Vishal Sharma: And does everyone see?
Barbara Ransom: Yeah,
Vishal Sharma: by location?
Barbara Ransom: Yeah,
Barbara Ransom: it's a
Vishal Sharma: Hi, everyone. Good morning or good afternoon. Depending on your time zone. Um, welcome to the civic innovation. Challenge, Webinar. We'll give folks another minute to join in, and then we will go ahead and get started.
Vishal Sharma: Yes, folks are joining in. I think we can go ahead and get started with the Webinar today for the civic Innovation challenge program. Um, and just like you. Thank all of you for uh joining us for this Webinar today. Um! During this Webinar we will present some overview slides about the program and the new solicitation, and that will be followed by an open Q. A. Session. Um with the Nsf. Staff. Uh, that is on Call um If you have questions during the Webinar.
Vishal Sharma: Uh, please use the q A. Function within zoom to go through questions. Um, and we will answer them either directly uh in the Q. A. Uh. Or answer them live uh during the moderated session. Uh. So with that said, before we start we'll do a background of introductions from a specific program team that is on call um. I'll go first. I'm uh Dr. Michelle Sharma and program Director um at an assess,
Vishal Sharma: the Computer Information Science and Engineering Directorate. I'm: one of the Pvs on the program. And now i'll pass it on to David Corp:
David Corman: Yeah. Good and good afternoon. I'm: David Corman, I'm. Uh:
David Corman: program director from
David Corman: the computer Network Systems Division and the Size Directorate and I've been part of a civic program since its initiation,
David Corman: probably three or four years ago.
David Corman: It's you,
Vishal Sharma: Thanks, Damien. Ah, Jacob,
Jacob Kravetz: Hi! I'm. Jacob Kravitz. I'm. An American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science and Technology Policy Fellow and I'm. Working on the civic innovation challenge as well as smart and connected communities programs,
Jacob Kravetz: and i'll be answering any Q. A. Uh. Today, so
Jacob Kravetz: be sure to send you away my way.
Vishal Sharma: Oh, is it here.
Siqian Shen, ENG/CMMI: Ah, hello, everyone! My name is attention. I'm: a program director in a civil infrastructure system program, together with my colleague, Dan Leon. We are both program directors
Siqian Shen, ENG/CMMI: working from engineering, directorate, Cmi Division for the Civic and also Sncc. Nice meeting everyone.
Vishal Sharma: She's.
Sara Kiesler: Hi, everybody. I'm. I've worked in the Social Behavioral and economic sciences Directorate and I've been working on this program since it started, and also smarten
connected communities and saps in many other cross-directed programs.
Vishal Sharma: Chris
Chris Balakrishnan-BIO/DEB: Hi One Chris Paul Christian Here I'm. Representing the Biology Director, where I work in the systematics and Biodiversity Sciences Division. And so,
Chris Balakrishnan-BIO/DEB: yeah, Bio was new to the program. And I'm really excited to be here, and I encourage some applications from biologists,
Vishal Sharma: and I will have our metrolab colleagues and produce themselves. So Dave and then rose.
David Rowe: Thanks to Shaw Day Brow, I I am chief safet metrolab network, and we have been working with Nsf. On the prior to cohorts so great to see everybody.
Rose Mische Commins (MetroLab Network): Hi, everyone! My name is Rose Michelle Cummins. I am the Civic engagement partnership coordinator at Metrolab Network and
Rose Mische Commins (MetroLab Network): uh work to assist with program management for the civic program.
Vishal Sharma: Right? So I think that wraps up all the introductions. Um, So we'll go ahead and get started with our program presentation for today. So the civic innovation challenge is a multi-federal agency program. It is led by the National Science Foundation and done so in partnership with the Us. Department of Energy Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Agriculture so
Vishal Sharma: very quickly i'll give an overview of our program Team Um. You have part from several of us on the Nsf side. We also have colleagues who work on this program with us from Dhs Doe and Agriculture, as well as our partners at Metro live network.
