Hi everyone.
I want to thank you for joining us today for the Civic Innovation Challenge webinar.
My name is me how's the bell and I'm a Program Director of the National Science Foundation and part of the program team for the Civic Innovation Challenge, or civic for short.
So because of federal research and action competition, led by NSF and partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy.
We also have a cooperative agreement with Metalab network, and you will hear more about their role later in the webinar.
This webinar will provide an overview of the Civic program and review details of the recently released solicitation, which is accepting proposals through May 5 2022, following the webinar, you will have an opportunity for q amp a with members of the Civic
program team.
While we're going through the webinar we encourage you to post your questions through the zoom q amp a function.
You can see here, the program team for civic, which includes members across the for participating NSF directors. Computer and Information Science and Engineering geosciences, and social behavioral and Economic Sciences, and also engineering.
Within DHS and includes members from the Directorate for science and technology and also the Federal Emergency Management Agency or female, and within do we from the vehicle Technologies Office.
We will start out now with a brief overview of the Civic program.
The central goal of the Civic Innovation Challenge is to accelerate the transition to practice a foundational research and emerging technologies into local government and community organizations, through civic engagement research.
The program asks communities to be in the lead of identifying priorities and challenges that are ripe for innovation and to partner with researchers to co develop and pilot potential solutions over a rapid 12 months timeframe, following a six month planning
period.
The program strives to support ideas that can be scaled within their pilot communities, the steam beyond the NSF award and have the potential to be transferred to other communities across the US.
And lastly the program emphasizes support of projects that involve stakeholders and individuals on the front lines of these community challenges, including those who have historically not been sufficiently involved as co creators, in research and innovation
activities and civic source of Haitian and developed around focused track themes that are developed with input from communities across the US, together with the priority areas of the cofounders of the program.
After the submission deadline proposals are reviewed by panels of experts, using NSF merit review process that considers intellectual merit and broader impacts, as well as criteria specific to the program goals will touch more on these later in the webinar
for the Civic program manager that the reviewers in the panels cover the range of academic disciplines represented in the proposals and equally important that we include her viewers with experience and local government and community organizations, the
panel's make funding recommendations to NSF, and then the NSF civic program team and assess leadership makes the final funding decisions. As we noted earlier, the program includes two stages in stage one or two teams receive planning grants of up to $50,000
to undertake planning activities over a six month period during which they were finding proposals, strengthen their partnerships and prepare their submissions for stage two.
It's important to note that only awardees from stage one are eligible to submit proposals to stage two.
For the stage two awards the same review process just described this carried out and the program team select a subset of teams to fund for full awards.
These awards are for up to $1 million to execute their pilot projects over the rapid 12 months timeframe during both stages awardees interact with the Civic program team, and also participate in community of practice activities, aimed at building a nationwide
network of knowledge sharing between the 17th. I'm going to turn it over to Metalab network who facilitates these communities of practice to elaborate a little further on this.
Hi everyone, my name is Kate Garmin burns and I'm the executive director at Petra lab network. Metro network supports collaboration between local governments and colleges and universities who want to support their local residents and neighbors priorities.
We are proud to continue to support the work of the National Science Foundation and their partners as they continue the Civic Innovation Challenge by facilitating the Civic Community of Practice across growth stages of the program team will teams will
engage in a series of activities relevant to the goals of each stage during stage one community of practice activities, focused on preparing teams for success in stage two, including planning for a fast paced pilot and strengthening civic academic partnerships
activities during stage to focus on facilitating knowledge sharing between teams, including approaches for executing pilots, maintaining meaningful cross sector collaboration and strategies for scaling and sustaining outcomes, beyond the NSF award.
As you're considering a potential project for this program respective teams may find it helpful to learn about the ongoing work of the awarded projects from the first round of civic solicitation.
To do so, we encourage you to visit the website noted on this slide that material advantages and assess civic innovation.org in the Civic awards tab you'll find projects videos and websites and one page descriptions of each project.
You can see from this map that the teams are situated across the US from cities like Atlanta, Atlanta and Los Angeles to rural communities and Michigan and Florida and the pueblos of New Mexico.
In our first round of the solicitation, which had the track things of mobility and resilience to natural disasters, 52 teams were selected for stage one awards and 17 of those teams were selected for stage two, we want to emphasize here again that every
selected project included a set of strong partnerships between researchers, local government agencies and community organizations, since that is an essential aspect of throwing out these fast paced impactful projects.
Hello, my name is David Corman, and I'm the program director in NSF size Directorate. Over the next several slides will be reviewing details. The new Civic solicitation and important proposal submission guidelines for this webinar will cover many important
details regarding that solicitation proposer should carefully read the solicitation and refer to guidance and requirements within it, as well as NSF proposal and warn policies and procedure guide, what we call the path to
this solicitation for civic has to community identified track things track day for this round is focused on it application mitigation and resilience and Community Systems services and economic drivers that are vulnerable in the face of a changing climate.
Projects are asked to focus on aspects essential for the proper functioning of the community in its economy, such as access to digital infrastructure and services, public utilities.
Food and Agriculture, because system services, residential and commercial buildings in education and workforce development.
Please no. These are examples and not an exhaustive list.
Additionally, as teams are formulating their ideas and pursuing partnerships with their communities. They should consider the perspectives of economically disadvantaged in marginalized communities that are especially susceptible to increasing environmental
instability and its resulting impacts.
The other track for this round track be is focused on enhancing people access to essential resources and services. For example, food, medical, housing, broadband and mobile technologies are better accessibility could significantly improve quality of five,
a community resilience projects may consider gaps and inequities in resource and service allocation resulting from a variety of reasons, including long standing systemic issues around accessibility economic disparity, or disruptions caused by shocker
disaster. But this track composers were encouraged to leverage anchor institutions in their community that are focusing on delivering or providing access to one or more resources or services to a set of end users, which may include socio economically
disadvantaged groups and vulnerable vulnerable populations such as the elderly and those who are physically impaired.
