And I was muted the entire time, so. Let me try that again. Hi, my name is Joel Abraham.
I'm a rotating program director here in the division of biological infrastructure. In the human resources cluster.
My home institution is Cal State Fullerton. I, 1st of all, welcome, to this, VOH, this virtual office hours.
I'll just tell you briefly about myself. I work with the, post doctoral research fellowships, program here and I'm also working with the research coordination networks and undergraduate biology education and a few other funding opportunities that are, kind of cross-orate across NSF.
I'll pass it to my colleague, Dan Miranda who will introduce himself now.
Hi everybody, my name is Dan Marinda. I'm a permanent program officer here in the Division of Biological Infrastructure, I had up a couple of different programs.
I'm in a human resources cluster, but I'm also now on the Safari cluster, which is for broad large centers.
And I'm happy to be here with you today. And so I guess now I pass it to the top.
Of the order which is Android.
Thank you, Anne. Hello, everyone. My name is Andrea Holgado and I am a rotating program officer in the division of biological infrastructure.
In biology and I'm currently working with colleagues in the area you program, are you sites? In biology as well as the post doctoral research fellowship program and the NSF includes.
Welcome and thank you for coming.
Mandi.
Great, so good afternoon everybody. So I work together with Andrea on the RU program. That we're going to hear about today.
I also work with Andrea and everybody invited. In fact, it takes a village to run the postdoc fellowship program.
And then something that may be of interest, to some people out there. If you come from a non r 1 institution we have a program called BRC Bio which is building research capacity.
It's for beginning assistant professors at institutions that are not all one so P Y's are 2 and more and hope you'll consider that program if your institution matches to that.
And for me to, please.
Hi, my name is, I'm the, I think I'm the only non bio. Person here.
I'm from the Office of International Science and Engineering at NSF and I'm also not a rotator.
So I've been at NSF for 16 years as department and federal employee. I'm here to talk about the international research.
Experiences for students. Thank you for coming and welcome.
Great, thank you. I'm gonna turn off my video just, to make sure that we're having a, a smooth slide transition here.
And just, so everybody's aware. We will be posting, slides and the recording from this video on on our bog DBI blog.
Nsfio.com. So most of you are probably already familiar with that, but there'll be some links to that as well later.
And you can expect to see those in the coming month.
Just in terms of, some basics at NSF, we'd like to talk about some of the tools that we have, for instance, how to find funding opportunities.
Like the ones that you're gonna hear about today that are you and Ires or other types of opportunities.
And so there are some new tools. So going to the main website. And then selecting funding and awards and you can actually do funding searches based on the type of submission on the award type.
On the topics that you're looking for. And so that's a great way to find these kinds of opportunities that you might not be aware of that can be happening in other areas of NSF even outside of bio.
And we can also ask where our research fits by using one of our best tools, which is the award search.
And so you can navigate there by, going to the NSF web page and this fine funding and apply section.
Select search funded awards or search funded projects rather. And then that'll actually take you to a page where you can both do simple keyword searches or more complex advanced searches where you're limiting it by different types of you know opportunities or directorates or things like that and so they're pretty powerful it has access to all the funded awards from NSF and it could be a great way to kind of figure out where
your research or program is gonna fit. And oftentimes you're gonna discover other types of programs.
In other directories or other areas of bio that might be applicable for what you're what you're trying to fund.
And the Director for Biological Sciences, which we've heard as bio, has broken into 4 different divisions.
And so obviously you're here at the Division of Biological Infrastructure Virtual Office hours and probably aware that the others are pretty much broken up across the types of research that's conducted in those areas.
That includes the Division of Environmental Biology, dB, the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, iOS.
The division of molecular and cellular biosciences, MCB, and then DBI, the division of biological infrastructure, which most of us are part of.
And we can kind of imagine that or not imagine, but it's broken up across scales of biology.
And so MCB typically is, scales of biology. And so MCB typically is going to be focusing on the, a lot of the work there is focusing on the, a lot of the work there is focusing from the molecular, and so MCB typically is going to be focusing on the a lot of the work there is focusing from the molecular up through the organism here in DBI, we like to think
that we're doing working across all of biology and that we're supporting the physical infrastructure, the research infrastructure, the human, you know, capital that goes into all of this, activity.
As well as some of the larger centers in which we can coordinate research across all of these different divisions.
And there's other types of funding that even comes directly from the bio directorate, or that's oftentimes focused on priorities for those years.
Another way we like to think about the, funding is really doing an analysis of where we're supporting people.
