The Howard Foundation awards a limited number of fellowships each year for independent projects in selected fields. The Foundation targets its support specifically to early mid-career individuals, those who have achieved recognition for at least one major project. Approximately ten fellowships will be awarded in April 2011 for 2011-2012 in the fields of

• Creative Non-Fiction
• Literary Translation (into English)
• Film Studies
• Literary Studies

For more information, contact Christopher Tassava (ctassava or x5833) or see the program webpage

Grand Challenges Explorations fosters innovation in global health research. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $100 million to encourage scientists worldwide to expand the pipeline of ideas to fight our greatest health challenges. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline, from student to tenured professor, and from any organization – colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies. The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short two-page applications and no preliminary data required. Applications are submitted online, and winning grants are chosen approximately 4 months from the submission deadline. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to $1 million. The next deadline is May 19, 2010. For more information, contact Christopher Tassava at x5833 or ctassava or check the program webpage.

Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, in partnership with the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, created the Joint Watershed Research Grant Program in 2007. The watersheds are pleased to announce a new round of funding in 2010. Up to $400,000 in grant funding is being made available to qualified academic or research institutions, and nonprofit or for-profit organizations for research meeting the goal of the program.

The goal of the Joint Watershed Research Grant Program is to provide watershed managers and local units of government with needed research, information, and products, based on sound scientific foundations and economic assessments, they can use to manage and improve water resources within the seven-county, Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area.

Research areas of particular interest include:

• water management financing options
• low impact development/minimal impact development standards research
• green parking lots
• performance of stormwater best management practices (BMPs), and
• general water resource research such as ecosystem restoration, aquatic plant management, carp removal and management, tools and techniques for water quality trend analysis, total maximum daily loads, pollution abatement, water resources friendly architectural, infrastructure, and landscape design.

The deadline for pre-proposals is May 14, 2010. The full program description and application forms can be downloaded from the following websites:

www.minnehahacreek.org - Minnehaha Creek Watershed District

www.mwmo.org - Mississippi Watershed Management Organization

Proposals to the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program will be due in July 2010. CAREER is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from junior faculty members at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply. Each year NSF selects nominees for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from among the most meritorious new CAREER awardees. Individuals cannot apply for PECASE. These awards are initiated by the participating federal agencies.

Deadlines: July 20-24, 2010 (exact date depends on which NSF directorate will review the proposal)

More information: Christopher Tassava (x5833 or ctassava) or Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program webpage

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both. Recipients usually produce articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly resources.

Fellowships cover periods lasting from six to twelve months at a stipend of $4,200 per month in outright funds. The maximum stipend is $50,400 in outright funds for a twelve-month period. Applicants should request award periods that suit their schedules and the needs of their projects. Requesting an award period shorter than twelve months will not improve an applicant’s chances of receiving a fellowship.

Recipients may begin their awards as early as January 1, 2011, and as late as July 1, 2012. The award period must be continuous, and award recipients must work full time on their projects.

Applications must be submitted online, and include

• Narrative (maximum three single-spaced pages)
• Bibliography (maximum one single-spaced page)
• Résumé (maximum two single-spaced pages)
• Two letters of reference

More information: Christopher Tassava (ctassava or x5833) or the program website

For more information, contact Christopher Tassava (x5833 or ctassava) or go to the Foundation's grant web page: http://www.grahamfoundation.org/foundation/grantguidelines.asp

Formerly known as the "Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Program (CCLI)" program, the Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (TUES) program seeks to improve the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for all undergraduate students. This solicitation especially encourages projects that have the potential to transform undergraduate STEM education, for example, by bringing about widespread adoption of classroom practices that embody understanding of how students learn most effectively. Thus transferability and dissemination are critical aspects for projects developing instructional materials and methods and should be considered throughout the project's lifetime. More advanced projects should involve efforts to facilitate adaptation at other sites.

The program supports efforts to create, adapt, and disseminate new learning materials and teaching strategies to reflect advances both in STEM disciplines and in what is known about teaching and learning. It funds projects that develop faculty expertise, implement educational innovations, assess learning and evaluate innovations, prepare K-12 teachers, or conduct research on STEM teaching and learning. It also supports projects that further the work of the program itself, for example, synthesis and dissemination of findings across the program. The program supports projects representing different stages of development, ranging from small, exploratory investigations to large, comprehensive projects. This program provides educational opportunities for Undergraduate Students . This program provides indirect funding for undergraduate students or focuses on educational developments for this group such as curriculum development, training, or retention. The next deadline for receipt of full proposals is Wednesday, May 26, 2010. For more information, contact Christopher Tassava (222-5833 or ctassava) or see the program summary.

FIRE is a new strand of the Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE) program. The FIRE program seeks to facilitate the process by which scholars can cross disciplinary boundaries to acquire the skills and knowledge that would improve their abilities to conduct rigorous research on STEM learning and education. The primary goal of the strand is to facilitate the development of innovative theoretical, methodological, and analytic approaches to understanding complex STEM education issues of national importance and, by so doing, make progress toward solving them. A secondary goal of the strand is to broaden and deepen the pool of investigators engaged in STEM educational research. In order to address this goal, investigators must pair with a mentoring scientist in a to-be-learned field of interest. Proposals therefore have both a research and a professional development component. The maximum award for FIRE projects is $400,000, with duration of up to two years. Investigators may apply at any point in their post-graduate careers. Full proposals are due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time on Thursday, May 20, 2010. For more information, contact Christopher Tassava (222-5833 or ctassava) or see the formal program solicitation.

After a long hiatus, the John Templeton Foundation again seeks proposals for research projects related to their longstanding interest in life’s biggest questions, from the laws of nature and the universe to questions on the nature of love, gratitude, forgiveness, and creativity. Online proposals will be accepted from February 1 to April 15, 2010, and August 1 to October 15, 2010 in five "Core Funding Areas" and seven "Active Funding Priorities." For more information, click through, contact Christopher Tassava (x5833 or ctassava), or consult the Foundation's "What We Fund" webpage.

The Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) serves to increase access to shared scientific and engineering instruments for research and research training in our Nation's institutions of higher education, museums, science centers, and not-for-profit organizations. This program especially seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of research and research training in science and engineering, by providing shared instrumentation that fosters the integration of research and education in research-intensive learning environments. Development and acquisition of research instrumentation for shared inter- and/or intra-organizational use are encouraged, as are development efforts that leverage the strengths of private sector partners to build instrument development capacity at academic institutions.

To accomplish these goals, the MRI program assists with the acquisition or development of shared research instrumentation that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs. Instruments are expected to be operational for regular research use by the end of the award period. For the purposes of the MRI program, proposals must be for either acquisition or development of a single instrument or for equipment that, when combined, serves as an integrated research instrument (physical or virtual). The MRI program does not support the acquisition or development of a suite of instruments to outfit research facilities or to conduct independent research activities simultaneously.

Instrument acquisition or development proposals that request funds from NSF in the range $100,000-$4 million will be accepted from all eligible organizations. Proposals that request funds from NSF less than $100,000 will also be accepted from all eligible organizations for the disciplines of social, behavioral and economic sciences and from non-Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education for all NSF-supported disciplines.