For both tracks. It's a requirement that multi domain teams of research and civic partners together with community stakeholders, co create scalable pilot projects that will lead to measurable inclusive and equitable outcomes.
Teams should review detailed guidance for both tracks, that's provided within section two a, the solicitation, which includes examples of the types of questions that can be addressed through each track
We anticipate making up to 50 stage one awards, with expected start date for projects. In October, 2022.
As we mentioned earlier during the webinar stage one teams will use their planning grant awards to stripe in collaboration with relevant partners and stakeholders solidify their project execution approach team roles and responsibilities and refine the
vision and plan executing the research center pilot.
Please know that only teams with stage one awards will be allowed to submit proposals for stage two.
We anticipate making up to 20 stage two awards for this round with expected start date for projects in the fall of 2023. Over the next few slides will review several important aspects of how team should go about formulating their project ideas in constructing
a proposal that is aligned with the goals of this program proposals will use the project description section of their proposals to describe their project ideas, including their vision, or stage to pilot, and the strength of their civic academic partnerships
and how they will use the fighting grant period to refine their team ideas and pilot to prepare for submission on the stage to form award.
Proposals proposers should be should be conscious of specific sub sections in the solicitation title vision for research centered pilot project and civic participation engagement.
For complete guidance on the requirements for describing their projects.
These sections asked proposers to address several questions as they described their projects, such as in what ways does the Envision stage to project, go beyond the state of practice and state of the art in the pilot community, and other communities as
well.
For the partners, academic and civic on the project. And what are their roles to the Civic partners adequately represent the perspective of the community, and enable the project to achieve its desire to please know that we use the term partners for seven
Please know that we use the term partners for seven to mean that civic partners are not just being pushed technologies and research for academia, their code developers of the project, and key contributors to the piloting efforts,
the solicitation also provides additional opportunities for teams to outline the strengths of their project ideas and partnerships. This includes information requested in bio snatches letters of collaboration and facilities, equipment and other resource
sub sections. Proposals should refer to section five day of the supplementary documents or detailed guidance on this.
Please know the facilities, equipment and other resource subsection can include the evidence of unfunded collaborations in past work between partners all too frequently that section is used only to boast classic pictures of buildings and servers.
But you said section well.
Please know there are several other sections that are required in the solicitation. And we again refer you carefully look through the solicitation. And the path g requirements in order that you come up and submit a combined NSF proposal.
Over the next few slides, we will review how proposal submitted to civic will be evaluate our proposal submitted to civic will be first reviewed by a panel of experts on both research and community side in the Civic program team will make final funding
decisions based on panels recommendations.
Civic proposals will be evaluated, their intellectual merit and broader impacts using NSF general review process and assess intellectual merit criteria encompasses potential for a project to advance knowledge in the broader impact criteria encompasses
the potential of the project to benefit society, and contribute to achievement of specific desired societal outcomes.
We encourage you to ask the kinds of questions that reviewers will ask, as you are framing your proposals, such as to what extent to the proposed activities suggested it's smart creative original potentially transformative concepts, is a plan for carrying
out proposed activities while reason, well organized and based on the sound rationale. Does the plan incorporate a mechanism to ensure success.
A well qualified and see individual team or organizations.
Your conducted compose activities.
Proposals should refer to the section six eight of the solicitation for detailed guidance about NSF merit review the process.
We also encourage you and your colleagues, participate in the program as a panel review. Whether you are submitting a proposal or not.
Please know that proposers to submit can only participate its reviewers for the track that they're not submitted.
If you're interested in serving on a review panel, please sign up for the Civic email list to receive guidance on how to sign up as a reviewer,
along with the general NSF merit review criteria. There are several additional solicitation specific review criteria for civic, which evaluate proposals, especially on the relevance to the goals of the civil program.
This criteria includes the following questions.
Is it evident that the envisioned civic project addresses that community identified priority.
With a project, I lead project that has the potential to be scale and sustain is driven by strong partnerships between the necessary set of civic organizations, local and state governments, researchers and other partners and stakeholders, is a proposed
pilot project, well suited for execution in a fast paced, 12 month time frame of the Civic proposed program, including a rapid startup at the onset of stage two, guidance on solicitation specific review criteria, can be found within section six a.
on the solicitation.
Before we conclude this webinar. We want to know that civic invites proposals from a diverse set of stakeholders, which may include organizations who have not proposed to and assess if your organization falls in this category and is looking to submit
as a lead organization. We want to emphasize that initiating the process can take significant time and teams are strongly encouraged to start the process, at least two months prior to the submission deadline.
You can find some guidance on getting started on this and the proposal preparation and submission instructions in the solicitation. And also in the NSF proposals and award policies and procedures guide that we brushed reference several times the PAPPG
and teams also may want to look at the Civic FAQ question on this topic.
and teams also may want to look at the Civic FAQ question on this topic. So this concludes the Civic webinar. In a few moments we will start the q&a portion, feel free to post your questions in the q amp a feature in zoom if you have not yet done so if you have additional questions
you have additional questions as you move through the proposal preparation process. Please note that we will have additional q amp a sessions on March 10, and also on March 22, please also know that we have FAQs for the program which you can access through
our website. And please feel free to also send questions to us at civic and nsf.gov, the NSF civic program directors are also available to meet with individual teams.
If you have questions specific to your project to schedule these individual meetings, please email the same email address and share with us a couple paragraphs about your projects and what your specific questions are.
And again, we also encourage you to sign up for the Civic mailing list, which you can access through NSF civic innovation.org to continue receiving updates about the program, including survey to participate as a reviewer on the panels.