And so, bio really is supporting researchers or programs throughout the entire career. And so obviously today we're going to be talking about a few funding opportunities for undergraduate students, but it's always important to be aware that you know we have funding that supports.
K 12 teachers and developing research skills like in the Bioretz program and supplements. Post back students, so after graduation, graduate students through the GRFP, of course, which is bio wide and the postdoc fellowships ours is PRFB.
Mandy mentioned the BRC bio program, which really is a great program and a fairly relatively recent and then of course the NSF-wide career awards.
And then something that I'd, it wasn't even aware of until I got here, the mid-creer advancement in the words.
And so really conceivative across this. That timeline of your research is important thing. And it's a great way to search for funding opportunities as well.
Even bio leaps which is funding at societies could kind of touch biologists throughout their entire career and then the RCN UBE program that we mentioned is funding for faculty to do work at the undergraduate level.
And so that can also span multiple levels there. So if you have any questions about any of these programs or about funding at the specific levels, please know that we're all here to help answer those questions as well.
I don't hesitate to ask. But we'd like to make sure that we're saving time to talk about, what you came here for today, the RU program, the Iris program.
Thank you, Sean. You can go. The next one.
And so I'm gonna go ahead and pass it to Andrea and Amanda here. Just let me know when you'd like me to advance slides.
So that's what you can associate a name to a program. Feel free to contact me or Monday if you have any questions about the buy your new site, the red line is coming up.
And the best way to contact us is to use the REU bio at NSF email because That will get to Monday and to me and in case one of us is busy with other commitments we can respond to you right away.
Next slide.
So as you know, the value are you sites program. Is providing valuable educational experience for undergraduates.
And that experience is essentially exposing undergraduate to high quality research environments. In a way that we can diversify the groups of students that we receive with research training including those.
That don't have an active research program at their home institution.
They Okay. The important goal of an review site is that they are going to engage students in a theme focused by your science research.
So all the sites have a particular focus and that's how they can create a cohort. A experience for those undergraduates that they don't know one another until they come to the site.
Next slide.
This side usually will train from 8 to 10 students for about 10 weeks during the summer. A. Significant fraction of those students come from outside the host institution.
And at least half of them are going to come from institutions that have limited access to research opportunities. We are looking for proposals that are a student center in a way that they are.
Goting 90% of the total direct cost to participant support cost. This side will put training programs that will expand through 3 years of funding.
And if you look at If you want to check which are the active ad you sites. You can go to the award search function that Joel introduced you to and you can find all the sites that are currently running those training programs.
Next slide.
As you know, I didn't use our research experience for undergraduates. So these are going to be undergraduate enroll to 2 or 4 year colleges.
They need to be US citizen, US national or US permanent residents. We have locations that are either domestic or international and the proposal deadline is going to be for this year.
August, the 21.st Next slide.
Whenever you are ready to prepare your proposal, we highly recommend to use research. Gov and then when you are selecting what you are preparing you can either choose to prepare a new full proposal or prepare I new renewal proposal.
Something to consider is that if you are not a PI or on an award on a marrying you a website.
You're not going to be able to choose the renewal function. However, you can put a decision a renewal from a previous PI or CopyI proposal by including that in the project.
The element that is listed in the Project somebody page. Next slide.
So if we go over to the project summary page. The buy you are you side family pace is a little bit different from the others in the way that we ask PI.
To include in the overview section a list of project elements. So please go to the solicitation, NSF, 26600, and one.
To look at all the project elements that we want you to specify. And then release them in your project summary page.
In addition to the project element, we want you to include a section. Where you summarize the intellectual merit of the proposal and then another section where you summarize the broader impacts of the proposal.
Next slide.
In the project description that is a 15 page document we ask you to address section A through gene. Where do you have an overview then you're going to describe.
The student activities, the research environment, the recruitment, their recruitment and selection. A strategy. The professional development and expected behavior for students and mentors.
The project evaluation and reporting protocols. And if this is a renewal, we want you to include the results from prior NSF support.
Next slide.
In divided, we want you to consider that this is an a student center. A proposal in such a way that they might majority of the support goes to the students and that includes stipends.
Housing, meals. Trouble and any lab use fee. For the personnel you can include up to one month of salary for the PI or the Ti or the that among the PI and A the Ru side may not charge.
A student's access. For a common campus facilities such as library, athletic facilities and so on.
And remember that the participant support cost. Cannot be charged and indeed at cost. Next slide.
