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Category: Grants

ESEA Conference Report Released, Passage Expected Before Recess

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Both Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Rep. John Kline (R-MN) Chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, put a No Child Left Behind rewrite at the top of their to-do lists in 2015. After multiple stops and starts in the House, the House and Senate Conferees have come to an agreement, which they announced last week and revealed today.

The long-negotiated Every Student Succeeds Act which would reauthorize theElementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as No Child Left Behind, is expected to draw wide support for fixing the existing law, though there may be some objections over how much control is given to states. Some conservatives may argue for more state control over education programs, while civil rights groups are keeping a close eye on the flexibility states will have over accountability.

The measure would require states to test students in reading and math in third through eighth grades and once in high school, as well as separate the data by student subgroups — racial minorities, poverty, special education and English learners. Performance goals on those tests and for the subgroups would be decided at the state level.

States and districts would be required to intervene in the lowest performing 5 percent of schools, high schools where less than 67 percent of students graduate and schools in which any subgroup of students is consistently underperforming. But the plan for action at those schools would be at the discretion of state and local school officials, while the federal Education Department has the authority to approve or disapprove the overall statewide accountability system.

The House and Senate are expected to consider and pass the conference agreement before Congress recesses for the Christmas holiday.

A copy of the conference agreement can be found here. 

 

White House Memo on Science Priorities for FY2017

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The White House’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Shaun Donovan, and OSTP Director, John Holdren, sent their annual joint FY2017 priorities memo to the science agency heads.

The memo urges agency leaders to take the priorities into consideration as they begin to prepare their FY2017 budget proposals for OMB.  Per the memo, “Agency proposals aligned with multi-agency R&D priorities and demonstrating interagency coordination are more likely to be prioritized in FY2017 Budget deliberations.”

Read the memorandum here.

 

 

OMB Writes Letter of Concern about Senate FY16 CJS

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The White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan has issued another letter on the FY16 appropriations proposal currently working their way though Congress. Today, Director Donovan’s letter was addressed to the Senate and expressed concern over the Senate’s FY16 CJS spending bill.  The letter outlines concerns about underfunding the important investments in a diverse set of agencies and programs (from science agencies like NSF and NOAA to law enforcement as well as the census)  and includes highly problematic ideological riders. Over all the letter echo previously seen concerns about Congress crafting these bills in accordance to sequestration funding limitations, while not working on a FY16 budget that would supplant the sequester.

Specically, the letter outlines concerns for maintaining our nation’s ability and capacity at science-focused agencies.

  • The bill cuts the President’s Budget by $245 million, or 64 percent, for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) next generation ofpolar-orbiting weather satellites which puts the continuity of the polar weather observations at substantial risk.
  • The bill underfunds the National Science Foundation, providing $380 million, or 5 percent, less than the President’s Budget for an agency that carries a major share of the Federal Government’s responsibility to support basic research in science and engineering-research that produces the seed com on which future innovation depends, but by its nature is too uncertain in ultimate application to attract private-sector funding. Compared to the President’s Budget, the bill would lead to about 700 fewer research grants, affecting about 9,100 researchers, technicians, and students.

Read the OMB letter here. 

ED Accepting Applications for Fulbright-Hays

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The 2015 grant competition for the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant Program (DDRA) has begun! DDRA provides grants to colleges and universities to fund individual doctoral students who conduct research in other countries, in modern foreign languages and area studies for periods of six to 12 months.

Who may apply:

  • Institutions of Higher Education
  • Graduate students in doctoral programs in the fields of foreign languages and area studies must apply through the institutions in which they are enrolled.

A student is eligible to receive a fellowship if s/he:

  • Is a citizen or national of the United States or is a permanent resident of the United States;
  • Is a graduate student in good standing at an institution of higher education in the United States who, when the fellowship begins, is admitted to candidacy in a doctoral program in modern foreign languages and area studies at that institution;
  • Is planning a teaching career in the United States upon graduation; and
  • Possesses adequate skills in the language(s) necessary to carry out the dissertation project.

For more information and to apply please go to the Office of Postsecondary Education’s website: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpsddrap/applicant.html

 

New Deadline on RFI for National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI)

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Last year, President Obama launched a major, new initiative focused on strengthening the innovation, performance, competitiveness, and job-creating power of U.S. manufacturing called the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). Key design elements for the NNMI are captured within National Network for Manufacturing Innovation: A Preliminary Design, a report issued by the White House National Science and Technology Council on January 16, 2013. The NNMI is comprised of Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs). The President has proposed up to 45 IMIs around the country. Congress is currently considering bills in both houses similar to the President’s proposal.

A Request for Information (RFI) was published June 2, 2014 on FedBizOps. Responses were originally due October 24, 2014 but that deadline has been moved up to October 10, 2014. The RFI seeks information about the following Technical Focus Areas:

  • Flexible Hybrid Electronics
  • Photonics
  • Engineered Nanomaterials
  • Fiber and Textiles
  • Electronic Packaging and Reliability
  • Aerospace Composites

IMIs will bring together industry, academia (four- and two-year universities, community colleges, technical institutes, etc.), and federal and state agencies to accelerate innovation by investing in industry-relevant manufacturing technologies with broad applications. Each Institute will have a specific technology or market focus and will serve as a regional hub of manufacturing excellence in that focus area, providing the critical infrastructure necessary to create a dynamic, highly collaborative environment spurring manufacturing technology innovations and technology transfer leading to production scale-up and commercialization. When established, each IMI will be a public-private partnership via a Cooperative Agreement and key part of the NNMI network of institutes.