NSF and NASA EPSCoR Research Fellows Webinar for New Mexico

here we go hi everybody um I'm going to give it like 30 seconds for people to come in and then I'll get get us started okay I think that's 30 seconds oh there's 20 people here how exciting all right everybody Welcome to the webinar so glad you're here um today we are delighted to have um Professor May from NMSU one of our very own uh Professor cigit might join us a little bit later and Dr Whitley um to share information about the epcore research fellows program all three of our speakers are rock stars and they're here to help you submit a successful proposal and we are extremely grateful uh that they're able to join us today before we get started though uh a little bit of housekeeping uh my name is Britney vandor from the communication and Outreach manager at New Mexico epcore NM epcore is part of the larger NSF epcore ecosystem which has a mission to enhance the research competitiveness of targeted jurisdictions like New Mexico I'll be your host for today's webinar along with my partner and webinar hosting Prime Miss Selena canel who will be working behind the scenes um to make sure everything runs smoothly uh our webinar will be about an hour long today if you have questions at any point please type them into the Q&A box and our presenters will take them at the end of their presentation and finally a recording of this webinar will be available on our YouTube channel um or our website you can get to it there as well which is www.ne nmf score.org okay now the point we've all been waiting her let me introduce our speakers we have um Professor May is a Luke Barry shrin endowed professor in the department of chemical and materials engineering at New Mexico State University she received her PhD degree in chemical engineering from Tain University and then worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory before joining NMSU in the fall of 2009 her group researches her group research focuses on EX taxil idot taxil oh man oxide and nitrate fil nitrate thin films and Nano materials for lithium ion batteries and Electro Catalyst for fuel cell and other electrolyzers in 2023 she joined NSF as a rotating program director in the NSF epcore program and is currently serving as co-lead for the epcore research fellows competition Dr Whitley is also here today um and she's the NSF epcore program director she currently manages a $17 million portfolio of 26 standard grants and Cooperative agreements and focuses on building basic science research infrastructure and promoting Economic Development and broadening participation in St she is also if that wasn't enough a molecular biologist and her research of DNA repair and DNA signaling Pathways offers insights towards the molecular biology and Neuroscience immunology and cancer biology she earned her PhD in pathology at the University of Chicago um our third presenter or who may join us today is professor clickett she is also an NSF epscor program director and is a professor in anthropology and a former department chair at the University of Kentucky she received her PhD from Indiana University in anthropology and held a melon post-doctoral Fellowship in population studies at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the University of Kentucky in 1999 she is a co- uh lead for the epcore research fellows competition all right with that introduction uh ladies please take it away I'm going to stop sharing my screen and let you do your thing okay can you see it yes okay excellent thank you uh good morning everyone my colleages and I are offering this webinar to the abscore researcher fellows opportunity abscore stands for established program to stimulate competitive research abscore research fellows is the one of the four research infrastructure Improvement strategies in the NSF appcore go to the next slide during this webinar my colleagues and I will provide an overview of the NSF abscore program the abscore research fos funding opportunity and overview of successful proposal contents and requirements as well as the Merit review criteria by which proposal will be evaluated we encourage you to ask any questions you may have at the end of The Talk today uh next slide Chi the primary goal for today's webinar is to inform the community about the abscore research fellows funding opportunity that supports pis from apps call eligible institutions in the development of research collaborations the most recent sortation NSF 24 528 was released on January 22nd 2024 this opportunity provides up to $300,000 over two years and the deadline for this year cycle is April 8 2025 you can find the stition using the web address below please also know that while this webinar we are discussing many aspects of the stition please read the stituation in its entirety it's very important to read the whole subtitution next slide please the NSF abscore program is a congressionally mandated program it originated in 1978 with a mission to build research capacity and Advance the capability of enable jurisdictions to conduct competitive research currently five Federal Agencies have abore programs including NSF doe DOD uh NASA ni and USDA all abscore programs share the same Mission but each agency has different Focus the goals at NSF apps call advances Geographic diversity in stem through catalyzing research capability across and among targeted jurisdictions establishing stem professional development Pathways broadening participation of a variety of groups and institutions in stem effecting engagement in stem at National and Global levels in order to accomplish abscore Mission and the goals ABS course investment strategies seek to build capacity and as a result of this investment positive impact the economic development of abscore jurisdictions next Slide the term abscore jurisdiction refers to States Commonwealth and the US territories that are eligible for funding from the NSF F score program jurisdictions are eligible for funding if the the most recent fiveyear level of total NSL funding is equal to or less than 0.75% of the total n budget this eligibity eligibility is monitored annually and is available in the website the chips and the chips and sense Act of 2022 effectively free NSF F score jurisdiction eligibility through fiscal year 2027 currently there are 28 abscore eligible jurisdictions the institutions Within These jurisdictions that are eligible for the abscore research fellow program next Slide the abscore research fellows program arose in discussion with the broader abore community and during these discussions the NSF abscore recognized and Unity to catalyze the career trajectories of the next generation of research leaders this is a single pii proposal for and meal investigators including tan track or tan assistant of social professors nonan research assistant professors all research ass social professors the abscore research fellows provide opportunity for the pis to further develop their individual research potential through extended visits to other private federal or academic institutions within