If you ask how your proposal will be review, again check the solicitation. You have a great description of the merit review, principles and criteria, but in short.
Your proposal will be reviewed by 3 different criteria. How is going to advance. The scientific knowledge so that is the intellectual method.
Why do the potential to benefit society so that would be broader impact? And solicitation a specific review criteria that in this case is going to be a review of the research and professional development experience for students and mentors.
The quality of the research environment. A the recruitment plan. They plan to promote the student involvement instead.
How a cost effective the program is and if this is a renewal. How is that the previous site was in their recruitment and training goals.
Next slide. So remember again that the proposal deadline is August 21, st 2024 and the 3rd Wednesday in August after.
2024.
So now I'm going to pass on the presentation to Monday.
Great, thank you very much Andrea. So we hope that you're going to use the Q&A for your own specific questions.
But this next few slides is just to go through some frequently asked questions. So these are the things that we often hear.
Pi's as they prepare their proposals. But please type into the Q&A your specific question.
All right, so can the cost of working meals be included in the budget? And the answer to that is yes.
But they really must be described and conducted as working meals. So they could be at seminars and other events where students are required.
And for which there's going to be a formal agenda. So this is not just you know eating pizza together it's having some goals, some discussion while you have a break and it's you know it's a very important aspect of an are you because it helps build the cohort. So we see this in most proposals.
Next slide, Joe.
All right, so does it? So you may have heard that NSF has a new requirement called the safe and inclusive field work plan and it started as a pilot and in bio.
So do you need this for your Ru site? When you submit your proposal, your research office again a complete a certification and that's going to state that the organization has a plan in place.
To ensure that there's a safe and inclusive working environment. And if you want to look at the details at that, I hope you're all familiar with the as we lovingly call it.
This is the proposal application guide. So it's got all the ins and outs of the proposal application guide so it's got all the ins and outs of the various sections guide. So it's got all the ins and outs of the various sections.
And in that particular chapter, you can learn about safe and inclusive field work. Next please, Joel.
What should be included in the results of prior NessF support? So Andrea described that many sites submit renewal applications.
That means that you have a record and you need to report that record and the review panel are gonna look very closely at what your site has achieved during the last cycle to judge whether it's effective.
And typically that's going to describe the data associated with the slide, your recruiting strategy, how popular your program was, the number of applicants and then the number of participants and how you selected them by describing their demographics and their home institutions.
For example, as Andrea mentioned, that they would come from home institutions with limited research opportunities. How did they what gains do they make during your program?
So at the moment by ORU sites all use what's called the cell so it's a student assessment of learning gains and the students report what benefits they gain through their research and you would include a summary of those results.
In
Our use sites are expected to track their participants as their careers unfold. So knowing what they did at the next step or even further into their careers.
So reporting how many are retained in STEM, whether that be as a research technician in the biotech industry, as a teacher in high school, going to graduate school.
So mapping out those STEM careers. And whether this program had some kind of impact, you know, if they all go off and become business majors, wouldn't look as strong as they all ended up getting their PhDs.
And then also looking at the scholarly output. So we hope. And we know that challenges with just a very limited ten-week study time that some of these participants will eventually have their names on papers and that certainly they can be active almost straightaway presenting their work as posters and talks.
So look at the scholarly outputs. Next question.
Can you include other supplementary documents? Yes, certainly you can. And to validate, for example, if you have a recruitment partner at another institution getting a letter formalizes that you know you've contacted them and they're going to work with you to identify participants for your RU.
That said you have to just use the standard format and it's actually up there on the slide.
And again, you'll find it in the PACE. It merely says that if this proposal is funded I, the person named here or my left ahead will collaborate as you have described in the proposal.
So the body proposal must say everything these collaborators will do. And this letter is just to say, yes, we intend to do it.
So don't put in anything elaborate that would make your proposal Non, it would it could get returned without review.
So this is important. Next one, please, Joe.
What's new in the solicitation? So go to the new solicitation and you'll see that the stipend has now gone up to 700 per student per week.
And there's a way to calculate if your program is cost effective. So it should be an average cost student per week not to exceed 1,550.
So you could sort of calculate that and of course there are exceptions so if you're budget if you cannot do it for less then you know your stipulated amount explain why maybe you have an international component or they will go off and do feel study somewhere.
Another thing, so before all the mentors used to put be put in a senior personnel that's no longer required but you nevertheless have to gather their collaborators and other affiliations or their COA So you as the PI would be responsible for gathering all of those from your potential mentors and then combining them into a document.
