Program Description:

The NASA Office of STEM Engagement invites proposals from museums, science centers, planetariums, NASA Visitor Centers, youth-serving organizations, libraries, and other eligible nonprofit institutions via the 2021 NASA Teams Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions (TEAM II) Notice of Funding Opportunity, NH21ZHA002N.

The 2021 TEAM II NOFO is an omnibus solicitation, offering distinct program elements to which eligible IEIs may propose, issued as appendices to the NOFO. Initially, two program elements are offered, Standard Awards for TEAM II (STAT) which is analogous to previous TEAM II NOFOs, and Community Anchor Awards for TEAM II (CAAT).

Community Anchor Awards for TEAM II (CAAT) has a Period of Performance of 1 – 2 years with an individual award range for $20K – $25K.

Standard Awards for TEAM II (STAT) have a Period of Performance of 2-4 years with an individual award range of $500K – $800K.

For general inquiries, contact: TEAMII@jpl.nasa.gov.

For more information regarding these opportunities and scheduled information sessions, please visit the 2021 NASA TEAM II NOFO landing page on the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) website and click on ‘List of Open Program Elements’.

Project Description: A new funding track, Partnerships for Documentary Linguistics Education (PADLE), is offered collaboratively by this program and the Documenting Endangered Languages program (DEL) in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE). The strand provides support for collaborations that will improve TCUP institutions' instructional capacity in documentary linguistics (descriptive linguistics, computational methodology, archiving and preservation); attract, retain and support TCUP students in internships and research endeavors deemed to be necessary for a complete curriculum offering; and engage partner universities to provide an academic grounding and a successful transition for students who wish to study or attain degrees in documentary linguistics.

Project Description: The goal of Future Manufacturing is to support fundamental research and education of a future workforce to overcome scientific, technological, educational, economic and social barriers in order to enable new manufacturing capabilities that do not exist today. Future Manufacturing will require major advances in technologies and algorithms for the synthesis and production of new materials, chemicals, devices, components and systems of assured quality with high yield at reasonable cost. It will require new advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, new cyber infrastructure, new approaches for mathematical and computational modeling, new dynamics and control methodologies, new ways to integrate systems biology, synthetic biology and bioprocessing, and new ways to influence the economy, workforce, human behavior, and society.

Future Manufacturing requires creative convergence approaches in science, technology and innovation, empirical validation, and education and workforce development to address pressing challenges for manufacturing. At the same time, Future Manufacturing can leverage highly integrated physical, digital and social frameworks that underpin society to enable manufacturing that addresses urgent social challenges such as global health disparities, economic and social divides, infrastructure deficits of marginalized populations and communities, and environmental sustainability. Cross-disciplinary partnerships among scientists, engineers, social and behavioral economists, and experts in arts and humanities may be required to provide solutions that are equitable and inclusive.

Among this array of technologies and potential research subjects, three thrust areas have been identified for support in FY 2021 under this solicitation:

Future Cyber Manufacturing Research,

Future Eco Manufacturing Research, and

Future Biomanufacturing Research.

This solicitation seeks proposals to perform fundamental research to enable new manufacturing capabilities in one or more of these thrust areas.

This solicitation will support the following two award tracks:

Future Manufacturing Research Grants (FMRG) - up to $3,000,000 for up to four years; and

Future Manufacturing Seed Grants (FMSG) -up to $500,000 for up to two years.

Interdisciplinary teams commensurate with the scope of the proposed research, education plan, and budget are required. Proposals must include demonstrated expertise among the team members to carry out the proposed research, education, and workforce development activities. The use of a convergence approach is expected [2].

The goal of this solicitation is to enable new manufacturing that represents a significant change from current practice. Therefore, proposers responding to this solicitation must include within the Project Description a section titled Enabling Future Manufacturing. Please see "Full Proposal Preparation Instructions" for additional details.

Realization of the benefits of the fundamental research supported under this solicitation will require the simultaneous education of a skilled technical workforce that can transition new discoveries into U.S. manufacturing companies. The National Science Board has recently emphasized this perspective in its report, "THE SKLLED TECHNICAL WORKFORCE: Crafting America's Science and Engineering Enterprise." [3] Therefore, proposers responding to this solicitation must include a section titled Education and Workforce Development Plan that describes plans to equip students and upskill the workforce to enable Future Manufacturing. Please see "Full Proposal Preparation Instructions" for additional details.

FURTHER INFORMATION: An informational webinar will be held on February 26, 2021 at 1:00 PM EST to discuss the Future Manufacturing program and answer questions about this solicitation. Details about how to join this webinar will be posted at https://nsf.gov/events/event_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301968&org=NSF. A recording and transcript will be posted there soon after the webinar is held.

Project Description: The goal of the Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (U-RISE) program is to develop a diverse pool of undergraduates who complete their baccalaureate degree, and transition into and complete biomedical, research-focused higher degree programs (e.g., Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.). This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) provides support to eligible, domestic institutions to develop and implement effective, evidence-informed approaches to biomedical training and mentoring that will keep pace with the rapid evolution of the research enterprise. NIGMS expects that the proposed research training programs will incorporate didactic, research, mentoring, and career development elements to prepare trainees for the completion of research-focused higher degree programs in biomedical fields. This program is limited to applications from training programs at baccalaureate degree-granting research-active institutions (i.e., those with an average of NIH Research Project Grant funding less than $7.5 million total costs over the last 3 fiscal years).

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) does not allow appointed trainees to lead an independent clinical trial but does allow them to obtain research experience in a clinical trial led by a mentor or co-mentor.

Project Description: This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is designed to support highly integrated research teams of three to six PD/PIs to address ambitious and challenging research questions that are important for the mission of NIGMS and are beyond the scope of one or two investigators. Collaborative program teams are expected to accomplish goals that require considerable synergy and managed team interactions. Project goals should not be achievable with a collection of individual efforts or projects. Teams are encouraged to consider far-reaching objectives that will produce major advances in their fields.

Applications that are mainly focused on the creation, expansion, and/or maintenance of community resources, creation of new technologies or infrastructure development are not appropriate for this FOA.