With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) encourages the submission of proposals to the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) Program from institutions that have not had prior funding from the IUSE: EHR Program. Proposers are encouraged to consider submission to Level 1 of the Engaged Student Learning track of the IUSE: EHR Program. Information about the objectives and expectations for the Engaged Student Learning and for Level 1 proposals can be found in the IUSE: EHR program solicitation, NSF 19-601.

Proposals in the Engaged Student Learning track of the IUSE: EHR Program focus directly on students or serve students through faculty professional development and related activities. Engaged Student Learning projects can contribute to developing the STEM and STEM-related workforce, advancing a disciplinary STEM field, broadening participation in STEM, educating a STEM-literate public, improving K-12 STEM education through undergraduate preservice STEM teacher preparation, encouraging life-long learning, and/or building STEM capacity in higher education. All projects are expected to increase knowledge about effective STEM education. This may be achieved by proposing one or more knowledge-generating questions and investigating them with thorough project evaluation or more formal research methods. Prospective investigators are encouraged to contact an NSF Program Officer to discuss their ideas.

If you are interesting in applying for this funding opportunity, please start a routing sheet as soon as possible. As a reminder, proposals must be ready for submission by January 31, 2020 in order to meet the sponsor deadline.   If you should have any questions, please contact OSRP.