The ESTEME@OSU Project and the Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning welcome applications for action research fellows. Teams or individual instructors using evidence based instructional practices in undergraduate STEM classrooms are encouraged to apply.  Selected candidates will be supported in their research design and provided $3,000 financial support. Applications are due March 29, by close of business to Victoria.Bonebrake@oregonstate.edu. Please see http://bit.ly/arf-rfa-2016 for application instructions and more information.

Free cake, coffee and pastries. Join Ava’s Café in celebrating Linus Pauling’s birthday at the Linus Pauling Science Center, 10 a.m.-noon, Feb. 26. Enjoy free cake, coffee, and pastries while hearing about the latest work done by the Linus Pauling Institute and the Chemistry Department. The Valley Library Special Collections will be onsite with a display of items from the Linus Pauling Collection. (for updates follow us on twitter @MUFOOD)

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science is pleased to announce that the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is now accepting applications for the 2016 Solicitation 1.  Applications are due 5:00pm ET on Wednesday May 11, 2016.

Starting from 2015 Solicitation 2, the SCGSR program is open to graduate students with Permanent Resident status, in addition to U.S. Citizens, who meet all other eligibility requirements. Detailed information about the program, including eligibility requirements and access to the online application system, can be found at:http://science.energy.gov/wdts/scgsr/.

The SCGSR program supports supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students to conduct part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE national laboratory in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist for a period of 3 to 12 consecutive months—with the goal of preparing graduate students for scientific and technical careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science mission.

The SCGSR program is open to current Ph.D. students in qualified graduate programs at accredited U.S. academic institutions, who are conducting their graduate thesis research in targeted areas of importance to the DOE Office of Science. The research opportunity is expected to advance the graduate students’ overall doctoral thesis while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the DOE laboratories. The supplemental award provides for additional, incremental costs for living and travel expenses directly associated with conducting the SCGSR research project at the DOE host laboratory during the award period.

The Office of Science expects to make approximately 50 awards in 2016 Solicitation 1, for project periods beginning anytime between November 1, 2016 and February 28, 2017.

The 2014 program solicitation and the 2015 Solicitation 1 have resulted in awards to a total of 112 graduate students from more than 50 different universities to conduct thesis research at 15 DOE national laboratories.
The SCGSR program is sponsored and managed by the DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS), in collaboration with the six Office of Science research programs offices and the DOE national laboratories, and the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education (ORISE).

For any questions, please contact the SCGSR Program Manager, Dr. Ping Ge, at sc.scgsr@science.doe.gov.

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science

Are you conducting sustainability research? Are you seeking funds to support your research? If so, the Student Sustainability Initiative has some GOOD news! The Student Sustainability Initiative Research Grant Application is NOW OPEN on a rolling basis. Please see the link below for more information or contact Kimberly Helm (SSI Grant Manager) for more information. Apply now! http://sli.oregonstate.edu/ssi/grants/research-grants

Postdocs! Do not miss this opportunity! The ACS Postdoc to PUI Professor (P3) workshop will be held at Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, April 7 – 9, 2016. All meals, accommodation, and instruction are paid by ACS!! Postdocs pay for travel. Application Deadline: 11:59 PM EST Monday, February 29, 2016! www.acs.org/P3

Preparing for Life After Graduate School workshop (grad students and postdocs): For a low price to your department, receive valuable information to launch a successful career, including career choice exploration, technical and soft-skill development, making a great first impression before, during and after the interview and into the job, and more! The workshop is facilitated by experienced ACS career consultants with years of experience in the chemical industry and academe in the U.S. To host this 2-day workshop with an additional day for scheduled resume reviews and practice interviews in your department, contact the ACS Graduate & Postdoctoral Scholars Office at GradEd@acs.org or visit www.acs.org/gradworkshop

Academic Employment Initiative (AEI) poster session, www.acs.org/aei Senior graduate students and postdocs interested in applying for faculty positions: simply submit a valid abstract by the deadline and you can participate in this event. Deadline: April 4, 2016 When: 8 – 10 PM Monday, August 22, 2014 Where: Philadelphia, CA (SciMix at the fall 2016 national meeting).

The Postdoc to Faculty (P2F) workshop will be held in Philadelphia, PA on August 19 – 20, just prior to the ACS national meeting. This 2-day workshop will introduce you to the variety and expectations of junior faculty at academic institutions, share strategies for fulfilling the academic responsibilities of scholarship, teaching, and service, and will prepare you to apply and interview for faculty positions. For the selected applicants, there is no fee for attending the workshop, and all meals and 2 nights of accommodation will be covered by ACS. Applications will open in early spring. So keep an eye on www.acs.org/P2F for updates in early March.

