Opportunity Information: Apply for 09 506
Apply for 09 506
- The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.076 Education and Human Resources.
- This funding opportunity was created on Feb 17, 2010 and posted on Mar 4, 2009.
- Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 7, 2010 February 16, 2010 ITEST Deadline extended until Tuesday, Feb 16 April 07, 2010 Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3). (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- The funding agency has allocated a total of $35,000,000.00 to eligible and selected applicants.
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $5,000,000.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 40 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).
- Organization Limit Proposals may only be submitted by the following ITEST Only U.S. organizations located in the U.S. with an educational mission are eligible to apply see the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG)for further information. Eligibility for Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3) is limited to institutions of higher education (including two and four year colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US. If the proposal is exclusively for I3 STEM educational or related research, then all categories of proposers identified in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide are eligible to submit. PI Limit The Principal Investigator for an Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3) proposal must be the university provost or equivalent chief academic officer, unless the proposal is exclusively for I3 STEM educational or related research.
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Opportunity Summary:
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program is a discretionary grant opportunity designed to strengthen the future U.S. STEM and information and communication technology (ICT) workforce by supporting both research and applied development work in K-12 contexts. The program is motivated by concerns about the growing national demand for STEM professionals and IT workers and focuses on identifying, testing, and scaling solutions that help more young people build the interest, preparation, and persistence needed to enter STEM career pathways. ITEST is intentionally broad in scope: projects can involve students and/or teachers from kindergarten through high school, and they can address any STEM workforce area, with special interest in cyberlearning approaches that use networked computing, communications technologies, and cyberinfrastructure tools in classrooms and informal learning environments.
At its core, ITEST funds projects that try to answer practical, researchable questions about STEM career development. These include what it takes to effectively spark and sustain student interest in STEM careers, what knowledge and skills students need to thrive in a changing and innovation-driven STEM workforce, and what dispositions or motivational factors predict whether students will pursue STEM trajectories over time. The program also emphasizes how students acquire these capabilities across different settings (school, after school, summer programs, virtual learning, and informal environments) and how the nation can use expanding cyberinfrastructure as a lever to improve STEM learning and career readiness. A recurring theme is measurement: ITEST encourages work that improves how educators and researchers assess STEM engagement, persistence, and inclination, and how they study the impact of different interventions and learning models.
The solicitation invites four main project types. Research Projects focus on generating new knowledge about how to enlarge and diversify the STEM workforce pipeline. These projects can include efficacy or effectiveness studies of intervention models, longitudinal studies that follow student engagement over time, development of new instruments to measure motivation and persistence, and studies that identify predictors of students choosing STEM careers. NSF highlights a strong interest in research that directly benefits groups historically underserved and underrepresented in STEM and ICT-intensive fields, including learners in rural areas and economically disadvantaged communities.
Strategies Projects are more design-and-implementation oriented, funding the creation, delivery, and evaluation of learning experiences for students and/or teachers. These experiences might occur during the school day, after school, in summer, virtually, or year-round. While strategies projects aim for immediate participant outcomes (such as increased readiness, confidence, or interest in STEM careers), they also must contribute to the broader research knowledge base, meaning proposals are expected to go beyond local program impact and produce findings or evidence that other communities can learn from and potentially replicate.
Scale-up Projects support the large-scale implementation and testing of models that have already shown evidence of success. These projects move beyond pilot or single-site efforts and apply proven strategies at a state, multi-state, or national level. A key requirement is that the model being expanded is grounded in demonstrated results from earlier work; the scale-up effort is expected to test how well the approach holds up across broader and more diverse contexts and what conditions are necessary for effective replication.
Conferences and Workshops are intended to convene stakeholders who can shape and advance a research and practice agenda for K-12 STEM workforce preparation and cyberlearning. These events should bring together a deliberately interdisciplinary mix of participants, such as STEM educators from formal and informal settings, educational researchers, evaluators, technologists, career development experts, cognitive scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, and domain scientists. NSF is particularly interested in convenings that strengthen evaluation approaches for innovative STEM and ICT motivation and preparation models and that help the field align on priority questions, methods, and evidence needs.
