Greetings!
 
This email is an early alert to faculty and administrators regarding a proposal development and evaluation workshop for eligible science and engineering junior faculty at minority-serving institutions who are seriously interested in submitting proposals to the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Underrepresented minority science and engineering faculty at non-minority-serving institutions who meet the Program’s eligibility criteria also can register for this workshop.

The figures and information cited in this email are based on the most recent CAREER solicitation and are subject to change when the new solicitation is released. The deadlines for CAREER proposals vary by NSF Directorate but have in the past occurred during the latter part of July.

The Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network will conduct the workshop, with support from NSF. It will take place on Friday-Saturday, March 14-15, 2014, at the Hilton Baltimore BWI Airport, 1739 West Nursery Road • Linthicum Heights, MD 21090 • 410/694-0808.

Depending on the level of interest and of funds available, QEM may be able to support the participation (travel, meals, and lodging) of up to two eligible faculty from a given institution. Additional eligible faculty may participate at their or their institution’s expense.  While we are unable to support previous participants in QEM CAREER workshops, such individuals are welcome to attend at their or their institution’s expense.

To facilitate the participation of early career scientists and engineers with young children, QEM will offer modest childcare awards to eligible faculty with children to offset the cost of childcare expenses incurred as a result of workshop attendance. As reflected in the attached Childcare Application Form for the 2014 QEM/CAREER workshop, QEM will offer up to ten (10) childcare awards valued at up to $100 to assist eligible early-career faculty members attending the workshop with expenses associated with needed childcare after 5:00 pm on Friday (up to three hours) and on Saturday (up to eight hours). For more information on the Foundation’s Career-Life Balance Initiative see http://www.nsf.gov/career-life-balance/.

To be eligible to participate in the CAREER Program, a faculty member must hold a doctoral degree in a field of science or engineering supported by NSF; be untenured but on the tenure track as an assistant professor at her/his institution by October 1, 2014; have not previously received a CAREER award; and have not competed more than two times in the NSF CAREER Program. Applicants must be actively engaged in research and teaching.
 
The minimum CAREER award, including indirect costs, will total $400,000 over a five-year period, except in the case of the Biological Sciences where the minimum request must be for $500,000 over a five-year period (approximately $100,000/year). Cost-sharing is not required or allowed.

Through the CAREER Program, NSF is seeking to sustain and strengthen the Nation’s science, mathematics, and engineering capabilities and to promote the use of those capabilities in service to society.  In particular, CAREER supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

Please forward this email to eligible faculty at your or another institution if you: (1) do not meet the eligibility requirements yourself; or (2) have participated in a previous QEM CAREER workshop.  In either case, we encourage you to post the attached flyer regarding the workshop on your departmental bulletin board to alert other faculty who may be eligible.
 
Participants will be required to submit a one-page project summary of the proposal that would be submitted to the Foundation’s CAREER program. The project summary, of not more that one page in length, should be prepared in accordance with the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) of the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures (PAPP) Guide (NSF 14-1).

According to the GPG (Chapter II), “Each proposal must contain a summary of the proposed project not more than one page in length. The Project Summary consists of an overview, a statement on the intellectual merit of the proposed activity, and a statement on the broader impacts of the proposed activity.

The overview includes a description of the activity that would result if the proposal were funded and a statement of objectives and methods to be employed. The statement on intellectual merit should describe the potential of the proposed activity to advance knowledge. The statement on broader impacts should describe the potential of the proposed activity to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes.”

The GPG further states that the “Project Summary should be written in the third person, informative to other persons working in the same or related fields, and, insofar as possible, understandable to a scientifically or technically literate lay reader. It should not be an abstract of the proposal.Proposals that do not contain the Project Summary, including an overview and separate statements on intellectual merit and broader impacts will not be accepted by FastLane or will be returned without review.”

The QEM/CAREER workshop will be designed to assist eligible faculty in further developing their proposal ideas prior to the CAREER Program’s July 2014 deadlines The latest CAREER Program guidelines (NSF 11-690) are attached, along with a registration form, and a document (NSF 11-038) containing frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the CAREER Program.

To register for the workshop, the attached registration form should be completed and returned to Shirley McBay at smmcbay1@qem.org <smmcbay1@qem.org> by Friday, February 7, 2014. If you would like further information, please feel free to contact me by email at smmcbay1@qem.org or by telephone at 202/659-1818.

The required one-page project summary described above will be due on Friday, February 14, 2014, one week later. Registration forms and the one-page project summaries can be submitted at any time prior to their respective deadline dates.

We look forward to you and/or a colleague at your institution joining us at the CAREER workshop at the Hilton Baltimore BWI Airport.

Sincerely,
 
Shirley McBay
 
 
Shirley M. McBay, President
QEM Network
1818 N Street, NW
Suite 350
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. 202/659-1818
Fax: 202/659-5408
E-mail: smmcbay1@qem.org
URL: qemnetwork.qem.org