Individual Development Plan for Graduate Students and Postdocs! ChemIDP.acs.org ACS introduces ChemIDP, an individual development planning tool designed to help grad students and postdocs in the chemical sciences plan and prepare for rewarding careers. For more information contact ChemIDP@acs.org
Faculty and administrators, please contact me directly if you have any questions or to volunteer. All other enquires should go to GradEd@acs.org Thank you!

Dear Colleague Letter: NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science)

February 22, 2016

Dear Colleagues:

I write to invite your participation and leadership in the NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) initiative.

Today, NSF is releasing the first NSF INCLUDES solicitation, which aims to fund approximately 40 Design and Development Launch Pilots at ~$300,000 each. I encourage you to enlist partners (e.g., industry, foundations, states) who can help leverage and expand support beyond the Federal dollars. More importantly, in FY 2017, all of these Pilot projects will be eligible to apply for full NSF INCLUDES Alliances, proposed in the President’s FY 2017 Budget Request at a level of $12.5 million each for five years.

Diversity – of thought, perspective, and experience – is essential to achieving excellence in 21st century science and engineering research and education. And, there is a business case for diversity. A recent McKinsey & Company study found that companies were 15% more likely to gain financial returns above their national industry median if they were in the top quartile of gender diversity; the probability climbed to 35% for companies in the top quartile for racial/ethnic diversity.

NSF INCLUDES is a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership by seeking and developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent from all sectors and groups in our society through access and engagement. It aims to improve the preparation, increase the participation, and ensure the contributions of individuals from groups that traditionally have been underserved and/or underrepresented in the STEM enterprise. The U.S. science and engineering workforce can thrive if women, blacks, Hispanics, and people with disabilities are represented in percentages comparable to their representation in the U.S. population. According to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, we have a long way to go to reach that goal. We can achieve national STEM diversity and its benefits to our Nation if we commit to national STEM inclusion.

Many people, projects and organizations already have achieved significant successes toward greater STEM inclusion. Yet, according to a National Academies report, many larger challenges still remain: under-preparation and lack of opportunity for members of all demographic groups to become “STEM-capable”; under-resourcing as seen in growing disparities of access to quality learning and technology; and under-production of STEM graduates from the above-mentioned sectors.

The goal of NSF INCLUDES is to achieve significant impact at the national scale within the next ten years in transforming STEM so that it is fully and widely inclusive. That will require strong partnerships and collaborations among many organizations and people in the overall STEM talent development eco-system. You and your organization can play a large role in this initiative.

Collaborative alliances, spanning education levels, public and private sectors, and including new partners, will need to be developed, expanded, organized and built by leveraging state-of-the-art knowledge on scaling of social innovations. For example, “Collective Impact” approaches that incorporate key success determinants such as common agendas, shared measurements, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communications, and backbone support organizations have the potential to yield large-scale progress towards NSF INCLUDES goals. The latest knowledge from the science of broadening participation provides a strong foundation, and novel systems approaches and designs for achieving scale will be critical. I invite you to read the growing literature on the positive impacts of diversity in teams, and the subtle, but pervasive, biases that can diminish our collective action.

As university and college presidents and chancellors, and heads of organizations funded by the National Science Foundation, I urge you to take a direct and personal role in helping to build these collaborative alliances – with ambitious goals for STEM inclusion – at a national scale. There is rich variation across the Nation in terms of local resources, talent and expertise as well as in the specific roadblocks and challenges you may face. We leave the specific nature of each alliance and the ambitious goals it will aim to achieve to you to define. NSF’s goal is to achieve impact at scale on STEM inclusion. We need your leadership if we are to succeed.

I invite you to become a leader in the NSF INCLUDES initiative. To learn more about this exciting program, go to http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf16544.

Sincerely,

France A. Córdova
Director

Resources

Hunt, V., Layton, D., & Prince, S. (February, 2015). Diversity matters. McKinsey & Company.

Kania, J., & Kramer, M. (2011). Collective impact, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter. Retrieved from http://www.ssir.org/articles/entry/collective_impact.

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (2015). Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation.

Committee on Underrepresented Groups and the Expansion of the Science and Engineering Workforce Pipeline, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, & Policy and Global Affairs (2014). Expanding underrepresented minority participation: America’s science and technology talent at the crossroads. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science
(NSF INCLUDES)

Program Solicitation
NSF 16-544

NSF Logo
National Science Foundation

Directorate for Biological Sciences

Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering

Directorate for Education & Human Resources
Division of Human Resource Development

Directorate for Engineering

Directorate for Geosciences

Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences

Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences

Office of Integrative Activities

Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. proposer’s local time):

April 15, 2016

Design and Development Launch Pilots
Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer’s local time):

June 24, 2016

Design and Development Launch Pilots
IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND REVISION NOTES

Preliminary proposals and full proposals. Submission of a preliminary proposal is required for Design and Development Launch Pilots. Full Design and Development Launch Pilot proposals may be submitted by invitation only after the review of the preliminary proposal is completed.