We want to thank you again for attending the webinar today, and we will now begin the q&a session.
Alright folks that concludes the webinar presentation, and now we will be kicking off the q amp a session.
I want to quickly introduce myself. My name is Michelle Sharma and I'm a triple A Science and Technology Policy Fellow at NSF. And I will be moderating the q amp a session today and I'll try to get through everyone submitted questions before we conclude
the webinar. Before we. Before we get started I want to introduce civic program key members were present for this session, but we're not introduced during the webinar.
First I'd like to call upon David Alexander from the Department of Homeland Security
is David Alexander pleased to be here today. I'm definitely looking forward to civic 2022.
Of course DHS and FEMA excited to be partnering again with NSF and Do we have another round of civic Innovation Challenge.
it's provided us to new compelling research tracks for DHS to address some of our fundamental challenges and properties in disaster and climate resilience.
Particular few points of interest for the group is that, you know, when we look at disaster resilience and preparedness that is a core mission of DHS, we have issued a new strategic framework for addressing climate change, but we recognize that there's
a lot of interconnectedness and interdependency in those both broad objectives and goals around disaster resilience are are inextricably linked to climate resilience.
So we're definitely looking forward to solutions that will enhance capacity and capabilities to sustain and maintain critical functions and core services, empowering individuals and communities to develop their climate resilience, building readiness to
respond to emerging and compound risk as well as climate driven emergencies and enhancing the Homeland Security Emergency Management workforce, an increasing understanding and literacy of these risk by putting research into action.
And I think those priority objectives.
Tying very nicely to the two research topics and tracks that have been identified into civic 2022. So again, thank you for joining us today, and very excited and looking forward to receiving the proposals and launching the next round of civic 2022.
Thank you, David. Next we will hear from Mark Smith from the Department of Energy.
Great. Thank you Michelle. Good afternoon or good morning everyone. Mark Smith from the Digital Technologies Office at the Department of Energy.
Again, as David Alexander just pointed out excited to be partnering with NSF and DHS and and Metro labs. On this next iteration of the Civic.
The first response I think we would agree for both tracks was was overwhelming, especially given the fact that basically it was it was kicked off during the early days of the pandemic and, and just some really great projects came out of that and that's
why we're excited to be teaming up now for civic 2022.
You know when you look at transportation. Our mission is to really do a number of things, how do we number one decarbonize the transportation sector that's on road and off road vehicles, and that means looking at things like battery electric vehicles
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, etc. and knowing that we need to move pretty quick to do that if we're going to meet the administration's goal of decarbonizing the transportation sector by 2050.
And while that may seem like a long ways away.
In looking at vehicles and how vehicles turn over, it really isn't. we really need to be developing these new technologies and having them on the street, if you will, by the early 2013 so if we're going to make that goal.
But these vehicles, and they need to be accessible they need to be affordable, especially as we look at battery charging for everything from passenger car vehicles to heavy duty vehicles like school buses and trains and buses which, for those of you who
might have been following the bipartisan infrastructure law there's a tremendous amount of funding in there for those two areas. So we need to have the resiliency so that those systems work during during any type of situation.
But we also need to make sure that all these transportation choices that that are being adopted and coming on onto the scene, whether it's ride sharing car sharing, whatever the future of connected autonomous vehicles becomes, how do we make these accessible
to everyone. How do we make them affordable, And it's also important to be talking about buildings, we really work closely a deal with our colleagues in building Technologies Office because we feel there's a real interaction between electrification of
transportation and buildings there's an opportunity to do things like onsite battery storage that can really help manage that load between the buildings and the vehicles that are charging there.
So a lot of unique opportunities that lay ahead of us.
And the time is now to work on a lot of these, as was also mentioned a couple of areas that are of interest to us at DMV is all around how do these technologies, right and get into disadvantage and underrepresented communities.
That's part of the executive order that President Biden signed the justice for the executive order it says 40% of all federal resources need to address these communities, and we are working vigorously to make sure that happens but that's very important
that that that's part of it. There was also in one of the slides that we may have seen about workforce development, and that is critical as well how do we take.
Today's auto mechanics and technicians and train them to work on, on these new vehicle technologies but that gets to things even like tow truck operators and salvage yards and a wide variety of retraining that needs to take place for Workforce Development.
So, again, a lot of a lot of great opportunity. We, we feel with with this next round of civic. It's great. I'm looking here we have over 300 people on the webinar so that says a lot that folks are that interested that on a Friday afternoon there they're
listening in.
So we're getting we're excited for proposals excited to address any questions you have and looking forward to all the good work that lies ahead. Thank you.
Thanks a lot, mark.
And now I will finally introduce several NSF program directors who are part of the Civic team. We're joined by Barbara Ranson from the geoscientist Directorate.
Yo yo fan and Dan young from the engineering Directorate. And Sarah Kessler from the social behavioral economics sciences Directorate. I will now pass it on to David corpsman to kick off the q amp a session.
Thank you Michelle, I just want to kick this off, I just wanted to say a few words. First of all, so one. This is a second year, when our partners are supporting the Civic program.
As a proposer. This should help you in that you can see what projects were funded in stage one. And what are being currently funded in stage two McCall mentioned during the webinar.
Look at the website and SF civic innovation.org, and the good part of that is you can see the passion, the vision of the proposers that were selected in stage one.
Look at those ideas. You can also see short write ups on each of those funded projects, as well as the Civic partners that are associated with them.
One of the things about that and I wanted to be very clear, is we're talking about civic partnerships, not just about community engagement partners can be from local government municipal departments.
Small large communities, large cities, rural regions.
That could be from neighborhood organizations and NGOs Civic is all about academia and civic partners working together to pilot projects that are important to the community.