In the single copy section of the proposal. Next please, Joel. And this next one, what else is new?
So student names is co-authors. You don't have to indicate this with an asterix.
Graphic citations. Penny Roar in the bio sketches of the PI and other senior personnel.
Nevertheless, it's been our experience that reviewers still find this very useful information. So you could do it.
But definitely information about student authors should be mentioned in the proposal when you describe the track record of mentors.
So selecting your mentors by evidence of their activity with working with students, including that their students call the papers with them will still be in your proposal and should definitely be included.
Eat is Nsf's new education and training application. It's actually a very good system and our Pi's who are using it like it very much.
The R you The RU program encourages it to be used for student applications. Some NSF sites actually require it and that's part of the solicitation.
In Bio we strongly recommend it. So you should put in a plan to use EatAP as part of your recruitment strategy.
Next. Please, Joe. That's it. All right, so there's that comp contact information again.
Handing over to our colleague again or the QA is being used. Thank you very much. All right, to you.
Hello everybody. I have a question before I start. I see that a lot of questions have accumulated.
Would you like to answer those first? st They're all about our use. Before we shift gear into iris.
Oh, thanks. We'll hold it to the end. And just to make sure that was fishing time.
But yeah, thank you.
Or Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you. Hi everybody, I'm Famida Jodri from International Research Experience for this program.
Iris in short. We have 3 program directors who run this, Maya Kukla, Christine Kuyuk and me, Fami de Chaudri.
We have an email alias. iris@nsf.gov. It's just the basic information.
Next slide, please. Your.
So why international collaboration? I think this point is mute because it's I think everybody understands that science is global.
A lot of scientific activities now essentially require international collaboration. Whether or not NSF encourages and funds these things, our scientists are already doing joint research.
With international counterparts. So our program, this particular Iris program, intends to support USBIs to bring cohorts of students to foreign countries to give them a flavor for how this art is done in those countries and actively join ongoing research projects or begin new collaborations.
This map is simply showing. Visually. How far in the world we are our PIs and students collaborate.
Next, slide please.
So the goals of the Iris program. Basically, there are 2 major long-term goals. One is to enhance US leadership in research and education.
And the second is to strengthen economic competitiveness through our training the next generation of research leaders. Just to make sure I, make the distinction.
In contrast with bio. Our office caters to all fields of research that NSF supports. So it could be anything from computer science to engineering.
To mathematics and biology geology. Social sciences everything but given that this audience I understand is a bio focused audience I should point out.
That a lot of proposals we receive are multidisciplinary where biologists are working with engineers or computer scientists or geologists.
We have a lot. We get a lot of those kinds of proposals. So for you, I will encourage if anybody, if you are working with such teams of cross-disciplinary projects.
Please take a good look at the IRS. And if you have interest in international collaboration. Okay, next.
So these projects engage undergraduate and or graduate students in active high quality collaborative mentored international research.
I should point out the mentored part. So there should be a foreign mentor for the students when they visit the foreign country.
Usually our PR is will go with the student state for a couple of weeks and come back. And the students will continue working.
In the foreign lab under the membership of that that country's mentor. Include a coherent or arching intellectual team.
That may involve a single discipline or multiple disciplines fund by NSF. So I already mentioned that.
Okay, next.
So the budgets, our budgets are expected to support mostly students and their research and training expenses. Students must be given a stipend in the range of 6 to 700.
Dollars per week. I think we are lagging behind the value. Are you soliciting just a little bit?
Maybe in the next cycle, we will move up to 700, but this is the guidance right now.
As I mentioned before. This is not only undergraduate, so grad students may also be part of Iris cohorts and they may also receive a stipend.
However, this is not intended to be a full-time graduate opportunity for PIs. Up to one month of PI salary per project per year is allowed just like the RU program.
Next.
Yeah. So a team is going to a foreign country for the IRS projects. But NSF only pays the US part of it.
This is by the PAP guide. It's like any other NSF projects that involve international collaboration in aSF will only pay for the US portion of the project.
You cannot, the ISP is cannot pay for inventors and students and this has been a continuing source of aggregation and you know complaints.
But our hands are tied. We cannot. Allow the foreign, entities to be paid directly. However, all research, expenses.
Can be paid. And for some we also allow something called advanced studies institute's. For them.
On a radio can be allowed.
Okay, sub-wars to foreign institutions are not allowed. Under this solicitation. Next.
So just like RU, we have a lot of solicitation specific. Review criteria. I'll go I don't want to read through all these details.
