Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And I was muted the entire time. So
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): let me try that again.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): 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.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): I 1st of all welcome to this. Voh, this virtual office hours. I'll just tell you briefly about myself. I work with the postdoctoral 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 record across Nsf. I'll pass it to my colleague Dan Miranda, who will introduce himself now.
Daniel Marenda: Hi, everybody! My name is Dan Miranda. I'm a permanent program officer here in the division of biological infrastructure. And bio director.
Daniel Marenda: I head up a couple of different programs. I'm in the human resources cluster. But I'm also now in the safari cluster, which is for broad, large centers and I'm happy to be here with you today.
Daniel Marenda: and so I guess now I pass it to the top of the order, which is Andre.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Thank you. Then. Hello, everyone. My name is Andrea Colgado, and I am a rotating program officer in the division of biology and infrastructure in biology.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): And I'm currently working with colleagues in the Are you program. Are you sites
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): in biology as well as the post Doctoral Research Fellowship program and the Nsa. Includes
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): welcome and thank you for coming.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Mandy.
Amanda Simcox: Great. So good afternoon, everybody. So I work together with Andrea on the Ru program
Amanda Simcox: that. And we're gonna hear about today. I also work with Andrea, and everybody invite. It takes a village to run the post, Doc. Fellowship program, and then something that may be of interest. To some people out there. If you come from a non R. One institution, we have a program called Brc. Bio, which is building research. Capacity is for beginning assistant professors.
Amanda Simcox: pat
Amanda Simcox: institutions that are not all ones. So puis R. Twos and more. And hope you'll consider that program if your institution matches to that.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And for me to please.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Hi. My name is Famida Chowdhury. I'm the. I think I'm the only non bio person
Fahmida Chowdhury: here. I'm from the office of International Science and engineering at Nsf. And I'm also not a rotator.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So I've been at Nsf for 16 years. As the permanent Federal employee. I'm here to talk about the International Research experiences for students. Thank you for all coming and welcome.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Great. Thank you.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): I'm gonna turn off my video just to make sure that we're having a a smooth slide transition here.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And just so everybody's aware. We will be posting slides. And the recording from this video on on our bog, Dbi blog nsf biocom. 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.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): 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, the Reu and the Iras, or other types of opportunities. And so there are some new tools. So going to the main website,
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): 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
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): 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 find funding and apply section, select, search, funded awards, or search funded projects rather.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And then that also takes 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 and other directorates or other areas of bio that might be applicable for what you're what you're trying to fund.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And the director for biological sciences which refer to as bio is 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. So that includes the division of environmental biology. dB, the division of integrative organismal systems, Ios.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): the division of molecular and cellular biosciences, Mcb. And then Dbi, the division of biological infrastructure which most of us are part of.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And we can kind of imagine that or not imagine. But it's broken up across scales of biology. And so Mcb typically, is gonna be focusing on the A lot of the work there is focusing from the molecular up through the organismal level. Ios at that cell through community. And then Deb, really, starting from the organism and going up to entire global types of systems.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Here in Dbi, we like to think that what 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.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Another way, we like to think about the the funding is really doing analysis of 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 gonna 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 Bio rets program and supplements
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): post back students. So after graduation graduate students through the Grfpa, of course, which is Bio wide and the post Doc fellowships ours is Prfb, Mandy mentioned a 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 wasn't even aware of until I got here the mid career advancement awards. And so really conceiving it across this, the timeline of your research is important thing, and it's a great way to search for funding opportunities as well.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Even bioloops, 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.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): 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. Don't hesitate to ask
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): but we'd like to make sure that we're saving time to talk about what you came here for today, the Reu program, the Irs program. And so I'm gonna go ahead and pass it to Andre and Amanda here, just let me know when you'd like me to advance slides.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Thank you, John. You can go to the next one.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So just so you can associate a name to a program. Feel free to contact me or Monday. If you have any questions about the by your site, the deadline is coming up.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): and the best way to contact us is to use the Reu Bio at Nsf email, because
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): that will get to Mandy and to me. And in case one of us is busy with other commitments, we can respond to you right away.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Next slide.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So, as you know, the value Reu site program
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): is providing valuable educational experience for undergraduates.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): and that experience is essentially exposing undergraduates to high quality research environments
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): in a way that we can diversify the groups of students that receive research research training, including those that don't have an active research program at their home institution.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): The important.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): a.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): the important goal of an review site is that they are going to engage students in a team focused bio 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.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): This site usually will drain from 8 to 10 students for about 10 weeks during the summer.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): A
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Significant fraction of those students come from outside the host institution.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): and at least half of them are going to come from institutions that have limited access to research opportunities.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): We are looking for proposals that are a student centered in a way that they are targeting 90% of the total direct cost to participant support cost.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Decide 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. Are you sites?