Vishal Sharma: So what is the civic innovation challenge, and what are the goals of the program? Um. The main goal of the program is to accelerate transition to practice of foundational research and emerging technologies into local government and community organizations. And the way the program facilitates that is, by supporting projects that rest local priorities and challenges through research based climate projects. And these projects must be co-created and co-executed as really true partnerships being
Vishal Sharma: the researchers and a range of stakeholders who are on the front lines of their community challenge. And lastly, we are looking to support ideas whose outcomes have potential to be scaled and sustained within their pilot communities, but also have transferability across the Us.
Vishal Sharma: In terms of the structure of the program. So each civic solicitation will have focused track beams that are developed both from the input of local government and the organizations based on the challenges that they're facing um and then also align with the priority areas of the co-funding Federal agencies that participate in this program.
Vishal Sharma: Once we have a solicitation released uh we will do broad outreach to solicit proposals uh focusing on reaching out government community organizations as well as research institutions. Proposals that are submitted to the civic program. Um undergo the standard and a separate review process and a typical panel for the civic innovation challenge will involve academic reviewers. Um, but it will also involve.
Vishal Sharma: So in that sense a civic panel is fairly unique. But then you know how Nsf: panels are typically done.
Vishal Sharma: Um, in terms of the awards that the program makes. Uh: So the first stage of the program that everyone will apply to um stage. One is for planning grants. These are six months awards, for up to seventy-five thousand dollars that are meant to facilitate team capacity building and to refine pilot project ideas. Teams that make it into stage one are eligible to then apply for stage two pilot awards. There's a down selection from stage, one to stage two,
Vishal Sharma: and these pilot awards are for up to one million dollars for twelve months to execute a fast-paced pilot project as part of the program.
Vishal Sharma: We also encourage and enabled communities of practice to facilitate knowledge, sharing training, and networking between the civic teams, which is done through a cooperative agreement that Nsf. Has for the metrolive network, and i'll pass it on to my metrolive colleagues to briefly go over what the communities are practice for certificates.
Rose Mische Commins (MetroLab Network): Thank you so much for shawl, for the introduction
Rose Mische Commins (MetroLab Network): are in a cooperative agreement with Nsf. To help support the civic program. Um, and have been working with civic since the beginning of the program. Um, and our program management support focuses on building communities of practice between both teams and also the communities they work in. And what this looks like is that we work to help develop programming for teams to support their planning
Rose Mische Commins (MetroLab Network): um and also project implementation efforts, most of which is developing communities of practice. Um. And helping to share the story of the work that they're doing, and a lot of this is done through workshops. Ah, P. I. Copies, which is something new. We started where Pis have an opportunity to engage directly of each other.
Rose Mische Commins (MetroLab Network): Um, and we also provide support for deliverables and communication between Nsf. And the teams. We help support that effort as well, and i'm going to pass it over to the Dave to talk a little bit about some of the resources we work to develop.
David Rowe: Sure, Thank you. Uh. So through the course of the first two civic cohorts. Um, We've taken kind of um some lessons learned on best practices, and also helped work with the Nsf team uh to develop resources. Um, that focus on the uh sustainability, transferability and scalability aspects of uh, the pilot projects Um, and we make those resources available to the teams as well. So
David Rowe: i'm happy to answer any questions. But, bash! I'll pass it back to you.
Vishal Sharma: Thanks for those thanks, Dave.
Vishal Sharma: I'm a Kate.