I believe the slides will be available to the audience, right? Joel? And then be posted.
Correct, they'll be posted on our blog soon.
Okay, great. So, I'll just go very briefly over the specifically view criteria. Yes like R you we focus also on student recruitment.
Collaborators and mentors next.
Student preparation is since they're going to a foreign country we want them to be particularly prepared not only technical or scientific topics but also the particular host country information and cultural and practical.
Preparation, sometimes even language instruction. Best required. We require professional development component and of course like all NSF proposals, evaluation and dissemination.
Next. So you require this this program is unique in the sense that it does require some specific supplementary documents.
We require bioscetes of principle for foreign collaborators. They're labeled non NSF funded collaborators.
And unlike in a major deviation from the REU program, We actually require detailed letters of collaboration from the foreign counterparts.
This is not the PAP guide, guided just the standard 4 lines. Like whatever the PI is proposing to do.
We, so we will be part, we will agree to do that. It's not like that.
This letter must have specific items. They must include what infrastructure. Resources, expertise will be available to virus participants and the international site.
What particular roles for foreign mentors or collaborators will play in the Iris project. And how for in collaborators and their organizations will benefit.
From participation in the Iris project. So we do require this. Longer detailed letter of collaboration. And proposals could be sent back without review.
If this letter is absent. Next.
So the PI and student eligibility all Pi's Kopi's and senior personnel on Iris proposals must be from US based organizations.
Foreign collaborators must be listed as non NSF funded collaborators. Student participants supported by IS funds must be citizens, nationals or permanent residents of the United States.
Foreign students are not eligible. Students on f 1 visa are not eligible for other reasons, but also imagine if it's a foreign student.
Who is himself or herself on a visa in the US, then for them to go away with another foreign country.
May be very risky. They may or may not be able to get a re-entry visa into the US.
It's all very complicated. So. We want only the US citizens. To go to foreign countries.
The students may be undergraduates, graduate students or in some cases we have a loud like you know if it's a cohort of 8 there may be one postdoc in the mix as well.
Next.
Just like, are you, this is, I'm not going to spend too much time on this.
Recruitment is very important. And you can students can look at the active IS awards to find active projects to apply to.
And recruiting under the presented minorities, women, 1st generation, low-income students, and students from institutions with limited exposure to research.
All these are strongly encouraged. Next.
So here is the contact information. The team email is Iris at NSF. Gold. And since I am here representing the program, I put my email address up there as well.
And there are links to the program page and the FAQ's. That we have posted. The next deadline is October 28.
For the FY 25 cycle.
I think this is my last slide.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for Mina. Appreciate that. So I'm gonna go through the remaining slides a little quickly because we have a lot of questions and I wanna make sure we are able to answer as many as possible.
So I just wanna encourage you to sign up for emails, through Bi News. And so if you go to nsf.gov and scroll down.
You can sign up for messages through any of these different social media. Sites. And that's just a great way to stay informed about changes or updates to these types of programs or new solicitations.
I also encourage you to register for the bio blogs. And so you might already be familiar with the DBI ones since you registered for this, VOH.
But every, directorate and the, or sorry, every division rather in the bio directory and the director itself has a blog.
And they often have interesting, information, even if that's not your area of research.
It might be. Presentations on how to write a strong proposal, things like that.
And just as a reminder, the virtual office hours will be hosting these essentially every 3rd Tuesday from 3 to 4 pm here in DBI.
But, again, if you register for the other blogs, you might see that there's a topics of interest in other, divisions as well.
And they all each have their own days, Monday, Thursdays, Wednesdays. And so we encourage you to take a look and you can attend all of them.
And then just as a, a reminder that, this doesn't work without you.
You know, we, rely on reviewers. We rely on, people like us coming in as rotators, as program directors and even in leadership roles.
And so if there's anything that you're interested in here, serving a review or serving as a panelist or even coming to NSF, I know that you can reach out to all of us and we'd be happy to talk you about those opportunities as well because it really does rely on that.
Participation from the entire community.
And if you, need to reach us. You already have the contact information for everybody and feel free to reach out.
So Dan, I'm going to pass it to you and we're gonna run through a lot of the questions that we see here.
Thanks.
Thank you, Joel. 1st question we have is for Mandy. Can we buy lab equipment if we want to expose students to hands-on microscopic lab as far as we keep most of the funds to trains.
How are you? I'm guessing.
So you would tip. Yeah, you wouldn't typically see that in an are you proposal. In fact, you have to demonstrate why you already have the infrastructure to bring in and train these students.