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): You can go to the award search function that Joel introduces you to, and you can find all the sites that are currently running those training programs. Next slide.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): As you know, I do 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 resident.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): We have locations that are either domestic or International and the proposal deadline is going to be for this year. August 21, st
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): next slide.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): 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, prepare a new full proposal, or prepare
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): a new renewal proposal.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Something to consider is that if you are not a bi or copy on an award on narrowing you a word site.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): you are not going to be able to choose the renewal function. However, you can put that this is a renewal from a previous pi or copy. I proposal by including that in the project element that is listed in the project. Summary page
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): next slide.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So if we go over the project, summary page, the Bio Reu side.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Summary page is a little bit different from the others in the way that we ask pi
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): to include in the overview section a list of project elements. So please go to the solicitation. NS. 26. One. To look at all the project elements that we want you to specify, and then list them in your project summary page.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): In addition to the project element, we want you to include include a section where you summarize the intellectual merit of the proposal, and then another section where you summarize the broader impact of the proposal. Next slide
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): in the project description. That is a 15 page document. We ask you to address Section A through G,
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): where you have an overview. Then you're going to describe
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): the student activities, the research environment, the recruitment, the recruitment and selection, a strategy.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): the professional development and expected behavior for students and mentors.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): the project evaluation and reporting protocol. And if this is a renewal, we want you to include the results from prior Nsf support.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Next slide
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): indebted.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): We want you to consider that this is an a student center.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): a proposal in such a way that the majority of the support goes to the students, and that includes stipends, housing meals, trouble, and any lab use fee
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): for the personnel you can include up to one month of salary for the Pi, or distribute that among the pi and copy I or other team members.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): The Ru Site may not charge a student's access fees for common
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): campus facilities, such as library, athletic facilities, and so on.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): and remember that the participant support cost cannot be charged. An indirect cost.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Next slide.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): 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.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): your proposal will be review by 3 different criteria.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): How is going to advance
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): a scientific knowledge? So that is the intellectual merits?
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): What is the potential to benefit society? So that would be broader impact and solicitation is specific review criteria that in this case is going to be a review of the research and professional development experience for students and mentors
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): the quality of the research environment.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): the recruitment plan.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): They plan to promote the student involvement in stem.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): how a cost effective the program is. And if this is a renewal.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): how effective the previous site was in their recruitment and training goals
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): next slide.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So remember again that the proposal deadline is August 21, st 2024, and the 3rd Wednesday in August after
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): 2024.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So now I'm going to pass on the presentation to Mandy.
Amanda Simcox: Great. Thank you very much, Andrea. So we hope that you're gonna use the QA. For your own specific questions. But this next few set of slides is just to go through some frequently asked questions. So these are the things that we often hear from Pis as they prepare their proposals. But please type into the QA. Your specific question.
Amanda Simcox: Alright. 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 to participate and for which there's gonna be a formal agenda. So this is not just, you know, eating pizza together.
Amanda Simcox: 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.
Amanda Simcox: Alright, so does it. So you may have heard that Nsf has a new requirement called the Safe and inclusive Field Work Plan.
Amanda Simcox: and it started as a pilot. And and in bio. So do you need this for your use site. When you submit your proposal, your research office are gonna complete a certification. And that's gonna 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 of that.
Amanda Simcox: and I hope you're all familiar with the Pap G, as we lovingly call it. This is the proposal application 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.
