Oregon Sea Grant Aquaculture Research Opportunity

The Oregon Sea Grant is seeking proposals for the aquaculture research competition which is designed to support the development of environmentally and economically sustainable ocean, coastal, or Great Lakes aquaculture by funding research, outreach and management. Proposed projects must support the goals stated in Sea Grant's National Strategic Plan (2009-2013) Focus Area of Safe and Sustainable Seafood Supply: a sustainable supply of safe seafood to meet public demand; a healthy domestic seafood industry that produces, processes, and markets seafood responsibly and efficiently; and informed consumers who understand the importance of ecosystem health and sustainable harvesting practices to the future of our domestic fisheries, who appreciate the health benefits of seafood consumption, and who understand how to evaluate the safety of the seafood products they buy. Sea Grant's National Strategic Plan is available at http://www.seagrant.noaa.gov/other/admininfo/documents/0209_stratplan.pdf . These goals are consistent with those of the NOAA Aquaculture Program.

If you plan to submit a proposal, you are encouraged to contact Steve Brandt or Julie Risien at Oregon Sea Grant (seagrant.admin@oregonstate.edu 541 737-2714) if you want to discuss your ideas in relation to National Sea Grant Goals. There is no preliminary proposal stage. Full proposals are to be submitted via the state Sea Grant program. For investigators in Oregon, submit full proposals online via the Oregon Sea Grant proposal submission Webnibus: http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/funding/webnibus.html.

Amount: Varies

Date due: May 25, 2010

For more information, click here.

Oregon Sea Grant opportunity

Oregon Sea Grant would like to alert you to an upcoming RFP that will be released by the National Sea Grant Program for aquaculture research. We anticipate the release of the RFP in the coming week with a relatively short turn-around time for submission of full proposals.

We will send out another email once the announcement of federal funding opportunity is published in the Federal Register and post the information on our website at http://www.seagrant.oregonstate.edu

Climate Change & Citizen Science

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System and National Conservation Training Center, in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, are inviting applications from organizations interested in initiating the Nature of Learning program in their communities.

The Nature of Learning is a community-based environmental education initiative that seeks to use national wildlife refuges as outdoor classrooms to promote a greater understanding of local conservation issues.

For 2010, the program theme is Climate Change and Citizen Science. Grants of up to $10,000 each will be awarded to support education projects focused on the causes and effects of climate change on refuges and to build citizen science partnership programs.

Academic institutions or nonprofit organizations, including "Friends" organizations, cooperative and interpretive associations, Audubon chapters, youth organizations, etc. are eligible to apply. Programs must involve a partnership among a local school(s), community group (e.g., a Friends Organization, nature clubs), and a national wildlife refuge.

Amount: $10,000

Date due: June 14, 2010

For more information, click here.

Math & Science Partnerships (MSP)

The Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program is a major research and development effort that supports innovative partnerships to improve K-12 student achievement in mathematics and science. MSP projects are expected to raise the achievement levels of all students and significantly reduce achievement gaps in the mathematics and science performance of diverse student populations. In order to improve the mathematics and science achievement of the Nation's students, MSP projects contribute to what is known in mathematics and science education and serve as models that have a sufficiently strong evidence/research base to improve the mathematics and science education outcomes for all students. NSF's MSP program coordinates its effort with programs of the U.S. Department of Education in the expectation that effective innovations in mathematics and science education will be disseminated into wider practice.

Through this solicitation, NSF seeks to support five types of awards:

• Targeted Partnerships focus on studying and solving teaching and learning issues within a specific grade range or at a critical juncture in education, and/or within a specific disciplinary focus in mathematics or the sciences;
• Institute Partnerships - Teacher Institutes for the 21st Century focus on meeting national needs for teacher leaders/master teachers who have deep knowledge of disciplinary content for teaching and are fully prepared to be school- or district-based intellectual leaders in mathematics or the sciences;
• MSP-Start Partnerships are for awardees new to the MSP program, especially from minority-serving institutions, community colleges and primarily undergraduate institutions, to support the necessary data analysis, project design, evaluation and team building activities needed to develop a full MSP Targeted or Institute Partnership;
• Phase II Partnerships are for prior NSF MSP Partnership awardees to continue implementation on specific innovative areas of their work where evidence of the potential for significant positive impact is clearly documented. The intent is that there will be focused efforts to carry out the necessary research to advance knowledge and understanding in the specific area(s); and
• Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance (RETA) projects (a) study the relationships among MSP activities and student learning using theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous methods; (b) develop and validate instruments of teacher or student knowledge that MSPs and others can use to assess the impact of their work, or (c) provide technical assistance to MSP projects to help them rigorously evaluate their work.

Amount: Varies depending upon type of project

Date due: July 8, 2010

For more information, click here.

Fostering Interdisciplinary Research on Education (FIRE)

FIRE is a new strand of the Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE) program (NSF 09-601) and it is anticipated that after this first competition, FIRE will be incorporated into the REESE solicitation. The FIRE program seeks to facilitate the process by which scholars can cross disciplinary boundaries to acquire the skills and knowledge that would improve their abilities to conduct rigorous research on STEM learning and education.

The primary goal of the strand is to facilitate the development of innovative theoretical, methodological, and analytic approaches to understanding complex STEM education issues of national importance and, by so doing, make progress toward solving them. A secondary goal of the strand is to broaden and deepen the pool of investigators engaged in STEM educational research. In order to address this goal, investigators must pair with a mentoring scientist in a to-be-learned field of interest. Proposals therefore have both a research and a professional development component. Investigators may apply at any point in their post-graduate careers.

Amount: $400,000 (across two years)

Date due: May 20, 2010

For more information, click here.