As we mentioned during the webinar. It's not just about pushing academic research over the fence.
Just a couple other thoughts. One, we always tell people to do this.
Very seldom do we actually believe people do read the solicitation carefully. It really does.
And it really should answer, virtually every question that you would have.
When we put together the solicitation. We put it in the form of some questions that we think you should think about, and answer as you put together your proposal.
So, look at the solicitation. Make sure you see what questions were asking, and let it help guide you as you write your proposal.
Second, and McCall mentioned this, I know you guys all know submitting NSF proposals can be complex.
We've used research.gov people use grants.gov. I think we've used Fast Lane NSF program directors aren't submitting proposals, or not the experts on the ends and outs of how to get your proposal submitted.
There are some very good help desks and help information available at research. gov, and grants.gov that can actually help guide you as you start your submit all the other point is, look at those now.
Don't wait till a week before you're ready to submit, and then you discover. I don't have the registration information I don't have this specific user information required to be able to submit.
And then it's going to be too late and you may not be able to submit. So, look at those sites, look at information from the webinar, and let it help guide you to make sure that it's an easy transition process for submitting your proposals.
Thank you.
Alright, thanks a lot. David folks will get the q amp a session started now.
We have quite a lot of questions that were asked. So as I mentioned earlier, do our best to get through as many of them as possible. And also just want to let everyone know that there will be two more follow up q amp a sessions.
On March 10 March 22, and we encourage you to sign up for those specific program page.
So okay so we'll start at the q amp a now.
The first question we have directed towards Unocal is that is there an ideal scale for civic funded projects, is there an advantage to be in a small or large community.
Sure. Um, so we really want the teams to make the case for your community size and the size of your project so we will be.
We fund across the different community sizes, rural to urban different sizes of the populations that are impacted.
We want you to really think about is what is the number of people the population, the number of residents the size of your pilot, that is required in order to help make the case for whatever you are trying to pilot and and so and you need to do that within
the $1 million budget and the 12 months timeframe so we leave that up to you to make the case for with that sizes and there is not an ideal size that again as we're going to mention probably several times, you can see the sizes that were of the communities,
and the types of communities that were selected in the first round, which might give you an idea of the range of what was selected there.
The other thing you might think about is how whatever you're doing can scale to other communities, outside of the one that you're piloting and because that also could have a big impact on possible selection.
Thank you for calling Barbara. And the next question, I will correct words, David Alexander.
If you have a question that's asking do projects responding to natural disasters applied to track a living in a changing climate.
Or the answer is yes, I mean, one of our views is that there are large swings in both in extreme heat events as well as other extreme weather events that relate to natural hazards and so we see a logical intersection between hazards and climate resilience.
But we're also interested in other effects of climate change, such as how or exacerbate or, or modify human settlement and development. What is the tension between our natural social and physical systems.
So the short answer is yes we would look at those areas
you David. The next question we have. I will direct that to Mark Smith, Mark, can you expand on what type of resources services and community needs Kak be seeks to address.
Sure. Thank you. um, I think we're looking at everything.
Much like in the first iteration of civic. It was really about accessibility and that's to two jobs, you know, mobility services that can get people to jobs to school to health care to the grocery stores.
So it involves you know all all segments of transportation and all types of mobility too, if there are you know micro built mobility options or those types of choices that can help bridge some of those gaps.
Those are the things we're looking for it's it's really an open book, anything to do with mobility transportation and accessibility to, to any type of service.
Mark.
Next question I will direct to David Corman David we have a question that's asking, Can we submit a proposal but multiple communities from across the nation.
And the answer that is sure, you know, the whole point is we want to make sure that you have a good focus, and that those communities, really represent partnerships.
So we put in the solicitation. You can provide us up to a two page letter of collaboration from your community partners, and in your facility section, you can describe the extent of that collaboration further specific roles and responsibilities, other
point.
These are planning grants. They're not a lot of money there $50,000, but community partners can get paid.
They do work.
Alright, thank you David.
be firmly established prior to submitting a proposal.
We call you're on mute.
Thank you. Um, so it's it's not a requirement that those relationships are established. And you don't have to check a box to show that but you do in your proposal it's going to be to your benefit that you have those at least.
Pretty established. Part of what you want to do in your proposal is describe for the reviewers.
What this strength of your partnership is why have you chosen to work together, showing that this is really a challenge that is being brought forward from your community partners, and you may want to show that you've worked together before you know you
have only the six month period to really do the planning and that's really about building additional capacity and refining what your pilot would look like.
So you don't want to be that the goal here in this program is not to spend that time really solidifying the partnerships, and we're hoping that these projects are coming in.
Pretty strong To start off with, and a lot of the competitive ones from our first round of the program. These partnerships were very strong, and it comes across clearly in the proposals, if they are.
Next one is kind of a follow up on that because I'll just ask you this one to our local government agencies qualified to be civic partners are our civic partners meant to be local community based organizations, and local government can definitely be community,
it can be the Civic partners that can be either one of those.
So the next question I'll ask you, David.
How does NSF define community.
So community is a location. It's a place. So it could be a city or a town. It could be a county. It could be a large neighborhood.
For example in New York City, we have one of our projects, dealing with flood insurance. It's a large neighborhood with a, a very strong civic organization representing that neighborhood.
It could be a could be a group of farms in an area. So, it's meant to really represent the location with people in it, and community partners that can help support the creation of the idea, as well as the piloting of the project within that area.
David. Next question I'm going to direct at Kate burns from Metalab Kate we have a question that's asking. I'm at a university, what are some mechanisms you would suggest to start developing the strong partnerships necessary for this call for proposals.
I would suggest, Usually universities have some outreach offices, there are central as often these efforts might be silent within departments so going to a central office would be a good place to start for what relationships currently exist with your
university that you might not be aware of.
