AGENCY: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
 
PROGRAM: Grants for Research Universities: Undergraduate Science Education Program

OBJECTIVES: This program supports a range of activities that engage students in research; create courses that convey the excitement of contemporary science; develop new, current, and future faculty members; and broaden access to science careers through outreach activities that extend to elementary, high school, and community college faculty and students.

The program will support initiatives that strengthen science education using a variety of strategies to: (1) integrate research and teaching in undergraduate education; (2) engage students in inquiry-based science; (3) prepare undergraduates, including women and members of minority groups underrepresented in the sciences, for graduate studies and careers in biomedical research, medicine, and science education; (4) promote science literacy among all students; (5) support new and high-quality approaches and techniques in science teaching; (6) enhance precollege education by connecting university science departments with education majors, preK–12 teachers, students and schools; (7) provide substantive teaching and mentoring experiences to prepare postdoctoral fellows and graduate students for future roles as educators; (8) provide opportunities and resources for faculty members to improve their teaching skills, course materials, and mentorship; (9) encourage collaborations and partnerships that expand opportunities and share resources, including partnerships between the applicant institution and other institutions that serve important constituencies; and (10) disseminate successful science education approaches  and tools.

This program will accept two types of proposals:

1) Core Grants - The core grants will provide funding in four areas: a) student research; faculty development; curriculum development; and outreach and transitions.

2) Experiment Grants - The aim of the Experiments component of this program is to encourage science faculty to try innovative ideas in science education. HHMI seeks proposals that use nontraditional methods to address challenges in science education—even if the outcome of the experiment is uncertain or there is a significant risk of failure. The proposed experiment should be hypothesis-driven, with a rationale based on sound interpretation of available data, and include a careful description of how the results of the experiment will contribute to the understanding of the problem even if the hypothesis is disproved. All Experiment proposals must accompany a proposal for a core grant, but an Experiment is not required for an institution to participate in this competition. Experiments will be evaluated separately, and only a small number will be funded. Thus, the Experiments can augment a core grant but the core program proposal should not depend on the Experiment.  

ELIGIBILITY RESTRICTIONS: Each invited institution is limited to one core grant proposal and one experiment proposal.

DEADLINES:
Institutional Registration Deadline: May 14, 2009; 2:00pm Eastern
BU Internal Deadline: July 1, 2009
Proposal Submission: October 1, 2009; 2:00pm Eastern

FUNDING INFORMATION: HHMI expects to fund Core Grants with a total budget of up to $2.2 million over four years. Experiment Grants are eligible for funding of up to $600,000 over four years in addition to the Core Grant. 

AGENCY CONTACT:
Andrew Quon
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
4000 Jones Bridge Road
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-6789
Telephone: (301) 215-8895
Email: ugradcomp@hhmi.org
Web: http://www.hhmi.org/grants/institutions/universities.html

INTERNAL REVIEW PROCESS: To screen proposals for this competition, an internal deadline has been established.  Principal Investigators (PIs) interested in submitting a proposal should provide the following proposal information to their Associate Dean by Wednesday July 1, 2009 for internal review purposes:

1.  Project description (maximum length 5 pages) should include items a – f:

(a) describe the project objectives and the degree to which the proposed program will
    enable the applicant to enhance or expand its ongoing activities or to undertake new
    initiatives;
(b) describe the relationship of the proposed activities to initiatives already under way
    at the applicant institution supported either by a previous HHMI award or other
    external funding;
(b) describe the strategy for broad dissemination of effective practices and products
    resulting from the grant to extend successes achieved locally to the larger science
    education community;
(c) describe the outcomes-based plan to assess the proposed activities;
(d) describe the compelling approaches for effecting long-term institutional change in
    undergraduate science education

2. Budget and budget justification (two pages).

3. Biographical sketches: include 2-page NSF format biographical sketch for the PI and any Co-PIs.

4. Review comments from any previous Howard Hughes Medical Institute submissions.

Following the Dean's assessment of the internal application, it will be forwarded to Associate Provost Joan Kirkendall for review and then to the Office of the VP for Research for final selection. PIs will be informed if their proposal is selected for submission in time to complete and process their proposal for final review.

REMARKS: Institutions must register their intent to submit a proposal by 2:00 p.m. ET, May 14, 2009, via HHMI’s Web-based competition system. Institutions intending to submit a proposal are urged to register their intent to apply as early as possible in the proposal planning process. Important information regarding the application process will be communicated to the contact person identified as part of the registration process.

The deadline for submitting proposals and supporting materials (via the competition system) is 2:00 p.m. ET, October 1, 2009. Application materials, instructions, contact information, and this program announcement can also be found on the competition system website. A toll-free number listed on the competition system website will provide technical assistance for the electronic proposal-submission process.