50,000 per year); and strategies on priority nesting beaches to reduce adult harvest to zero and nest mortally to less than 10 percent of nests laid for index beaches of priority sea turtle populations (targeted grant range is up to $25,000 each per year.

Date due: April 1, 2011 (Pre-proposals)

For more information, click here.

Oregon Sea Grants

The Oregon Sea Grant Program invites preliminary proposals for research on important marine and coastal issues from researchers who are affiliated with any institution of higher education. Proposals will be entered into a highly competitive review and selection process. Proposed work may begin on either February 1, 2012, or February 1, 2013.

An ideal Sea Grant proposal would apply the best science and an innovative approach to a well-defined coastal or marine problem or opportunity that is important to Oregon, the Pacific Northwest Region, and the nation. The two primary criteria for evaluating proposals are 1) scientific excellence and 2) societal relevance. All proposals must state how they match up with the Oregon Sea Grant Strategic Plan (click here).

Amount: $90,000/year for two years

Date due: February 4, 2011 (Preliminary proposals); May 6, 2011 (Full proposals)

For more information, click here.

Social Science Research coordination with Sea Grants

The California, University of Southern California, Oregon, and Washington Sea Grant programs are jointly interested in coordinated research efforts that bring together researchers from across the region to address specific social science issues of regional priority. Encompassing the shorelines, estuaries and offshore ocean environments from Washington to California, West Coast marine and coastal ecosystems are diverse and rapidly changing. Expanding pressures from population growth, changing land use and large-scale environmental shifts are affecting the natural resources and biogeochemical processes that sustain coastal regions and the communities, businesses and people that rely upon them.

The four West Coast programs are interested in regional proposals that address social science questions related to national Sea Grant goals for healthy coastal ecosystems, sustainable coastal development, safe sustainable seafood supply and hazard resilient coastal communities. Alignment is encouraged with state, regional and national research priorities (see .pdf for links). The range of potential marine and coastal research topics includes, but is not limited to:

• Coastal and marine spatial planning and its application to emerging issues like marine renewable energy
• Use and valuation of coastal and marine resources, including fisheries, and implications for
  management
• Relationships among social, economic and ecological sustainability and resilience of coastal regions
• Patterns, processes and social institutions that underlie changing coastal demographics and economies
• Human roles and responses to regional climate and environmental changes such as severe storms, coastal inundation, ocean acidification, sea level rise and shifting circulation and marine population distributions
• Community and stakeholder engagement, visioning, social learning and other methods to support coastal sustainability and environmental protection

Amount: Varies

Date due: February 22, 2011 (Letter of Intent); May 15, 2011 (Full proposal)

For more information, click here.