I would also reach out to your local government, even if they may not be a part of your project, they would certainly know who to connect you with in your community, whether nonprofits or other organizations as a place to start, just some ideas there.
Thank you.
Next question, Nicole of directors towards you.
Who should serve as the PA or co op i can or should it be the Civic partner or the government entity can the PI be a grad student postdoc for university staff, or any nonprofits eligible to submit or only those listed in solicitation.
So, as we stayed in the solicitation the proposals can be submitted by someone from an institution of higher education or from a nonprofit organization.
And so you are welcome to have your API and copia from those locations.
The T. So, the local government can actually also be Kochi eyes and.
And it's you know whether whether they can receive some awards is up to that up to the local government if it's allowed by them.
And the other part of the question.
But oh so the other thing that I wanted to mention is that if you do submit from a nonprofit organization and said this a couple times. Just be aware that if you have not previously submitted to NSF this really can take a long time, you pretty much want
to start thinking about this now. This can take easily two months so if you have not submitted before then start looking into that now otherwise you may want to go.
Have your lead be at the university, even though the other partners from local government and the community organizations are expected to be equally important and impactful in these projects.
Thank you.
Yeah. So Michelle I wanted to also add one other thing there is, and this relates to make your decision.
One, based on being able to submit the proposal.
One of the challenges is sometimes as a KPI, there are certain requirements that you may need to fulfill, including getting specific user information user registration information, what we look for is not necessarily, are they co p eyes are senior persons.
But really, what is that commitment. What is the specific role that they are going to be playing in the project, rather than a if it's a KPI that's, that's where they got to be.
So make sure you look and are informed by what has to be submitted in order for them to have that raw.
Thank you David and McCall, David I'll stay with you for the next question. The next question is asking, there's a down selection but being are in the first iteration of civic there's a balance election could be 52 Awards down to 17 and stage two.
So what is the criteria for a kinky get into stage two.
So there was a, obviously each proposal.
Each of the stage one people, the 52 Awards.
At the end of stage one had submitted a proposal for the stage to element of competition.
So pull up NSF proposal.
We went through the NSF merit review process.
Look, and evaluated proposals based on intellectual merit broader impact solicitation specific criteria.
And then we have centrally how much money, what's our total funding that's available. And we ended up with 17, out of, out of 52 awards that were made.
Now, may also say that for NSF proposals for NSF solicitations 33% is really an outstanding outstanding odds. So the.
If you get in your ideas, you've got into stage, from going, if you're into stage one. We tried to give you a good opportunity to shine through your proposal through the performance you demonstrated in stage one to help make it easy to make those decisions
for stage to.
Thank you, David. Next question, I will direct where it's Kate from Metalab again.
How can an interested community group, find a research team that can partner on an issue.
I think that's a great question.
Typically, you would go into your backyard, whatever institution might be there whether it's a community college or research university.
And like I said they have outreach departments their organizations.
I think also, if there's questions who might be good to contact the metro live network does have many universities in our network and could maybe advise where what office could be best appropriate but that would be the best place to start.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kate. Next question I will direct to Yo yo yo yo we have a question that's asking for this grant as innovation view, primarily through a technological lens, or do innovations and process, processes, also fall within scope.
We're not limited to technology innovation. In fact, the Civic Pima has has taken a very broad perspective. And then if there if there are innovative procedures or processes that could actually advance that through the pipeline of thinking, creating more
accessible and accessible services to reach underserved communities, for example, those are all considered as innovation. That's not limited to technologies.
Thank you. I'm going to ask the same question to you, Barbara and also Sarah, Barbara will start with you, so I think it's good to get the perspective of another different records that are participating in here on this.
Yeah, I, I agree completely with you up on this and that that's those are really the kinds of elements that we are looking for. It's more than just, you know, developing a piece of software, let's say, or some kind of technology that partners could use
it really does involve a lot more than those kinds of activities that can be involved with things to do with the environment that's right around that area and how to make it work better for the communities.
So, you know, anything is is game that you can justify in terms of the requirements of the solicitation.
Thank you progress. Sarah Do you have thoughts to share as well.
I would say that.
Usually there's some sort of technological, or technical changes that need to be made along with changes and process.
If you just look at his history.
Know the invention of the assembly line also included changes in in how cars were put together.
So, sometimes, the stronger proposals, think about, and have collaborations with experts on both sides on the technical side and the social science or organization side or policy side.
So, so think about what would need to happen to make it useful for communities and real improvement and what would be really innovative, and also how you would evaluate if it were successful, because it's one thing to say you know my machine works doesn't
break down it's another thing to say.
The community is is better off.
All right, thank you everyone. The next question I wrote direct to McCall, calm, we have a question that's asking, do you expect our projects to include participation of private enterprise.
Are there limitations on participation of private enterprises, as part of our projects.
Sure. So, there is not a requirement for participation of private companies, it is something that is allowed. and they cannot serve as the lead.
They can receive some awards or they can just participate as a partner without receiving a sub award.
one piece to consider is that the long term sustainability of whatever is being being piloted is a piece that we really want to see in these projects, the scaling transferring the financial sustainability.
And so thinking about what that business model is in some cases may involve private companies.
Thank you McCall, next question I will direct to David Corman David we have a question that's asking, and the solicitation you reference cost sharing what does inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing this prohibited me.
What we're saying is we do not want to see.
not want to see. I am proposing an explicit cost share of $100,000. For this project, or $50,000, we do not require cost match. There are some questions about that that I saw.
And that's basically what we're saying. There is no explicit, we do not want to see explicitly a cost match for the project.
Yeah, really the way we think about this is when you propose the project, you need to put all the costs associated with the project into your budget. You can't have hidden resources that are going to be brought to bear that are not paid for by the project.