Amanda Simcox: What should be included in the results of prior Nsf support. So Andrea described that many sites submit renewal applications.
Amanda Simcox: That means that you have a record, and you need to repeat 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 your slide, your recruiting strategy, how popular your program was, the number of applicants.
Amanda Simcox: and then the number of S 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.
Amanda Simcox: How did they? What gains do they make during your program? So at the moment by, or you sites all use what's called the sal. So it's a student assessment of learning games. And the students report what benefits they gain through their research. And you would include a summary of those results in
Amanda Simcox: are you? 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.
Amanda Simcox: and whether this program had some kind of impact, you know, if they will 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.
Amanda Simcox: and we know the challenges with just a very limited 10 week study time, and that some of these participants will eventually have their names on papers, and that certainly they can be active almost straight away, presenting their work as posters and talks. So we'll look at the scholarly outputs next question.
Amanda Simcox: And can you include other supplementary documents? Yes, certain 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. Via Reu that said, you have to
Amanda Simcox: just use the standard format. And it's actually up there on the slide. And again you'll find it in the Pap G. It merely says that if this proposal is funded, I, the person named here, or my letterhead will collaborate, as you have described in the proposal, so the body of proposal must say everything these collaborators will do, and this letter is just to say
Amanda Simcox: yes, we intend to do it, so don't put in anything elaborate that would make your proposal
Amanda Simcox: non. It would it could get returned without review. So this is important. Next one, please, Joel.
Amanda Simcox: What's new in the solicitation? So go to the new solicitation, and you'll see that the stipend is 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.
Amanda Simcox: So you could sort of calculate that. And of course there are exceptions. So if your budget, 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 field studies somewhere.
Amanda Simcox: Another thing. So before the mentors used to put be put in a senior personnel that's no longer required. But you nevertheless have to gather the collaborators and other affiliations, or that coa documents. So you, as the Pi would be responsible for gathering all of those from your potential
Amanda Simcox: mentors and then combining them into a document in the single copy section of the proposal. Next, please, Joel.
Amanda Simcox: and this next one. What else is new. So student names as co-authors. You don't have to indicate this with an Asterix in the bibliographic citations anymore in the Bios sketches of 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
Amanda Simcox: definitely. Information about student authors should be mentioned in the proposal when you describe the track record of mentors. So selecting your mentors
Amanda Simcox: by evidence of their activity with working with students, including that their students code. The papers with them will still be in your proposal and should definitely be included.
Amanda Simcox: Etap is Nsf. New education and training application. It's actually a very good system, and all pis who are using it like it very much. The Reu
Amanda Simcox: The Ru program encourages it to be used for student application. Some Nsf sites actually require it, and that's part of the solicitation in bio. We strongly recommend it. So you should
Amanda Simcox: put in a plan to use etap as part of your recruitment strategy
Amanda Simcox: next, please, Joe.
Amanda Simcox: that's it. Alright. So there's that Comp. Contact information. Again handing over to our colleague again. Oh, the Qa. QA. Is being used. Thank you very much. Alright to you for me to.
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): We'll hold it to the end. And just to make sure that we have sufficient time. But yeah, thank you.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Okay, thank you.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Hi, everybody. I'm fami the choudhury from international research experiences. For this program.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Iris. In short.
Fahmida Chowdhury: we have 3 program directors who run this Maya Kukla, Christian Kuyuk and me family, we have an email, alias
Fahmida Chowdhury: iris@nsf.gov is just the basic information next slide, please Joel.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So why international collaboration? I think this point is mute because it's.
Fahmida Chowdhury: I think everybody understands that science is global.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Lot of scientific activities now essentially require international collaboration.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Whether or not Nsf. Encourages and funds these things our scientists are already doing joint research with international counterparts.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So our program, this particular Iris program intends to support us, pis, to bring cohorts of students to foreign countries to give them a flavor for how research is done in those countries and actively join ongoing research projects or begin new collaborations.