Any proposal submitted in response to this solicitation should be submitted in accordance with the revised NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 16-1), which is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 25, 2016.

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

General Information

Program Title:

Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES)

Synopsis of Program:

Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES) is a comprehensive national initiative designed to enhance U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discoveries and innovations focused on NSF’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and broadening participation in these fields. NSF INCLUDES supports efforts to develop talent from all sectors of society to build the STEM workforce. The initiative aims to improve the preparation, increase the participation, and ensure the contributions of individuals from groups that have traditionally been underrepresented and underserved in the STEM enterprise, including women, members of racial and ethnic groups, persons with disabilities, and persons with low socio-economic status. Significant advancement of these groups will result in a new generation of promising STEM talent and leadership to secure our nation’s future in science and technology.

The grand challenge of broadening participation in STEM is to transform the STEM enterprise at all levels in order to fully engage the nation’s talent for the ultimate improvement of the STEM enterprise. As a comprehensive national initiative, NSF INCLUDES aims to address the various complex equity and inclusion-related challenges and opportunities that characterize the nation’s cultural and linguistic diversity, with a specific emphasis on the aforementioned groups. The goal is to achieve national level impact and progress toward STEM inclusion. Viewing this challenge as a social innovation problem, NSF is particularly interested in using approaches to scaling and growth such as collective impact, networked communities and strategic partnerships. The objective is to develop networks that involve representative organizations and consortia from different sectors that are committed to a common agenda to solve a specific STEM inclusion problem at scale. The long-term goal of NSF INCLUDES is to support, over the next ten years, innovative models, networks, partnerships, and research that enable the U.S. science and engineering workforce to thrive by ensuring that women, blacks, Hispanics, and people with disabilities are represented in percentages comparable to their representation in the U.S. population.

In FY 2016, NSF seeks proposals for Design and Development Launch Pilots to catalyze the formation of NSF INCLUDES Alliances.

The NSF INCLUDES is a multi-year program with three essential components:

INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilots
INCLUDES Alliances
INCLUDES Backbone Organization
NSF INCLUDES Design & Development Launch Pilots

In FY 2016, the NSF INCLUDES initiative invites proposals for Design and Development Launch Pilots, which are pilot projects that represent bold, innovative ways for solving a broadening participation (BP) challenge in STEM. The Launch Pilots will be funded for up to two years, for a maximum of $300,000. Successful pilots will deliver models or prototypes for collective efforts aimed at increasing the active participation of those who have been traditionally underserved and underrepresented in all fields of STEM. Teams of organizations might come together locally, regionally, nationally, or by disciplinary focus. Key to a successful proposal will be the identification of a specific goal and measurable objectives, and an argument that the set of partners being assembled includes all who are needed to successfully address the objective. The plan must articulate its potential for scaling. These planning and start-up activities are aimed at engaging appropriate communities in testing the feasibility of developing a full-scale plan and process for change, including identifying other support mechanisms for sustaining the efforts. Early in the first year, the partners are expected to refine their collective commitment to a common set of objectives and plans to achieve them. No later than the second year, successful teams are expected to carry out and report on the results of projects to demonstrate their ability to implement a collective impact-style approach to address the selected BP challenge. Early in FY 2017, the successful Design & Development Launch Pilots will share their goals and plans in a live event and/or webinar with one another, the broader community, and NSF, enabling all to learn from their pilot project experiences. This effort will facilitate the formation of NSF INCLUDES Alliances.

NSF INCLUDES Alliances

In FY 2017, NSF will begin to invite proposals to form NSF INCLUDES Alliances. The formation of these alliances will build on the activities started in FY 2016. It is expected that up to five alliances will be funded for 5 years, at up to $2,500,000 per year each. There will be an expectation that each Alliance proposal will build from a Design and Development Launch Pilot that develops and adds new partners, collaborators, or networks. NSF INCLUDES Alliances will leverage existing Design and Development Launch Pilots, programs, people, organizations, and institutions to form NSF’s “next generation” BP investments8, with each Alliance committed to jointly solving a specific set of objectives. The NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot projects are expected to demonstrate how extant teams and organizations can be reconfigured and joined together to form new alliances with common goals and purposes and collective impact-style approaches, with a strategy for how the effective practices of the Alliance are likely to be deployed at scale. The focus on collective impact-style approaches, partnership diversity, and scaling practices distinguishes the NSF INCLUDES Alliances from existing programs in the NSF broadening participation portfolio that support alliances of homogenous organizations that may not have scaling as a primary goal. NSF INCLUDES Alliances will be funded late in FY 2017, enabling them to learn from and involve the most promising Launch Pilot activities. Some alliances might focus on emerging fields of science and engineering, such as data science, as key domains for advancing BP. Other alliances might focus on more established fields such as clean energy technologies that are known or perceived as “magnets for inclusion.” The alliances will propose, implement, and assess solutions to address the barriers that result in seepage of talent from diverse communities and develop the talent among those who have been traditionally underrepresented in the STEM enterprise.