So it would be very unusual other than something like maybe, you know, iPads or something, you wouldn't see.
Reviews are gonna expect you to have microscopes if you're running an RU program that involves imaging and some sort.
So I think the answer is probably no to that one.
Thanks, Mandy. And I'll say all of you if you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to us, as part of officers.
We're happy to answer questions via email as well. Andrea is targeting of freshmen and sophomore still considered an important goal?
I assume again for are you.
Yes, and the answer is yes, if you read the solicitation, 23600, and one.
Targeting students undergraduates that are very early in their career is very important as a way to engage them in them and retain them them.
Great. Thank you, Andrew. Next is Mandy. Does the NSF allow non tenure track faculty members to serve as directors or co-directors?
Yes, the answer to that is yes, because often there could be non PENULTRATE faculty who are experts, for example in understanding you know research for undergraduates.
So make the case probably a KPI often does take a team to run one of these RUs but certainly would not be excluded for that reason.
Great, thank you. Andrea is the one month of salary for PI one month per year or one month total over the entire extent of the program.
One month, per year. So if you look at your annual budget, don't include more than one month.
Of time and effort from the leadership team.
Right. Thank you, Andrea. Next up. For Mandy, given grant review timelines.
What is a reasonable brand start date? Is it possible to receive funding and time to have students in a program by summer?
25.
Yes, so this obviously you know when the deadline is it's in August and new budgets arrive this year has been very unusual in the the budget arrived actually very very late so it can be a constraint if you were to be recommended for an award, we would work with you to try to, you know, optimize that that start date.
So please don't let that in any way put you off put into your proposal the start date that you would like and then if you were to be recommended for an award we'll work with you to try and achieve that start date.
Right. Thank you, Mandy Andrea is a university field station considered off campus.
The the institutions are the ones that are defining. What is off campus of site research? So I will send back that PI to their institutional administrator to check.
What they defined of campus research because that definition should be applied across different proposals submitted to NSF.
Thanks, Andrea. Manny, another question about the monthly salary. The rule is one month salary divided between the PI and the Did that last year and one of the comments was that the Pi's were paying themselves too little for the amount of work described.
Any suggestions? And how to reconcile.
Yeah, I would say that that comment, you know, if you followed the rules and you had one month summer salary divided between Pi's and KPIs.
You're following the solicitation. A review comment like that would not be something that would be used in the decision-making process because what you were doing correlated with the solicitation and this comment does not.
But usually a single comment is not to rail a award. Generally speaking. Mandy, another question for you.
How far back should we track participants?
Yeah, so if you look at what's required, it's the last 5 years. Often our use sites use all of their data, they tabulate it maybe in less detail for you know prior sites sort of 15 years back but reviewers a scientist is like you and they love data and if you don't show them the data they become suspicious.
So I would say you know obviously you you have limited space but though you're required to do 5 years you can do more if you have an impressive track record going back you you probably want to showcase that.
Hey, Andrea, oops, is there a possibility to have an are you site or the academic year fall in spring instead of 10 weeks in the summer?
If you check the solicitation, that is a possibility. However, it's really very important to justify.
How you're going to have access to students that are not from your institution during the academic year while they are at attending their home institution and taking many classes.
So if it's possible. But you need a good justification for that type of program.
Thank you, Andrea. Mandy, next question is about, comparison between the IHR 15 and the NSF awards.
They're asking, NSF reviewers doesn't allow health science research.
But they wanted to bring to our attention that NIHR 15 award is the only mechanism that supports undergraduate research.
But many institutions are not qualified as they cross the total 7 million federal funds total annually. There's a lot of specifics about Yeah.
Okay.
Yes, I read it. Yeah, I read it. Yeah, it's a question.
I wish we could give you an answer. That would satisfy you. The purview of NSF bio is basic biology.
It's not motivated by I sold problems in human health, whereas the mission of NIH is that mission.
I see the quandary you're in. Are you programs can happen nevertheless, you know, on a medical campus, for example, because we know that medical schools have basic researchers and basic research fuels, translational and clinical research.
So it doesn't discount medical schools from participating in an R use, but the focus of your work cannot be motivated by human health.
And something else to note, you know, the budgets of the 2 agencies are very different. So NSF has to quite fiercely protect our very fundamental research.
Okay.
Thanks, Mandy. That was well said. And that's a important. Thing to reach out to NSF broke of officers.