Fahmida Chowdhury: This map is simply showing, visually
Fahmida Chowdhury: how far in the world we, our our pis and students, collaborate.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Next next slide, please.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So the goals of the Iris program.
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Just to make sure, I make the distinction
Fahmida Chowdhury: in contrast with Bio.
Fahmida Chowdhury: our office caters to all
Fahmida Chowdhury: fields of research that Nsf supports. So it could be anything from computer science to engineering
Fahmida Chowdhury: to mathematics and biology, geology, social sciences, everything. But given that this audience, I understand, is a bio focused audience, I should point out
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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 would encourage if anybody. If you are working with such teams of cross disciplinary projects. Please take a good look at the iris, and if you have interest in international collaboration.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Okay? Next.
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Usually our PIS. Will go with the students stay for a couple of weeks and come back, and the students will continue working
Fahmida Chowdhury: in the foreign lab
Fahmida Chowdhury: under the mentorship of that that country's mentor
Fahmida Chowdhury: include a coherent, overarching intellectual theme that may involve a single discipline or multiple disciplines funded by and Nsf, so I already mentioned that
Fahmida Chowdhury: okay, next.
Fahmida Chowdhury: so the budgets. Our budgets are expected to support mostly students and their research and training expenses.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Students must be given a stipend in the range of 6 to $700 per week. I think we are lagging behind the bio. 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.
Fahmida Chowdhury: as I mentioned before.
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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. Research assistance ship opportunity for pis
Fahmida Chowdhury: up to one month of pi salary per project per year is allowed just like the Ru program. Next.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So let's
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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 map guide is like any other Nsf. Projects that involve international collaboration. Nsf. Will only pay for the Us. Portion of the project.
Fahmida Chowdhury: You cannot. The Irspis cannot pay foreign mentors and students, and this is has been a continuing source of aggravation, and you know complaints, but our hands are tied. We cannot allow the foreign entities to be paid directly.
Fahmida Chowdhury: However, all research expenses
Fahmida Chowdhury: can be paid, and for some we also allow something called advanced studies institutes.
Fahmida Chowdhury: For them. Honoraria can be allowed
Fahmida Chowdhury: okay, subawards to foreign institutions are not allowed under this solicitation.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Next.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So just like Ruu, we have a lot of solicitation, specific
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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.
Fahmida Chowdhury: were they posted.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Correct. They'll be posted on our blog soon.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Okay, great. So I'll just go very briefly over the
Fahmida Chowdhury: specific review criteria. Just like Ruu. We focus also on student recruitment collaborators and mentors next
Fahmida Chowdhury: student preparation. Since they're going to a foreign country, we want them to be particularly prepared, not only technical or scientific topics, but also
Fahmida Chowdhury: the particular host, country information and cultural and practical preparation, and sometimes even language instruction
Fahmida Chowdhury: that's required. We required professional development component. And, of course, like all in a set proposals, evaluation and dissemination.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Next.
Fahmida Chowdhury: so you require this. This program is unique in the sense that it does require some specific supplementary documents. We require bio sketches of principal foreign collaborators.
Fahmida Chowdhury: They are. They are labeled Non Nsf. Funded collaborators.
Fahmida Chowdhury: and unlike in a major deviation from the Reu program, we actually require detailed letters of collaboration from the foreign counterparts.
Fahmida Chowdhury: This is not the Pep guide guided just the standard 4 lines of like, whatever the pi is proposing to do we? Sub, we, 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 iris participants and the international site.
Fahmida Chowdhury: What particular roles foreign mentors or collaborators will play in the Iris project, and how foreign collaborators, and their organizations will benefit from participation in the Iris project. So we do require this
Fahmida Chowdhury: longer
Fahmida Chowdhury: detailed letter of collaboration
Fahmida Chowdhury: and proposals could be sent back without review. If this letter is absent
Fahmida Chowdhury: next.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So the pi and student eligibility, all Pi's copies and senior personnel on Iris proposals must be from Us. Based organizations.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Foreign collaborators must be listed as non Nsf. Funded collaborators.
Fahmida Chowdhury: student participants supported by Iris funds must be citizens, nationals, or permanent residents of the United States.