The announcement also references Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3), a related NSF emphasis that encourages institutions to strategically integrate multiple NSF-funded efforts, especially those connected to NSF’s Education and Human Resources (EHR) directorate. For the referenced fiscal year, I3 proposals were solicited across several EHR programs (including ITEST). I3 eligibility and leadership requirements are more specific, generally centering on accredited U.S. institutions of higher education and, in many cases, requiring senior academic leadership (such as a provost) to serve as principal investigator unless the proposal is exclusively for I3 STEM education or related research.
From a funding and administrative standpoint, this opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number 09-506) is offered by NSF under CFDA 47.076 (Education and Human Resources). The estimated total funding is $35,000,000, with an anticipated 40 awards. Individual award amounts range from $300,000 (floor) up to $5,000,000 (ceiling), and there is no cost sharing or matching requirement. Eligibility for ITEST proposals is limited to U.S. organizations located in the United States with an educational mission, consistent with NSF’s Grant Proposal Guide. Key dates listed in the notice include earlier posting and closing timelines, with an ITEST full proposal deadline shown as August 25, 2009, later extended deadlines noted, and an April 7, 2010 date associated with I3 in the provided record. The sponsoring agency is the National Science Foundation, and the full details are published as NSF Publication 09-506.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - NSF ITEST (NSF Publication 09-506)
What is the NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program?
ITEST is a discretionary National Science Foundation (NSF) grant program that supports research and applied development work in K-12 contexts to strengthen the future U.S. STEM and information and communication technology (ICT) workforce. The program supports projects that identify, test, and scale solutions that help more young people build the interest, preparation, and persistence needed to enter STEM career pathways.
What is the main purpose of ITEST?
The program is motivated by concerns about growing national demand for STEM professionals and IT workers. ITEST focuses on improving STEM career development by funding projects that investigate practical, researchable questions about how students develop interest, preparation, and long-term persistence toward STEM careers.
Who can participate in ITEST-supported activities?
Projects may involve students and/or teachers from kindergarten through high school (K-12). ITEST is broad in scope and can support work across a wide range of school and out-of-school settings.
What kinds of STEM areas can ITEST projects address?
ITEST projects can address any STEM workforce area. The solicitation also notes special interest in cyberlearning approaches that use networked computing, communications technologies, and cyberinfrastructure tools in classrooms and informal learning environments.
What is cyberlearning in the context of ITEST?
Within ITEST, cyberlearning refers to approaches that use networked computing, communications technologies, and cyberinfrastructure tools to improve learning and career readiness. These approaches may be used in classrooms as well as in informal learning environments.
What types of questions does ITEST fund projects to study?
ITEST supports projects that address practical, researchable questions related to STEM career development, such as how to spark and sustain student interest in STEM careers, what knowledge and skills students need to thrive in an innovation-driven STEM workforce, and what motivational or dispositional factors predict whether students will pursue STEM pathways over time.
Why does ITEST emphasize measurement and evaluation?
A recurring theme in ITEST is measurement. The program encourages work that improves how educators and researchers assess STEM engagement, persistence, and inclination, and how they study the impacts of interventions and learning models.
In what settings can ITEST activities take place?
ITEST-supported work can occur across multiple settings, including school-day instruction, after-school programs, summer programs, virtual learning environments, and informal learning contexts. The program is interested in how students acquire STEM capabilities across these different settings.
What are the main project types supported by ITEST?
The solicitation invites four main project types: Research Projects, Strategies Projects, Scale-up Projects, and Conferences and Workshops.
What are Research Projects under ITEST?