As well but we understand your R 15 I argument andrea, this is for for the, can it be modified a bit to fit the model of the RU being proposed?
The answer is yes. So when you create an opportunity in that, you can add additional questions. That are tailored to your particular menu side.
Now Eatab has lots of videos that show PI. How to create an opportunity and add those personal questions that address.
The type of recruitment that they are trying to reach.
Thank you, Andrea. Mandy, this one's for you for splitting the PI salary that is available of up to a month.
Boom, we split the salary, Mom, example, Copi, other mentors, admin staff.
Yeah, so this is a good question. It's typically the PI and the KPI, mentors do a lot of work for your RAU program, you know that.
The way there's a sort of in kind support for research mentors that we more typically see would be you know to give a lab allowance along with each participant.
So we do see that way of supporting research in the mentors, but there's no direct salary to mentors because as you can imagine the budget would just not be able to withstand that.
So typically Okay. Split it any way you like. It's typically a PIECOPI, sometimes an administrator.
Thanks, Mannie. Andrea, each half is quote strongly encouraged but not required correct?
Will proposals that do not include a tab be viewed negatively? In this case, should we just justify not using
So after 2 years using Eatab, we've seen that a student are at a very fun of it app.
So the participation from students. And the amount of applicants that we have received in by your new sites have increased exponentially.
So we highly, highly encourage. All the PIs to use it app because it seems that it's accessing more students that we were accessing in the past.
They are for if you are not planning on using it app. The justification needs to be an strong justification because now We see that ITAT is a removing barriers and we are accessing more students and applicants.
Thanks, Andrea. Mandy, the question is for are you cite a prior proposal review comment mentioned a lack of funding in our budget for travel to an RUPI meeting.
But there's no mention of this in the solicitation requirements they could find. Is this something that needs to be in the budget?
Yeah, so you're actually right, it's not specified in solicitation because the, cessation spans many different directories within NSF.
You can find more instructions on a biospecific site about Ru's but no also that you know when you revise your well to put it in but no again as I think Dan mentioned and we mentioned earlier a small budget item like this would not be a driver in the decision.
So while you know it might be irritating and you you know you had no real way of knowing and you can correct it next time know that this would not have been critical in any decision in in your proposal.
Thanks, Mandy. Next question. Yeah.
And one thing that I wanted to add is that we are resuming the in-person PI meetings.
So it is a good idea to include the cost of attending that PI meeting and the next one is going to be in 2,026.
Thank you, Mandi and Andrea. So, Manny, next one. Not sure there's an answer for this, but, one of the goals of the program is to support students from diverse backgrounds.
What is a reasonable benchmark goal for the proportion of students who should be from underrepresented minority groups?
Yeah, so very tricky question. As you know, it's a changing landscape across the US.
They're going to be state-specific. Requirements from how you know you can select participants.
Read the solicitation, know that and know that NSF recognizes that this talent everywhere and opportunities are not and a major goal of the NSFRU program is to provide research experiences for students who come from home home institutions that don't have many opportunities.
So this is actually going to vary quite a bit depending on where you come from. But we know that, you know, some people have been excluded.
Historically from the STEM enterprise making a case for including those students but you will not see an absolute written in the solicitation.
This done said this is a very difficult and sort of patchwork situation across the US.
Thanks, Mandy. I'm gonna do one more. For, the RU that I'm gonna jump to a couple of questions.
So just FYI would do that just we can have some of those questions answers as well. So we're running a little short on time and we have a lot of open questions still.
Andrea, does the program have to be 10 weeks in person or could this be 9 weeks?
Did you guys are telling us that the length of the summers and history in many universities is changing in such a way that is shortening.
So we, we welcome a proposals that add up to those changes so they can recruit more students from university that have extended spring semesters.
And so in short, it can be shorter than. 10 weeks, the only thing that it should be a cohesive plan of professional development, high quality research training.
And then the opportunities for career training.
Thank you, Andrew.
Dan and Chio, as you're skipping ahead, do you want us to type answers to these questions?
Okay, right, we'll do that.
Yes, that'd be great. Yep, and. I will also mention that this is being recorded and the.
Video will be uploaded to the bio blog. So you'd be able to go back and re-watch this.
And if we haven't gotten to your answer again, feel free to email us. Any questions we didn't get to we're happy to answer those
Yeah, so look for type dances for are you because Andrea and I can start typing.
All right. That's this. The next 2 are for you. In their letters, can the foreign collaborators mention their sources of financial support that they will contribute to?
Supporting the program in the foreign country or would that be considered a mention of matching funds?