So, that's kind of what we consider when we look at these things.
Let me also add one thing. Some of the Civic partners, may not be able to accept funds. That's not considered a cost match.
All right. Thank you, Barbara and David. David I'll stay with you for the next question since it's also kind of a definitional question. So, what is the definition of academic organization is it just universities are also not for profit Research and Evaluation
organizations. It can be bought. So it could be two year colleges four year colleges. It could be research organizations associated with nonprofit.
And the main point is that one point that I would make explicit. Is that an FF r DC federally funded r&d center cannot serve as the lead organization for a proposal so middle.
They can potentially be assemble already
going to ask you the next one to David and I think it will be good to get perspective.
Mark Smith and David Alexander on this as well. So the next question is kind of similar to an earlier question.
So, what are the expected deliverables from a competitive stage to project what will be considered within scope is a data driven research project possible or does this also include intervention based projects.
I think the answer to that is, it could be either.
And what we want to hear from you is something that really does define what your vision is in stage one and stage two proposal, something that makes very explicit what that vision is in terms of a pilot project that will impact the community.
Mark. Do you want to come on screen and.
Yeah, I would agree wholeheartedly with with David's answer. Yeah, it can be there or it can be both.
And I think back to something David Corbin said, when we were doing q amp A is for the first iteration of civic a couple years ago. And that is, tell us a story, tell us a good story about, you know what, what your ideas how you know how it's going to
meet some of the suggestions that have been made. And again, whether that's a data driven project it's data driven with some validation or modeling that happens.
Yeah, tell us a story about it but I think yeah it's, you know, think it was kind of a blank page at this point.
And David Alexander.
Yeah, i mean i agree with both mark and Dave, I think the answer is it could be both. I think we've designed civic to really foster creativity and and stimulate innovation, and that can come in a variety of forms, we're really interested in how you tell
your story how you're proposing articulating what it is that you want to achieve and what time of outcomes and impacts will deliver for your community partner.
Next question, I will stay with you, David Alexander.
Our wildfires part of cracking the living in a changing climate track.
So, we consider that, that track to include really looking at both chronic in and stresses, as well as, as well, it could be catastrophic. It all goes down to being able to articulate the challenge or the issue that you're addressing and it's and it's
its relationship to climate risk, and that could look at cascading effects of climate change posed by changes in global weather patterns. It could be related to implications of the sea level rise.
It could be a how those impact local core services, how they may threaten your supply chains, what are the implications to public safety in your community.
So we're really, we're really being a little fairly open on that topic, but it is key that you should be articulating how this will enhance climate resilience within with your community partner, as well as how it will address factors or impacts from climate
change. Thank you, David.
Next question I'll direct where it's McCall, because teams have to include a government body.
And no, they do not have to, they can just have to define what your who your civic partner is so as we've said it can be someone in government, it can be from a community organization.
Short nuclear.
Next question I'll direct two words David Corbin David you have a question that's asking the timeline says that stage funnel and after the proposal due date for stage to can you expand on this.
So, I guess I'm confused by that question.
Maybe in that from the webinar.
I believe that's from, it's an audience question Yes, now I mean, so, stage one begins with proposals that are due may 2022.
We anticipate making awards for stage one in approximately, October for press startup out October 1 stage two proposals are do. I believe the date from the solicitation is early February, and stage two decisions will be made some time, towards the end
of that fiscal year, perhaps a little earlier and stage two execution will be 12 months. Once the once those projects that began.
I think the question that the the audience was asking if that if there seems to be an overlap between been stage one projects will be active, and when they have to submit their stage two proposals so there's a little bit of overlap.
And you know frankly what we wanted to do was make sure that your, your actions in stage one are really to prepare you to write a great story, or a stage to proposal.
So our goal is a do that while you're at, you're actually executing your stage one towards the end where you've got most of your results. You've firmed up your partnership.
You firmed up your research, your vision and your plan for your pilot and submit that to us in February, which is, I think, for four or five months after, after the start of stage one.
Thank you, David. Next question on direct to where it's McCall McCall, we have a question, and David you can chime in on this one too.
We have a question that's asking what is the difference between the Civic Innovation Challenge and NSF other programs, smart and connected communities are ok so I'll get us started on that so I'd say probably the biggest difference has to do with the
impact time horizon.
So in smart and connected communities we're probably looking at projects that might have an impact and five to 10 years from now, whereas in the Civic Innovation Challenge it's maybe about one to two years.
So one of the things to think about is if there's still a need for quite a bit of foundational research on the social side, technical side, before you can actually do some kind of piloting or some kind of transitioned to practice, then smart and connected
communities is going to be a good program for you and that program, we have both planning grants. And then we also have full awards, but the full award, length of time is either is three or four years, whereas in the Civic Innovation Challenge we're really
looking for projects that are ready to do that transition to practice now, so your partnerships are much more solidified, you've probably tested something out in a program such as smart and connected communities or other ones across NSF or across the
government or elsewhere. And you're, you're really ready to, you're almost ready to implement something, and then the award here for smaller Another difference is that in smart and connected community is you can choose any range of topics that you would
like to anything it's really relevant to communities, whereas here we really focus on two different on two tracks. And our goal here is, is really a. The aim of that is to start building a community of practice of communities across the country that are
facing similar challenges that would really benefit.
Speaking with each other and learning from each other and we have these, these interesting opportunities for the teams to conduct with each other so I'll stop there and see if David wants to add more.
All I'm. That was a great answer all I would add is, if you're looking to do foundational research.
Look at the smart and connected community program.
If you've achieved many of the research aims already and have a pilot that can be built very fairly rapidly can be transition to practice from a smart and connected community project from somewhere else.