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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 to, if another foreign country may be very risky, they may or may not be able to get a re-entry visa into the Us. Is all very complicated, so
Fahmida Chowdhury: we want only the Us. Citizens
Fahmida Chowdhury: to go to foreign countries.
Fahmida Chowdhury: The students may be undergraduates, graduate students, or in some cases we have allowed, like, you know, if it's a cohort of 8, there may be one postdoc in the mix as well.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Next.
Fahmida Chowdhury: just like Ru. This is, I'm not going to spend too much time on. This recruitment is very important, and
Fahmida Chowdhury: you can students can look at the active Irs awards to find active projects to apply to.
Fahmida Chowdhury: and recruiting underrepresented minorities, women, 1st generation, low income students and students from institutions with limited exposure to research.
Fahmida Chowdhury: All these are strongly encouraged.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Next.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So here is the contact information. The team email is iris@nsf.gov.
Fahmida Chowdhury: and since I am here representing the program, I put my email address up there as well.
Fahmida Chowdhury: And
Fahmida Chowdhury: there are links to the program page and the Faqs
Fahmida Chowdhury: that we have posted. The next deadline is October 28,
Fahmida Chowdhury: for the FY. 25 cycle.
Fahmida Chowdhury: I think this is my last slide.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Thank you so much, Jamina. Appreciate that.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): 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're able to answer as many as possible. So I just wanna encourage you to sign up for emails, through bio 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.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): I also encourage you to register for the bio blogs, and so you might already be familiar with the Dbi one, since you registered for this. Voh but every directorate and the or sorry, every division rather, in the Bio Directory, and the directorate 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.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And just as a reminder. The virtual office hours will be hosting these Central 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 in topics of interest in other divisions as well, and they'll each have their own days. Monday, Thursdays, Wednesdays, and so we encourage you to take a look, and you can attend all of them.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): 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 as program directors, and even in leadership roles. And so if there's anything that you're interested in here, serving a reviewer serving as a panelist, or even coming to Nsf. Know that you can reach out to all of us, and we'd be happy to talk you about those opportunities as well. Cause it really does rely on that participation from the entire community.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And if you
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): need to reach us, you already have the contact information for everybody and feel free to work or reach out.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): So Dan, I'm gonna pass it to you and we're gonna run through a lot of the questions that we see here. Thanks.
Daniel Marenda: Thank you, Joel. 1st question we have is for Mandy.
Daniel Marenda: 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 trainees.
Amanda Simcox: You would.
Daniel Marenda: How are you? I'm guessing.
Amanda Simcox: 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'd be very unusual other than something like, maybe you know, ipads or something you wouldn't see.
Amanda Simcox: Reviews are. Gonna expect you to have microscopes if you're running an ru program that involves imaging of some sort. So I think the answer is probably no to that one.
Daniel Marenda: Thanks, Mandy.
Daniel Marenda: And I'll say to all of you, if you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to us. As program officers.
Daniel Marenda: We're happy to answer questions via email as well.
Daniel Marenda: Andrea is targeting of freshmen and sophomore still considered an important goal.
Daniel Marenda: I assume again, for are you.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Yes, and the answer is, yes. You read the solicitation 23, 6 0, 1.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Targeting students, undergraduates that are very early in their career is very important as a way to engage them in stem and retain them in stem.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Hey!
Daniel Marenda: Thank you, Andrea. Next is Mandy. Does the Nsf allow non tenure track faculty members to serve as directors or co-directors?
Amanda Simcox: Yes, the answer to that is, yes, because often there could be non tenure track faculty who are experts. For example, in in understanding, you know, research for undergraduates. So make the case. Probably, you know, a copi often does take a team to run one of these our use, but certainly would not be excluded. For that reason.
Daniel Marenda: Great. Thank you.
Daniel Marenda: Andrea is the one month of salary for PI. One month per year, or one month total over the entire extent of the program.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): 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.
Daniel Marenda: Great. Thank you, Andrea. Next up for Mandy. Given Grant review timelines.