NSF INCLUDES Backbone Organization

A critical component of the collective impact approach is the Backbone Organization. The work of the Backbone Organization is multifaceted and complex.  More specifically, the Backbone Organization drives the following activities over the lifecycle of the initiative: (a) guiding vision and strategy; (b) alignment of activities; (c) establishing shared measurement practices; (d) building public will; (e) advancing policy; and (f) mobilizing funding 9. Building on proven mechanisms of success with technical assistance support structures, resource networks and centers, and other related efforts to create communities of practice, NSF is seeking new ideas for leveraging research, effective practices, and emerging technologies to manage the multi-site complexities associated with vision development, alignment, shared measurement practices, implementation research, evaluation, public support and engagement, policy change and implementation, leveraging of funding, and communication between and across the set of Design and Development Launch Pilots and Alliances. In FY 2016, NSF will be calling for conference and workshop proposals to inform the design of the Backbone Organization infrastructure for NSF INCLUDES. This will be done in an upcoming Dear Colleague Letter associated with this solicitation, which will provide further guidance for developing proposals for the Backbone Organization.

CEOSE, 2011 – 2012 Biennial Report to Congress. (See https://www.nsf.gov/od/oia/activities/ceose/reports/Full_2011-2012_CEOSE_Report_to_Congress_Final_03-04-2014.pdf)
Shiloh Turner, Kathy Merchant, John Kania, & Ellen Martin, “Understanding the Value of Backbone Organizations in Collective Impact, Part 1,” The Greater Cincinnati Foundation and FSG (July 2012), http://www.leveragingourstrengths.ca/reading/Health_BackboneOrgsCollectiveImpact.pdf.

Please send in your nomination packets for the Exemplary Employee Award by the March 25th  deadline.

Do you know a Classified Staff or Professional Faculty member who goes above and beyond the call of duty?  If you would like to recognize someone in your unit or elsewhere on campus who exemplifies great service to OSU, please review the website below for information on how to nominate an exemplary employee for this award.  Nomination packets must be submitted to the Office of Human Resources no later than March 25, 2016.

Website: http://oregonstate.edu/admin/hr/recognition/exemplary.html

For clarification or questions regarding these materials, please contact Tracey Yee at 541-737-5426; or by email: tracey.yee@oregonstate.edu.

The Research Office is accepting applications for the Undergraduate Research, Innovation, Scholarship and Creativity (URISC) program for Fall, Winter and/or Spring term(s) 2016-17. This program supports undergraduate research activities from all academic disciplines within the university. Program description and application: http://bit.ly/1SOr6aw. Information: Debbie Delmore at debbie.delmore@oregonstate.edu. Deadline: April 18.

Conference Schedule:   8:30-9:00 Registration in Scott Hall   9:00-10:00 Poster session in Scott Hall   10:00-noon Research talks (first session)   Noon-12:45 Lunch (bag lunch)   1:00-2:00 Presentation of Awards and Plenary Talk “Paper, Plastic and a Mobile App: Engaging Students in Contemporary Research” and Awards   2:10-3:30 Research talks (second session)   Full Schedule available at Registration.   There’s still time to plan to attend!  On-site registration is available the day of the meeting ($50 for faculty member and $20 for student), payable as check or cash.

We are pleased to announce our plenary speaker is Vince Remcho the 2015 OAS Outstanding Scientist recipient from Oregon State University.  His talk is titled “Paper, Plastic and a Mobile App: Engaging Students in Contemporary Research”.  Vince was awarded the 2015 Outstanding Oregon Scientist.  His accolades include the appointment as the Oregon State University Patricia Valian Reser Faculty Scholar and Honors College Eminent Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Materials Science program.  His research group works at the interface of science and engineering to design, build and optimize microscale analytical instruments and chemical reactors.  These systems are applied in biochemical, environmental, and nanomanufacturing problem solving. He is an inventor with multiple patents, the author of over 80 publications, and has received awards for both teaching and research excellence.