That's really the home for the Civic Innovation Challenge.
Thank you David and recall and David I'll stay with you for the next question that we have this question is asking can partners be funded under NSF grants are they're required to be funded.
If not, what incentives can they be offered.
So, partner, civic partners can be funded under the Civic innovation programs program, so they can be funded under the planning grant for stage one, and can receive funds for during stage two, if you look at the assortment of projects that we have in
ongoing civic one point out.
Many of those civic partners are getting significant funding as part of their project.
And sometimes, unfortunately, the Civic partner, can't accept the funds, but is doing that as part of their normal work activity, also totally acceptable.
Thanks David.
Next question out direct words.
Yo, yo, yo, yo, we have a question that's asking, Can our projects focused on utilizing startup solutions that already exist, or is it required that we have to create something new.
Yeah, I think I answered that question by typing typing, but I'll elaborate a little bit more.
The earlier Macau
explained that different expectation for civic versus general as an SEC solicitation.
We because the, the time duration for making impacted through civic projects is short. So we're actually not looking for research ideas, starting from the very beginning, and building Foundation, that means you almost should have most of the fundamental
challenges figured out, so start up a solutions is actually possible good starting point for civic deployment pilot project. And if you can identify clearly what are the challenges involved in pushing the startup solutions further to make more scalable
transformed to other communities, make more impactful to broader communities and and focus on those challenges in the Civic project, that would be great.
Thank you.
Next question I'll ask David corpsman.
David are any nonprofits, eligible to submit.
And our national labs, able to receive funds as a partner under the solicitation.
So, NGOs, nonprofits can submit proposals to the solicitation.
Can national labs.
So National Lab cannot lead a proposal, but it can be a sub awardee on another on with someone else in the lead.
Thank you, David. Next question I'll direct words, Barbara.
Barbara we have a question that's asking, Are the community and university partners expected to be already working on division and research questions, described in the stage one proposal, or is it okay for the planning grant we received a kickstart our
work together, or civic because the timeframe is so short. This is really about transitioning to practice right away from things that you've already created.
Now the thing is that, yes, there may be aspects of it that still need to be worked out but for the most part, the projects that you're going to be transitioning to practice should be pretty much ready to roll to help to ameliorate that community need,
but I'll turn this over to Michelle also, to see if she has some comments on that.
I actually agree with, with Barbara I think that's, that's right. I'm having a solid partnership is really beneficial and that certainly will help you in the, in the review process.
It can be something new, but there's definitely no downside and having something that's established in fact it's probably beneficial.
Now, yeah, one point though is that that relationship can have can exist.
it may need.
It may need some strength and refinement, but we're not looking for a relationship that is totally new. As part of the program. Those are tough to tough to create in six months, trust, and also the technology or the, the, the innovation that you're going
to deliver to the community should also be something that's pretty much ready, ready to go, like I say, you know, there can be things that you need to adjust on the sides but to start a civic maybe by creating something completely from scratch.
You probably can't make that one year deadline to actually deliver. So you need to really think about that.
Okay, following along those lines. We have a question that's asking, Can a government entity be the lead applicant.
Next question, I'll direct to cake from Metroland kit. We have a question that's asking the Civic provide any kind of matchmaking service to help us civic organization but identify problems advertise their challenges to attract ideas from potential university
partners.
I once you're in stage one Metro lab works with the teams to have some curriculum that teaches you about working with partners and working with data and getting ready for Stage two to implement it so it's really the support is to inform all of the stage
one awardees that would then likely go and do that themselves and advertise what's needed.
That should also likely probably be in the proposal as well for as you're getting ready for communication
is key. Next question I'll ask, Sarah.
We have a question that's asking.
Does our organizations operational budget budget size play a factor into your review selection process.
Well, I'm not sure I'm the right person to answer this, but it's not the, I mean I think that reviewers look at the budget to see if it seems reasonable for what you want to do.
And, you know if you suddenly have, you know, 12 trips to Bali. You know, I think, you know, there won't be questions so you have to justify in your budget justification, you have to justify your budget.
So I don't know. Otherwise how to answer that question.
Yeah, I would say come in with a budget that responds to the scope and whatever it is you're planning to do and distribute the funds accordingly so that when reviewers in the program.
Take a look at and have to evaluate your proposal. It looks like the money is in the right place to do what you're proposing to do.
So, some, some institutions are going to require more money than others.
You know, some institutions have higher overhead than others. So, I don't think we really look at that, to any great extent. As long as as well justified, and it looks like.
You can do what you're promising to do.
Thank you, sir and Barbara. Next question I'll direct to David corpsman.
We have a question that's asking results from prior NSF support is a required section in the NSF PAPPG. If we don't have passed in SF awards person is asking I'm assuming we can skip this in our project description.
Is this a weirdness not.
You need to actually have a sec, small section that says results from prior and staff, and essentially say we don't have prior NSF awards.
So the section needs to be.
But it's two lines.
There's a follow up to this which is asking if you don't have prior NSF support is this. Is this considered a weakness. Although, even if the API or the team has other federal funding through NIH, HHRQ, etc.
Now it's, it's not a sad viewed is a weakness main issue is that if you do have you. What it allows us to look at is, We've done, x, which is similar to it.
It adds a little credibility, but that information about your NIH RDOE or other active support could be in your project description already.
Right, thank you David. Yes.
Not everybody has had an NSF award, and probably quite a number of you on this webinar, maybe have never been funded by NSF and that is not a, a detriment to your submission of a proposal, you need to just demonstrate that you have the tools and the talent
to carry out, whatever you think you are going to be doing. And that's what we look at, okay, because many people have never had an NSF award. We want to encourage those kinds of people to come to NSF and give us their best ideas so that's really what
we're looking for here, not whether you have a track record with us or not.