the United States this opportunity will provide fellows and the ability to learn new techniques to benefit from access to state of art equipment and facilities in the host site strengthening collaborative Partnerships and shift or extend their research toward transformative directions this opportunity amounted to providing time for fellows to develop new research directions or expand the current research Direction and to provide a pathway for strengthening research connections with partner Partners the fellowship provided experience that will benefit and positively impact the Pi's career in years to come in alignment with apps Commission Fellowship outcomes are also expected to enhance the research capacity of the Pi's home institution and all jurisdiction next slide on this stition there are two tracks abscore research fellow NSF and abscore research fellow at Nasa for the abscore research fellow NSF track the host site may be any research institutions including universities in abscore or non abscore State National Labs or NASA research centers within the United States or its territories also any topic that NSL fonts is eligible for this program next slide please for the abore researcher fellows at the NASA subject the H site are specific NASA research centers in addition there are specific institution types that are eligible this include minority Serv institutions twoyear colleges institutions primarily serving students with disabilities women's colleges and primary undergraduate institutions I would like to emphasize that in The Proposal for both tracks you need to have a very strong justification why you need this whole site why you choose this collaborator you the collaborators expertise area should be different from your expertise area your exact travel timeline and the specific research tasks that you are going to do in the whole site with the collaborator how will this Fellowship experience in impact your career and benefit to your home institution and our jurisdiction next slide please we will share with you some strategy to F the collaborator with the NASA research centers so the pis interested in this opportunity can collabor with NASA subject matter experts for the duration of the award the subject the matter expert expert will serve as a research collaborator a technical Monitor and will have sport from NASA to conduct extended collaborative visits with the pis so NASA apps score supports matching faculty with collaboration collaborators in both NSF appcore research fellows if you choose NASA Center as a whole site and also NSF SC fellow at Nasa subtract so the topics have received like over 200 Focus areas to try to match research investigators to work on research of important priority to NASA so any P interested in this you are required to spend one to six months over two years period with NASA scientists and all engers for NASA research centers some research centers require pis to be US citizen some research centers require at least Noel permanent resident next slide please to found a collaborator at a NASA research center please send your resume contact information and research interest to the NASA abscore coordinator using the email here the NASA abscore coordinator will assist in identifying a NASA collaborator arrange a meeting and a facinated collaboration the NASA abore coordinator will provide a letter for the proposed submission this is a required letter in some cases pis may have prior research collaboration with NASA scientist or Engineers you should share this information with the abscore coordinator to proceed with the proposal submission for additional information on potential research project please go to the link this link is also in the sociation please start earning to increase your success of being matched with a NASA scientist or engineers if you have any questions please contact the NASA apps score coordinator go to the next slide we will share with you some the budget request so this the the maximum budget is $300,000 and the award duration is up to two years so if you want to just budget for one year that is fun um also remember this is a two years award duration is intended to provide Flex in planning Fellowship Logistics and pis can spread one to six months of work over two years but remember this is not a two-year research project and the research top research task should focus primarily on the fellowship Fellowship period of one to six months in the host site the budget request may include one to six months of salary and a Fring benefit to support the pi and one additional training level participant the one additional training level participant can be undergraduate graduate postal or research staff up to six months of support can be applied per person not per year the support may be for academic semesters or summer months if you buet for tuition insurance for students you can so it may be included if it's appropriate the budget request for travel expenses for the pi and the training level participant are no longer kept so you can buy the multiple trips between the home institution and the host site while feasible pis are expected to budget for logging arrangement in manners consistent with extended visits remember you need to follow your institution's travel policy so we strongly encourage you to talk to your school understand your school's travel policy when you do the budget for travel expenses also note that no sub award no salary can be requested for The Hite Personnel but up to $10,000 he requested for the collaborator to travel to visit you in the home institution or go to conferences while the collaborative work is presented for the abscore research fellows at Nasa applicants May request a research infrastructure development award up to 60,000 from NASA abscore so you do not include this request in budget to NSF in The Proposal but after the the NSF award is issued the NSF abore office will manage this additional CK to you to be anible an applicant must have their primary employment at any abscore jurisdiction funding from this program is not transferred to another fellow if a pi takes an position in institution that is not within abscore jurisdiction the fellowship award will be terminated so if you know you are going to move please send us an email pis must be in eligible status by The Proposal deadline if you have been notified that you will be promoted to for Professor effective in August or September 2025 you are still eligible to submit This appsort research fellows in April 2025 because your status will change after the proposal deadline so you'll still be eligible thank you I go to the next slide for the letter requirement please provide all letters as supplementary documents with your proposal submission regarding letters for research fell and S track required to have three letters one from home institution and generally from like your department head or de the second letter will be from your collaborator the third letter letter from your whole site administrative letter if you choose NASA Center as a whole site the NASA abso