Daniel Marenda: What is a reasonable grant? Start date? Is it possible to receive funding and time to have students in a program. By summer 2025.
Amanda Simcox: 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.
Amanda Simcox: 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.
Daniel Marenda: 8.
Daniel Marenda: Thank you. Mandy Andrea is a university field station, considered off campus.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): The U. The institutions are the ones that are defining
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): what is off campus off site research. So I will send back that Vi to their institutional administrators to check
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): what they defined off of campus research, because that definition should be applied across different proposals submitted to, and Nss.
Daniel Marenda: Thanks, Andrea Manny. Another question about the monthly salary. The rule is, one month salary divided between the pi and the copi. We did that last year, and one of the comments was that the pis were paying themselves too little for the amount of work described. Any suggestions, and how to reconcile.
Amanda Simcox: Yeah, I would say that that comment, you know, if you followed the rules, and you had one month summer salary divided between pis 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
Amanda Simcox: but.
Daniel Marenda: Usually a single comment does not derail a award. Generally speaking, manny, another question for you. How far back should we track participants.
Amanda Simcox: Yeah. So if you look at what's required, it's the last 5 years. Often our use sites use all of that data they tabulated, maybe in less detail, for you know.
Amanda Simcox: prior sites sort of 15 years back. But reviewers, scientists just 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
Amanda Simcox: 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.
Daniel Marenda: Andy Andrea. Whoops! Is there a possibility to have an ru site or the academic year, fall and spring instead of 10 weeks in the summer?
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): If you check the solicitation. That is a possibility. However, it's really very important to justify
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): how you're going to have access to students that are not from your institution during the academic year, while they are attending their home institution and and taking many classes.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So it's it's possible.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): But you need a good certification for that type of program.
Daniel Marenda: Thank you, Andrea.
Daniel Marenda: Mandy. Next question is about
Daniel Marenda: comparison between the IHR. 15 and the Nsf. Awards.
Daniel Marenda: They're asking Nsf. Reviewers doesn't allow health science research for Ru.
Daniel Marenda: but they wanted to bring to our attention the NIHR. 15 award is the only mechanism that supports undergraduate research.
Daniel Marenda: 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.
Amanda Simcox: So I read it.
Daniel Marenda: Allowance. Yeah.
Amanda Simcox: Yup. 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 solving problems in human health.
Amanda Simcox: Whereas the mission of Nih is that mission. I see the quandary you're in ru programs can happen. Nevertheless, you know, on a medical campus, for example, because we know that medical schools have basic researches and basic research fuels, translational and clinical research. So it doesn't discount medical schools from participating
Amanda Simcox: in our use. But the focus of your work cannot be motivated by human health and something else to note.
Amanda Simcox: You know, the budgets of the 2 agencies are very different. So Nsf has to quite fiercely protect our very fundamental research mission.
Daniel Marenda: Thanks, Mandy. That was well said, and that's a important
Daniel Marenda: thing to reach out to Nsf. Program officers.
Daniel Marenda: as well. But we understand your R. 15. I argument.
Daniel Marenda: Andrea, this is for you, for the etap. Can it be modified a bit to fit the model of the ru being proposed.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): The answer is, yes. So when you create an opportunity in tab, you can add additional questions that are tailored to your particular. Are you side. Now, Itab has lots of videos that shows Pi
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): how to create an opportunity and add those personal questions that address the type of recruitment that they are trying to reach.
Daniel Marenda: Thank you, Andrea.
Daniel Marenda: Mandy, this one's for you for splitting the pi salary that is available of up to a month.
Daniel Marenda: Who may we split the salary. Among example, Copi, other mentors admin staff.
Amanda Simcox: Yeah. So this is a good question. It's typically the pi and the copi mentors do a lot of work for you. Are you 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
Amanda Simcox: mentors. But there's no direct salary to mentors, because, as you can imagine the budget would just not be able to withstand that.
Amanda Simcox: So typically split it any way you like. It's typically a pi opi. Sometimes an administrator.