Vishal Sharma: So this for the new solicitation for setting that those release um earlier This month is the first solicitation for the program. There have been two prior certifications to this Um. So our first civic explication, which we're calling here is seventy-one uh! Ran through two thousand and twenty-two uh for this cohort of seventeen uh fifty-two stage one planning that awards were made across two different tracks uh the first solicitation tracks uh
Vishal Sharma: where Katie was on communities and ability, looking at offering better mobility options to solve the spatial mismatch between housing and jobs. In fact, he was on resilience to natural disasters, to equip communities for greater preparedness. Um and resilience to natural disasters. Um! So from the fifty-two stage one team, Seventeen teams were down, selected for a stage. Two uh their pilots have been completed since then. Um! And you'll hear us say this throughout. I think
Vishal Sharma: the presentation and our Q. And A. Today one of the best resources for teams who are considering applying to the civic program is to go on the civic website and A. And look at what has been funded previously under most the first and the second solicitation. Um on the website you will see many artificial resources that have been shared uh about what these projects get uh during both their sciences and the pilot phase, and that is one of the best ways that you can understand.
Vishal Sharma: You know what makes an idea, a civic project, and what do civic teams typically do in both the planning phase and then in their pilot phase as well. So we strongly recommend that all of you spend some time working at what previous teams have done in the program to get a sense of of what uh the program today supports
Vishal Sharma: for the second solicitation of civic, which was released in two thousand and twenty-two. There were two tracks for this one. Um Tracea was on living in a changing climate, looking at the bathroom, mitigation and resilience and community systems, services and economic virus that are vulnerable, based on the change in climate. And Crackdie was on briefing the gap between essential resources and services and community needs. So, looking at ways to enhance people's access to essential resources and services
Vishal Sharma: where better access could significantly improve quality of life and community resilience. Um. So stage one teams that they're planning uh phase from October two thousand and twenty-two to March, two thousand and twenty-three and then stage two awards were made last year in October, so fifty-six planning awards
Vishal Sharma: wealth and crack b. These pilots started on October the first, and are currently ongoing, and we again encourage you to visit thens of civic website, and and see what was funded in the previous core.
Vishal Sharma: I will now pass it on to my colleague, Dr. David Corman, who will go over aspects of the new solicitation.
David Corman: Okay, Thank you. Thank you very much, Michelle.
David Corman: So a couple of things that are important on this slide.
David Corman: Here's one
David Corman: we're going. The the solicitation is out, you can see it.
David Corman: Nsf. Twenty, four, over thirty, four.
David Corman: There are some requirements that are elements that are important in all proposals, whether their civic proposal or anything else,
David Corman: and you should refer to the Pa. Ppg. Link to see exactly what some of those elements might be. For example, a data management plan
David Corman: a post-stack mentoring plan.
David Corman: Other requirements are listed there. Let's go to the next.
David Corman: Okay, So what's different this year than previous years.
David Corman: So one as
David Corman: was mentioned earlier.
David Corman: We have expanded the overall civic program, and we're very happy to have been able to brought in to bring in the Directorate for biological sciences, and there are
David Corman: clear elements that, uh of the program that
David Corman: they may have great interest in
David Corman: solicitation has some updated language for track A and track. B.
David Corman: So the track A, and try to be a little different than before.
David Corman: One of the things in we actually sometimes listen to our uh,
David Corman: our performers
David Corman: and ask Jokey about that.
David Corman: We do listen to our performers and our performers, especially in track
David Corman: in stage. One
David Corman: really mentioned fifty thousand dollars, which was our planning grant before we.
David Corman: It's not enough,
David Corman: and we raise that amount to seventy five thousand, which is to some degree a compromise between
David Corman: able to do more extensive planning, and the number of planning grant awards that we can make in. As for all indicated in his
David Corman: uh previous slides, we have given out a lot of
grants in the past.
David Corman: There's also some update to solicitation, specific review criteria
there is. We want you to understand how you will be judged,
David Corman: and we want our panelists to have very clear information
David Corman: in terms of how to review the proposals
David Corman: we have. Uh, let's mention that
David Corman: we have interest from the agriculture side. Uh well, we have a dear colleague, letter or nifa participation
David Corman: in civic, too. We are That does not necessarily apply to this Sylla station,
David Corman: but we are still very interested.
David Corman: He's
David Corman: participate in proposals that address uh food security, and we're in discussions with,
there's a
David Corman: or their participation.
David Corman: Let's go to the next slide.