Research Projects focus on generating new knowledge about how to enlarge and diversify the STEM workforce pipeline. Examples include efficacy or effectiveness studies of intervention models, longitudinal studies of student engagement, development of new instruments to measure motivation and persistence, and studies identifying predictors of students choosing STEM careers.
Does ITEST prioritize work that supports underserved or underrepresented groups?
Yes. The program highlights strong interest in research that directly benefits groups historically underserved and underrepresented in STEM and ICT-intensive fields, including learners in rural areas and economically disadvantaged communities.
What are Strategies Projects under ITEST?
Strategies Projects are design-and-implementation oriented. They fund the creation, delivery, and evaluation of learning experiences for students and/or teachers. These projects aim for immediate participant outcomes (such as increased readiness, confidence, or interest in STEM careers) and are also expected to contribute to the broader research knowledge base beyond local program impacts.
Do Strategies Projects need to produce results that others can use?
Yes. While Strategies Projects may target local participant outcomes, proposals are expected to generate findings or evidence that other communities can learn from and potentially replicate.
What are Scale-up Projects under ITEST?
Scale-up Projects support large-scale implementation and testing of models that have already shown evidence of success. These projects expand beyond pilot or single-site efforts to apply proven strategies at a state, multi-state, or national level.
What is required for an ITEST Scale-up Project?
A key requirement is that the model being expanded is grounded in demonstrated results from earlier work. The scale-up effort is expected to test how well the approach works across broader and more diverse contexts and what conditions are needed for effective replication.
What are Conferences and Workshops under ITEST?
Conferences and Workshops are intended to convene stakeholders who can shape and advance a research and practice agenda for K-12 STEM workforce preparation and cyberlearning. NSF is especially interested in convenings that strengthen evaluation approaches and align the field around priority questions, methods, and evidence needs.
Who should be included in ITEST Conferences and Workshops?
The solicitation emphasizes a deliberately interdisciplinary mix of participants. Examples include STEM educators from formal and informal settings, educational researchers, evaluators, technologists, career development experts, cognitive scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, and domain scientists.
What is Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3) and how is it related to ITEST?
I3 is a related NSF emphasis referenced in the announcement. It encourages institutions to strategically integrate multiple NSF-funded efforts, especially those connected to NSF's Education and Human Resources (EHR) directorate. For the referenced fiscal year, I3 proposals were solicited across several EHR programs, including ITEST.
Are there special eligibility or leadership requirements for I3 proposals?
Yes. The notice indicates I3 eligibility and leadership requirements are more specific, generally centering on accredited U.S. institutions of higher education. In many cases, I3 proposals require senior academic leadership (such as a provost) to serve as principal investigator, unless the proposal is exclusively for I3 STEM education or related research.
What is the Funding Opportunity Number for this ITEST solicitation?
The Funding Opportunity Number listed is 09-506.
What is the CFDA number associated with this opportunity?
This opportunity is offered by NSF under CFDA 47.076 (Education and Human Resources).
How much total funding is expected to be available?
The estimated total funding is $35,000,000.
How many awards does NSF anticipate making under this opportunity?
The announcement anticipates approximately 40 awards.
What is the award size range for ITEST grants?
Individual award amounts range from $300,000 (floor) to $5,000,000 (ceiling).
Is cost sharing or matching required for ITEST?
No. The notice states there is no cost sharing or matching requirement.
Who is eligible to submit ITEST proposals?
Eligibility is limited to U.S. organizations located in the United States with an educational mission, consistent with NSF's Grant Proposal Guide.
What are the key dates mentioned in the announcement record?
The record references earlier posting and closing timelines and lists an ITEST full proposal deadline shown as August 25, 2009, with later extended deadlines noted. It also includes an April 7, 2010 date associated with I3 in the provided record.
Where are the official details published for this opportunity?
The full details are published as NSF Publication 09-506 by the National Science Foundation.
What federal agency sponsors this program?
The sponsoring agency is the National Science Foundation (NSF).
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