Daniel Marenda: Thanks. Mandy, Andrea et tap is, quote, strongly encouraged, but not required. Correct will proposals that that do not include each tab be viewed negatively
Daniel Marenda: in this case, should we just justify not using etap.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So after 2 years using E tab, we've seen that a student
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): are are a very fan of E-tab. So the the participation from students.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): and the amount of applicants that we have received in bio sites have increased exponentially.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So we highly highly encourage
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): all the bi to use etap, because it seems that is accessing more students that we were accessing in the past.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): therefore, if you are not planning on using it, app
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): a, the justification need to be an a strong justification, because now we see that it is removing barriers, and we are accessing more students and applicants.
Daniel Marenda: Thanks, Andrea
Daniel Marenda: Mandy. The question is for Ru site. A prior proposal review comment mentioned. A lack of funding in our budget for travel to an our Upi 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.
Amanda Simcox: Yeah. So you have to write. It's not specified in the solicitation, because the our use citation spans many different directorates within Nsf, you can find more instructions on a bio specific site about our use. But no also. So you know, when you revise you well, to put it in. But know again, is, I think, Dan mentioned, and we mentioned earlier
Amanda Simcox: a small budget item like this would not be a driver in 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.
Daniel Marenda: Thanks, Mandy next.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): One thing that I wanted to add is that we are resuming the in person Vi meeting. So it is a good idea to include the cost of attending that Vi meeting, and the next one is going to be in 2,026.
Daniel Marenda: Thank you. Mandy 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.
Amanda Simcox: Yeah, so very tricky question. As you know, it's a changing landscape across the Us. They're gonna be state specific
Amanda Simcox: requirements from how you know you can select participants, read the solicitation, know that.
Amanda Simcox: and know that Nsf recognizes this talent everywhere and opportunities are not. And a major goal of the Nsf Ruu program is to provide research experiences for students who come from ho home institutions that don't have many opportunities. So this is actually going to vary quite a bit, depending on where you come from.
Amanda Simcox: but we know that. You know some people have been excluded historically from the stem enterprise. Make a case for including those students. But you will not see an absolute percentage written in the solicitation. As Dan said, this is a very difficult and sort of patchwork situation across the Us.
Daniel Marenda: Thanks, Mandy. I'm gonna do one more for the are you? Then I'm gonna jump to a couple of questions for Iris for famed. So just Fyi, I'm gonna do that. Just we can have some of those questions answered as well, because we're running a little short on time, and we have a lot of open questions. Still, Andre, does the program have to be 10 weeks in person? Or could this be 9 weeks.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Guys are telling us that the length of the summer semester in many universities is changing in such a way. That is shortening.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): we? Yeah, we welcome a proposal that add up to those changes so they can recruit more students from universities that have extended spring semesters.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): A.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): So, in short, it can be shorter than 10 week. The only thing that it should be a cohesive, a plan of professional development, high quality, research, training, and a opportunities for career training.
Daniel Marenda: Thank you, Andrea.
Amanda Simcox: And and, Joe, as you're skipping ahead, do you want us to type answers to these questions.
Daniel Marenda: Yes, that'd be great. Yup!
Amanda Simcox: Right and.
Daniel Marenda: I will also mention that this is being recorded and the video will be uploaded to the bio blog.
Daniel Marenda: 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
Daniel Marenda: any
Daniel Marenda: questions we didn't get to. We're happy to answer those.
Amanda Simcox: So look the typed answers for you. Cause Andre and I can start typing.
Daniel Marenda: Alright for me to events. This the next 2 are for you.
Daniel Marenda: In their letters. Can the foreign collaborators mentioned their sources of financial support that they will contribute to
Daniel Marenda: supporting the program in the foreign country? Or would that be considered a mention of matching funds.
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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 honor for the foreign mentor. Whatever they're going to do, they can put that in the letter.
Daniel Marenda: Great. Thank you. And the next question is, for igress proposals. Are there particular regions of the world that are preferred.
Fahmida Chowdhury: 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 Grant Institution to make sure that they consider the risk levels of different countries. State Department publishes
Fahmida Chowdhury: like a color coded risk level for every country, and Pi should be aware of those risks and different culture situations in different countries. But as far as the proposal is concerned, we are open to any country of the world.