David Corman: Okay, the tracks that you see
David Corman: you're not a civic
David Corman: three. We're not very different than uh
David Corman: what we had in the
David Corman: in civic to last year.
David Corman: So track a climate, environmental instability
David Corman: really looks at resilience of communities in many different aspects to climate and other associated environmental instabilities, including things like heat, atmospheric rivers,
David Corman: flooding wildfires. Many of the things that you hear about in the news.
David Corman: Those impacts may occur across a wide variety of community aspects, and many of those are listed here.
David Corman: One of the point is that some of those may be a typical
David Corman: Ah, obviously there's health transportation, mobility,
David Corman: financial services, the financial elements of resilience
David Corman: are also a potential interest
David Corman: track. Be bridging the gap between the central resources, services and community needs?
David Corman: Essentially, how do people access basic resources and services,
David Corman: including things like housing, food technologies, or that they may improve their quality of life.
David Corman: Again, they include things like
David Corman: Ah, a kettle.
David Corman: Issues centered on access to services due to various
David Corman: ah systemic issues, economic disparities and disruptions in particular disruptions by shock or disaster is a very important element.
David Corman: Let's go the next slide.
David Corman: Okay, what does everyone need to know here?
David Corman: So one proposals are for stage one are: Doom may first
David Corman: we anticipate between thirty-five and forty awards.
David Corman: That number is always subject to the quality of the proposals that we receive.
David Corman: One point. Here is stage one for your planning purposes will begin October two thousand and twenty-four, and last through roughly march two thousand and twenty-five.
David Corman: The important thing to think about is when we talk about planning grants, planning grants are not a green field,
David Corman: and what I mean by that is, there is an expectation that you have your basic concept and an understanding of your basic civic partners.
David Corman: You won't do? Well if you come in.
David Corman: I've got it
David Corman: an idea, but I don't have any partners yet.
David Corman: The idea of a planning brand
David Corman: is really to refine those ideas. Refine those partnerships, make them more inclusive.
David Corman: Stage. Two award full of words are the million dollar type.
David Corman: We anticipate roughly fifteen to twenty awards. Let me say one thing which I
David Corman: we skipped over during the civic One
David Corman: civic, if you're familiar with Nsl.
David Corman: Ms. App is a tough customer.
David Corman: And
David Corman: in the case of Civic Ii.
David Corman: We awarded well, more than thirty-three, I think, as close to forty of the stage one awards graduated to stage two.
David Corman: That's to some degree almost unprecedented
David Corman: in the at National Science Foundation.
David Corman: So
David Corman: when we look at Stage two, we really do want you to
David Corman: tell us what your great capabilities are. Execute research-centered pilot
David Corman: pathways for scaling and sustaining the outcomes beyond parity of the the award
David Corman: one point, even if we do
David Corman: forty percent,
David Corman: and maybe it'll be thirty percent.
David Corman: That still is a very large number.
David Corman: It still means roughly,
David Corman: maybe one out of two or two out of three project proposals submitted, the
David Corman: we'll get
David Corman: so it is very competitive.
David Corman: We really want to hear great stories.
David Corman: Let's look at the next slide.
David Corman: What are we doing in our planning bread proposals,
David Corman: and this is the element that's most relevant
David Corman: to you with the uh uh made deadline.
David Corman: Any Nsf proposal
David Corman: has to include a project summary
David Corman: one page, and if you look at the path, G, there are some clear elements that you need,
David Corman: make sure that when you put that together
David Corman: you really do include the elements that are listed. So it includes things like, what is the brief description,
David Corman: the intellectual merit, and the broader impact
David Corman: all on one page follow that format.
David Corman: We don't like returning proposals without review,
David Corman: but we do it if you can't follow what's in the uh? In the guidelines,
David Corman: the major element of the proposal
David Corman: is the project description.
David Corman: We give you seven pages to describe the following information,
David Corman: and we have specific call outs
David Corman: in our Solar station on How we want you to put that proposal together?