Thank you, David and Barbara. Next question I'll direct where it's recall, we have a question asking, Can the community partners and research institutions.
So the short answer is yes.
But the follow on to that is that as you would probably expect the reviewers, the first question they're going to ask when they noticed this is the collaboration strong enough to accomplish the goals.
And so if you're going to do that, then make sure that you have it very well justified and how they are geographical barriers are not going to impact your project.
And keep in mind that for the most part they are going to be in the same geographical area so just consider that.
Thank you recall, the next question I will direct to where it's Dan and yo yo and as well as David Alexander.
So maybe data in here you can take the first shot at this one.
Do supply chain management challenges fall under track a
try first and then then you can chime in.
Yes, actually, supply chain related challenges could fall in both tracks, and it really depends on how you, which aspects that you are aiming at
one point I want to add is that you have to basically, identify the community aspect of your project, I think.
David Corman mentioned at the beginning that you know the committee's is more play space so either a neighborhood or could be a city or could be a region so if it's a supply chain related issues, you still have to, you know, identify who those civics
partners are and how they will benefit from your effort.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, just as example, if the emphasis is more on the resilience of food supply chain right under extreme conditions or under expected a disruptions that could apply in chalk, a, but if it's a more on the delivery service to underserved communities and
making sure those communities could have convenient access to foods that might be more suitable for a second attack, that's, that's what we mean, really depends on what aspects that you're addressing.
David Alexander Do you want to chime in on this question, no I agree I mean I probably couldn't say it any better but yeah I think fundamentally you need to articulate how it relates to the community.
And then what are what is the context.
Is it going to relate to some kind of climate resilience issue, or is it relating to some core services or or accessibility issue at the community level.
Thank you everyone. Next question that will direct words, David Carmen.
David can of for profit organization be the sub awardee or a KPI.
It can certainly be a civil war D which also means they can be a KPI
and following up on that. If the proposal partners include a for profit company, is it acceptable that the research that comes out of the Civic grant form the product offered by the for profit company.
So, the question there is, you have to think about that in terms of how is the community, and a fitting from it. So, yes, the answer yes that could benefit private company, it could support sustainability and transfer ability across communities, but you
are the ones that need to make that story.
Right, thank you David. Next question I will direct words McCall, our community partners are not both. This is from the audience. They're asking our community partners are not well funded.
If this is a pilot, and then a one year of funding in part two. What's this, what kind of sustainability is required after the funding period right so that's a really good question.
Um, so this is really one of the risks that we recognize in this kind of program because we don't want teams to be going into a community, and then carrying out some really great work and then it just been left there.
So, that's actually why a big, important piece of what we look for in our selection process is if the team has considered the sustainability beyond this one year of funding we really want you to be thinking about the full award funding that $1 million
as essentially seed funding and be thinking really from the onset of what comes next. And one of the ways that we go about that in this in this program is asking you to include as part of your project team, whether or not they're actually a civil war
D they can just be a partner, the relevant people who are needed.
Who is the project is successful Who are those champions going to be or what is that business model going to be that will carry this beyond that one year so this may be people in local government.
You may be thinking about how do you get funds from local funding county states and include the right people's in there your champions that way, you could be thinking about bringing in a for profit organization, creating a startup, so anything like that
the funding will not come directly through NSF but we, we encourage teams to think about that, and that's part of the community of practice and it's also part of what you will be evaluated on in the proposal selection process.
For this next question I'll stay with you McCollough, but I also think it would be good to hear from other members of the Civic program team on this one this is a really good question.
I think really important to, you know, about what the program is really about.
Could you elaborate more about what type of roles to civic partners should play any example would be helpful, you know, but it's helping with implementation testing, etc.
Right, so that's going to really be different in every project on the piece that we really want at the onset, is that the Civic partner is actually helping to inform the, the question that's being asked.
And that you're not proposing a solution that is being pushed from academia, but that civic partner the community partners are actually saying this is the kind of solution but we want to test out in our community.
And then after that, I mean it could be a whole range of things they could be providing access.
You know if it's local government could be maybe a transit agency and you're working with them and they're providing access in that way.
Maybe I'll let others step in and give some other examples.
So, clearly a community partner can get involved in the integration of that pilot within the actual community, picking up to specific community services.
It can get involved in work both up through. If it's a government from one department to another order to the mayor or city council, and it can get down from the department, down to the individual citizens in the, in the community.
Yeah, if I could just say something this is really about co design of projects that will allow communities to move towards resilience. So you have to be not only the expert in the room, but the best listener in the room.
These projects are actually led by the communities.
And you are there to help them facilitate the solutions that they feel will work because they know their constituents. They know the lay of the land, and they know the kinds of resources that they have.
It's not for you to step in and say, this is your solution.
It's, it's to really work with them closely to have something that can actually be implemented at their level with what they own it Thank you Michelle if I could add something real, real quick, too, I think, yes, something to consider to love Barb's answers
all of that. Also, making sure there's an equitable outreach to the community is really key here and the stakeholders that you involve that would really help with race in social justice equity initiatives within your project and also making sure the assumptions
that are being made in the project of what might be a problem or a solution to a problem is true and providing some ground truth to that community.
These are all great responses I would also just like to direct everyone to our civic website and sf.sf civic innovation.org, you should check out what teams did in the first iteration of the program to kind of get a bread, of the kinds of partnerships
that are involved, what those partners are contributing to the projects I think that should give people a good idea of what kind of roles civic partners can play as well.
We're approaching the end of our webinar.
I think we didn't get a chance to get through all the questions we didn't get a lot of them.
So if we did not have a chance to answer your questions today.
I encourage you to reach out to us at civic@nsf.gov. You can also join the to q amp a sessions that are coming up on March 10 in March 22.