No, it will not be considered matching funds. In fact, we encourage the foreign counterparts to mention in their letters if they're providing any kind of support in kind.
Or maybe they will provide the some on a radio for the foreign mentors, whatever they are going to do.
They can put that in the letter.
Great, thank you. And the next question is. Or I address proposals, are there particular regions of the world that are preferred?
No, we like to think that we have no specific preference or negative biases. However, as young students are going to be taken to a foreign country is the responsibility of the PI and the grantee institution to make sure that they consider the risk levels of different countries.
State Department publishes. Like a color coded risk level for every country and PI should be aware of those risks and different cultural situations in different countries.
But as far as the proposal is concerned, we are open to any country of the world.
Great, thank you. Should Iris consider recruitment from the home institution or follow a recruitment model civil rights?
It's either way our solicitation is not specific about recruiting a certain percentage of students from out outside of the grantee institution.
Iris projects, and cohorts are typically smaller than our use because it's expensive.
To take them. To a foreign country. So we typically say 4, 6, 7, maybe 8 students.
And depending on the institution there may be a large variety of students. In the same institution that have that you can have a diverse pool.
For smaller institutions you can go regional or nationalist up to the PI to decide. And whatever you decide is up to the PI to justify and motivate that in the proposal so that the reviewers are convinced.
Great. 3 more and then I'm gonna jump back to RAU. Could graduate students and postdocs be paid more than 600 to 700 a week for the Iris program?
If so, one of the suggested. Right.
So this would be a case by case basis. We don't have a prescription for this if you have guest students and postdocs talk to the program directors and talk about what their role is going to be and you can.
So like I did Andrew and Amanda said these little budget details will not derail your project. So if the proposal is strong enough to be supported, we'll work with you to negotiate a budget that works for everybody.
So I would suggest generally to our PIs don't sweat too much about the integrity of these little budget items.
Focus on writing the strongest proposal you can write and we can work out the budget later.
Excellent. Yep. 2 more for Iris. What is the most common number of students participating and what is the most common duration of time spent in the foreign country.
Yes, so great question. We typically see anywhere between 4 2 8 students. I have seen dozen or 15 students depending on the budget.
So because the travel costs vary so much depending on which country you're taking them to. Right, but fewer than 4 would make it hard to justify spending half a million dollars on a project if you're going to take 4 students per 3 students per year.
The typical duration is 6 to 8 weeks. But there's in country, but it should be additional couple of weeks for preparation and you know post trip follow-up one more week is what we typically see.
And last one, can you clarify the difference in spirit between IR and IRES? A proposal with a strong international research component could be submitted in theory as an IRU or IRS.
Yes, I agree there is some overlap. Although the solicitations are quite different. So the one thing is that in Iris you could put in.
So the one thing is that in Iris you could put in grad students and maybe a postdoc.
It could be all we are students. We have a lot of RII, Iris, projects where the whole cohort is grad students or maybe 4 veterans and 2 undergraduates.
So in our EU, we don't have that flexibility. So as you know, for if you have grad students the research topics could be a little more.
You know, higher level. So that would be one distinction. But other than that. There could be almost the same in many ways.
Yeah.
Thank you. I'm gonna, I think we have maybe 2 more questions. Just gonna kind of randomly grab a couple.
Just gonna kind of randomly grab a couple. Andrea, maybe this one just for you.
Does the PI for the proposal have to be a tenure track faculty or adjuncts eligible to submit?
This is for RU.
So the presentation is not really specifying the job title of the PI. However, some institution has limitations on who they are allowed.
To identify as a PI for another new site. So I will send back to that that person to their office of a sponsor program and consult.
They are institutional policies.
Thanks, Andrea. And I think one more for you before I hand it back to Joel here.
Can are you budgets include some funding to support administrative assistance associated with program?
So typically, adding you budgets do not include administrator cost because We, as we expect that 90% of a total direct cost going.
As part of participant support costs. Which leaves only a small room for personal cost and that is usually taken by the leadership team.
Budget in the one month of effort.
Thank you, Andrea. And for those of you whose questions we weren't able to get to, you know our Email addresses, you know where we live, so feel free to reach out to us.
Joel, I'll hand it back to you.
Yeah, and we are just about at time. So, thank you all for joining and thank you to the panelists who shared all the information about the programs.
And we're able to answer the questions. And please sign up for the, DBI blog and that's where the information will be posted from this one and upcoming, Thanks everybody.
Take care.
Thank you.