David Corman: We want you to tell us what is your vision for the research-centered pilot?
David Corman: It's a critical critical element.
David Corman: What are your specific partnerships, and how are you going to engage with them?
David Corman: These all Don't need to be final ideas?
David Corman: You're going to refine these if you advance to stage two,
David Corman: but we want your best shot,
David Corman: your idea, your partnerships, and we frequent. We really want a year
David Corman: in your proposal, either through letters of collaboration.
David Corman: Ooh!
David Corman: You're working with, and that they are committed to working with you.
David Corman: The six-month project can go quickly, and if you don't have relationships most to cemented.
David Corman: I will escape.
David Corman: We ask you to include broader impacts, which is a section required in the papp, and proposals need to tell us
David Corman: results from Prior Andosa's support.
David Corman: You may simply be able to say, I don't have any,
David Corman: and which is cool. But you need a subset. You need a section that identifies results from prior support facilities. Facilities is a section that's much unused by proposers, one hundred and fifty
David Corman: in it You can describe provide further information,
David Corman: one of our facilities and resources to the team, including more description of activities or unfunded partnerships.
David Corman: How you're, If you have unfunded civic partners,
David Corman: how they may work together with you.
David Corman: We have a section project, personnel and partner institutions, bio sketches. There's a format that's described in the Pa. Pg.
David Corman: Letters of collaboration.
David Corman: I mentioned it briefly
David Corman: One of the points that's somewhat different than some of the other uh Nsf. Programs
David Corman: we in, we suggest
David Corman: we enable you to say,
David Corman: go beyond what is become more of a standard. Msf:
David Corman: We'll do everything that the proposal says.
David Corman: We would not object to letters
David Corman: that are short from your collaborators, but give a description of what they are planning to do as part of the planning Grant
David Corman: data management plan. That's us. What are you doing with the data host that mentoring plan
David Corman: and current in pandemic.
David Corman: Hence support.
David Corman: Let's go to the next slide.
David Corman: This is a little further discussion on on this. The main thing is, Tell us, what is your idea for? The pilot
David Corman: gotta have that idea. So we said it can be refined. But we want to hear how you are going to one have impact. Have partnerships
David Corman: that will uh enable you to execute a stage two very rapidly after uh stage one is over.
David Corman: Let's go the next, Allen. Let me other other point. Here
David Corman: it is
David Corman: when we talk about State
David Corman: stage one
what we want you to tell us.
David Corman: It's not that you are sensing something. Not that you are monitoring something.
David Corman: You're going to be able to close the loop from observations
David Corman: into impact
David Corman: that impact may be building something,
David Corman: it may be. Ah
David Corman: activities working with us, a local community, cities, region, state,
David Corman: but it will result in some action
David Corman: and tell us how you're going to collaborate across those
David Corman: let's go the next slide.
David Corman: This just basically says, Well, further in
David Corman: again, Lessava.
David Corman: Tell us your capabilities
David Corman: like to see strong letters of collaboration.
David Corman: Letters of collaboration should not be letters of support. They should not say simply,
David Corman: Hey, we love working with these people. They're a great institution.
David Corman: How we are going to contribute to the execution of this idea.
David Corman: Let's go to the next slide,
David Corman: Merit Review Criteria.
David Corman: We Nsf. Reviews proposals based on
intellectual merit and broader impacts,
David Corman: and one has to think about those specifically in the context of the civic solicitation.
David Corman: Remember,
David Corman: civic is not about developing transformative research over the next
David Corman: three or five years that will have a twenty year horizon.
David Corman: It's about the here and now transitioning research ideas
David Corman: into impactful pilots. And so
David Corman: temper your
David Corman: you're youra
David Corman: vision By what? What is original? What could be impactful?
David Corman: Is there a good research plan? A good plan for execution that you're carrying out in your planning, Grant. You
David Corman: tell us what you're gonna do. How often you're gonna meet?