Daniel Marenda: Great. Thank you. Should Iris consider recruitment from the home institution, or follow a recruitment model similar to Reu.
Fahmida Chowdhury: It's either way. Our solicitation is not specific about recruiting a certain percentage of students from out outside of the grantee institution.
Fahmida Chowdhury: iris projects. Co-hosts are typically smaller than are you 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 within the same institution that have, that you can have a
Fahmida Chowdhury: diverse pool for smaller institutions. You can go regional or national. It's 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.
Daniel Marenda: Break
Daniel Marenda: 3 more. And then I'm gonna jump back to Reu. Could graduate students and post docs be paid more than 600 to 700 per week for the Irs program? If so, what are the suggested
Fahmida Chowdhury: So this would be a case by case basis. We don't have a prescription for this. If you have that, students and post docs talk to the program directors and and talk about what their role is going to be. And you can.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So like I did. Andrea and Amanda said these little budget details will not derail your project.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So if the proposal is strong enough to be supported, we'll work with you to negotiate a budget that works for everybody.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So I would suggest generally to all Pi's don't sweat too much about the nitty gritty of these little budget items. Focus on writing the strongest proposal you can write, and we can work out the budget later.
Daniel Marenda: Excellent yup 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.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Yes, so great question. We typically see anywhere between 4
Fahmida Chowdhury: to 8 students.
Fahmida Chowdhury: I have seen
Fahmida Chowdhury: a 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
Fahmida Chowdhury: right. So but fewer than 4 would make it hard to justify spending half a million dollars on a project if you're only going to take 4 students but 3 students per year.
Fahmida Chowdhury: The typical duration is 6 to 8 weeks, but that'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.
Daniel Marenda: And last one. Can you clarify the difference in spirit between Iru and Ires? A proposal with a strong international research component could be submitted in theory is an iru or ires.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Yes, I agree there is some overlap
Fahmida Chowdhury: although the solicitations are quite different. So the one thing is that in Iris you could put in grad students, and
Fahmida Chowdhury: maybe a postdoc
Fahmida Chowdhury: it could be all grad students. We have a lot of re iris projects where the whole cohort is grad students, and maybe 4 grad students and 2 undergraduates. So in Reu, we don't have that flexibility.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So, as you know.
Fahmida Chowdhury: For if you have grad students. The research topics could be a little more, you know, higher level.
Fahmida Chowdhury: So that would be
Fahmida Chowdhury: one distinction.
Fahmida Chowdhury: But other than that.
Fahmida Chowdhury: there could be almost the same in many ways.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Yeah.
Daniel Marenda: Thank you, Bobina.
Daniel Marenda: I'm gonna I think we have maybe 2 more questions. I'm just gonna kind of randomly grab a couple Andrea. Maybe this one is for you.
Daniel Marenda: Does the pi for the proposal have to be a tenure track faculty? Are adjuncts eligible to submit? This is for Ru.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): For the
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): the solicitation is not really specifying the
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): job title of the Pi. However, some institution has limitations on who they allowed to identify as a pi for an Reu site. So I will send back to that that person to their office of a sponsored program and consult.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): They are institutional policies.
Daniel Marenda: Thanks, Andrea, and I think one more for you before I hand it back to Joel. Here
Daniel Marenda: can ru budgets include some funding to Support Administrative Assistance Associated with Program.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): Typically our EU budget do not include administrative cost because
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): we A, we expect that 90% of the total direct cost going as part of participant support cost.
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): which leaves only a small room for personnel cost, and that is usually taken by the leadership team and
Andrea Holgado (she\ella): budgeting the one month of effort.
Daniel Marenda: 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.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Yeah, and we are just about at time. So thank you all for joining and thank you to the panelists. You shared all the information about the programs. And we're able to answer the questions.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): And please sign up for the Dbi Blog, and that's where the information will be posted from this one and upcoming vohs.
Joel K. Abraham (he/him/his): Thanks, everybody. Take care.
Fahmida Chowdhury: Thank you.