Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM

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. 

Amount: Varies

Date due: May 27, 2012

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Roadmaps to Health Community Grants

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Roadmaps to Health Community Grants program will support communities working to implement policy or system changes to address one of the social or economic factors that, as defined by the County Health Rankings, most strongly influence health outcomes in their community. These include education, employment and income, family and social support, and community safety.

Grantees will be organizations that participate in established coalitions or networks spanning multiple sectors and perspectives and may include representatives from business, education, public health, healthcare, community organizations, community members, policy advocates, foundations, and policymakers. Applicants must engage community members in the planning and implementation of projects, and must collaborate with organizations having expertise in improving the health of the public. Applicants also must secure 100 percent matching support, including a cash match of at least 50 percent, with the balance as in-kind support.

Amount: $200,000

Date due: May 2, 2012

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Research on the Health of LGBTI Populations

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is committed to supporting research that will increase scientific understanding of the health status of various population groups and improve the effectiveness of health interventions and services for individuals within those groups. High priority is placed on research on populations that appear to have distinctive health risk profiles but have received insufficient attention from investigators. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) highlights a particular community: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and related populations (designated here as LGBTI populations). Basic, social, behavioral, clinical, and services research relevant to the missions of the sponsoring Institutes and Centers may be proposed.

Amount: Varies

Date due: May 7, 2012

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Smart Health & Well-being (NSF)

Through the Smart Health and Wellbeing (SHB) Program, NSF seeks to address fundamental technical and scientific issues that would support much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on wellbeing rather than disease. The issues to be addressed include, but are not limited to, sensor technology, networking, information and machine learning technology, modeling cognitive processes, system and process modeling, and social and economic issues. Effective technology-based solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical needs, social interactions, cognitive limitations, barriers to behavioral changes, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems. The high degree of complexity and broad range of the problems require multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers to identify and address barriers limiting quality of life, independence for chronically ill and elder individuals, and other aspects of wellbeing. Fundamental technological advances are also needed to understand the impediments that prevent people from engaging in health-promoting life styles including diet and exercise and from participating in their healthcare decisions.Proposers are invited to submit proposals in two project classes, which are defined as follows:Type I: Exploratory Projects (EXP) - $200,000 to $600,000 total budget with durations from two to three years; andType II: Integrative Projects (INT) - $600,001 to $2,000,000 total budget with durations from four to five yearsA more complete description of the project classes can be found in section II. Program Description, of this document.

Date due: February 21, 2012

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Community-Campus Partnerships for Health

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health is a nonprofit organization that promotes health, broadly defined, through partnerships between communities and institutions of higher education.

The CCPH Award is designed to recognize exemplary partnerships between communities and institutions that build on each other's strengths to improve higher education, civic engagement, and the overall health of communities.

The intent of the award is to highlight the power and potential of community-campus partnerships in the social justice field. The award recognizes partnerships that are striving to achieve the systems and policy changes needed to overcome the root causes of health, social, and economic inequalities. The award seeks nominations of partnerships that pursue multiple community-campus partnership strategies, involve a full range of partners, and achieve significant outcomes that go beyond a process or a single event.

Partnerships may nominate themselves and need not be members of CCPH.

Date due: January 16, 2012

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2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leaders

The 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leaders awards program will recognize individuals in the United States working to solve the health challenges that confront their own communities. Nominees may be someone doing exceptional work to improve health or access to healthcare in his or her community, or someone who has solved a daunting community health problem.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation selects ten unsung heroes each year to receive the award, which includes national recognition, opportunities to network and collaborate with fellow health leaders around the country, and $125,000 to support the leader's work. The winners receive tools and knowledge to help them continue their efforts to improve health and healthcare where they live.

Selected leaders come from diverse professional backgrounds and regions of the country. Among other examples, recent award winners are providing compassionate care to dementia patients; supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth; providing free healthcare to homeless women; and developing support services for brain injury survivors.

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Public Health Services and Systems Research

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced a call for proposals for its Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR) grants.

The PHSSR program examines the organization, financing, and delivery of public health services within a community and determines the links between the quality and performance of the public health system and population health outcomes. RWJF is supporting this field of research to advance public health practice and improve population health through evidence-based enhancements in the public health system. The National Network of Public Health Institutes serves as the administrative support office and will facilitate the call for proposals for this program, which will provide financial support to conduct research addressing the most critical issues facing the nation's public health system.

Practitioners, researchers, and policy makers may serve as principal investigators. This solicitation seeks to engage new researchers in the field of PHSSR. Researchers who have not previously conducted research in the field of PHSSR are encouraged to apply, and junior investigators (less than seven years since doctorate) and first-time applicants will be strongly considered.

Approximately $2.7 million is available in this round of funding. Up to fourteen grants will be awarded. Grantees will receive up to $200,000 each in financial support to be used over a two-year period.

The foundation will hold a Web conference for interested applicants on April 27, 2011. Registration for the Web conference is required.

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