David Corman: Who's responsible for doing what
David Corman: we also look at? Ah,
David Corman: do you have the resources available to carry out both your planning, Grant, and is your pilot idea. Can it be done with a million dollars?
David Corman: Don't want a pilot that's going to be a hundred million dollars. They'd be a great vision, but it has to be executable.
David Corman: Let's go to the next slide.
David Corman: Other points.
David Corman: What are they? What we look at? Projects and critical elements impact with communities, and we want to see that the item, the pilot idea
David Corman: is a priority is a priority within a community
David Corman: strip and by partnerships,
David Corman: and you've got a necessary set of organizations
David Corman: within the community. The academic partners to be able to execute it.
David Corman: Can you execute this idea on the twelve month, Timeline,
David Corman: Aunta?
David Corman: Clearly, what are the are you able to state for us? What are the impacts of the idea
David Corman: and the planning activities that you're going to be doing,
David Corman: and we want you to tell us what your, what what do you really mean by success. What a little successful I would do! And how will you evaluate progress along the way
David Corman: next slide?
David Corman: This is
David Corman: one where this slide is one that you really need to pay particular attention to,
David Corman: and we we're in February. Proposals are to in May.
David Corman: He?
David Corman: What we don't want you to do is have problems submitting a proposal
David Corman: because you don't have the necessary registration or other information
David Corman: in particular.
David Corman: Look at the path. G. The A. Ppg.
David Corman: Which includes information on what you need to do to submit proposals.
David Corman: Part of it includes some registration with Nsf. As with other as well as registration within an external agency or a same number.
David Corman: We're not going to be very forgiving.
David Corman: Yes,
David Corman: at the end May first comes. Oh, we forgotten We We don't have that registration,
David Corman: as You've got three months to have done it.
David Corman: There is a frequently asked question, webpage, and
David Corman: specifically question. Eleven tells more information about this.
Vishal Sharma: So in closing for the Webinar. There are additional resources that are available to you civic teams.
Vishal Sharma: Um. The first that I like to talk about is serving on an in a review panel. Um, One of the best ways you can understand What makes a proposal competitive for Nsf funding is to actually serve as a viewer for some of our programs. Um, my colleague Jacob, will share a link in chat. Um that allows you to express your interest in serving on review panels for some of our programs specifically specific program or smart like
Vishal Sharma: communities. So we do strongly encourage you to consider service on an Nsf. Panel. And even if you're applying to civic. You can serve as a reviewer as long as it's not for the crack
Vishal Sharma: that you are potentially applying to. So if you're applying to tracking, you may serve as a reviewer for Crack B, and vice versa.
Vishal Sharma: The recording of this Webinar will become available at the Nsf program page for a civic a few days after this Webinar um, and we will share that once it's made available. Um, civic program. Directors are also available for one on one calls, but prospective proposers to answer their questions regarding the program and your proposal ideas, and Jacob will also share a link for you to book. Ah, what about
Vishal Sharma: but any of the certain meetings on the program. You can also share one-page summaries of your proposals with us. Um and we'd be happy to provide you uh feedback uh over email as well. Um: additional resources that are available to you. If you haven't signed a specific mailing list uh please do so at Ns. Of civic innovation, dot org, which is where you can also learn more about the program. And I will say this again, including our previous awards. Please use that as a valuable resource
Vishal Sharma: to yourself. Look at what previous teams have have proposed to us, and been funded to do um and and watch their project videos. The one pager is the bad website. So visit them to see what they did, both in the planning phase and and their pirates, and that should give you an idea for how projects can be scope Ah! And executed. Uh for this program. And lastly, for any questions about the program, you can email us directly, or
Vishal Sharma: our program team is, you can see who's on the program team on the Nsf. Website for civic, or you can also reach out to our general mailbox, which is semic at nsf Gov.
Vishal Sharma: With that our presentation is concluded, and the Webinar will go on until two thirty P. M e-care, time, and until then we will do A. Q. And A. Now, and Jacob will moderate the Q. And A. And we'll try our best to answer the questions that have.