Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC)

Description

The National Science Foundation seeks to significantly increase the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving postsecondary degrees in the computing disciplines, with an emphasis on students from communities with longstanding under-representation in computing, such as women, people with disabilities, African-Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Projects that target stages of the academic pipeline from middle school through the early faculty ranks are welcome.

The BPC program will support three categories of awards: Alliances, Demonstration Projects, and Leveraging, Scaling, or Adapting Projects.

• Alliance and Alliance Extension Projects arebroad coalitions of  academic institutions of higher learning, secondary (and possibly middle) schools, government, industry, professional societies, and other not-for-profit organizations that design and carry out comprehensive programs addressing underrepresentation in the computing disciplines. They have a large  regional or national scope. Typically, Alliances operate across multiple stages of the academic pipeline and address multiple targeted groups. Together, Alliance participants (1) develop and implement interventions that support students and early career faculty, (2) create sustainable changes in culture and practices at the institutional, departmental, and organizational levels, (3) serve as models and contribute to repositories for effective practices to broaden participation, and (4) leverage the work of existing BP efforts and other Alliances.  Competitive projects will have significant impact both in the quality of opportunities afforded to participants and in the number of participants potentially served. Successful Alliances are eligible to compete for additional funding: an Alliance Extension increases the duration of the Alliance award as well as its scope, introducing additional targeted student groups, partners, and/or projects.
• Demonstration Projects (DPs) are more focused than Alliance projects. Typical DPs pilot innovative programs that, once fully developed, could be incorporated into the activities of an Alliance or otherwise scaled for widespread impact. Projects might, for example, be proposed by a single institution or might focus on a single underrepresented community, a single point in the academic pipeline, or a single impediment to full participation in computing.
• Leveraging, Scaling or Adapting (LSA) Projectsare intended to extend the impact of our most effective practices through leveraging, scaling and/or adaptation. Typical LSA projects will use existing organizational structures and demonstrated best practices. They can leverage the work of BPC-funded Alliances or DPs, as well as efforts by other organizations. They might, for example, copy and adapt a successful regional Alliance infrastructure for a new region, combine and leverage the work of two or more Alliances, adapt an effective intervention for a different audience, or take an effective intervention and implement it across an Alliance or other organization with a broad reach.

Eligible Entities

Unrestricted so long as the entity is eligible to submit proposals to the NSF.

The categories of proposers eligible to submit proposals to the National Science Foundation are identified in the Grant Proposal Guide, Chapter I, Section E.

Available Funding

• Alliance and Alliance Extension Awards can range from $200,000 to $750,000 per year. We expect to make $8 million in awards annually, pending availability of funding and the quality of the proposals.
• Demonstration Projects may be funded at levels up to $200,000 per year for three years; the average award will be $500,000 total. We expect to make $2 million in awards annually, pending availability of funding and the quality of the proposals.
• Leveraging, Scaling, or Adapting Awards range from $100,000 to $750,000 per year for up to 3 years. It is expected that most projects will be funded at the lower end of this range. We expect to make $4 million in awards annually, pending availability of funding and the quality of the proposals.

Cost Sharing

Cost sharing is not required under this solicitation.

Facilities and Administrative Costs

No limitations

Key Dates

(due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time):

May 13, 2009

More Info + Submissions

Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Expires: May 13, 2009

Submissions for this opportunity are not handled by RI STAC or RI EPSCoR. Please follow the link below for more information on the opportunity and how to submit a response.

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