coordinator will provide this letter and for the NASA track so you can see from this table K isue two letters are required one from home institution one from NASA abore coordinator uh if the institution is a primary undergraduate institution you will need additional letter from the home institution so uh I will will not show detailed the letter content here but please read the stition it has all the letter content requirement for each letter additional letter from other parties may be submitted only if they are needed to verify specific tangible commitment that are related to the research activities that you describe in The Proposal if these letters do not meet the standard we will ask pi to remove letter from The Proposal package now I will invite Dr Whitney to continue the webinar thank you all right thanks Dr May for this opportunity successful proposals will present exciting vibrant Fellowship ideas will positively impact and potentially transform a Pi's individual career trajectory more broadly it is expected that the fellowship will impact the research field institution and or home jurisdiction of the pi all proposals should include the motivation and research context for the research to be conducted well-defined well reason and well organized research objectives that are driven by specific research questions or hypotheses and specific plans for the fellowship period they should also include a discussion of how the benefits gained from the fellowship can be sustained beyond the funding period with a clear description of Fellowship goals performance metric and the timetable of activities successful proposals will explain how or why the award will advance the Pi's research program for example how the fellowship provide opportunities to the pi that would otherwise be unavailable and what are the partner uh parameters for the partnership successful proposals also describe how activities could lead to longlasting impacts for both the Pi's career and the Pi's home institution or jurisdiction the plan should focus primarily on the fellowship period now let's discuss the criteria for the Merit review of proposals all NSF proposals are evaluated through the use of two national science board approved Merit review criteria these criteria include intellectual Merit and Brader impacts both Criterion are to be given full consideration during the review and decision-making processes and each Criterion is necessary but neither by itself is sufficient when evaluating NSF proposals reviewers are going to be asking when they look at your proposal the following items to consider they will want to know what the proposers are trying to do why do they want to do it how do they plan to do it and how will they know if they succeed as well as what benefits could could acve if the project is successful these issues apply to both the technical aspects of the proposal and the way in which the project may make broader contributions to that end when reviewers have your proposal in hand they'll be asked to evaluate all proposals against the criteria of intellectual Merit which encompasses the potential to advance knowledge and the criteria of broader impacts which encompasses the potential to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific desired societal outcomes for each of these criteria the following elements should be considered as part of the review process for both criteria what is the potential for the proposed activity to advance knowledge and understanding in its own field or across different fields and to benefit Society or Advance desired societal outcomes for both criteria to what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative original or potentially transformative concepts for both criteria is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well reason well organized and based on a sound rationale and does the plan incorporate a mechanism to assess success for both criteria how well qualified is the individual team or organization to conduct the proposed activities and for both criteria are there adequate resources available to the pi either the home organization or through collaboration to carry out the propos activities for this program additional solicitation specific criteria will be included to highlight specific objectives for the program so when propos when reviewers have your proposal in hand we will ask them to evaluate your proposal according to the following questions what evidence is presented to demonstrate the proposed research Al comes can be achieved within the constraints of the fellowship period with the work being performed primarily at the host site how will the fellowship have a transformative impact on the trajectory of the Pi's research career goals during and after the funding period how will the fellowship yield tangible benefits to the home institution and or jurisdiction that's beyond the individual benefits to the pi what evidence is there that the home institution and the host site are each committing the necessary resources to lend confidence that the fellowship will be successful in achieving its intended outcomes okay so I know we've said a lot thus far but if you have additional questions regarding proposal submissions you're welcome to contact myself my colleagues especially Dr L and cig uh and for the epcore research fellows at Nasa please also remember to reach out to our colleagues NASA epcore via the contact information on the slide piis are also encouraged to attend Outreach events such as office hours that will be taking place in the coming 3 to four months and there we'll be able to answer your questions oneon-one please consult the fscore program website to register for these sessions and when they're ready we will send an announcement out to the community so that uh pis can uh register I'll end with next steps for piis and interested in submitting a proposal to this opportunity first consult with your sponsor research office regarding internal competitions required to submit proposals because there's a li on number of proposals that can be submitted per institution next identify a collaborator at a host site or a NASA Center and this is regardless of track right uh for abscore research fellows at NASA review the focus areas to find alignment with available opportunities and contact the NASA upcore coordinator of course write the proposal narrative as early as you can and obtain letters of support early into the process and you can contact us at NSF or at NAS regarding questions so submit your proposal through research.gov well well well before the deadline of April 8th 2025 and if you're not planning to submit a proposal in this cycle and are interest in reviewing for this opportunity we welcome you to send your CV to NSF program officer using our contact information and you'll be asked to complete a reviewer survey survey in advance of the deadline thank you so much for this time to listen and we look forward to answering your questions thank you so much um Dr May and Dr Whitley I see that we have Dr cigit here with us now welcome